CRIA – the world of play

CRIA – deriving from the portuguese crianças (children) – is an exhibition initially intended for little humans to play, engage and experience. in an intimate setting at minas tênis clube in belo horizonte in minas gerais brazil, the exposition invites, however, adults to tag along with their smaller companions. artists like stela barbieri, o grivo, eder santos, to just name few, created a world full of haptic, sensory and acoustic sensations. while stela barbieri’s ‘land-play’ encourages visitors to create their own landscape, o grivo tackles the question of water acoustics. water drops fall through plastic pipelines on little percussions producing different sounds in the exhibit space. the installation triggered an additional association in me, namely of how to reuse plastic water bottles as water dispensers in agriculture of the pacific that I’ve been recently reading about online.

CRIA also includes games by the indigenous and black communities like mancala and onça thats geometries create an impressive aesthetics on its own, which prompt us to remember that interaction is not just meant for children.