In the exhibition ‘Caminho Tropical’, the artist's first in Brazil, Bela Silva was asked to engage in a reflection on conservation and the importance of preserving local fauna and flora. Bela Silva was invited by the Mayor of Niterói, Axel Grael, to create a hand painted tile panel to be permanently installed in the new eco-cultural center of the Parque Orla Piratininga Alfredo Sirkis POP, an important environmental and conservation project in Nietrói that restored the quality of the water of the very polluted Lagoa Piratininga bringing back animal species, that had long be gone.
In any new location, Bela Silva applies an archaeologist's approach, surveying and mapping the territory, observing nature but also researching the arts, not only academic but also decorative, architecture, literature, music and customs, with the ambition of understanding these codes, be part of the place and, above all, meeting the Other.
For this exhibition Bela was inspired by the literature of Fernando Pessoa, Carlos Drummond de Andrade and Clarisse Lispector and the music of Chico Buarque, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and Rita Lee. A great source of inspiration was the Amazon, the forest, the birds but also the very sophisticated use of colour and feather by the indigenous tribes.
Bela Silva took a big interest in creating a dialogue between the unique architecture of Oscar Niemeyer and her creations in ceramic. A material traditionally much used in modernist architecture specially in Brazil.
This exhibition reveals four tile panels measuring 180 x 400 cm, a set of five ceramic sculptures and seven drawings.