"Neto: Leviathan Thot" (Ernesto Neto: Leviathan Thot) was held at the Panthéon from September 15 to December 31. It was an invited special exhibition for the visual arts of the 35th Autumn Festival in Paris in 2006. Ernesto Neto (born 1964) is currently one of Brazil's most representative artists, specializing in environmental installations and sculpture. He constructs forms based on space using uniquely soft, semi-transparent materials resembling leather (fabric from women's pantyhose), exploring the body, taste, space and time, matter and spirit, reality and imagination.
The exhibition theme "Leviathan" refers to a sea monster in Phoenician mythology from the Bible; people are ignorant of its form, or it becomes a symbol of paganism. "Thot" is the Egyptian god of wisdom, embodied like the head of a white ibis. He is seen as the thrice-great Hermes of Greco-Roman times (an honorific title given by ancient Greeks to Thoth, the Egyptian god of the moon, writing, and wisdom), representing the values of writing, language, and civilization.
This dramatic monumental installation sculpture, under this dual and unlikely proposition, sees Neto constructing the purest form of his extraordinary, imaginative giant monster within the magnificent Panthéon. This amorphous, organic white creature fills the cross-shaped hall space, centered around the middle dome, with organic forms extending and spreading in four directions. Soft, semi-transparent fabric filled with white polystyrene (bumpy like tumors of various sizes) hangs suspended in mid-air. Some (heavier ones filled with white sand) drape down to the ground, creating a very dramatic effect akin to indescribable monster limbs, full of ineffable magic. Especially surrounded by commemorative statues of French celebrities and historical murals, it constitutes a unique, surreal theatrical world.
