CáSSIO VASCONCELLOS

Cássio Vasconcellos © Maria Haller

“A lot of the waste generated by humans is very difficult
to recycle or to dispose of. In my work, I try to show this mass
that people produce, the excess that humans generate
to maintain a certain lifestyle.“

Cássio Vasconcellos

Don’t be scared, come closer. A little closer. Look closely. Terrifying, right? Vertiginous, most of all. But like his previous exhibit Beyond Reality featuring his series Collectives, which we presented in 2020, this oversized fresco created by artist Cássio Vasconcellos isn’t real. After a long career as a traditional photojournalist, for the past several years he has set himself apart thanks to a unique approach. He brings together his passion for aerial photography and his desire to create works that exist on the border between fiction and reality.

This work is no exception. Called Over, it is a collage of thousands of images taken by the photographer during his travels over the landfills of São Paulo, as well as aircraft graveyards in the US. It is the outcome of a process that involves modifying reality to force viewers to consider our modes of consumption.

Each truncated aircraft cabin, each car, each element that you see has been individually cut out and then assembled together like the pieces of a giant puzzle. An incredible, painstaking work, all the more so considering that the artist had to manage the length of each shadow based on the artificially-chosen position of the sun.

Here, Over refers to excess. An excess of everything. Of objects we produce, of our waste, noise, proportions, space. But the title also alludes to flight and the view from above. This work, presented for the first time in France here at La Gacilly as a 12-metre-long print, was previously exhibited in Brazil in November 2022. It allows us to literally zoom out, so that we might better understand the risks of overproduction and overconsumption, and better protect tomorrow.