Marcel Gautherot

Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Photo © Eduardo Eckenfels

Plan (detail)

Drawing © Vazio S/A

Photo © Eduardo Eckenfels

Art + Installation + Exhibition

Architects: Vazio S/A

Location: Av. Otacílio Negrão de Lima 751, 31365-450 Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Year: 2020
Client: Instituto Periférico
Team: Carlos M Teixeira, Frederico Almeida

The exhibition design of the show “Marcel Gautherot: Modern records of the invention of Pampulha” seeks to be a response to the architecture of Casa do Baile (Oscar Niemeyer, 1943) and was conceived from this pre-existence, or from that modern architectural space.

The floor plan of Casa do Baile’s hall is circular, and its circle is defined by a sequence of masonry and glass arches. Like the exhibition we propose, which is also made of arches. In dialogue with the limits of the hall, they define new concave and convex environments, or curved spaces within a curved space. They are panels that dialogue with CB’s architecture and add movements to the exhibition, inducing the visitor to go through the four sides of the arches and creating different passages of space – either narrow or open and wide.

The convex sides face the building’s masonry arch where the exhibition credits are installed, the starting point of the visit. These convex sides are always smooth, while the concave sides are always “constructive”, revealing their structure and skeleton.