Date: 2017
Author: Sofia Marçal
By questioning the work’s relationship with its surroundings, a dialogue is sustained between the material, the form and its environment. This sculpture, Rubicon, in which the use of colour stems from the artist’s introspective engagement with his creativity and his adaptation to the space – in this case, the museum’s atrium.
Martim Briom is pursuing an artistic journey that demonstrates a captivating sensitivity and simplicity, which are increasingly reflected in an innovative approach to sculpture. In this work – which explores colour, light, material and composition – his originality in questioning the image, the idea and the object is particularly evident.
Ultimately, this work, Rubicon, positions the viewer as a continuation of the artistic object itself, bringing the sculpture closer to us and us closer to it. Colour as a challenge, constructed colour, sculpted colour. Thinking about colour not only in terms of pure spatiality but also of perception, in order to arrive at the composition, the synthesis, the work. As Cézanne said, ‘colour is the place where our brain and the universe meet’, but ‘grace lies in presence, and presence is the existence of the object; that is why the object is an aesthetic object’. (Rosalind Krauss)
By staging contemporary art exhibitions in spaces naturally intended for scientific displays, the National Museum of Natural History and Science thus fosters the coexistence of diverse sensibilities, promoting the interaction between art and science and the sharing of knowledge essential to the contemporary world.
Martim Brion 