Marlon de Azambuja
Marlon de Azambuja (Brazil, b. 1978) explores the intersections of architecture, urban space, and systems of power, examining how physical, political, and cultural structures shape human experience. Working across sculpture, installation, drawing, photography, and intervention, he creates works that invite viewers to reconsider their relationship to the environments they inhabit.
Drawing on his experience as a migrant and on an understanding of the city as a living organism, Azambuja investigates the boundaries between architecture and nature, matter and perception. Materials such as cement, plants, dust, fire, and electricity frequently appear in his work, transformed into poetic and experiential forms that challenge conventional ways of seeing and navigating the world.
Recent solo exhibitions include Fundación at La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain (2026); Antares at AB Anbar, London, United Kingdom (2025); and Legado at Sagrada Mercancía, Santiago, Chile (2025). Recent group exhibitions include This Is a Shot at Fundação Serralves, Porto, Portugal (2025), and Par Quitter Chemin at Château La Coste, Aix-en-Provence, France (2025). His work has also been presented at major international events such as the Dhaka Art Summit (2020), FRONT International Triennial, Cleveland (2018), and the Havana, Cuenca, Mercosul, and Cairo Biennials.
Cold Hard Cash, 2014
Cement molds of dollar bills
Variable dimensions
Cold Hard Cash is a concrete replica of the exact volume occupied by one million U.S. dollars in one-hundred-dollar bills. Created in collaboration with his father, Orion de Azambuja, the work transforms an abstract financial value into a tangible physical form, giving weight and scale to a figure deeply embedded in the collective imagination.
By casting this symbolic sum in concrete, Azambuja draws attention to the relationship between value, materiality, and permanence. The work also reflects a shared fascination with molds and replication as ways of understanding the world, turning an object associated with aspiration and wealth into a sculptural artifact that speaks to both construction and memory.
Light, 2026
Concrete light bulb, electrical cord, and electricity.
Variable dimensions
Part of an ongoing body of work investigating what the artist describes as “invisible forces,” the Bombillas series consists of light bulbs connected to electricity that emit neither visible light nor perceptible energy. Deprived of their expected function, these objects occupy a space between presence and absence, activation and silence.
While no physical illumination is produced, the work operates on a symbolic level, suggesting energies, connections, and forms of transmission that remain beyond direct perception. In doing so, it invites reflection on the unseen systems and forces that shape our experience of the world.
Nocturna – Portal, 2025
Spray paint powder and natural leaves on aluminum
28 x 12 cm | 11.0 × 4.7 in
Part of the artist’s Nocturnas series, Nocturna – Portal draws on the experience of entering the jungle at night—a space where sounds, sensations, and intuitions reveal the presence of living beings that often remain unseen. Rather than depicting the landscape directly, the work evokes a state of heightened awareness, where perception extends beyond vision.
Its diamond-shaped format suggests the idea of a portal, transforming the image from a representation into an opening within the architecture itself. Positioned between presence and absence, visibility and imagination, the work invites viewers to cross into a space where the unknown becomes tangible and perception is guided as much by intuition as by sight.
