Page 92 - ARTE!Brasileiros #42

ICONOGRAPHY & INSUBORDINATION ENGLISH VERSION

Rootl . In this way, I wonder if the MoMA, with this exhibition Tarsila’s the Tate Modern in London, the largest exhibition space in the art
work, wouldn’t be consuming our culture as a cannibal. world, Christiansen’s been collecting stories of how friends and
Mario de Andrade played a key role in the process of legitimation of acquaintances relate with the work. The installation is completed
his work. He basically indicated through letters which paths it should with an immense carpet of cork, in colors from British pound bills,
follow, he argued that it was necessary to keep the figure, hold the and a huge pendulum, which hangs above the set, as if the power
elements of the Brazilianness as an affirmation of BrazilianAart of the swings is what move it.
outside Brazil, and his concern in print a national identity in Brazilian “In General, we don’t work with symbolism, but to occupy a space
artistic production remains to this day, resounding a declaration so large, there was no way,” explains the Danish, justifying why the
made by Tarsila, in 1923: “I want to be a painter of my country”. pendulum has an individual machine that move it. However, even if
Another factor of legitimacy ever used with Tarsila is mentioning her at the symbolic field, he argues that there is in fact a creative energy
m training in Europe, at the Académie Julian in Paris, with names like that is created by who participates in the work: “That place was a
André Lhote, Albert Gleizes and mainly Fernand Léger, in particular, center of production of energy, and putting so many people together,
always pointed as Tarsila master, included even in the exhibition moving actively, we believe to be a way to transform relationships
catalog, at MoMA. However, Tarsila, in the same interview to Veja and therefore the world. “
magazine, said the opposite: “I was very fond of his work, I was his In addition to the occupation inside Turbine Hall, Superflex installed
friend, but I didn’t attend to the atelier of Léger, I was a friend of his several groups of swings in areas outside the Tate, which even in the
wife too, then was also invented that he has designed earrings for intense cold of English winter was used by children, last February.
me, etc. etc, imagine! I’ve inspired my self in São Paulo, in industrial
society and that, what I did, was a novelty at the time, in Brazil. “ SUBVERSIVES
In this sense, gains it’s strenght the idea that the Brazilian modernism Superflex works are known by the political and subversive voltage in
must be understood from it’s own history and from an independent art world. In 2002, when the imigrants issue was far from reaching the
perspective, that takes into account the multiple actors and factors voltage represented today, they created the campaign “Foreigners,
that have configured, running from totalizers and reductionists please don’t leave us alone with the Danes”, spreading posters by
narratives. This discussion must be expanded and updated to Denmark in favour of cultural diversity.
understand how reading the work of Tarsila do Amaral and the
Brazilian modernism may have changed over the course of nearly They also have flooded a McDonald’s store, in this case symbolically,
a century. But will the MoMA’s approach along the story updates with the video Flooded McDonald’s, in 2009. However, their work
itself? So, what actually means the Tarsila at MoMA today? more famous around here was the Guaraná Power, created in 2003,
with maués farmers on Amazon, against the monopoly of large
MoMA Museum of Modern Art (New York) corporations who holds the rights of use of the word. Guarana Power
Tarsila do Amaral: Inventing Modern Art in Brazil circled all around the world, starting with the Venice Biennale, in
Until June 3, 2018 the Utopia Station, organized by Molly Nesbit, Hans Ulrich Obrist
and Rirkrit Tiravanija, in 2003. In the Bienal de São Paulo, in 2008,
the work was banned by the presidency of the institution, but was
EXHIBITION INTERNATIONAL | PAGES54 TO 57 distributed in city’s museums and galleries.
SUPERFLEX TRANSFORMS With One Two Three Swing! playing until April 2, Superflex created a
space of interaction to the public of a museum like Tate that merges
TATE MODERN entertainment and new ways of artistic thinking. Michael Glover,
The Independent art critic, called the proposal infantilisation, but
IN PLAYGROUND not in a pejorative way,because artists are at heart children”, as he
wrote in his article.
For Brazilians, this form of interaction is far from surprising, after all
DANISH TRIO SPREADS SWINGS IN THE TURBINE HALL THAT CAN ONLY since Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Clark, as his propositions of the 60’s
BE USED COLLECTIVELY and 70’s, the function of art is actually create new possibilities of
perception of the world and the other.
BY FABIO CYPRIANO, IN LONDON AND COPENHAGEN This reference is not unknown to the Superflex, but Christiansen
points at Sesc Pompeia, created by Lina Bo Bardi, an architecture
A CURATOR STARTS A COUPLES THERAPY after visit, with his which in fact was an inspiration to the group. “We would love to have
wife, the gigantic work One Two Three Swing! of the Danish group this work hung at Lina’s Sesc, it is a reference so striking that is in the
Superflex, composed by Bjornstjerne Christiansen, Rasmus Nielsen room where we present everything that involved the project,” he said.
and Jakob Fenger. In a total of 22 sets of swings connected by an Since the opening of Tate Modern in 2000, artists have been
orange-coloured tube, the installation cannot be used individually, commissioned to occupy, once a year, the space of 26 metres height
but only by doubles or threes, as there is no seating for one person. with 155 metres of extention by 23 m width. The Louise Bourgeois
“He told me that when he was with his wife on the swing and realized inaugurate the Turbine Hall, installing there three towers and the
that they could not even move together, it was time to review their largest of the “Mamam” spiders ever produced.
life”, said Christiansen, in Superflex’s Office in Copenhagen, Denmark. Since then, artists such as Philippe Parreno, in 2016, Dominique
Since it was installed in October last year, in the Turbine Hall of Gonzalez Foerster, in 2008, Doris Salcedo, in 2007, Carsten Holler,

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