Page 101 - ARTE!Brasileiros #45

final list were quite subjective. Pérez-Barreiro knew only two of them, Waltércio Regarding this global reading of the Biennial, I can not imagine. I’m very contaminated
Caldas and Alejandro Cesarco. The other five (Antonio Ballester Moreno; Claudia by what I know, but I’m very interested in this kind of public conclusion. I am very
Fontes, Mamma Anderson, Wura-Natasha Ogunji and Sofia Borges) were put in the curious about other point of views.
group for several qualities, as the solidity of their work and the capacity to bind You have chosen 12 artists. It is a set with a great diversity. I imagine it was
thoughts and other artistis’ works. on purpose?
The surprise effect is one of the great differentials of this edition of the show. In It was. Because at the beginning, when you put post-its on the wall, I told myself that
Firstly because the artist-curators practically did not interact and, for the most if it was very similar it would go a little against the spirit of the thing. And I wanted
part, they do not know what the fellows conceived. Secondly because they made a to challenge myself in the Biennial. I mean, do not bring a lot that I already knew. I
decision to talk very little about the show. In an unprecedented way, the complete had worked with few of this group before. Most are people who I had admired for
list of artists was not disclosed this year, the journalists did not have access to the a long time without ever knowing, like Vânia Mignone, for example.
Pavilion while it is in mounting and the syntheses presented both in the press and Did you care about the Brazilian presence in any way? In this group, the
in the official media are overly generic. Brazilian presence is somewhat larger.
Is there a big difference between what is planned and what is real? Yes. I have placed quotas on my choices of curators. Half a woman, half a man,
Look, we followed the path I was looking for, to embrace this open process, different different ages, one third Brazilian, one third Latin American, one third the rest of
of inviting the curators and giving them freedom to design an exhibition. Surprises the world. I mean, I did this exercise, but they had all freedom, so at one point I was
are welcome. They are part of the process. Even because there are many artists that even worried that I would have fewer Brazilians, so in my choices I prioritized this
I did not know. I think it is very positive to be facing a biennial that, in principle, is a bit. It’s annoying, but I know where I’m walking. There is an expectation about
not limited to my knowledge, which is always partial. I am working with the unknown this and I do not want to force the Brazilian to make a Brazilian representation.
and with trust in the curators. I think they all did a good job. We have already passed this historic moment. So in the end, I think it will be very
Unlike other dynamics of assistant curators, or fellow curators, they also do close to my original intention.
not know what the other is bringing... Does each of the curators choose an issue that is in some ways very present
I looked for this a bit. When you are seeing what your neighbor is doing, it affects in contemporary production and echoes with their own questions? Did you
you. It’s normal. And I wanted them to work a little without limits and without being talk about it?
intimidated or thinking that they should give an answer to what is happening next It was and was not. Each of them followed a different methodology. Another
door. We would risk a conversation, which was not the plan. secondary intention was to turn the Biennial into a curatorial class. Whoever looks
In other words, do you want the personality of each of the blocks reinforced with these eyes will see that there are seven different curatorial methodologies. I
and undiluted? find this interesting because we think of curatorship as one thing. Let’s try to put
Very reinforced. And, since I chose very different artists from each other, I did not two different examples: Waltércio chose the work, Wura chose the artist.
want them to stay or try to read the other. Their job is to build an exhibition. It is And the fact that curators are also artists? Has the dialogue differed?
building the world. I want everyone to do what they need to do, without interference I think so. Speaking the truth, I feel that each of them inspired me. This is an
from the general curator or other curators. And in fact that was so and it was exhibition I could never do. I think they outnumber the ability to articulate a vision.
intentional. We are not building a single exhibition. I am very moved by the result and I think we, professional curators, are accustomed
Do you think that the fact that you arrive at an exhibition knowing a bit or to dealing with a lot of strategic issues, thinking about which audience you will
nothing about it allows you greater access to work, or the other way around? attend doing this or that. The Biennial gives me the luxury of being surprised. This
It’s both. The Biennil has these two audiences. There is a much smaller audience, freedom to articulate interests was a beautiful surprise.
numerically, that is the very specialized one. In the first week, the great curators
of the world come, we talk in a very codified way. And then you have these other BIENNIALS SÃO PAULO | PAGES 20 TO 22
audience is a priority. Personally I think art is interesting when it runs away, it opens THE UTOPIA IS NOW
900 thousand people who do not necessarily have any information. For me this
other possibilities. The reading that the staff will have will not necessarily be mine BERLIN BIENNALE PUT INTO PRACTICE EQUALITY ACTIVITIES TO DENOUNCE
and I like it. I do not think my vision is so brilliant that everyone has to feel exactly EVILS OF CURRENT SYSTEM
what I feel. The challenge of our time is diversity. We still have a lot of difficulty
understanding this, diversity in subjectivity. FABIO CYPRIANO IN BERLIN
How can we deal with this diversity? In the education sector?
In the educator sector too. And in the curatorship. And in architecture. I think JUST AT THE ENTRANCE of the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin,
they have to walk together. Álvaro Razuk’s architectural design tries not to drive a photograph depicts the 14 most representative figures of the place, in a selection
people crazy. He was chosen because he did not put himself as an author. Each of its own employees. This is “Legendary”, by the brazilian Cinthia Marcelle, a series
core has a different architectural language. I think that in a tiresome building, of started in 2008, and that has already been made in Copan, Centro Cultural São
these dimensions, it is important to create variation in the physical experience, Paulo and Parque Lage in Rio.
leaving room to sit, talk. We are going to open a coffee shop on the second floor, Weird in the picture is the absence of the founder of the place, Klaus Biesenbach,
halfway down the road to take a break. The Biennial is creating a space to think. who just left his post as curator at MoMA in New York, to become Director of MOCA,
And I think architecture has to do with that. the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
It’s a bit difficult to come up with a synthesis, but the feeling is that it’s a slightly The image is a kind of reenactment of a picture made by Man Ray, in 1941, and that
more delicate, lowering Biennial. Is there no mention of any spectacular work? included Peggy Guggenheim, André Breton, Mondrian and Marcel Duchamp, a stellar
In the project there are areas that are very intense, of na almost unbearable density, team of modern art. Marcelle image presents, in a certain way, the backstages of
then you have rest. What doesn’t exist is the gesture for spectacle. There is no cultural institutions.
one in the room, for example. That’s because there isn’t a way to guarantee the The work fits perfectly in the Berlin Biennale’s10 edition, “We don’t need another
th
autonomy of the projects with a thing that crosses three floors - in a small phallic hero “, playing until September 9 in German capital. With the curatorship of the
gesture. Everyone would have to work with it. South African Gabi Ngcobo, who participated in the team of Jochen Volz in São

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