Copacabana, 2023. Mineral pigment on paper. 80 × 120 cm
In the photograph Copacabana, Renato Gosling composes the image of a sidewalk atop a pair of flip-flops, with each small stone hand-painted and meticulously placed side by side with tweezers. The green straps evoke Brazilian nature; the blue suggests the movement of the sea. The work brings together two icons of Brazilian visual identity: the rubber flip-flops of the Havaianas brand — inspired by traditional Japanese Zori sandals — and the wave-patterned mosaic of Copacabana’s sidewalk, itself inspired by Lisbon’s Praça do Rocio. Installed by Portuguese stonemasons in the early 20th century, the design was reimagined in the 1970s by artist and landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, who reoriented the waves to run parallel to the beach, giving the landscape a new rhythm. In the image, the flip-flops seem to float above the water — as if they represent a nation walking on an unstable surface, perpetually on the verge of shipwreck, yet never fully sinking. A dialogue emerges between materiality and imagination, between ground and sea. We resist.
Brasil
Estados Unidos
