At the Schauwerk, three Brazilian artists play with the senses in an immersive artwork

At the Schauwerk in Sindelfingen, from 27 September to 18 July 2027, visitors can see ‘Anatomy of Precence’, an exhibition curated by Jérôme Sans (co-founder and former director of the Palais de Tokyo) and Svenja Frank. Bringing together three internationally renowned Brazilian artists – Vivian Caccuri, Lucia Koch and Henrique Oliveira – the exhibition unfolds across more than 3,000 m², featuring monumental and immersive installations that combine sound, light and organic structures. ‘Anatomy of Presence’ takes its starting point from the concept of ‘embodiment’, a term intended to convey the close interconnection between body, perception and mind.

Henrique Oliveira, Burned Bridges, Eternal Return, 2026

The exhibition is conceived as a living organism that acts as a counterpoint to the growing focus on the virtual, engaging the human body — which we inhabit, within social and natural systems —, its mobility and proprioception within the hortus conclusus of the immersive work. As the curators write, drawing on the aesthetics of Merleau-Ponty: ‘The body becomes a landscape through which one navigates space and meaning, engaging both individual perception and collective consciousness’. It also forms part of a tradition of high-impact installations that emerged in Brazil between the 1960s and 1990s, within a cultural landscape characterised by confrontation, friction and contradictions, a vast economic and social divide, anarchic urban development due to its heterogeneity, and musical effervescence.

Lucia Koch, Gang of Four (Runners), 2026 und Big Loop, 2026 Lucia Koch-Foto: Frank Kleinbach

Located in Sindelfingen, near Stuttgart, the museum is an institution that ‘brings together contemporary art, science and technology’. It hosts temporary exhibitions — bringing together leading international artists and emerging voices — and the collection of Peter Schaufler (1940–2015) and Christiane Schaufler-Munch (1934–2025): works spanning from the second half of the 20th century to the present day. The Foundation holds a 49 per cent stake in Bitzer, a German company owned by the Schaufler family and specialising in refrigeration technology.

Vivian Caccuri (1986, São Paulo) lives and works in Rio de Janeiro; her work ‘Gatonet’, currently on display, is inspired by the tangle of electrical cables found in Brazilian cities: the loudspeakers emit low-frequency rhythms that cause the candle flames to flicker, whilst fabrics hung like porous veils seem to breathe in time with the synthesiser waves. The artist has exhibited at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2018) and the Future Generation Art Prize (2017). She is represented by the Brazilian galleries A Gentil Carioca and Almeida & Dale: prices range from charcoal and dry pastel drawings on paper, at around 4,000 dollars, to ‘Sudden Grasp’ (2025), part of a series of compositions using various materials such as mosquito netting, priced at $24,000, and up to audiovisual installations such as ‘Pele azul’ (2026), priced at around $30,000.

Vivian Caccuri, Overheated System, 2026

Henrique Oliveira (1973, Ourinhos) divides his time between São Paulo and London, focusing on the decay and poverty of the outskirts of his hometown. For the exhibition, he has created a sort of box-within-a-box: recycled plywood, his material of choice, introduces an element of social critique, as it is used in the construction of favelas. His exhibitions include ‘Baitogogo’ at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2013) and ‘Whispers on the Horizon’ at the Taipei Biennial (2025). In 2009, he was awarded the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship. In Europe, he works with the Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois in Paris and the Galeria Almeida & Dale in São Paulo. The price range for his works is between 16,000 and 200,000 dollars.