Page 87 - ARTE!Brasileiros #42

the subversion that the artist makes in the Haus der Kunst, iconic EXHIBITION SÃO PAULO | PAGES 28 TO 31
Munich’s neoclassical building made during the Nazi regime to shelter
the “real” art. Garaicoa creates a model that is an antithesis of the ANRI SALA AND GARAICOA:
original made of metal and translucent glass that is an antithesis
of the original, emptying the authoritarian logic of Hitler by using MUSIC IN A STATE
poetics starting from different urban frames, these are works that OF TRANSITORINESS
materials of modern architecture, including the Bauhaus. Operating

open an arch of possible relations between art and politics in the
contemporary dynamics that escapes from a short–sighted summon BOTH ARTISTS, BORNED IN COMMUNIST COWNTRIES, DIVE IN GREY
to activism. “I come from a country where we have always asked AREAS TO EMERGE UNDER BEAM OF LIGHT
for a precise political positioning, a definition that’s so obligatory
tends not to be a real answer. I’m interested in crafting ideas with a BY LEONOR AMARANTE
semantic density that not only comment local contexts, but that deals
with broader issues, including language itself. I may be completely MUSIC ATTRACTS other fields of art and involves the perception
wrong or in the right place, but it’s the risk of the art, “says. of written sounds, sonority, places of affection, territories. Even
Other major installations reveal unique aspects of Garaicoa’s recognizing different concepts throughout the work of Albanian
research, as his commitment to significant titles and the plight Anri Sala and Cuban Carlos Garaicoa, is remarkable that both take
of making and assembling works. Fin del Silencio (2010), the only ownership of music as territory, symbolic space created in occupation
exibition’work already seen here, put together on a dark ground relationship and feeling of belonging, in their exibitions in Sao Paulo:
a set of tapestries made from photographs of the sidewalks of Sala’s O Momento Presente, at Instituto Moreira Salles, and Garaicoa’s
Havana. Each rug contains a signature type, textual or graphic of Ser Urbano, at Espaço Cultural Porto Seguro. Both play poetically
pre-revolution commercial establishments that is modified by the in the daily life, put the music on the skin of the performances,
artist. A photo of La lucha, for example, becomes La lucha es de sometimes they dive in grey zones and, in others, emerge under
todos. Other pieces create words based on original typography the lbeam of light. Two migrants from communist countries. ANRI
or keep the photographic instant features-like the shadow of a Sala was born in Tirana and chose Berlin to live. Garaicoa is from
passerby and a post above the phrase El pensamiento. While walking Havana, where keeps a studio, in addition to another in Madrid.
around the room, the visitor is taken to a public space fanciful Each one, at their way, reflects on stay in the world as observers of
and subversive. In Partitura (2017), an orchestra is crafted from political-cultural-historical issues.
recordings of street musicians between Bilbao and Madrid. The work Ser Urbano, consisting of seven works, including installations, videos,
was sketched when Garaicoa lived almost a year in Rio de Janeiro in models and drawings, is curated by Rodolfo de Athayde and closes
2006. Each pedestal of the orchestra contains the execution of an a cycle when complete Partitura (2017). Developed over 10 years,
instrument in tablets with headphones, accompanied by imaginary features more than 70 street musicians in Madrid and Bilbao. Their
sheet musics. In the centre, the place of the conductor is replaced by meeting materializes an installation consisting of supports for sheet
screens that animate all the doodles and checkboxes that resonate music. In each support are attached tablets and headphones that
in all the composition. play these artists’s videos. The sheet music displays free drawings,
Is precious to note how space and time are extended by the Cuban created by Garaicoa, inspired by the melodies of these musicians.
artist both by long periods of production of a work as for his plastic Each support represents one of them and his different instruments
results. According to Athayde, Garaicoa methodology is quite specific. that may be strings, percussion, metal. Everything distributed like in a
“He is all the time generating ideas in a lot of notebooks that age Symphony Orchestra. In the center of the installation,what takes the
well over the years, gaining strength and maturity. In addition, there place of the Regent is a small stage with three screens with pictures
is an aspect of conceptual art, with a thoroughness that makes him of musicians performing on street corners cities, plus speakers.
face the marrow of the proposals “ As geographer Milton Santos used to say, street art, urban and
At age of 50 and with a consolidated path at the international public, naturally brings strong political charge, occupyng spaces off
panorama - he realizes the average of six exhibitions a year in institutionalized art field and when touches close the social realities.
different countries-, Garaicoa is also the founder of the artist Sailing in the opposite direction, Sala’s Momento Presente takes
residency Artista X Artista, where he can dive into the production audiences on “float” with video The Clash (2010) giving breath
of more young people and escape the central role that the market and oxygenation in the music/individual/territoriality relationship.
has in the current art system “ Historically, the way of making art is It borrows English punk band The Clash success’s Should I Stay
devoting time and today many young artists think first on business or Should I Go, and spread through the city, with explicit political
value of your work, which Gallery will speak for them or are striving and poetical dimensions. The lyrics develops into a field of strong
to create works overnight. When you become a professional artist questions and fragile answers, wanders between the question of
, you are no longer free, “comment. stay or leave and runs on different instruments such as hurdy-gurdy,
“ All I’ve done with what I gained in these years was to win more time music box , piano. In the video, a man carries a music box while a
for the creation “. At this point in the conversation, the curator adds: couple pushes, with difficulty, an hurdy-gurdy that plays slowly a
“Carlos is like an ice-breaking ship, which will opening gap for him same name music. They walk toward the Salle de Fêtes, in the Grand
and other artists overcome simplistic market relations and create Parc Bordeaux, French punk rock ex-catedral. Sala lists the territory
more complex thoughts” and the music from the memory of the place and, as defined by

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