Tunga, 'Me, You and the Moon'
An iconic installation from the artist’s later years, presented at the Church of San Miguel (Arévalo, Spain).
ReadMe, You and the Moon (2015) by TungaCollegium
The artwork
Me, You and the Moon (2015) is one of the final works by the Brazilian artist Tunga. It is presented in the Church of San Miguel in Arévalo, on loan from Sarina Tang. The installation activates the space through objects and materials that invite a physical, contemplative, and sensory experience.
Materials ans shapes
Stone, glass, mirrors, bronze, steel, plaster, and resin coexist with a fossilized tree trunk millions of years old. Everything appears in an unstable balance: between the heavy and the light, the organic and the mineral, as if matter were always on the verge of transformation.
An alchemic experiment
The installation articulates processes of transformation in an alchemical register: matter that oxidizes, crystallizes, or scars. Amber, quartz, and metal introduce distinct temporalities, linked to the alchemical, the ritual, and the idea of matter in constant change.
Mineral time and organic life
A fossilized tree trunk several million years old is the centre of the installation, acting as its axis and embodying a time scale that exceeds the human. This element connects the organic with the mineral and suggests an infinite temporality.
Me, You and the Moon (2015) by TungaCollegium
Tunga
Tunga, the artistic name of Antônio José de Barros Carvalho e Mello Mourão (Palmares, Pernambuco, 1952 – Rio de Janeiro, 2016), was a Brazilian artist whose practice revolves around alchemy, mythology, and processes of material transformation.
Three voices on Tunga's work
Javier Lumbreras, founder of Collegium; Aldones Nino, curator; and Sarina Tang, collector and personal friend of Tunga, discuss the work and its relationship to the context in which it is presented.
