Joana Vasconcelos presents at Manchester Art Gallery (MAG) her most ambitious and important exhibition ever realised in the UK. Time Machine brings together 24 works, in its majority conceived for the show in Manchester, in which is highlighted the monumental site-specific installation that will occupy the three-storey glass atrium area.

The exhibition circuit offers to the public four different approaches. The exterior is marked by the presence of two works on the wings of the building (Nicholas Street and Princess Street). Inside MAG the show proposes three different experiences: site-specific intervention; dialogue with the collections; and presentation in areas dedicated to temporary exhibitions. Far from the art that hides itself from the quotidian and demonizes it, Joana Vasconcelos’s work takes inspiration from the excesses, contradictions and ambiguities of life and dialogues in an open and defying manner with different times. Past, present and future manifest with unique substratum in the artist’s works and amplify the signification levels when they interact with the space, particularly when the locations carry a dense memory and rich visual and architectural qualities.

Joana Vasconcelos has already demonstrated that the space is an integral part of her work, and that both her work and the space acquire new nuances when they come together. If the work receives extra signification via its presence in a space, it is equally true that it reciprocates generously, informing the place with concepts that transgress the crystalized framework of everyday life, resulting from the ingenious dislocation operations that serve Vasconcelos’ work.

The Time Machine exhibition presented in 2014 at the Manchester Art Gallery (MAG), under Maria Balshaw’s direction.