Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander at IMMA, Dublin

The New Galleries at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) are exhibiting a major mid-career retrospective of the work by leading Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander, A Day Like Any Other, from November 16th to January 29th.

Neuenschwander was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in 1967, where she continues to live and work to this day. Over the last 20 years, she has exhibited internationally, including solo shows, group exhibitions and biennials. Now, she comes to Dublin with a diverse and inspiring solo show.

Covering the artist’s career since 2000, the exhibition highlights Neuenschwander’s contribution to Brazilian conceptualism, and reveals her diverse interdisciplinary practice. Her work spans everything from painting, film, and photography, to sculpture, participatory events and performance.

Many of Neuenschwander’s works are the result of unusual collaborations and involve strong participatory elements. A Day Like Any Other is no exception.

The exhibition includes I Wish Your Wish, which has been staged several times since 2003. Visitors are invited to take a ribbon bracelet imprinted with a wish from past participants, so long as they, in turn, provide their own wish, written down on a slip of paper.

First Love is another participatory work. A forensic artist creates portrait drawings based on visitors’ descriptions of their first loves.

Neuenschwander tends to explore a variety of themes in her art, including the nature of time, cycles of existence, mysteries of perception and life’s fragility. Much of her work is about measuring the passing of time.

These preferred themes are often conveyed through her use of bubbles, drops of water, eggs, moons, whole-punched confetti and constellations. Circles and ovals are consistent motifs throughout her work.

Literature also plays an influential role in Neuenschwander’s art. She has found inspiration in One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights) and Samuel Beckett’s novella First Love. The artist offers her own adaptions, built around the themes she most likes to explore.

A Day Like Any Other includes several new paintings, three installations that involve participation from visitors and the short film The Tenant (2010), which follows a soap bubble’s journey through a deserted house.

The New Galleries at IMMA exhibit a A Day Like Any Other, from November 16th to January 29th. Admission to this exhibition is free. For details, visit imma.ie.

words by Kathleen Harris