CuCO & CO

For her exhibition at HAB Galerie "CuCO & CO" Caroline Mesquita has crafted a hybrid, physical landscape that spreads throughout the concrete architecture of this former banana warehouse.

This in situ architectural installation features new sculptures, a series of brass tableaux, and stop-motion videos, offering a one-of-a-kind immersion into the artist’s world. Like a frozen daydream after a tear in the space-time continuum, the HAB Galerie is transformed into a sort of factory, where every element feels both familiar and foreign.
A character greets the visitor upon arrival, while drops of some golden substance drip from the taps of a black monolith, like a spring of some unknown source. Further in, a buoyant, white structure appears like an oversized scale- model to be explored. This series of structures is like an upturned interior, forming a workshop that seems temporarily at a standstill. It has taken over the space, raising questions about its origin in relation to the site, which itself becomes an envelope blurring the notion of inside and out. At first glance, its function remains elusive and mysterious. It seems impenetrable and forbidden. Golden drops glide down the walls and, peering through them, the visitor’s inquisitive eye will discover off-limits rooms where a whole world is at play.
In this universe, where fiction flirts with mirage, anthropomorphic animals and metallic characters come and go as they please. Their numbers increase and they occupy the space with their curious looks and perplexed expressions. In this enchanted atmosphere, hierarchical relationships dissolve, and animals and humans coexist in harmony, strutting about as if after a strange party.
Scattered throughout the space, the composition of the brass tableaux are reminiscent of posters, like so many colourful signs or clues to a mystery that needs decoding. Caroline Mesquita appeals to our desire to know more.
By walking around these structures, we enter the crucible, where we discover the different stages of fabrication, from the first metal vat to the colour chart and the assembly line. This architecture-sculpture becomes an organism from which astonishing creatures are born.
CuCO & CO uses the chemical formula of verdigris and combines it with other hues to colour this landscape. In this mystical, intriguing, and playful exhibition, Caroline Mesquita combines humour and poetry, inviting us to explore the perpetual cycle of matter and the enigma of parallel realities where sculptures come to life.

In an alternative afterlife, where the boundaries between life, time, and space become blurred, and where mysterious forces suddenly render them autonomous and conscious, are we perhaps unaware of their existence, while they secretly develop and evolve in our world without our knowing?