Page 114 - ARTE!Brasileiros #45

ART BEYOND ART ENGLISH VERSION
BOOK POEMA/PROCESSO | PAGES 94 AND 95 CONVENTIONALLY BRINGS
THE VANGUARD THAT GAVE TO THE NECESSARY DEBATE
THE POEM OBJECT STATUS
EXHIBITIONS IN MASP AND ITO FEATURES MORE THAN 400 WORKS THAT DEPICT
RESEARCH PUTS LIGHT ON THE POETS AND ARTISTS OF THE 1967 POEMA / FROM THE PERIOD OF SLAVERY IN THE AMERICAS TO RESISTANCE MOVEMENTS
PROCESSO MOVEMENT OF RECENT DECADES

BY PATRICIA ROUSSEAUX BY FABIO CYPRIANO

GUSTAVO NÓBREGA, along the Galeria Superfície, where he is a founder, is BY “EXPOSING THE COLONIZED OR POST-COLONIAL WORLD’S ART,
responsible for the creation, research and editing of the book Poema/Processo, showing the work of marginalized or minorities, digging up forgotten or abandoned
published by Martins Fontes. “pasts “ – these curatorial projects ends up supporting the centrality of the western
Nóbrega is visual artist and comes from a family of art dealers. This led him, early on, museum,” says Homi Bhabha, in quote used by Adriano Pedrosa in the catalogue of
to have a narrow contact with the art. His look, however, was always aimed at artists “Afro-Atlantic Stories”, at Tomie Ohtake Institute (Ito) and the Museu de Arte de São
who had a more poetic job or others that use the word in the image. He works in this Paulo (Masp) until 21 October.
respect sometimes in research,other times in the exhibitions that he decides to set up The question is essential when museums all over the world seeks to enlarge their
at the gallery. It was so with Leonílson, with Mira Schendel, and now, in the exibition audiences by talking with communities until now so far way and with no presence in the
that was just presented. This focus led him to embrace an important research on the daily lives of these institutions. However, how is it possible to approach these audiences
artists who were part of the history of visual poetry in Brazil. using a museological language that belongs to a tradition that has been neglected
“One day I saw an article in an international journal about the poem-process. I found and, why not say, even denied to these communities? Is it possible an effective change
it fascinating. And I thought: ‘ how is that Brazil does not know this? ‘. I went after and, in the museums’s inclusion policies without actually reviewing their own practices?
from there, one thing led to another. Wlademir Dias-Pino, Neide Sá. I discovered the “Afro-Atlantic Stories”, organized by five curators, is superlative in numbers – more
world of the artists who participated in the different processes and established several than 400 works, eight modules, occupying almost all of two institutions – but little
conversations with them. That was the biggest source of research”, says Nóbrega. bold when it comes to thinking about how to deal with a theme more than necessary
The book maps the 1st National Exhibition of Concrete Art, opened at the Museum of without use the same conventional exhibition devices.
Modern Art of São Paulo, in 1956, with the participation of several painters, sculptors and Adriano Pedrosa’s Masp has been characterized by render a series of homages to
poets. Today, names enshrined as Augusto de Campos, Décio Pignatari, Ferreira Gullar, Lina Bo Bardi (1914-1992), the most innovative figure when it comes to rethinking the
Haroldo de Campos, Ronaldo Azevedo, Waldemar Cordeiro and Wlademir Dias-Pino. museum, but has been unable to propose new models in the 21th century. The need
In 1959, Ferreira Gullar signed the Manifesto Neo Concreto, along with Amílcar and urgency of the issue of “Afro-Atlantic Stories” is undeniable, especially in a country
de Castro, Franz Weissmann, Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape, Reynaldo Jardim and Theon with majority black, with this population represented at all levels of power, especially
Spanudis. Some of them had founded the Grupo Frente in Rio, and others the the arts. So the famous banner “ Where Are the Blacks? “, of the collective February 3,
Grupo Ruptura in Sao Paulo.
Shortly after born, in Natal, other group, the Grupo Dés, whose manifesto entitled that at the opening of the show was exposed in the Ito, and in July, at Masp, becomes
“For a Revolutionary, Formal and Thematic Poetry” was signed by Anchieta Fernandes, a question more than eloquent. Anyway, in the circles of power of both institutions,
Dailor Varela, Fernando Pimenta, Jarbas Martins, João Charlier, Juliano Siqueirta, where are the blacks? Among the five curators - Pedrosa, Ayrson Heráclito, Hélio
Ribamar Gurgel and Moacy Cirne. Menezes, Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Tomás Toledo - they are the minority, but at least
Based on the creative productions of these groups, the artists saw the need to are present. However, at the council, at the direction of the museum, on permanent
differentiate poetry of poem. “Poetry was taken as an abstract concept, while the poem curatorship, the matter becomes pertinent but inconclusive.
was seen in its tactile aspect, material, which can be manipulated”, says Nóbrega on There is no doubt that the research is extensive and the exhibition covers a
the book’s presentation. The poem won object of status. Thus, poems were produced comprehensive compilation of works from the immense paintings by Albert Eckout
to be shredded, burned, tasted. (1610-1665) portraying a couple of slaves, in 1641, one of the first images produced in
Poem/process movement, in 1967, emerged parallel to the Tropicália, in an age where any America, until works commissioned for the show. However, the procedure that has
creative break collaborated with the idea of rupture with the institutional communication been adopted in the exhibitions of the Masp, to group together wors by thematic, in
of the dictatorship. Founded by Wlademir Dias-Pino, Neide Sá, Álvaro de Sá, among modules like Rites and Rhythms, where there’s an exhaustion of paintings depicting
others, the group reached more than 70 Brazilian artists and poets participants and afro celebrations and ceremonies, simplifies too much the works, besides they turn
even an Uruguayan, Clemente Padin, and an Argentine, Edgardo Antonio Vigo. them into illustrations of a concept
The group worked with the idea of process, using the language as a vehicle. From Of the eight modules of the exposure, the more vibrant, either for its thematic content,
there, they built various versions which amounted for different styles, which allowed as for its expositive way, is Resistance and Activism, curated by Menezes and Schwarcz.
a depersonalization of work. In it, the emphasis is on representations that point to black empowerment, either
The book, which has an original critical text by the critic Frederico Morais written for through African religions in images of Pierre Verger, as in the Black Panthers, in photo
the newspaper Diário de Minas, in 1957, when he was only 21 years, entitled “Poetry attributed to Blair Stapp. Among the highlights is the painting “Black Mother or The Fury
in the Visual Arts”, brings to light one of the Brazilian historical vanguards of the of Iansã”, by Sidney Amaral, early dead last year. There’s not a purely formal grouping
contemporary art. togheter here, as occurs in the Masp modules, but a meeting of intense dialogue.
(Poema/Processo: uma vanguarda semiológica, 320 pages, WMF Martins Fontes, R$ 120) “Afro-Atlantic Stories” is a kind of continuation to “Half-breed Stories”, held in the
same Ito four years ago, organized by Pedrosa and Schwarcz, independent curators at
CRITIQUE EXHIBITION | PAGE 96 the time. Now, both participating in an institution the size of the Masp, it was expected
AFRO-ATLANTIC STORIES that the show wasn’t just in a review of the history of art, but in new attitudes inside
the isuseum. The question does not seems answered with the exhibition.

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