Nos Resta Ser Feliz (We Can Only Be Happy) : Solo Exhibition

Nos Resta Ser Feliz (We Can Only Be Happy) - Analize Nicolini

With the consistency of an accusatory tone, Nos Resta Ser Feliz (We Can Only Be Happy) reflects the tenacity that permeates Analize Nicolini’s artistic practice.

Through the use of verbal language, the artist goes beyond visual, sound and aesthetic perception, involving the public in an experience of reflection and action. The works gathered here are interconnected in a narrative of imperatives that gives to words the weight of a driving force, whether of her work or of the possibility (and need) of transformation.

In Rio de Janeiro, Venice or Curitiba, Analize's perspective is materialized in a poetics in which art assumes the important role of an activism tool, transforming anyone touched by it into a possible militant. The performance, a support that allows the body to convert from object into agent, both in Ending in Venice and Nas Feridas que Eu Alcanço (In The Wounds I Reach), extends to the public the possibility of becoming one too. Xingamentos (Swearing) and Por uma Nova Ordem Mundial (For a New World Order) incisively communicate the necessity of more human and sustainable practices in our current system. Neon light is the perfect medium for Aqui So Nos Resta Ser Feliz (Here We Can Only Be Happy) and Aqui Todos Nos Lamberemos (Here We Will All Lick Ourselves) - insights, a light-bulb moment of the artist shared with her audience. Her art is not just about what she sees, it's also about what she invites the viewer to see.

In addition to the relevance of the content of her statements, the artist makes the important move of removing art from traditional spaces to everyday life. Whether in Luzes do Leblon (Leblon Lights, 2019) - a project that brought photographs taken over a year at the beach to that very same spot; in the ongoing Ending in Venice (started in 2019) in which she hanged posters in the streets of Venice in a happening calling out to the need for mutual respect and harmonious coexistence between people and the city; or in the more recent Nas Feridas que Eu Alcanço (In the Wounds I Reach, 2022), by producing this displacement, Analize allows the same aesthetic experience to be shared by the most diverse audience possible, democratizing art.

Regardless of exploring territories transpassed by political, environmental and/or social matters, Analize's work emphasizes that they are all unequivocally urgent ethical issues. It does so, however, without ever losing the optimistic dimension that, even in the face of the abyss, the imminent and inevitable, We Can Only Be Happy. 

Fernanda Andrade