New ways of reflecting upon reception—and in particular on problems related to the spectacularization—run through Ana Mazzei’s work. “I am thinking of art as a space of experience, it’s the only way I can discuss this. What I feel is that when we do art we are necessarily thinking about the moment in which we are living,” says Mazzei. In her work, art becomes a scenario of everyday life, “It is a confrontation between space and time.” From the artist’s perspective, “... the concept of theatricality implies a notion of spectacularization, in which aspects of everyday life are re-signified in the manner of a spectacle, establishing a new relationship with the world. This procedure is possible through the act of constructing a fictional reality.” Her works thus appear as fragmentary, as anticipating or delaying a past or future event, where stories and lives are mixed. Using a variety of media such as drawing, video, sculpture and installations, the relationship between body and space is always highlighted as fundamental to herpractice.

There are several direct antecedents for the Garabandal series, with which the artist participated in the Cuenca Biennial. One example is Monolito ea sentinela [The Monolithand the Sentry], a 2017 installation presented in Pivô, an alternative space located in the center of San Pablo. Mazzei changed around the furniture that usually functions as the space’s reception area, placing it on a high wooden platform, so that when entering the lobby the public had to look up to communicate with the gallery receptionist. In the back of the structure, a golden disc attached to a metal bar framed the receptionist’s head in the shape of a halo, giving her a saintly appearance—a theatrical tone often used by the artist. As Kiki Mazzuchelli points out, they are “objects arranged as props for some kind of unknown ritualistic ceremony, and encompassing the viewer asperformer,” thus changing “the way in which our bodies behave in this specific space.”

Fusing the stage (the imaginary and symbolic dimension) with reality (the material dimension) has been one of the Brazilian artist’s constants. The invitation to enter andleave reality to the imagination is an exercise based, more than on collaboration, on the viewer’s complicity, who agrees to participate in a game that, as the artist says, implies“crossing the limit.” In a certain way, this breaks with the idea of a border established under colonialism.

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