Vazio Coração was conceived as part of the Cruz na América [Cross in America] project and consists of two works in different places: the seashore and the desert. This work is constructed over the course of time, whether the instant or the century. Deserto [Desert] deals with the instant, which is why photography was used. The entire work was formatted in the artist’s studio, determining the geocoordinates at which the camera will be held, the exposure time (the same as the artist’s heartbeat at the moment at the moment the photo is taken), and the angle of the shot (pointing the camera along the axes of Cruz na América), thus defining the framing as well. Six photos are taken – one corresponding to each of the four axes of the cross, as well as one toward the zenith and one toward the nadir. Despite that this entire work is constructed a priori, the long exposure time (around a second) and the intense light of the desert, combined together, tend to “wash out” “burn” or “burst” the photos. Randomness interacts in this fraction of a second and determines the look of the photos taken. In Litoral [Seacoast] a marble sphere with iron pins stuck into it is abandoned on a beach in the state of Ceará, at a specific set of coordinates, and allowed to drift with the tide. The piece becomes modified by the slow oxidation of the iron, which expands, bursting its form

Commissioned by Fundação Iberê Camargo, Nelson Felix made a print for the series of that institution. He joined the work of the Vazios [Emptinesses] to the first concept of printmaking, the act of printing, a procedure that defines the technique itself.

To this end, he displaced the Fundação’s printmaking studio to the Anatomy Department of the University of Medicine of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, and there he printed, directly on the plate, the organs of the brain, of the heart, and of sex, opened down the middle.