Sallisa Rosa with pieces from her Topography of Memory installation. Photo: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND AUDEMARS PIGUET
At Art Basel in Miami Beach in December, Brazilian artist Sallisa Rosa transformed the Collins Park Rotunda into a mystical cave, filling the space with dozens of clay stalagmites emerging from the floor and large clay spheres that hovered above. Awash in a warm amber glow and enveloped in mist, the serene, immersive experience invited guests to touch the ceramic forms, feeling the sacred connection to the earth.
Titled Topography of Memory, the standout installation was the artist’s first solo exhibition in the U.S., commissioned by Audemars Piguet Contemporary, the Swiss watch brand’s dedicated arts program.
Rosa collected the clay from just outside Rio de Janeiro, sculpting each of the 100 pieces in the installation by hand before putting it in the kiln for three days. “I think about how it’s possible to store memory,” says the artist, whose grandmother América was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, prompting an artistic investigation into themes of collective memory. “If you gather some earth from every place, you see all the information there—like what kind of people lived there, how many years, what they planted. It’s the best way to store memory. I’m doing this for me and my family.” The exhibition started its next chapter at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo on March 16 and runs through July 28, trading a circular exhibition space for a long, narrow hall.
Audemars Piguet Contemporary present Topography of Memory (2023) by Brazilian artist Sallisa Rosa at the Collins Park Rotunda at Art Basel Miami Beach. Photo: courtesy of the artist and Audemars Piguet
Pieces from Topography of Memory (2023). Photo: courtesy of the artist and Audemars Piguet
Rosa never intended to be an artist; she was working at an NGO dedicated to children and education when she applied to an open call for artists from the Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR) in Brazil. Her submission won, and in 2017 she presented “Oca do Futuro (Hut of the Future)” at MAR. Her first solo exhibition at the museum followed in 2021, as did group shows in Shanghai, Geneva, and at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Rosa is currently undertaking a two-year residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam and planning for a busy spring ahead.
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2024 Spring Issue under the headline “Personal Vision.” Subscribe to the magazine.
