Clarissa Tossin
White Marble Everyday

White Marble Everyday
White Marble Everyday
White Marble Everyday
ArtistBrazilian, born 1973
CultureBrazilian
Titles
  • White Marble Everyday
Date2009
Place depictedBrasília, Brazil
MediumTwo-channel video, edition 1/5
Dimensions5 minutes, 42 seconds
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Chaney Family Collection
Object number2012.468
Non exposé

Explore Further

Description


With White Marble Everyday Clarissa Tossin explores and deconstructs the utopian ideals embodied in high modernism and the particular history of Brasília, the federal capital of Brazil. Constructed to displace the historic capital of Rio de Janeiro in 1960, Brasília has been celebrated internationally for its radical conception of a utopian city, following the master plan of Lúcio Costa and shaped by the visionary architecture of Oscar Niemeyer.  White Marble Everyday focuses on the soaring, sculptural forms of Niemeyer’s Federal Supreme Court Building, while tracking the anonymous laborers tasked with keeping the marble pristine. Tossin finds grace in the elaborate choreography of this arduous and repetitive task, compressing the daily four-hour ritual to less than six minutes. A champion of Brazil’s Communist Party, Niemeyer declared his architecture was “for the people,” but as Tossin demonstrates, his creations can only be sustained by the people Niemeyer claimed to serve.



ProvenanceThe artist; [Sicardi Gallery, Houston]; purchased by MFAH, 2012.
Exhibition History"Nowhere Near Here: Works by Texas Artists," Houston Center for Photography, March 11 - April 24, 2011.

"Building Arts," Sicardi Gallery, Houston, October 15 – November 12, 2011.

"Thought Cloud: Young Latino Art, Mexic-Arte," Austin, June 17 – September 25, 2011.

Also note: White Marble Everyday is scheduled to be featured in several upcoming exhibitions, including What time is the place?, 2013, at the Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco, México, and And you slip into the breaks and look around: Strategies of time in Contemporary Art, 2014, at the Blaffer Art Museum, Houston

Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Printed labels: CLARISSA TOSSIN / White Marble Everyday, 2009 / Two-channel HD video projection, 5:42 min, looped, color and sound / The white marble floors of the Brasilia's Federal Supreme Court building, designed by / the architect Oscar Niemeyer in 1957, are cleaned every day. This video explores this daily ritual, choreographing it as a wasteful process that maintains the monumentality of the structure and the utopian promise of the city's plan. / edition 1/5

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

scan from file photo
Emilio Chapela Pérez
2007
Two-channel video installation with vinyl lettering, edition 1/5 + 2 AP
2011.479
On the Edge
Miguel Ángel Ríos
2005
Two-channel video, edition 5/8 + 1 EP + 2 AP
2010.171
La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (Rozelle Hospital)
Javier Téllez
2005
Two-channel video installation with curtains and chairs, edition 2/5 + 1 AP
2012.511.A,.B
Corte en el ojo
Miguel Ángel Rojas
2003
Single-channel video, edition 1/5 + 2 AP
2012.83
La Piñata
Teresa Serrano
2003
Single-channel video, edition 2/5 + 1 AP
2008.448
Mars's Pilot Plan
Clarissa Tossin
2012
Inkjet print on pearl paper, edition 1/3
2014.1121
Caquetá
Miguel Ángel Rojas
2007
Single-channel video, edition 5/5 + 2 AP
2012.82
Nan Goldin
2010
Single-channel video, edition 2/5
2018.172
Tongue-Cut Sparrows (Inside Out)
James Drake
2007
Two-channel video, edition 5/8
2010.1496.A,.B
Miguel Ángel Ríos
2010
Two-channel video, edition 4/6
2015.241
Courtesy Ignacio Liprandi Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires, Argentina
José Alejandro Restrepo
2011
Single-channel video, edition 4/5
2015.1
Borde de pánico
Miguel Ángel Rojas
2003
Single-channel video, edition 2/5 + 2 AP
2012.322