Gabriela Albergaria
Abracadárvore
Museu de Arte Moderna , Salvador da Bahía, Brazil
2008.
The exhibition is made up of a group of works/
trees of average size, forming a sort of forest/
nursery. Laid out in lines, they visually create
a similarity with the plants created in rows in
nurseries. These are works made from trunks and
branches from different trees, using the technique
of (false) grafting which is recurrent in my work.
The term “abracadárvore” [abracadabra-tree in
Portuguese] was taken from a poem by Jacques
Prévert (1900-1977).
This work explores associations between nature,
botany and art, always within a logic of “integration”. It is a sort of synthesising of cultural aspects related to the colonisation of plants. Organic
growth, graftings and acclimatisation are to some
extent the essential component of an ecosystem.
The possibilities of adaptation and alteration, and
at the same time the creation of an interrelated
and independent system fascinate me. It simultaneously functions as a metaphor for social and
political action and, in general, all creation.
Photo: Tarso Figueira
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Gabriela Albergaria
Viveiro (nursery), (2008)
Grafted trunks and branches
(Sibipiruma – family of the
leguminous, and species
Cesalpinea Teltophoroides and
flamboyant), cotton thread,
wood (Brazilian Redwood and
Pau d’Arco) and carpenter’s
clips
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Gabriela Albergaria
Abracadárvore
Museu de Arte Moderna, Salvador da Bahía. Brazil,
2008
This work was produced by the artist and by the
Modern Art Museum, with the help of the Services
of the Municipal Nursery. The branches come
from the pruning of the trees in the Canela neighbourhood, in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil and were
gathered, chosen and then worked upon using the
(false) grafting technique in order to create an idea
of sculpture/trees like a group of trees lined up in
a nursery. There is thus the creating of a fictional
situation that copies a real one, attempting to
establish meanings in its poetic, social and political dimension. It was by means of nurseries that
it was possible to acclimatise species in places and
countries in which the climate and other conditions would not allow them to grow.
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Gabriela Albergaria
Abracadárvore
Museu de Arte Moderna , Salvador da Bahía, Brazil
2008.
Photos: Tarso Figueira
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Gabriela Albergaria
Abracadárvore
Museu de Arte Moderna , Salvador da Bahía, Brazil
2008.
making of
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Gabriela Albergaria
“Com a expansão do sistema botânico e a introdução de um grande número de plantas tropicais, as
tentativas mais ingênuas de investigação e coleta de material e informação científica foram eliminadas
após o século 19. Os jardins obtinham as suas novas plantas através da propagação do colonialismo.
Plantas eram cultivadas em grandes estufas construídas especificamente para esse propósito, e ao
mesmo tempo eram examinadas pelo seu potencial uso económico. As estufas dos jardins botânicos
foram melhoradas com o objetivo de combinar exposição com investigação sistemática.”
“ With the extension of the botanical system and the introduction of a great number of tropical plants,
the more naïve attempts at the research and collection of scientific data and material were eliminated
after 1800. Now gardens obtained their new plants through the spread of colonialism. Plants were
cultivated in large greenhouses built specially for the purpose, and at the same time they were examined
for potential economic use. The hothouses of the botanical gardens were improved to suit the aim of
combining exhibition with systematic research. (...)”
Houses of Glass: A Nineteenth-Century Building Type (Paperback), Georg H. Kohlmaier et al.
Text drawn on the wall, (2008)
Green coloured pencil on paper
Times regular, 150 pt
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Gabriela Albergaria
Abracadárvore
Museu de Arte Moderna , Salvador da Bahía, Brazil
2008.
These two works may be seen as a comparison or parallelism.
One shows a view of the Sao Paulo Botanical Gardens,
which I visited last year and which impressed me a
great deal because of the plants and the use made of
them: although the study element is present in the gardens, it does not stand out. The other work presents a
view of the inside of the tropical hothouses of the Berlin
Botanical Gardens, which I often visit, and which present plants that are very similar to those seen in the Sao
Paulo Botanical Gardens.
I was interested in this idea of firstly being in a “natural” state adapted to the medium and the other one in
an artificial situation, a product of human care and now
no longer a supposedly natural state.
On the other hand, these were the hothouses that
inspired Burle Marx, a Brazilian landscape artist who
revitalised the use of endemic Brazilian plants in the
conception of his works and gardens. He was a researcher, and it is when he is studying painting in
Berlin, using the tropical hothouses of the botanical
gardens as a model for his drawings, that he realises
that he is drawing plants that he has had next to him all
his life, but which he never really noticed.
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Jardim Botânico de Berlim 180, (2008)
Lambda print and coloured pencil on paper
56 x 75 cm
Jardim Botânico de São Paulo 413, (2008)
Lambda print and coloured pencil on paper
56 x 75 cm
Gabriela Albergaria
Abracadárvore
Museu de Arte Moderna , Salvador da Bahía, Brazil
2008.
Permanent work on display at the Sculpture
Garden in the Bahia Modern Art Museum, Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, 2008
Action on a garden tree. Dig a hole in the direction
of one of the roots of the tree, leaving it partially
uncovered (more or less 1 metre high and 120 x 40
cm). Fill the bottom of the hole with little stones
used in draining gardens. Protect the sides with
strips of wood (4 x 6 cm), building a sort of box.
Cover the top part with transparent acrylic.
Uma raíz descoberta e protegida, (2008)
Variable size
Photo: Tarso Figueira
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