SURREAL BRASILIA

“Each one sees whatever he wishes to see.” Lucio Costa (Brasilia is Orphan, 1998)

This piece reflects the culmination of a study into Lucio Costa’s Pilot Plan of Brasilia. The plan has been likened to a bird, a plane, a cross and a hammock. Surreal Brasilia explores the background of these interpretations: what were the influences on the creators of Brasilia and why were people describing the same plan in different ways?

The research considers surrealism and the role of the subconscious mind in our understanding of the city. The analysis of Brasilia borrows methods from surrealist artists, methods of transposition, mutation, juxtaposition and the dislocation of objects. Examples of these approaches being used in architecture such as Le Corbusier’s rooftop gardens of the Charles Beistegui Apartments, inspired an approach to creating a scene. The images use the tools of the surrealist through the displacement of the furniture and the levitation of the mirror.

The exhibition, brings together items associated with descriptions of Brasilia and the Pilot Plan. The outside of the head has many images of the city to represent the many different views of its citizens, the grey face reflects the modernist descriptions of the capital.

Through analysis of the city plan, the idea of reproduction and birth was contemplated: Brasilia is often referred to as being born. Symbolically, the head consists of associations and objects perceived in the plan and the representation of my own foetus within it.