CROSSROADS | Marcelo Macedo [BR] Individual Exhibition

Crossroads is the result of an artistic residency by Marcelo Macedo (born 1983, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil) at Eritage.

His creative process is influenced on a daily basis by Rio de Janeiro’s chaotic and vibrant disorder, in which unique and diverse reality he establishes himself.

Inspired by childhood experiences, scientific paradigms and spiritual practices rooted in Afrodiasporic religions, Marcelo develops his sculptures as part of a ritualistic project that transcends his artistic practice and connect his life with his work in the studio.

Each sculpture becomes an act of reverence and introspection, linking the tangible form with an intangible heritage, and allowing him to channel ancestral wisdom into his artistic processes.

Symbolizing the intersection of various elements that define our lives — past and future, rational and intuitive, material and immaterial -, Crossroads represents a converging point between different paths, decisions and perspectives.

Macedo reduces his means of expression, allowing his compositions to offer enormous freedom of interpretation. What has been seen passes through a transition of consciousness from the act of seeing. The artist analyzes primordial forms — the basis of all forms, starting with the triangle and the meaning of the number three. The multiplication of three leads to twelve.

According to the poet Manoel de Barros: "Repeat, Repeat, Repeat until it’sdifferent". Here, errors are not failures, but welcome variations. Geometric abstraction is not just a mathematical concept, but a symbolic and subtle language that dialogues with the perception of the observer. What does the image evoke in you? What is true? Is the image what it seems to be?

Crossroads emphasizes the importance of embracing intuition over rigid rationality. Through each repetition, the artist discovers new paths, reminding us that growth does not come from a predetermined result, but rather from the exploration of the unknown 
and the act of getting lost.

“I collect discarded things. I manipulate everything in my work until it seems like patchwork sheets, geometric meshes expanding and a contraction between joinery done and undone. Nothing should be missing or left in this wandering geometry. My works deceive the eyes, open spaces for imagination, delusions and constructions of new worlds. ” — Marcelo Macedo

Macedo simplifies forms, with a Suprematist and Constructivist allure, pioneering vanguards of Eastern Europe, establishing
a unique connection with the Brazilian Neo-Concrete movement. Macedo builds complex forms of vibration, transforming the repetition of basic geometric figures into a rhythm interrupted by individual errors. This is an invitation to an attentive observation — slow, precise, peaceful and always evolving.

In the book Theory of Seeing, Władysław Strzemiński states the following idea: “It is not what the eye catches mechanically that matters in the process of seeing, but the consciousness man has of his seeing”.

Interlaced photographs and the use of reclaimed wood tell stories of interconnected lives. The once forgotten scraps are repurposed to create intricate geometric works, reflecting a journey of transformation, where the past is revisited and redefined.

We shall consider Marcelo’s practice as an inner call — to head over, remember and forget, accept and allow, and to deliver ourselves.

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