Exhibition "Tania Candiani: Subterranean"

at the exhibition Tania Candiani: Underground, the Red, Tania CandianiThrough embroidery, drawings, videos, sound art, and installation, she transforms the subterranean networks of roots into a tactile cartography of entanglements, in which matter becomes a sign of the energies that permeate the soil.

The works in this solo exhibition map these living webs where natural, non-human, and sonic systems converge, revealing the invisible vibrations and resonances that traverse the subterranean realm.

Each embroidery in the Roots Systems series is constructed around a horizon line, a boundary between what we see and what remains hidden, where structures expand across the ground forming networks that transcend the scale of the visible plant. The machine embroidery carries the sound and vibration of these constantly moving networks.

The same series unfolds in two sets of drawings, one in spray paint and the other in India ink. In the first, roots of different individuals of the same species are engraved on cotton paper. They are diptychs in which each individual occupies a frame, but both seem on the verge of touching, expanding from a common center. The breath of the spray suggests diffusion and indefiniteness, creation and dissolution. The encounter between the individuals becomes a zone of passage and creation, an intermediate space where something communicates, transforms, or is born. Candiani speaks of these drawings as expressions of a cellular, entangled communication, approaching nebulae, like cosmic synapses.

The ink drawings are based on shallow roots, which are root systems that spread close to the soil surface, rather than developing in depth. These roots expand horizontally in search of water and nutrients in arid environments and shallow soils; they are networks that seek sustenance in scarcity.

Different fields of knowledge, such as biology, philosophy, and the arts, bring architecture closer to the superficial roots of neural networks. Structurally, these roots expand in multiple directions, forming interconnected networks similar to the synapses of the cognitive mesh.

Just as neurons exchange electrical impulses, roots communicate through chemical and bioelectrical signals with each other, and with fungi and bacteria in the soil. This subterranean network acts as an "ecological brain," perceiving and adapting the plant organism to its environment. Both the neural network and the superficial root system constitute rhizomatic life forms, based on entanglement: lateral expansions that construct meaning and continuity through connection.

Subterranean communication is also the central theme of the works Subterra: Roots, a circular video and a multi-channel soundscape that expand the perception of this living network. The video, circular like a hatch, presents a continuous flow of roots, fungi, and microorganisms in motion, in a gradual dive through the layers of soil. The soundscape, composed of low-frequency subsonic vibrations, creates an immersive atmosphere that evokes the inaudible hum of moving subterranean networks, like a resonance field where different materials communicate.

Also included in Subterra: Roots is a large double rhizotron, built specifically for the exhibition, in which corn plants grow. The device—a box with large glass windows where the plants develop—is used in scientific research to observe root growth and allows for continuous monitoring of what normally remains hidden in the soil.

In this work, the root system ceases to be merely a representation and presents itself as a living body in transformation. By integrating the plant growth process into the exhibition experience, Candiani brings science and sensitivity closer together, incorporating the time of subterranean movement that runs throughout the show. With the exhibition's long duration, the rhizotron will transform the landscape of the installation with each visit to Subterrânea.

The exhibition will be on display until December 19, 2025, and between January 12 and February 13, 2026.

Service
Exhibition | Tania Candiani: Underground
From November 13 to February 13, 2026
Monday to Friday from 10:19 to 11:17, Saturday from XNUMX:XNUMX to XNUMX:XNUMX