Ana Mazzei: Love Scene, Crime Scene

Ana Mazzei (São Paulo, 1979) combines organic and figurative forms with a precise geometric sensibility, in works that often result in a nod to the constructive legacy of Brazil’s late modernist movements, especially of the Concretist and Neo- Concretist avant-gardes. Mazzei’s colorful wood sculptures – which may be displayed individually or in groups – deal with fiction in an open-ended format, frequently referencing figures and passages from theater, literature, mythology and her own personal universe, never quite giving away any reference in an obvious way. Even when using radically different references, the artist’s works tell stories that are etched into an intimate territory that Mazzei builds, seemingly to find meaning in contemporary life and its vertiginous experience.

For her show at gb gency, the artist will exhibit Love Scene Crime Scene, consisting of an inside landscape illuminated by pale light. This somewhat theatrical setting acts as a stage for her wood sculptures to inhabit a seductively composed ambience, filled with timber sculptures, wooden reliefs, a video and sound.

This staging works as an invitation to the spectator to experience an unknown role that is reserved for them. Just like the sculptures, they are important and active participants in this fictional space – brimming with a mischievous sense of recognition.

Are we coming into a love nest? Or at an unsolved crime scene? Mazzei, for her part, does not answer these questions but rather bombards the visitor with new ones as they pop up through the malleable structure of the installation. As in life – or as in theater – the scene here never remains the same, one’s feelings are interchangeable and the experience offered by the artist always feels like a new one, constant and uninterrupted.