Works

Icarus (2012) is a video performance that layers two video reels shot at Ipanema Beach, in Rio de Janeiro, combining three different elements fundamental to the tradition of performance: the body, the object, and the landscape. In each video, we see a body as the protagonist: that of a child playing on the beach and that of an adult (the artist) who artistically engages with the playful element. Both hold the same object in their hands: a mirrored circle that reflects everything around it, depending on how it is positioned. In the final edit, we see the two videos sharing the screen space in different graphic cuts and formats, which cause these bodies, this landscape, and this object to sometimes come together, appearing to inhabit the same image, and at other times to move apart, overlapping and almost fading out. Here, the playful nature of childhood games draws close to the improvisation of artistic experimentation—an important discussion throughout Gustavo Prado’s career. Equally important is the reference brought by the title of the work. In Greek mythology, Icarus is the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth and the wings made of feathers and wax. It is well known that Daedalus warned Icarus, when using the wings, not to fly too close to the sea or too close to the sun, so that the moisture or the heat wouldn’t destroy them. Icarus ignores his father’s instructions, attempts to reach the sun, and the heat melts the wax, dislodging the feathers, causing him to fall into the sea. Icarus is the image of failure as the possibility of risk in attempting, but it is also the attention to the reconstruction of the real through appearance.