Ão
1981
16mm black-and-white film projection in 45’ loop, 12 rollers and soundtrack (fragments of the song Night and Day sung by Frank Sinatra)
The film-installation Ão (1981) was first exhibited in the 16th São Paulo Bienal. In it, Tunga projects the moving image of a curve inside the Dois Irmãos tunnel (currently named Zuzu Angel), in Rio de Janeiro, on a large scale. Edited in loop, the image leads us to believe we are awkwardly walking in circles inside the tunnel, without means of going out.
Repeating a fragment of Frank Sinatra’s rendition of Night and Day, the soundtrack collaborates with this expansion of space-time, a continuous cycle. The physical presentation of the work restates the circular thinking: the analog film continuously passes through a circuit of circularly disposed suspended rollers before passing by the lens of the projector and having its photograms revealed on the wall.