A Maravilha do Rio de Janeiro 2002
Single or multi-channel video projection, Betacam SP, variable duration, no sound.

In 2002, the Brazilian television network TV Globo conducted a state-wide television survey called A Maravilha do Rio. It asked the people of Rio de Janeiro to vote for what they believed to be the most beautiful of six iconic locations in Rio: the Lake, Guanabara Bay, Maracanã football stadium, Sugarloaf Mountain, the Beaches and the Christ the Redeemer statue. It represented these locations using dynamic aerial sequences shot from a helicopter.
Facilitated by TV Globo, A Maravilha do Rio de Janeiro shows each of the six locations in durational images that are shot from a helicopter with a camera housed on the front of its body locked rigidly in position looking ahead. In four of the continually shifting compositions, movement derives from the hovering helicopter, buffeted by air currents, manoeuvring to hold its position high in the air. In two shots the helicopter undertakes a single formal movement: rotating 360° as on a tripod, and tracking forward. Primarily engaging with televisual language, the work explores the position of the camera and so point of view, and can also be understood as a continuation of the survey.

Presented in Remote, the Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart, 3 - 23 June 2006. www.remoteexhibition.com ©Derek Hart 2009