Laura Lima
Laura Lima lives and works in Rio de Janeiro. She is best known for creating disruptive situations inside institutions, interrogating their boundaries. In her artistic vocabulary, she often questions fundamental artistic concepts such as the work of art or the idea of performance. She treats the social body as a form of sculpture, which could be a reference to the tradition of Neo-Concrete Brazilian artists.
The work Cow (M=f/W=f) (1994) is one of Lima’s first proposals to feature living beings in a prominent place. The work consists of moving a mountain cow to walk on an urban beach in Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro. The displacement and image of the animal are milestones for the beginning of the artist’s group of works named Man=flesh/Woman=flesh (M=f/ W=f), in which every living being is seen as matter. This proposal puts Lima’s work in a context other than the happening or performance, since it consists of the use of people understood as matter, ‘people=flesh’, who give shape to the work along with other objects and apparatus created by the artist. The picture Cow (M=f/W=f) by Lima is circulating in the museum in the form of a postcard with instructions.
Exhibited work:
Cow (M=f/W=f), 1994
Courtesy Laura Lima