ExhibitionOctober 11, 2022
Anna Maria Maiolino: Schhhiii…
Schhhiii… is an anthological exhibition on the Brazilian artist Anna Maria Maiolino (Scalea, Italy, 1942) that spans more than fifty years of her artistic production. The show brings together more than 200 works, including paintings, drawings, woodcuts, sculptures, photographs, videos, sound works, and installations, produced from the late 1970s to the present.
Curated by Paulo Miyada (chief curator of the Tomie Ohtake Institute and the curator of Latin American Art at the Pompidou) and conceived as a spiral, the project does not follow a linear chronology. Instead, it delves into the stages of her career and the various media with which she worked. It also recovers significant moments and events from Maiolino’s “life-work,” as she called her vital experience. The exhibition was presented in São Paulo between May and July 2022 after three years of research.
“Maiolino’s life purpose has never been to conquer more territories, rule over more exotic cultures or have more monuments built to her image and likeness. On the contrary, hers is the lived experience of a wise storyteller of living, caring, desiring, protesting, and feeling ecstasy. Hers is the circular nomadism of an immigrant from many national origins — or none,” writes Miyada.
The exhibition’s title is taken from a poem by Maiolino—who lived in Argentina between 1984 and 1989—from 1996. This poem symbolizes her production because it presents a visceral approach to political issues. The rejection of totalitarianism is expressed emotionally, marked by sensory experience, which distances it from pamphlet discourse.
In the Brazilian version of the exhibition, the title PSSSIIIUUU… also had a double reading since this sound is perceived both as a claim for silence and as a call to seduction. This ambivalence is a constant feature of Maiolino’s production.
Curated by Paulo Miyada (chief curator of the Tomie Ohtake Institute and the curator of Latin American Art at the Pompidou) and conceived as a spiral, the project does not follow a linear chronology. Instead, it delves into the stages of her career and the various media with which she worked. It also recovers significant moments and events from Maiolino’s “life-work,” as she called her vital experience. The exhibition was presented in São Paulo between May and July 2022 after three years of research.
“Maiolino’s life purpose has never been to conquer more territories, rule over more exotic cultures or have more monuments built to her image and likeness. On the contrary, hers is the lived experience of a wise storyteller of living, caring, desiring, protesting, and feeling ecstasy. Hers is the circular nomadism of an immigrant from many national origins — or none,” writes Miyada.
The exhibition’s title is taken from a poem by Maiolino—who lived in Argentina between 1984 and 1989—from 1996. This poem symbolizes her production because it presents a visceral approach to political issues. The rejection of totalitarianism is expressed emotionally, marked by sensory experience, which distances it from pamphlet discourse.
In the Brazilian version of the exhibition, the title PSSSIIIUUU… also had a double reading since this sound is perceived both as a claim for silence and as a call to seduction. This ambivalence is a constant feature of Maiolino’s production.
Gallery
