Groundwork: Daniel de Paula showcases collection of rock samples in São Paulo

Art and architecture converge in a new site-specific installation of sedimentary rock samples at São Paulo's Galeria Leme.

Site-specific installation
Daniel de Paula is the latest Latin American artist to be invited to create a site-specific installation within the external spaces of Galeria Leme in São Paulo
(Image credit: Filipe Berndt)

While some collectors are content with amassing stamp and coin collections, others, such as Brazilian artist Daniel de Paula, look for something a little more unusual to satisfy their collecting craving. Gathered from geotechnical surveys taken across São Paulo, de Paula has built up a staggeringly large collection of rock core samples. 

Opened last month and on view until the end of the year in the grounds of São Paulo's Galeria Leme, testemunho ('testimony') is a new public artwork curated by Bruno de Almeida that sees de Paula's samples gathered together and organised chronologically according to their geological age. The drilled, cylindrical samples, used to determine subsoil properties in civil engineering, are composed of layers of sediment that have been built up over millennia.

'The artist contrasts the geological time of the gradual formation of the earth’s crust, to the time of construction and expansion of cities,' explains the gallery. 'Conjoining two divergent perceptions of soil, one guided by its symbolic value and another instituted by the negotiation and exchange value.'

Testemunho is the second site-specific installation commissioned by Situ, Galeria Leme's artistic research platform that every few months invites a Latin American artist to create an intervention within the external spaces of Galeria Leme that explores the dialogue between art, architecture and city. Before Daniel de Paula, Situ worked with José Carlos Martinat, who scattered tax receipts printed with statistical information on the costs and revenues of the state of São Paulo across the gallery's grounds.

Rock core samples

Called testemunho ('testimony'), the new public artwork gathers hundreds of rock core samples collected from geotechnical surveys across São Paulo

(Image credit: Filipe Berndt)

Gallery's outdoor space

Laid out in neat lines across the gallery's outdoor space, the samples are organised chronologically according to their geological age

(Image credit: Filipe Berndt)

construction and expansion of cities

'The artist contrasts the geological time of the gradual formation of the earth’s crust, to the time of construction and expansion of cities,' explains the gallery

(Image credit: Filipe Berndt)

The drilled, cylindrical samples

The drilled, cylindrical samples, used to determine subsoil properties in civil engineering, are composed of layers of sediment that have been built up over millennia

(Image credit: Filipe Berndt)

Intervention within the external spaces of Galeria Leme

testemunho is the second site-specific installation commissioned by Situ, Galeria Leme's artistic research platform that every few months invites a Latin American artist to create an intervention within the external spaces of Galeria Leme, exploring the dialogue between art, architecture and city

(Image credit: Filipe Berndt)

Rock core samples

In Portuguese the exhibition's title has a double meaning; it can signify testimony, witness, evidence, or refer to rock core samples

(Image credit: Filipe Berndt)

The art project

The art project will be on show at Galeria Leme until 19 December

(Image credit: Filipe Berndt)

INFORMATION
Website

testemunho is on view until 19 December

Photography: Filipe Berndt

ADDRESS

Galeria Leme
Av. Valdemar Ferreira, 130
CEP: 05501-000
São Paulo

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Ali Morris is a UK-based editor, writer and creative consultant specialising in design, interiors and architecture. In her 16 years as a design writer, Ali has travelled the world, crafting articles about creative projects, products, places and people for titles such as Dezeen, Wallpaper* and Kinfolk.