José Bento
1962, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Lives in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
José Bento's career began in the early 1980s, and the artist has developed a process in which he intensifies an intimacy with wood and its possible uses for the creation of symbolic objects. Though at first Bento used ice cream sticks to construct small scenes and sculptures, in the 1990s he began carving objects out of wood that address conceptual and philosophical issues, like the cycles of life and death, permanence and ephemerality, and which, at times, reflect the artistic practice itself. The artist works with different kinds of primary materials and languages, but he is uniquely skilled at manipulating wood, and consistently transcends the apparent limits of this material. His work, which creates intricate relationships with mystery, seems to take place with a corresponding awareness that the Portuguese word for wood, madeira, originated from the Latin “materia” (the substance from which a body is made), which, in turn, was derived from mater (meaning “mother” or “origin”). In one of his most illustrious series, Árvores [Trees] (1991-ongoing), he utilized this material to display the transformation of the raw material into a representation of itself. In Chão [Floor] (2004/2016), a version of the installation created on a smaller scale at the Museu de Arte da Pampulha (Belo Horizonte) in 2004, Bento uses wooden boards from demolitions and residential renovation projects to build a large strip, a passage, extending from one side of the second floor of the pavilion to the other. Though invisible to the eye, some of these boards have spring mechanisms underneath that make them function as little trampolines. Since the passageway constructed for the work requires elevation in relation to the ground, this work could be understood as a kind of hill, in which the boards, architectural elements, once again become nature, topography. The piece entitled Do pó ao pó [From Dust to Dust] (2016) is comprised of 25 compositions, each featuring a structure resembling those employed by many of the street vendors who occupy public spaces throughout Brazil, a rectangular board and a set of matchboxes. Each of these sets is carved entirely out of the wood of a different species of Brazilian tree. “From dust to dust” is an expression used in the 17th century by the philosopher-priest Antônio Vieira in his “Ash Wednesday Sermon,” in which he said, “Remember man, that dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.” This phrase indicates the cycle of material existence and, as such, the relationship between being and time. The fact that the matches are in full view and ready to be lit emphasizes their potential to be transformed into dust. The variety of woods used in this work, a result of the artist's longlasting collecting process, is a tribute to the coexistence of diversity. Chão, like Do pó ao pó, lauds the indistinct powers of the present. While one places people in a state of doubt regarding the solidity and working conditions of the very floorboards upon which they walk, the other turns to dust our certainties about that which we see. ——Bernardo Mosqueira
Chão [Floor], 2004/2016. Slats of various woods, iron, steel cables and springs. Installation view at Galeria Bergamin, São Paulo, Brazil (2006).