Page 110 - ARTE!Brasileiros #40

EXCLUSION, ART AND THE PLACE OF SPEECH ENGLISH VERSION

strong social awareness and distant from the idea of a tropical of his militant political trajectory, are told in a mural with photos
and exuberant Brazil. Another portion of exhibition highlights and texts. Presented there are left-wing magazines and periodicals
painters whom the critic considered avant-garde and detached he founded or directed—Revista Proletária (Proletarian Magazine,
from specific schools or movements, with rather personal interests 1926), A Luta de Classe (The Class Struggle, 1930), O Homem
and impulses: José Pancetti with his coastal landscapes; Ishmael Livre (The Free Man, 1932) and Vanguarda Socialista (Socialist
Nery and his surrealistic and sensuous experiments; Alfredo Vanguard, 1945)—not to mention his participation in the founding
Volpi and his “bandeirinhas” (little flags) and geometric houses; of the Partido dos Trabalhadores [Worker’s Party] in 1980, one
and Djanira with her portraits of the Brazilian cultural diversity. year before his death. One of the last records of the critic while
living, a photo with Lula, is displayed on the show.
ARCHITECTURE AND THE POSTMODERN “We begin the exhibition with a classic chronology, because if you
No less important is to talk about Pedrosa’s contribution to the don’t understand Mario’s life you will hardly understand his ideas.
architectural criticism in Brazil. Even with a small production, He was born in 1900, crossed the 20th century, lived in several
published in newspapers, periodicals or catalogs over a relatively places, had an intense political life. And this is difficult to represent
short period—notably in the 1950s, the time in which Brasília was in an exhibition with no texts,” Barreiro explains. “And we try to
designed and built—the author had a great influence on that scene, introduce him to an audience that does not know him,” ponders
which persists to this day. the curator, celebrating the growing visibility Latin American art
As the critic Guilherme Wisnik wrote, this occurred basically is gaining in Europe. “We are at a moment when it is no longer
“because Pedrosa was able to interpret better than anyone the necessary to make ‘A Century of Brazilian Art’ type of exhibition,
revolutionary character of that architecture, which was born, those very general events that were common until the 1990s. Today
however, in a contradictory social and political environment.” The we can trace a more specific route, talk about such a unique and
conservative environment to which he refers, aggravated by the interesting character as Mário Pedrosa,” he concludes.
establishment of Estado Novo [New State] in 1937, held modern
architecture as a sort of counterpoint, an antithesis. Pedrosa 1 | RECORD, MADE IN 1969, OF MARIO PEDROSA AT THE ITALIAN ARTIST ALBERTO
speaks, Wisnik claims, of an architecture created with the purpose MAGNELLI’S HOME. BELOW, A WORK THAT IS PART OF THE SERIES BICHOS, BY LYGIA
of “putting at the service of man the benefits of mass production”. CLARK
In the exhibition, these essential ideas from Pedrosa are tackled in
a room dedicated to the design and construction of Brasilia, with 2 | FROM LEFT TO RIGHT, NEXT TO THE PABLO PICASSO’S GUERNICA, EXHIBITED IN
photos and videos of characters such as Thomas Farkas, Marcel THE SECOND EDITION OF THE 1953 SÃO PAULO BIENNIAL; MÁRIO PEDROSA IN HIS
Gautherot, Peter Scheier, Joaquim Pedro de Andrade and Vladimir APARTMENT IN RIO, IN 1959; THE CRITIC WITH THE ARTIST ALEXANDER CALDER
Carvalho. The critic was a major enthusiast of the creation of the
new capital and of the utopia represented by Lucio Costa’s and 3 | VIEW OF THE EXHIBITION AT THE MUSEUM REINA SOFÍA
Oscar Niemeyer’s project. It was in this context that the author
wrote that Brazil was “condemned to be modern,” and Brasilia Mario Pedrosa: De la Naturaleza Afectiva de la Forma
certainly fitted this construction of the future. Through 10/16
Even though he had doubts regarding the political project, he saw Museu Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
in the new capital “the possibility that it might serve as a conduit Calle de Santa Isabel, 52, 28012 Madrid, Spain
for a new, organic civilizing process,” Wisnik writes. Pedrosa even
organized a major event to discuss Brasília, the 1959 Extraordinary EXHIBITION SÃO PAULO | PAGES 46 TO 52
International Congress of Art Critics, with the title “The new city:
THE CONTRADICTIONS OF
synthesis of the arts.”
The belief in modernity was followed by a more obscure and SÃO PAULO IN EXHIBITION
DICTATORSHIP AND EXILE
hopeless period for Pedrosa—and for Brazil—with the 1964 military
coup and the establishment of the dictatorship in the country. In AT SESC 24 DE MAIO
1970, when his preventive detention was determined as a result
of intense political militancy, Pedrosa left for exile in Chile, then REFERENCE WORKS, HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS, AND QUESTION ON
ruled by the socialist Salvador Allende. It was in this context that THE EXCLUDING CHARACTER OF THE CITY COMBINE IN A MAJOR
38 artists, including Picasso, Calder, Max Bill, Edouard Pignon and
Henry Moore published an open letter repudiating the persecution EXHIBITION
suffered by Pedrosa, blaming President Médici for any damage to
the critic’s physical and psychological well-being. BY MARIA HIRZMAN PHOTO HÉLIO CAMPOS MELLO
Regarding this period, the last room of the exhibition features
works by Oiticica, Rubens Gerchman, Antonio Dias and Darcílio NOTHING MORE ADEQUATE than to dedicate Sesc 24 de Maio’s
Lima produced as of 1960; works that deeply question the modern opening exhibition to São Paulo. After all, the creation of a new
utopia, either by criticizing consumerism—inspired by pop art—or and powerful cultural institution in the heart of the city not only
by approaching a universe of sex, drugs and psychedelia. contributes to revitalize the problematic downtown area, but also
In Chile, Pedrosa was one of the most active participants in the serves as a shelter for an extremely fragile cultural production
creation of Museo de la Solidariedad, an institution that brought due to the lack of public policies.
together works donated by artists in support Allende’s Popular The new building, which recuperated the former facilities of the
Unity alliance. Works by Joan Miró, Frans Krajcberg, Antoni Mesbla store, gives visibility to the permanent crises that criss-
Tàpies, Lygia Clark, Sérgio Camargo and many others came from cross São Paulo in its different historical periods. Instability and
various parts of the globe, what Pedrosa called a “supra-party precariousness are unavoidable terms to discuss the metropolis,
and supranational display of generosity.” and are central in the show designed by Paulo Herkenhoff and
The critic’s involvement with the Chilean museum, just as much Leno Veras, invited by Sesc. Instead of attempting a visual recount

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