Frio na barriga
com obra &
hora marcada
Art as a bridge for encounters written by chance and courage
Instituto Inhotim, MECAInhotim Festival, Brumadinho, Brazil, 2022
Roles: Concept and Experience Design
Collaborator: Laís Glück
DESCRIPTIONFrio na Barriga com Obra & Hora Marcada was a participatory art experience created for the MECAInhotim Festival 2022, held at Instituto Inhotim — one of the largest and most significant open-air museums of contemporary art in the world.
Initially invited to design an encounter installation, Isabella Nardini realized she didn’t need to build a new structure. Embracing Alfredo Jaar’s principle that "context is everything," she understood the profound potential of the existing art and nature around her.
Thus, the museum itself became the stage, the artworks became portals, and chance encounters became the performance.
During the festival, two "Women in Red" — inspired by mythological figures like Lilith and the Lady in Red — wandered the gardens, inviting visitors to embrace serendipity through a guided encounter with a stranger. Participants were offered a small ritual: to open their hearts to the unknown.
Each participant received:
A hand-drawn heart marked on their palm,
A card indicating a specific artwork, a scheduled time, and a personalized reflective question inspired by the essence of that piece.
At the appointed time, strangers would find each other near the indicated artwork, recognizing one another by the heart-marked hands, and begin a short ritual of connection — starting with eye contact, moving into answering a question, and ending with a personal reflection and a shared memory.
ARTISTIC INTENTIONThe work explored the emotional landscape between desire and randomness, control and surrender, expectation and surprise.
By consciously letting go of control, the artist invited unpredictability as an ally, proposing an experience where neither she nor the participants could fully anticipate the outcome — a powerful gesture of trust in context, art, and human openness.
It offered participants a chance to:
Say yes to uncertainty,
Trust the possibility of human encounter,
Engage artworks, nature, and strangers with new presence and vulnerability.
UNIQUE METHODOLOGYSite-Specific Reflections:
Isabella studied each selected artwork at Inhotim to create personalized, artwork-specific questions designed to trigger emotional openness and meaningful dialogue.
Examples:
At Narcissus Garden (Yayoi Kusama):
"Show me or tell me: how would you enchant me with yourself?"At De Lama Lâmina (Matthew Barney):
"What is the most contradictory thing about you, and what beauty lies within it?"At Beam Drop (Chris Burden):
"What was the most beautiful random thing that happened to you recently?
Embodying Play and Seduction:
The Women in Red acted as enigmatic catalysts, playing with the thrill of encounter, the fear of the unknown, and the possibility of transformation.
Guided Ritual Flow:
Participants were gently coached into rituals of:
Eye contact,
Question-exchange,
Emotional documentation
IMPACTDuring four hours:
Over 100 scheduled encounters occurred across Inhotim’s vast grounds,
Participants engaged with major works by artists such as Cildo Meireles, Yayoi Kusama, Olafur Eliasson, Tunga, and Adriana Varejão,
Many found themselves surprised, moved, and even transformed by a simple, vulnerable connection with a stranger.
In a setting of monumental art and wild nature, Frio na Barriga wove an invisible choreography of living encounters, making human connection itself the final and ephemeral artwork.
