Brazilian twin artists Os Gemeos, Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo, were recently in Milan, Italy, working on a large mural installation for Pirelli HangarBicocca’s new public art project, Outside the Cube. Their mural, titled “Efemero” (ephemeral) features one of their signature, colorful characters climbing up the hangar-shaped building, painted to look like a subway car. The site-specific piece also incorporates logos from international metro systems and personal messages.
“When we received the image of this building and straight away, we had this idea- We saw the building and said, ‘this is a subway car’ and really connect to what we love, trains and our background in graffiti,” the artists shared. “We just wanted to change this space, the whole entire building, and transform it into a big installation, like a sculpture.”
Os Gemeos have been making these connections between art and spaces for years, taking the shapes of buildings around the world, starting with their hometown in Cambuci in the 1980s, and merging them with the images that appear in their imagination. Featured here on our blog, their works are well known for their use of fantasy, created in various techniques of painting, drawing and sculpture. “We see what we do as art, very simple as that.”
In painting “Efemero”, Os Gemeos wanted to create an image that is linked to the life of the building, which used to house locomotives. As the hooded, squinty-eyed character scales the giant train, we can also imagine the young artists doing the same in their youth in Brazil. “Efemero is like life- like moments in life,” Os Gemeos says. “Your thoughts can be ephemeral, the way you see life can be very ephemeral, the way you share your emotions or love can be ephemeral.”
Photos by Andrea Concina.
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Public art and murals add an imaginative dimension to the daily humdrum of city life — a cause public art project