Tapume means “construction hoarding” in Portuguese. Construction hoardings conceal sites of activity while becoming sites of activity themselves. Palimpsests bearing the traces of collectively-realized, ad-hoc, and ephemeral gestures, they are tagged with graffiti, covered with posters, and scuffed and scraped by passers-by. These markings are subsequently repainted, an accrual often producing, quite unintentionally, a painterly, minimalist aesthetic.
For this three-part project, artist and architect Eduardo Aquino has repurposed the covered sidewalk and hoarding wall installed adjacent to the exterior of the Winnipeg Art Gallery during the construction of Qaumajuq. In its first iteration, the structure was presented, relatively untouched, within the WAG itself. Aquino’s juxtaposition encouraged an aesthetic appraisal of this “incidental found painting” while addressing the roles of both the workers who build civic infrastructure and the citizens who engage with it, leave their mark on it, and ultimately determine its use.
For its second and current iteration at the School of Art Gallery, Aquino has modified the hoarding wall and sidewalk so that the structure wraps around the contours of its intimately-scaled and uniquely-shaped Collections Gallery and has subtly altered the surface of the painted wall to emphasize its Rothko-esque compositional elements. Enveloping the viewer, the work is reminiscent of Rothko’s famous Chapel, encouraging a stillness within, and a contemplation of, a space usually experienced as an unremarkable passage.
A third transformative iteration of TAPUME will take place at the Faculty of Architecture’s A2G Gallery in late fall 2022.
