Nevermind the mess

This area is devoted to the artist's personal, private life. In it, Neto has created a white, transparent, luminous tunnel through which visitors can walk. Visitors transform the place with their presence, since their footsteps change the nylon floor. The ceiling, which is also made of nylon, distorts our view of the outside. Ernesto Neto is interested in this sensation of merger, or how our intimate encounters transform us, perhaps into something greater than ourselves.

Dominating the gallery is the piece Womb Chapel Nave II (NaveÚteroCapela II, 2013) a smaller-scale version of the installation which served as the backdrop of the artist's wedding with Lili, his partner (then pregnant with their first child, Lito). Their wedding was held in 2001, during the private opening of the exhibition The Wedding, Lili, Neto, Lito, and the Fools at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro. The wedding ceremony, presided over by the artist's friends, included no civil or religious authorities, since Neto viewed his wedding as a public celebration of his intimacy. With the same purpose of sharing his personal life with others, in this gallery the artist shows three screenings: the first contains images that Neto took of his friends at the beach; the second shows pictures taken in his apartment until the wee hours of the night; the third offers some views of Neto's wedding.