Jac Leirner’s Corpus Delicti, 1993, is our current highlight on occasion of the loan of this work that belongs to the Collection Caixa Geral de Depósitos to the exhibition Acloc o´clock,curated by Uma Certa Falta de Coerência (André Sousa and Mauro Cerqueira). The sculpture is part of the upcoming Território #7 exhibition, to be open at Culturgest Porto from February 8 to May 11, 2025.

The artist’s body of work comes close to Dadaism, namely Marcel Duchamp's ready-made, also echoing Pop Art, Conceptualism and Minimalism, as it takes out of context the everyday objects the artist has obsessively collected over a long time. Banknotes, coins, plastic and paper bags, cigarette packs, pencils, calendars and stickers, are among the objects the artist has singled out to accentuate the criticism of consumption and addiction she draws attention to in her work. Her works unveil “a new way by which life can energize art or art can unveil life.” (Guy Brett). By moving the object from its everyday role to the artistic sphere, thus denying the concept of beauty, the artist seeks “what is inherent to each thing until the epiphany conveyed by the work of art.” (Paulo Herkenhoff).

Unlike most of the artist's works, the series entitled Corpus Delicti, created between 1985 and 1993, does not challenge the meaning of the objects used. One of the works in this series is a set of ashtrays the artist appropriated on her trips on commercial aviation. As smoking is no longer allowed on planes, nor do airlines want to be associated with it, the object, now obsolete, brings forth the meaning of the title. Corpus delicti is the material substance resulting from criminal practice, which can be used as evidence of the crime. This set of works broadly titled Corpus Delicti is further composed of glasses and airsickness bags, all taken from airplanes. The work, which belongs to the Collection Caixa Geral de Depósitos, consists of small cushions made of aircraft fabrics of different colours. Despite the direct link between title and object, the work curls up on itself resembling a snail and preserving the idea of comfort and sleep associated with the pillows. “Thus, in the frenzy of travel, the fate of most contemporary artists in a hysterically globalized world, the petty crime of theft that these works reveal is almost a small tease disguised as sculpture.” (Delfim Sardo).

Jac Leirner graduated in Fine Arts from Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (FAAP), São Paulo, Brazil, in 1984. She was a professor at FAAP from 1987 to 1989. She was an artist in residence at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, USA, 1991. In that same year, she became a visiting professor at Oxford University and an artist in residence at the Modern Art Oxford. In 2001, she received a scholarship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in New York, USA. In 1983 and 1989, she participated in the São Paulo Biennial and in 1992 in the IX Documenta in Kassel. She represented Brazil at the Venice Biennale on two occasions – 1990 and 1997.

Hugo Dinis