Undercurrents, Still Flowing

Abstract

In 1991 the Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco (1962) bought his first camera—an instrument that was to become a key element of his work—and spend some time in Brazil while his wife worked on a research grant. In several interviews Orozco highlighted the importance of this stay in Brazil in his artistic development:

I was very impressed when I discovered the Brazilian landscape as well as Brazilian sculptural and musical traditions from the 1950s on. Those months were influential in my life and on my work; for the first time my travel and my work became complementary techniques and disciplines. (October Files, 85–86)

During that stay in Brazil Orozco produced one of his first major works, Turista Maluco [Crazy Tourist]. This piece consists, as it was to become a habit in Orozco’s work, of a photograph that registered the artist’s lonely intervention in the after-hours of a street market in Cachoeira, a small colonial town on the margins of the Paraguaçu river in the state of Bahia. Its name (originally in Portuguese) came from “two or three drunk guys” who amused themselves by shouting out loud “turista maluco!” while Orozco arranged a few unsalable oranges over the stalls of the deserted market and started snapping photos (To Make an Inner Time, 189).