Marcelo Cidade
Abuso de poder (Abuse of Power)
Marcelo Cidade often deploys detritus from the street—concrete blocks, sections of discarded billboards, plastic bags, old mattresses, and broken glass are among his typical materials—in the space of the white cube. In Cidade’s sculpture Abuso de poder (Abuse of Power) is a mousetrap elegantly crafted in Carrara marble. Originally made for the Carrara Biennale in 2010, it re-creates the iconic form down to the piece of cheese waiting for an unsuspecting victim. In this sculpture, Cicade challenges the viewer’s participation and intervention into the artistic object. As the title suggests, the work is also a commentary on the traps that are set for us politically, economically, and socially, questioning how free we really are.
Marcelo Cidade is an artist of situations, if not a Situationist of a new age, as he drifts through city streets around the world creating actions, interventions, films, photographs or drawings. His interests lie in the possibilities of public space and its connection with the private sphere, he resists forms of constraint and moves freely within the human community and through urban environments. Questioning systems and working in the peripheries or interstices allows Cidade poetic freedom in his artistic practice and open engagement with language, art history and politics. In 2005, he wrote “To resist = to (re) exist” 2000 times in downtown São Paulo.