Paulo Nazareth opens a new phase of the exhibition Esconjuro at Inhotim, starting June 28. This new configuration, attuned to the winter season, invites pause and contemplation through new artworks and spatial displacements.
Brumadinho, MG – On June 28, the Inhotim Institute inaugurated the third iteration of Esconjuro, a solo exhibition by Paulo Nazareth. Initially opened in April 2024, the show unfolds as an ongoing process articulated in four seasonal movements: autumn, spring, winter, and summer. In each phase, the artist transforms both the gallery interiors of Galeria Praça and selected outdoor areas across the museum, activating new artworks, spatial arrangements, and relational dynamics with the surrounding territory.
Following the autumn (April–November 2024) and spring (November 2024–June 2025) phases, winter now arrives—a moment in which the body naturally seeks shelter, stillness, and introspection. This slower rhythm runs through Nazareth’s practice, inviting the public to a deeper gaze—both inward and into layered histories. By reconfiguring the constellation of works, the artist reveals ruins, reworks symbols, and draws attention to both material and immaterial borders that persist over time. Past, present, and future interlace in a continuous spiral where memory and forgetting coexist.
Among the works featured in this winter chapter is Medals of Honor [or 49 medals + 1] (2019), a series of medals conceived by the artist to honor Indigenous and Afro-descendant leaders who resisted colonial domination across different regions of Abya Yala—the ancestral name for what is now Latin America. Displayed in cases lined with deep red velvet, the medals are colored in reference to the national flags of the territories where these figures once acted.
Another featured work is Mitología modernista (2025), a development of the series Productos de genocidio, initiated by Nazareth in 2010. These pieces crystallize commercial products bearing the names of Indigenous peoples and ancestral cultures, encasing them in amber-like synthetic resin as if they were time capsules. The work critiques cycles of symbolic appropriation and cultural erasure imposed by capitalist logic and the construction of modernity.
A new outdoor installation, Obra y trabalho (2024–2025), has been added along the Orange Axis trail, near Palm Pavilion (2006–2008) by Rirkrit Tiravanija. Built with scaffolding—a structure commonly associated with hard labor—the piece becomes a space of rest by placing hammocks in the shade, bringing the temporality of repose into the exhibition. This gesture re-signifies the act of labor in contrast to its habitual condition. The installation resonates with Minas Gerais’ winter—a dry season in which the morning mist lingers over the land.
Nazareth’s proposition for Esconjuro remains anchored in a continuous gesture of enchanting spaces—activating the exhibition site as a place of presence, creation, and transformation. The exhibition remains open through early 2026, when it will enter its fourth and final phase, aligned with the summer season.
Esconjuro – The Path of an Exhibition
The first configuration of Esconjuro, linked to autumn, was open to the public between April and November 2024. This chapter featured works addressing diverse ways of relating to the land—its cycles and transformations—as well as practices of extraction and territorial dispute historically rooted in the region. Highlights included Casa de Exú (2015–2024), Bananal (2024), Sambaki I and Sambaki II (2024), alongside videos, paintings, posters, and other installations.
In November 2024, the exhibition entered its spring phase with a reconfiguration of the space and the arrival of new works. A notable addition was the series Noticias de América (2012), where the artist documents performative actions across the American continent, traveling on foot and by hitchhiking. This work dialogued with Marco Temporal (2023–2033), already present since the first phase. Also introduced was the outdoor piece Casas de pássaros (2024), installed in the “Shade and Fresh Water” Garden, featuring modernist wooden structures designed as bird shelters for species that migrate through the region.
The spring installation proposed a new chromatic atmosphere for the exhibition space, incorporating black as a symbol of transmutation and spirituality—an echo to efum, the white powder of calcareous base used in Candomblé rituals.
Brumadinho, MG – On June 28, the Inhotim Institute inaugurated the third iteration of Esconjuro, a solo exhibition by Paulo Nazareth. Initially opened in April 2024, the show unfolds as an ongoing process articulated in four seasonal movements: autumn, spring, winter, and summer. In each phase, the artist transforms both the gallery interiors of Galeria Praça and selected outdoor areas across the museum, activating new artworks, spatial arrangements, and relational dynamics with the surrounding territory.
Following the autumn (April–November 2024) and spring (November 2024–June 2025) phases, winter now arrives—a moment in which the body naturally seeks shelter, stillness, and introspection. This slower rhythm runs through Nazareth’s practice, inviting the public to a deeper gaze—both inward and into layered histories. By reconfiguring the constellation of works, the artist reveals ruins, reworks symbols, and draws attention to both material and immaterial borders that persist over time. Past, present, and future interlace in a continuous spiral where memory and forgetting coexist.
Among the works featured in this winter chapter is Medals of Honor [or 49 medals + 1] (2019), a series of medals conceived by the artist to honor Indigenous and Afro-descendant leaders who resisted colonial domination across different regions of Abya Yala—the ancestral name for what is now Latin America. Displayed in cases lined with deep red velvet, the medals are colored in reference to the national flags of the territories where these figures once acted.
Another featured work is Mitología modernista (2025), a development of the series Productos de genocidio, initiated by Nazareth in 2010. These pieces crystallize commercial products bearing the names of Indigenous peoples and ancestral cultures, encasing them in amber-like synthetic resin as if they were time capsules. The work critiques cycles of symbolic appropriation and cultural erasure imposed by capitalist logic and the construction of modernity.
A new outdoor installation, Obra y trabalho (2024–2025), has been added along the Orange Axis trail, near Palm Pavilion (2006–2008) by Rirkrit Tiravanija. Built with scaffolding—a structure commonly associated with hard labor—the piece becomes a space of rest by placing hammocks in the shade, bringing the temporality of repose into the exhibition. This gesture re-signifies the act of labor in contrast to its habitual condition. The installation resonates with Minas Gerais’ winter—a dry season in which the morning mist lingers over the land.
Nazareth’s proposition for Esconjuro remains anchored in a continuous gesture of enchanting spaces—activating the exhibition site as a place of presence, creation, and transformation. The exhibition remains open through early 2026, when it will enter its fourth and final phase, aligned with the summer season.
Esconjuro – The Path of an Exhibition
The first configuration of Esconjuro, linked to autumn, was open to the public between April and November 2024. This chapter featured works addressing diverse ways of relating to the land—its cycles and transformations—as well as practices of extraction and territorial dispute historically rooted in the region. Highlights included Casa de Exú (2015–2024), Bananal (2024), Sambaki I and Sambaki II (2024), alongside videos, paintings, posters, and other installations.
In November 2024, the exhibition entered its spring phase with a reconfiguration of the space and the arrival of new works. A notable addition was the series Noticias de América (2012), where the artist documents performative actions across the American continent, traveling on foot and by hitchhiking. This work dialogued with Marco Temporal (2023–2033), already present since the first phase. Also introduced was the outdoor piece Casas de pássaros (2024), installed in the “Shade and Fresh Water” Garden, featuring modernist wooden structures designed as bird shelters for species that migrate through the region.
The spring installation proposed a new chromatic atmosphere for the exhibition space, incorporating black as a symbol of transmutation and spirituality—an echo to efum, the white powder of calcareous base used in Candomblé rituals.
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