IYP X Whitechapel, London
Carlos Bunga: Something Necessary and Useful
Curated by Emily Butler, Mahera and Mohammad Abu Ghazaleh and Inês Costa
A creator of spectacular and immersive environments Carlos Bunga (b. 1976, Porto, Portugal) is the latest artist commissioned by the Whitechapel Gallery to create a major new site-specific artwork, going on free display for six months.
Using cardboard, tape and paint, Bunga creates cavernous structures and imaginary buildings to explore the transitory and corporeal nature of architecture. Bunga’s family had escaped the violence of the Angolan War of Independence in the 1970s only to experience the volatility of life at the edge of Portuguese society. Immersing us in his towering structures, Bunga then sweeps them away. Through these cycles of construction and destruction, he explores the mutating city and dispossession.
Former Whitechapel Gallery director Iwona Blazwick said ‘Carlos Bunga is a leading figure in a generation of artists who brilliantly combine sculpture, action, film and painting. Using a material associated with model making and packaging but also life on the streets, he creates powerfully symbolic environments that are both monumental and fragile.’
For his first major installation in London, Bunga devises an evolving installation constructed from cardboard, paint and repurposed domestic furniture We are encouraged to witness its creation, get lost in the painted surfaces and openings, wander among imaginary buildings and gaze up at textured canvases.
Through its course, the installation will change as it is cut by its maker, reconfigured and then destroyed. Bunga invites choreographer Joe Moran and dancers to perform in the gallery, exploring their shared interest in the relationship amongst bodies, physical space and time in a series of live events.
Drawing on his own experience of displacement, Bunga’s works recall theatre sets, architectural models, as well as temporary shelters. For this commission he is also inspired by the nineteenth-century American Shaker movement’s egalitarian ideals and advocacy of simplicity and beauty, exploring what is “necessary and useful” in art, architecture and design.
Carlos Bunga said: ‘Walking around the gallery, we have this experience of temporality between past and future. What links both is our presence, our body and its relation to the space.’
The exhibition is curated by Emily Butler, Mahera and Mohammad Abu Ghazaleh Curator, Whitechapel Gallery with Inês Costa, Assistant Curator.
It is accompanied by a fully-illustrated publication including installation images and the dance commission, to be launched in March 2020.
Supported by Whitechapel Gallery Commissioning Council: Dorota Audemars, Erin Bell, Heloisa Genish, Leili Huth, Irene Panagopoulos, Catherine Petitgas, Mariela Pissioti, Alex Sainsbury; and the Carlos Bunga Exhibition Circle: Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) – Programme for the Internationalisation of Spanish Culture (PICE) Mobility grants, Galería Elba Benítez, Nicoletta Fiorucci Russo (Founder, Fiorucci Art Trust), Fundaçáo Calouste Gulbenkian, Alejandro Lazaro, Institut Ramon Llull and Gonzalo Parodi.The dance commission has been developed in collaboration with artist and choreographer Joe Moran, artistic director of Dance Art Foundation.
