Corpos Presentes – Still Being is the first major solo exhibition by British artist Antony Gormley to be held in Brazil. It will include four sculptural installations alongside a number of other works and models and will open at the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (CCBB) in São Paulo in May 2012, before travelling on to the CCBB galleries in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Brasília throughout 2012 and early 2013.

Brazil has long served as inspiration and raw material for the artist’s development. Twenty years ago, in his first passage though the country for the ECO 92 conference, Gormley created “Amazonian Field” – an expansive, sculptural installation of 24,000 terracotta figures, hand-made with the help of over 100 residents of Porto Velho, Rondônia in the West of Brazil. This is the first time that the work will have returned to Brazil.

This exhibition demonstrates the breadth and variety of the artist’s practice, including works such as “Critical Mass II”, which comprises sixty, 630kg cast iron body forms suspended and fallen; “Loss”, a human figure constructed of hovering blocks of stainless steel; “Mother’s Pride”, in which the artist has eaten out his own body shape from slices of industrially-produced bread that are fixed to the wall; and “Breathing Room” an immersive environment of luminous space frames.

In São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the artist will also present his iconic work “Event Horizon”, comprising 31 life-size body forms of the artist cast in iron and fibreglass. The figures will be positioned throughout the city landscapes, occupying rooftops and pavements and engaging the viewer in a visual assessment of the inner city.

Gormley says of his work: ‘I question the notion that retinal response is the only channel of communication in art, and the notion that objects are discrete entities. I want the work to activate the space around it and engender a psycho-physical response, allowing those in its field of influence to be more aware of their bodies and surroundings’.

Corpos Presentes – Still Being is sponsored by Banco do Brasil, with additional support from the Ministry of Culture, Brazil, the British Council, and White Cube, London. The exhibition will also form part of the British Council’s ‘Transform’ festival which aims to build a powerful, comprehensive and enduring cultural partnership between Brazil and the UK through an innovative four year programme.