Felippe Moraes is an artist, researcher and independent curator since 2009. He lives and works between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. His research is based on the relationship between epistemologies and natural phenomena and spirituality, as well as the perception of the intangible. He has a master’s degree in contemporary art from the University of Northampton in the UK and has been a member of MAC-Niterói’s advisory board since 2022. His main solo projects are “Solfejo”, presented at the FIESP Cultural Centre in 2019 and in 2024 at CAIXA Cultural Brasília, as well as “Ovo Cósmico” (2023-24) at Galeria Verve. In 2021 he created “Samba Exaltação”, a series of neons with quotes from Brazilian songs, which took place as an urban intervention in Vale do Anhangabaú in São Paulo, then as a solo show at MAC-Niterói and as a special project at the Rio Art Museum. In the same year, he held “Samba da Luz” at the Mário de Andrade Library and the Estação da Luz.

He previously held the solo shows “Imensurável” (2018) at Caixa Cultural Fortaleza; “Proporción” (2018) at Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo (EAC) in Montevideo; “Cosmografia” (2017) and “Ordem” (2014), both at Baró Galeria in São Paulo and “Progressão” (2016) at MAC-Niterói. He is the author of the public works “Monument to the Horizon” (2016) in Niterói and “Monument to Euclid” (2017) in Romania. He has taken part in important group exhibitions such as the 13th Mercosur Biennial (2022), curated by Marcello Dantas, the 19th and 20th Cerveira Biennial and the Frestas Triennial (2014) curated by Josué Mattos and his work is in collections such as the Rio Art Museum, MAM-SP, MACRS, MAC-Niterói and CCSP.

“Be careful when turning a corner”

Sounds are elements that connect us to transcendences, memories, places, people. Music is a manifestation present in all cultures. It is the passage of time, it is language, it is abstraction. Images are constructions of contrasts, contours and materials; they illustrate ideas, trigger fantasies, materialize emotions and fix the story. The not always immediate relationship between image and sound is lyrically inaugurated by the myth of Echo and Narcissus – he, a beautiful young man who was born under the premonitory warning of an oracle never to see his own image at risk of death; she, a nymph who had a body but no voice, cursed for talking too much and just repeating the last words she heard. Therein lies the tragedy: the vision of the self, which can be another, and the voice of the other that returns as my own. Narciso saw himself in the water mirror and, enchanted by his own double, drowned in his image and became a flower. Echo, in love with Narciso, was never able to communicate her feelings: scaring the handsome young man with echoes, she lived hidden in a cave until she became only voice and bones – she became stone.

Upon entering this exhibition, we may be surprised by the unexpected and powerful consonance between visuality and music that informs these works by Felippe Moraes. Even not being a musician, mathematician, or astrophysicist, the artist makes use of all these subjects in works that are as poetic as they are scientific; as rational as affective; as discordant as unisons. There is a clear musical rationality in the sensory experiences triggered by the works, while the playful nature of interaction and cooperation transports us to more surreal and unconscious states.

The body, in turn, is essentially involved in almost the entire exhibition, which must be enjoyed in community. The singular introspection usually reserved for the contemplation of works fixed on the wall gives way to shared experiences. We will be enveloped in uncontrollable noises, entangled in sudden aromas, invited to approach each other. The collectivity essential to the works can be democratically liberating and, together, our bodies feed their powers, inform other stories, vibrate possible futures. This moment will not be repeated, but will be lived again and again and again.