Question the world through the senses. "A Leaf Shapes the Eye" by Daniel Steegmann Mangrané

09/04/2023. Kiasma [Helsinki] Finland 31.03 > 10.09.2023
metalocus, ANDRÉS BLANCO
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"A Leaf Shapes the Eye" shows a journey through all the work by Spanish artist Daniel Steegman Mangrané. A newly opened exhibition at the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, Finland, can be visited until September 10, 2023.

The exhibition covers the career of Steegman Mangrané ((b. 1977, Barcelona) including architectural interventions, collages, drawings, holograms, installation, moving images, photography, sculpture, sound and poetry.

The museum has prepared an immersive exhibition in collaboration with the artist, in which Mangrané invites us to question the world we live in using works, installations, and sensory interventions that combine shapes, sizes, light experiences, colour, and even smells and flavours. The intention is for the viewer to question his perception of space and reflect on his presence in it.
Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Installation view. Photograph by Petri Virtanen / Finnish National Gallery.
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Mangrané's work occupies two floors of the Kiasma Museum. In one of them, a visual reflection is made through a single colour, a blue carpet together with the light that filters through the windows, equipped with the vinyl of this colour, creating a special, almost intangible and changing environment. The gallery installation has different sculptures that complement the experience of the tour.

Smell and taste also play a leading role, and the section named "Naranja Naranjas" (2001) invites visitors to make and drink orange juice in a translucent pavilion with orange lights. While the smell and taste remain recognizable, the lighting effect distorts the colour and appearance of the fruit and juice. A synesthetic experience that creates dystopian sensations.


Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, "Economic Dune", Model without Qualities 2011. Photograph by Petri Virtanen / Finnish National Gallery.
 
Ordinary experience is transformed by Mangrané into a new unknown sensation. Illuminations distort the colours, appearances, and even the image that one has of a fruit or of a juice that derives from it. The environment is continually changing and you see that show that he tries to convey his ideas.

Since 2004, Mangrané based in Rio de Janeiro, so his work refers to the tropical jungle of Brazil. His practice is also strongly influenced by nature and the planet's climate crisis. Branches, leaves and insects are recurring motifs, their geometric shapes reflect the relationship between abstraction and nature. These works become a game with the environment.


Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, "Mano con hojas", 2013. Photograph by Aurelien Mole.


Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, "La Pensée Ferale", 2020.

The exhibition also has fragments of audiovisual works created by him. The artist encourages us to look twice at the world around us, to look for the metaphors of nature and the mirages that he can create organically. His complex dynamics make us look for the border that exists between the natural and the artificial.
Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Installation view. Photograph by Petri Virtanen / Finnish National Gallery.
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Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Installation view. Photograph by Petri Virtanen / Finnish National Gallery.
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More information

Exhibition
"A Leaf Shapes the Eye".
Artist
Daniel Steegmann Mangrané.
Curator
The exhibition is curated by João Laia, chief curator of temporary exhibitions at Kiasma and Hiuwai Chu, head of exhibitions at MACBA, with Piia Oksanen, curator of temporary exhibitions at Kiasma.
Organization
Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma. with MACBA, collaboration.
Dates
From 31 March to 10 September 2023.
Location
Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma. Mannerheiminaukio 2, 00100 Helsinki, Finland.
Photography
Petri Virtanen, Pirje Mykkänen, Aurelien Mole, Roberto Ruiz.

Daniel Steegmann Mangrané

Daniel Steegmann Mangrané was born in Barcelona, Spain, in 1977. He currently lives and works in Rio de Janeiro. He specializes in different types of techniques and media, such as film, sound, drawing, kaleidoscopic collages, photography, sculpture, and gardens. He is interested in proposals that explore nature and the climate crisis, combining these themes with art and architecture. Materials that he uses are of altered organic origin or represent objects of nature.

His works have been presented in several biennials such as Lyon, Berlin, New York, Paris, Porto Alegre and São Paulo, and he is present in international collections of the La Caixa Foundation, the Serralves Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona.

He has exhibited individually at IAC: Institut d'art contemporain, Villeurbanne; Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham (2019); CCS Bard College, New York, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, CAC, Vilnius (2018); Serralves Foundation, Porto (2017); Museum of Modern Art of Medellín, Antioquia, The Green Parrot, Barcelona (2016); Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, Casa Modernista, São Paulo (2015); CRAC Alsace Rhénan d'Art Contemporain Center, Altkirch (2014); Casa França-Brasil, Rio de Janeiro (2013).
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