Néle Azevedo (1950)
Néle Azevedo is a sculptor, visual artist and researcher. Born in 1950, in the city of Santos Dumont, Minas Gerais. He moved to São Paulo, where he graduated in Fine Arts from Faculdade Santa Marcelina in 1997 and completed his Master's in Visual Arts from UNESP in 2003, with a dissertation dedicated to the “Minimum Monument” project. of iron sculptures at the Centro Cultural Correios, in Rio de Janeiro, in 1998, and receives the Acquisition Award at the Salão de Arte de Santo André, in São Paulo. As of 2001, he developed the “Minimum Monument” project, carrying out urban interventions that subvert the traditional logic of public monuments, when using small-scale ice sculptures representing anonymous citizens. The facilities, which became known as “Melting Men”), propose reflections on ephemerality, collective memory, wars and climate change.
Performs interventions in squares and public spaces in several cities in Brazil and abroad, with Actions involving dozens, hundreds or thousands of small ice sculptures placed in the urban space, melting in front of the public. These actions gained international projection, being presented in countries such as France, Italy, Germany, England, Norway, Portugal, Cuba and Japan. In 2014, it carries out the installation of the “Minimum Monument” in the Chamberlain Square, in Birmingham, United Kingdom, in memory of Victims of the First World War.
Receive awards in art salons and have works included in the collections of the Wilfredo Lam Contemporary Art Center in Havana; the Sycomore Art Gallery in Paris; and the Museum of Japanese-Brazilian Art, in São Paulo. Among other urban actions, it stands out for the works “Glory to the inglorious struggles” and “Anhangabaú: a river for the absent”, which also address historical and social issues. Azevedo explores sculpture as an instrument of reflection on time, the body and the public space. His work moves between art, activism and memory, proposing new forms of dialogue with the city and its inhabitants.
