Folding screens

Jorge Coli
MAC - Ibirapuera
São Paulo, 2004

First of all, Fernando Vilela observes. The forms of his invention derive from an eye that prefers objects with defined, present and affirmed volumes, such as a ship, a wardrobe or a chair. Next, he hones his observations through drawings that simplify them, reducing the forms to surfaces. However, this ascesis does not mean a withdrawal from materiality, which finds new substance in engraving, where the line becomes a cut in wood, and where the carving, which strives for precision, retains the marks of violence. These are clear ruptures that imprint themselves on paper, ensuring the contours concrete vibrations. The black paint conserves the irregularities proper to the surfaces of the large planks and small veins, the signs that some effervescent life still resides in the material. Some artists impose a mental vision upon the concrete elements from which they make their works in order to annul them. Not Fernando Vilela. His procedures lead to a strict balance between the cosa mentale and cosa manuale.