Regina Silveira

Regina Silveira included in Projeto Respiração 21st Edition, curated by Mario Doctors, at Fundação Eva Klabin, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

The 21st edition of Breathing, a program of contemporary art interventions at Fundação Eva Klabin, devised and curated by Marcio Doctors, will be Insolitus, created by Brazilian artist Regina Silveira.

The aim of Breathing is to create contemporary art interventions in the collection of classical art at the Eva Klabin house museum, building a bridge between the art from the past and current-day manifestations; between the priceless collection of past masters, including Tintoretto, Boticelli, Reynolds, Pisarro, and Govaert Flinck, and the leading exponents of Brazilian contemporary art.

Breathing is a longstanding art intervention program. Beginning in 2004, it has become a cultural yardstick for the unexpected and singular nature of its proposal, which is to breathe new life into the museum, attracting new audiences and casting a novel gaze over the museum and its collection.

Breathing has become established over the past 12 years thanks to the quality of the 27 artists who have taken part in the 20 editions held so far, including Anna Maria Maiolino, Anna Bella Geiger, Nuno Ramos, Carlito Carvalhosa, Ernesto Neto, Claudia Bakker, Eduardo Berliner, Rosangela Rennó, Marcos Chaves Nelson Leirner, and Daniela Thomas.

Regina Silveira's intervention, Insolitus, will create an unexpected (“insolitus”) state, as its name suggests. The façade of the building will be taken over by Mundus Admirabilis, representing an infestation of giant insects. In the Renaissance Room, the space will be dominated by the black, 1.80m-high egg that is Dark Swamp (nest), standing in stark contrast against the Renaissance works from the collection. Meanwhile, in the dining room, the dining table and chairs will be transformed into a furry table and chairs, triggering a sense of the uncanny amidst the refined, orderly ambience of the house museum.

With her occupation, Regina Silveira takes the idea of intervention contained in the Breathing project proposition to the extreme, destabilizing the codes of a residence, upsetting its peace and quiet and with her imaginary world, and creating a striking metaphor for contemporary times.

In the words of curator Marcio Doctors:
Insolitus brings us the rawness of a substantive reality, which Regina Silveira lays bare in her works for Breathing, materializing on the surface of the world the anguish of our society today. With her unique poetic language, she cuts through the uncertainties and misgivings we all face and draws out attention to what unsettles us in today’s world. They are like contemporary plagues.