Albano Afonso. A Natureza

To venture into a forest is to enter into another order. An order where light is indirect, filtering fragmentary through the treetops. The spaces between tree trunks and the gaps between leaves might seem empty, but in truth they are charged with presence, invisible presence: sound, humidity, air, and life taking place, although no one is able to name or contemplate it. For nature does not need to be contemplated or named to exist. It exists, as a silent, overwhelming presence that recalls our place within it.

Japanese culture has a name for this experience: shinrin-yoku, forest bathing. It is not a question of observing nature from the outside, but of moving through it and inhabiting it with full bodily presence, allowing ourselves to be penetrated by it: by its smells and sounds, by the uneven ground beneath our feet. Faced with the immensity of the forest, the human being rediscovers his or her true dimension: tiny, ephemeral, silent. Something opens up within this silence, as nature does not speak to us of itself; instead, its implacability returns us to ourselves.

This summer, the church of the Convent of Sant Domingo hosts the exhibition “Nature”, where Brazilian artist Albano Afonso proposes just this: to rediscover ourselves in nature. The walls of this unique historical building are lined with a verdant forest blanket, turning the church into something similar to the forest depths. We are not entering into an exhibition; instead, Albano has us explore the insides of an ecosystem. In the centre of the hall, the mobile installation Em Estado de Suspensão turns slowly, activated by the air and the presence of those around it, those moving past it. Its materials, bronze and glass, enter into dialogue with the blown glass pieces by Gordiola, the historical Mallorcan craft producer, in a conversation between domains of knowledge, between tradition and contemporaneity.

Hand-blown glass and mineral crystal share a similar obsession for light, seeking to capture it, alter it and return it multiplied. Like with a kaleidoscope, sparkling light is scattered throughout the entire chapel, over images of nature that cover the walls, on the building’s stone and the bodies of those inside.

Albano Afonso has spent more than three decades employing light as his material. For him it is not a technical resource, but a substance of a certain consistency, with its own shape. His mobile sculptures are incomplete in darkness; they require light to exist. His work dialogues with the tradition of European painting, baroque still-lifes and the vanitas, only that objects which on the canvas would be frozen are here set in motion, turning and tinkling, projecting coloured shadows that expand like a painting of light through the space. We are then reminded that nature does not stop to be contemplated: it continues to flow, and we flow within it.

 

Albano Afonso (São Paulo, Brazil, 1964) has a degree in Fine Arts from the Faculdade de Artes Alcântara Machado. His artistic practice includes photography, installation, projections, sculpture and objects, and centres on research into light as a fundamental feature of perception. Through reflections, shadows and manipulated imagery, he creates connections between art history and contemporary experience, delving as well into concepts like time, movement and identity. He lives and works in São Paulo, where together with the artist Sandra Cinto he directs Ateliê Fidalga, a leading space for artist education and interchange in Latin America.

Afonso has exhibited broadly internationally. Recent exhibition highlights include: Itaú Cultural, São Paulo (2025); 21C Museum, Louisville, USA (2025); Centro Cultural São Paulo (2024); Fundação Gramaxo, Maia, Portugal (2024); Paço das Artes, São Paulo (2023); Fundación Pablo Atchugarry, Miami (2023); Appleton Square, Lisbon (2023); La Casa Encendida, MadBlue Summit, Madrid (2022); Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Brasilia (2022); Fundación DIDAC, Santiago de Compostela (2019); Alcalá 31, Madrid (2019); Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (2019); Aomori Contemporary Art Centre, Japan (2017); Phoenix Art Museum, USA (2017); Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (2017); Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo (2016); Museu Brasileiro de Escultura e da Ecologia, São Paulo (2016); and Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (2016).

His work is found in leading institutional collections, including Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil; Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Museu de Arte do Rio; Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo; Pinacoteca de São Paulo; Fondation CAB Brussel, Brussels; 21C Museum, Louisville, USA; Fundación Arte Contemporánea – Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela; and Fundación Pedro Barrié de la Maza, La Coruña.