We are very pleased to present God is Design, the inaugural show of our new exhibition space Galpa;o Fortes Vilaca. Curated by Neville Wakefield, of PS1 MoMA New York, this show features internationally renowned artists: Adel Abdessemed, Trisha Donnelly, Urs Fischer, the Guyton/Walker artist duo, Agnieszka Kurant, Renata Lucas, Kris Martin, John McCracken, Aleksandra Mir, Rivane Neuenschwander, Nuno Ramos, Michael Sailstorfer and Rudolf Stingel.

Based on the architectural configuration of the venue - an exhibition space within a warehouse - the curator made an analogy to the Kaaba in Meca. A space defined by its interior. The artworks deal with issues related to religious thinking, to exteriority and interiority, nature and artifice, expressivity and constraint.

The video God is Design by Adel Abdessemed, which has provided the exhibition's title, is an animated sequence of patterns and symbols from various religions that overlay one another. In his other animation, Les Douleurs de ma Mere [My Mother's Pains], Adel shows the figure of a woman - completely covered by the burka she is wearing - kneeling to pray repeatedly. At each movement the lines of the drawing change color. In Declaration for Space, 2007, Aleksandra Mir presents thirty-three collages that mix religious iconography with images from NASA.

John McCracken, an artist from the first generation of American minimalism and one of the outstanding artists featured at the most recent Kassel Documenta, is represented by his artwork Persus, 1986, a handpainted yellow monochrome on wood. Other artworks are related to the minimalist legacy through their suppression of the image and ornament, focusing instead on closed forms and straight lines. This is the case of Black and Blue, 2000-2008, by Nuno Ramos, a large block of pressed black sand cut by drop-shaped glass piece containing oil, as well as the artwork by Urs Fischer, consisting of a mirrored cube filled with orange juice, coffee and cigarettes- antagonistic materials with an unpleasant combined smell. Researsher Reactor, 2008, by Michael Sailstorfer is a concrete rectangular solid with embedded microphones and amplifiers that capture the building's vibrations to produce a sound like that of a reactor. Symphonie n.0, 2008, by Kris Martin, is a black box closed by a padlock. Inside the box is a siren that is forever silent, even though it is fully functional.

Exploring the relation with the architecture, Renata Lucas has created a window that cuts the warehouse's fac;ade at two points. In turn, Rivane Neuenschwander and the Guyton/Walker artist duo have made use of household materials in the construction of two sculptures that also deal with the question of interiority and exteriority. Neuenschwander's Continentais [Continentals], is a large basin that contains other basins floating on a white liquid. Coconut Chandelier is a lighting fixture made of dried coconuts and everyday light bulbs.

Future Anterior, 2008, by young Polish artist Agnieszka Kurant, is a print of eight pages of The New York Times in the year 2020, according to the predictions of a clairvoyant. Because the ink used is heat sensitive, the text on the page only appears when the temperature is below 26 degrees centigrade – making it a white monochrome just like Stingel’s artwork, a white carpet that lines an entire wall of the exhibition, beckoning for the visitor to touch it and leave his/her mark.

29 March 08 [Saturday 4 - 6 p.m.] 31 March 08 to 3 May 08 [Monday to Friday, as scheduled by telephone ] Galpao Fortes Vilaca | Rua James Holland 71 | Sao Paulo, SP, 01138-000 Brazil | Tel. (55 11) 3392-3942| Fax (55 11) 3392-5969 Information: Marcia de Moraes curatorial@fortesvilaca.com.br | www.fortesvilaca.com.br | T 55 11 30327066