The process up to the current outcome began when Culture director of the Rio Olympics Carla Camurati was struck by Varejão’s installation Celacanto Provoca Maremoto (2004–2008) at the esteemed Brazilian museum Centro de Arte Contemporânea Inhotim in Minas Gerais, and realized its imagery and themes were a natural fit for the aquatics venue.
For the mural at Inhotim she created an abstract ocean scene by mixing tiles from different compositions. The artist said the title of the work, Celacanto Provoca Maremoto, translates to “coelacanth causes a seaquake.” The coelacanth is a very rare species of fish, thought to be extinct until modern times.
The work is part of Varejão’s ongoing explorations into the traditions of azulejos, hand-painted tiles in Brazil that trace back to when the Portuguese imported Baroque tiles, which were inspired by the cobalt-blue ceramics that Europeans encountered in China. For decades, Varejão has been creating paintings and installations that investigate this history, often mimicking cracked, broken tiles, which not only reference the Brazilian tradition, but also Chinese Song dynasty ceramics.
For the Olympics, Varejão has reconfigured the work to fit the stadium; the tiles were photographed, enlarged, and printed on plastic canvas, which will be draped across the exterior walls.
Description of project by gmp Architekten
A temporary 18,000 seat arena was created for hosting the Olympics and Paralympics swimming and aquactics polo competitions. The temporary building structures of stands and roof, conceived for later reutilization, were designed to allow simple disassembling, transportation and later assembling operation.
The roof is comprised by identical steel trusses that longitudinally cross the 100 m span and valley cables that grant to the PVC membrane the required shape and structural stability. The façade made out of steel vertically disposed tubes form an harmonic arrangement with the roof, granting to the arena a high architectural and engineering standard, compatible to an Olympic venue.