Carne da Terra invites the public to immerse themselves in a sensorial landscape. Featuring large-scale paintings, tactile sculptures, sounds, and augmented reality layers, the exhibition creates a living arena where body, nature, and technology intertwine

Conceived as a living arena of experiences, the exhibition brings together large-scale paintings, tactile sculptures, sounds and augmented reality, creating encounters between ancestral gestures and contemporary technological resources

The skin of the planet

Life is the great geological force that distinguishes planet Earth from other known planets. Life creates the conditions for itself to persist and propagate. This capacity for self-regulation and perpetuation, curiously, results not only from the living, but especially from the interaction between the living (organisms) and the non-living (elements). Even more interesting is the fact that this band in which the living and the non-living interact—the biosphere—is quite narrow: from a few meters below ground level to the troposphere, the highest layer of the atmosphere. If Earth is an organism, the biosphere is its skin, its flesh, as the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961) said. In it, the boundary between the living and the non-living, between one species and another, between organism and environment is, at the very least, blurred. Thus, nature and humanity are an indivisible and indissoluble whole, as assumed by the various Amerindian languages, which do not have in their vocabularies words that separate “nature” and “society.” In space, everything is a whole

From the human component mixed with the flesh of the Earth, two properties emerge. The technosphere is the entire mass of things that human beings have built on the planet, which today surpasses the living mass. The noosphere is the sphere of human thought. Maria Antonia, through her "Flesh of the Earth," moves the technosphere—through the intersection of art and technology—to give us access to the noosphere, to the human thought that integrates multiple sciences, whether ancient or contemporary, into a single time. Thus, it even takes us back to Einstein's science, who said that separating time into past, present, and future is a "persistent and stubborn illusion." In time, everything is a whole

Fabio Scarano - Curator of the Museum of Tomorrow

Presentation text

Please don't put away your cell phone to enter the room. On the contrary: point your camera at the QR code located here, on the exhibition's opening panel, and enable your device to be part of the experience that Maria Antonia proposes in her unprecedented project. Carne da Terra is a living environment that invites the public to activate their perception, exploring other senses beyond sight. In this space, the real world, also fueled by hearing and touch, expands its contours by incorporating the virtual universe and the use of tools present in our daily lives, such as artificial intelligence and augmented reality. As you walk through the universe created by the artist, paintings and sculptures designed especially for this installation take on new contours with virtual tools developed to expand the possibilities of painting through interaction with the public

This fantastical world of Carne da Terra is the latest development in Maria Antonia's more than 10-year investigation into the limits of painting and image, constructing pictorial and immersive environments in which the audience is invited to be present. The history of art is the history of the construction of images. From the earliest cave paintings in prehistory to the present day, visual representations—figurative or abstract, using different materials and techniques—interact with the beliefs and values ​​of different periods in humanity, revealing transformations in society and in the way we perceive the world. The history of art is also, ultimately, the history of our presence in the world. In this exhibition, Maria Antonia explores a repertoire of images that ranges from the history of painting to science, cinema, and pop culture, utilizing tools such as internet research, algorithms, and artificial intelligence. Presented for the first time at the Museum of Tomorrow, Carne da Terra echoes one of the institution's fundamental principles in the visual arts: to consider the present and its transformations, and, from there, imagine possible futures. In her installation, Maria Antonia brings essential questions from the history of art and how they shape the contemporary world to the present day. By highlighting the artistic field as an important site for the development of knowledge, a space for debate, and a critical tool, Carne da Terra doesn't offer answers, but rather helps us reflect by confronting questions that are almost inescapable: How do we inhabit the world? How do we listen to the earth, the other, the invisible? And, perhaps most importantly: How do we want to move forward from here?

Fernanda Lopes - Presentation Text

This project was supported by the Pró-Carioca public notice, a program to promote Rio de Janeiro culture, run by the City of Rio de Janeiro, through the Municipal Department of Culture

Construction photography by Gabi Carrera

Credits

MUSEUM OF TOMORROW

Executive Director

Cristiano Vasconcelos

Curator

Fabio Scarano

General Content Management

Camila Oliveira

Exhibition Team

Caetana Lara Resende

Julia Deccache

Guilherme Venancio

Rafael Salimena

Nathália Simonetti

Lorena Peña

Museology Team

Tatiana Paz

Fabiana Motta

Kelly Vilela

Camilla Brito

Public Service

Wagner Turques Guinesi

Alice Villa Frango

Nilson da Silva Ramos

Alessandra Batista da Conceição Penna

Brenda Pinheiro de Oliveira

Caio Correa de Sousa

Caue de Albuquerque Barroso

Fernando Lopes Barbosa

Gabriel da Silva Ramos

Guilherme Augusto Gouveia

Igor Pereira Alencar

Ismael Freire de Almeida

Jose Americo da Rocha Filho

Jose Francisco de Souza

Luis Rodrigo dos Santos

Mariana Macedo do Nascimento

Matheus dos Santos Oliveira

Queren Priscila Oliveira de Souza

Rafael de Souza de Almeida

Raisa Medeiros de Oliveira

Shirlei de Oliveira Chagas

Vinicius Marcelo de Oliveira dos Santos

Vitor Santos da Silva

Yan Gomes Silveira

Museum Education

Stephanie Santana

Renan Freira

Bianca Paes Araújo

Bruno Baptista

Davi Macena

Fernanda Castro

Juan Barbosa

Julia Mayer

Juliana Camara

Marcus Andrade

Maria Gabriela Barbosa

Maria Luiza Lopes

Nicolle Portela

Nicolle Soalheiro

Thainá Nunes

Vinícius Andrade

Vinicius Valentino

Electrical Installation

Valeria Ferro

Francisco Galdino

Diogo Freire

Marlon Vidal

Silas Miranda

Alexandre Souto

Jefton Elias

Ezequiel Tavares

Jose Petrucio

Camila Fraga

Audiovisual Installations

Luiz Lima

Ana Barth

Bruno Carreiro

Edson Castro

Vanderson Vieira

Inovatec Soluções Audiovisuais

LAND MEAT EXHIBITION

Idealizing Artist

Maria Antonia

Executive Production

Marcella Klimuk

Project and Capture

Cammila Ferreira

Expographic Project

Gisele de Paula Arquitetura & Cenografia

Presentation Text

Fernanda Lopes

Scenography

Ricardo Souza

Technology and Experience Design

Fabio Fonseca

Administrative-Financial Coordination

Thiago Monte

Soundtrack

Máximo Cotrim

Lighting and Sound

Boca do Trombone

Electrical Design and Execution

Inventor Elétrica

Emergency Project

PI Projetos e Instalações

Schedule

Pablo Nascimento

3D Animation

Rafael Carpinetti

Works Production Assistant

Ana Clara Vendramini

Dressmaker

Risonete Monteiro de Lima

Expography Assistant

Iolaos Coelho

Alexandra Souza

Anna Carolina Madureira

Marcenaria

Maurício Coelho

Montagem

Instalações Everton Sant’Ana

Museum Reports

Mariane Vieira

Refrigeration

RR Climatização e Refrigeração

Transport of Works

JG Melo Transportes

Framemaking

Moldurax

Audio Description Script

Jessica Valente

Voiceover

Katerina Amsler

Content Accessibility

Juliete Viana

Tactile Map

Casa do Braille

Graphic Design

Maia Gama

Communication and Media

Estúdio Aforma

Photos

Gabi Carrera

Priscila Jammal

Press Office

Marmiroli Comunicação

Thanks

Andreia Gomes

Ana Carolina Cerqueira

Anna Beatriz Dodeles

Beatriz Schymura

Bruna Louzá

Caio Costa

Eduardo Souza

Felipe Haiut

Juliana Machado

Kubra Manela

Lara Azevedo

Lurdinha Piquet

Maria Clara Souza

Maria Eduarda Souza

Marina Papi

Marko Martins

Nina Malta

Paula Trabulsi

Pedro Coelho

Priscilla Pacheco

Thaianne Brito

Yolanda Ribeiro

Support

Corfix

Beleaf

Mattercraft

Casa do Braille