Carlos Bunga: Metamorphosis

November 20, 2009 - February 28, 2010

Carlos Bunga: Metamorphosis is the Portuguese artist’s first U.S. solo exhibition. The exhibition features two site-specific, large-scale structures created from perishable materials such as cardboard and packing tape emphasizing ideas of impermanence, crisis and decay.  Bunga’s constructions – which grow organically and sometimes recall provisional street shelters – arise from a dialogue with the existing architecture of the sites at which they are built. The structures employ the motif of the metabolic processes that sustain living organisms as a metaphor for the continuous mutation of architecture and urban space.

Artist Performance In the last stage of the work, after carefully building his structures for weeks, Bunga submits them to a radical transformation. Through a performative, cathartic act, he slices the walls of this construction and pulls it with his body to reveal additional layers and traces hidden within its interior. (Miami Art Museum performance November 22, 2009)

Carlos Bunga: Metamorphosis is organized by Miami Art Museum and curated by Rina Carvajal. It is funded by Instituto Camões, Espirito Santo Bank, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, and Directorate-General for the Arts / Ministry of Culture, Portugal, with additional support provided by UBS Financial Services, Inc. - The Bodner Zubizarreta Group and MAM's Annual Exhibition Fund.

Photo credits: Carlos Bunga. Miami Art Museum project, 2009. Photo by Juan Cabrera.
Carlos Bunga, Miami Art Museum performance, 2009. © Oriol Tarridas Photography 2009.