Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto is commonly recognized as the heir to the "Neo-Concreto" art movement in his home country. Neo-Concreto is a splinter of the Concrete art movement, which was formed in Brazil in the 1950s. The movement calls for greater sensuality, color and poetic feeling than Concrete art, translating to three-dimensional works that encourage the viewer to experience, and not just look upon, art.

Neto's "crazy hyperculture in the vertigo of the world" is a gigantic interactive display that encourages the viewer to engage with all the senses. The tactile installation takes up huge amounts of gallery space, which is almost completely covered with hanging mesh ropes.


A suspended labyrinth guides viewers via a carefully created pathway that splits the installation. Throughout the floor-to-ceiling hanging membranes are tiny satchels of scents and colors, yet another way to engage the gallery goer's senses. By placing "the spectator at the center of the action," Neto is carefully fulfilling the Neo-Concreto movement's precepts of fully capturing the attention of the viewer in order to understand the piece as they enter the sculpture and touch and smell the surroundings.

The concept of the delicate "crazy hyperculture in the vertigo of the world" is based on the organic form of the internal structure of the body and the fragile structures and balances found therein. Neto's grand scale labyrinth straddles the line between sculpture and installation and is comprised of small sacs filled with spices like saffron and cloves and delicate membranes of elastic fabrics and polythene foam.

Currently located at the FAENA ArtCenter in Buenos Aires, Neto's works have been shown in museums and galleries around the world, from New York to Rome. Visit FAENAArtsCenter.org to learn more.