Luhring Augustine, New York; Galleria Franco Noero, Torino; and Galeria Millan, São Paulo are pleased to present Eu, você e a lua (Me, you and the moon), a monumental sculptural installation by the late Brazilian artist Tunga, as part of Art Basel Unlimited. We are especially honored to carry out the presentation of this project, organized in collaboration with Tunga, in homage to our recently deceased friend and artist. 

At the core of Tunga’s complex and diverse practice is what art historian Michael Asbury has described as a “desire to uncover the mystical undercurrents of modernity.” Tunga’s emphasis on the narrative potential of objects led him to forge new territories beyond the physical domain of his sculptures, installations, and performances. It is within this metaphysical space that he laid groundwork for his own personal mythology, complete with an array of symbolic imagery and a distinct structural logic. Tunga’s interests in science, alchemy, psychoanalysis, philosophy, and poetics culminated in a rich body of work that explores the relationships between language, image, and object. While each piece functions as a discrete entity, collectively they play an integrated role within a larger network of narratives running continuously and in parallel with one another.

Eu, você e a lua (Me, you and the moon) belongs to Tunga’s final body of work and relies on a repeated use of symbolic forms – welded, cast, and made of clay – paired with evocative geological and organic materials. The natural and the manmade, the ancient and the new, the functional and the allegorical come together in a compelling scene exemplary of Tunga’s distinctive sensual and lyrical sensibility. The tripod is a recurring structural component, which alludes to Tunga’s corporeal philosophy, and his understanding of the coming together of bodies as reliant on a third, ephemeral force. Often functioning as sites for performance, these sculptures resemble totemic objects that have been used for, or have resulted from, an enigmatic ritual. Eu, você e a lua (Me, you and the moon) was first exhibited in 2015 at Château de Chaumont in Chaumont-sur-Loire, France.

Tunga (b. 1952, Palmares, Brazil – d. 2016, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) held major solo exhibitions at museums and institutions throughout the world, such as CCS Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson; MoMA PS1, New York; Musée du Louvre, Paris; Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris; and The Phoenix Art Museum. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art of Los Angeles; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Cisneros Fontanals Foundation (CIFO), Miami; and Instituto de Arte Contemporânea Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil.  

For more information about Tunga, please contact Donald Johnson Montenegro at 212.206.9100 or donald@luhringaugustine.com. For press requests, please contact Caroline Burghardt at 718.386.2745 or caroline@luhringaugustine.com.