Page 88 - ARTE!Brasileiros #46

THE PLACE OF ART ENGLISH VERSION
of black, Latin artists and women artists. This desire reveals in some way the force thong. These transpositions of my imagination created a particular image of the
of the claims of movements that fight against the erasure of the artistic production Amazon while I was reading Butler’s trilogy.
made by these social groups. A!B: How did your gaze turn to the Amazon?
The Brazilian galleries reported some success in their sales. Among the 14 Brazilian The rainforest of the Amazon is repeated in my work as a particularly rich place
artists, Nara Roesler Gallery, based in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and New York, sold to investigate the implications of commodity chains of global capitalism and thus
works by artists such as Vik Muniz, Tomie Ohtake, Julio LeParc and Artur Lescher. a perpetuation of the colonial forces represented in the environment, cultures
Bergamin & Gomide negotiated works by Ivan Serpa and Leonílson. and peoples of the region. But the Amazon is the repressed side of the narratives
The two are the only houses in Brazil that also participate in the edition of the of Brazilian modernity that portray the capital of Brazil ahead and in the center.
fair in Hong Kong, from March 29th to 31st. Nara Roesler will present works by Growing up in Brasilia instigated my interest in counter-narratives about the built
some of the successful artists in Miami Beach, but also includes works by Xavier environment, and grounded earlier work on the Amazon, which focused on the
Veilhan, Hélio Oiticica and José Patrício. Bergamin & Gomide will invest in works by legacy of extractive industries (incursions) and their architectural shifts in the
Jac Leirner, Rivane Neuenschwander, Jim Hodges, Lorenzato and Mira Schendel. forest, such as the Ford Company villages Fordlandia and Belterra.
Participating in the Discoveries sector with the Commonwealth and Council gallery
in Los Angeles, Brazilian Clarissa Tossin, represented in Brazil by Galeria Luisa A!B: What is the connection of your work with the thoughts of the great nations
Strina, will present some works she has developed recently. Starting from ideas about the environment today?
raised by the writer Octavia E. Butler in the triology Xenogenesis (1989), Tossin The works of Art Basel HK address the brand left by the consumer society in
brings to light “a post-apocalyptic materiality” that involves the ecological issues Earth’s geological sedimentation as an alert for a collective behavioral change
of the planet, considering “the aesthetic traditions of the native people of the that recognizes that humans are part of nature and that we must work against
Amazon in relation to the culture contemporary commodity. “ Also noteworthy the passivity that surrounds this issue.
for Argentine-born artist Rirkrit Tiravanija, will be exhibiting an untitled work of I believe part of this space obsession comes from our anxiety about the potentially
2018, made of gold leaf written in Chinese characters, which can be translated as catastrophic results of global warming on Earth, and the other part is just the
"We are dreaming under the same sky", pasted in a newspaper. The event in Hong culture of fear at stake to justify the creation of an interplanetary industry that
Kong will feature 242 galleries from 35 countries. In a move that also demonstrates can eventually use money and public resources. Art Basel HK’s work focuses on the
some of this regionalization of the fair’s editions, the Kabinnet sector will focus on space race for Mars as an illusory way of addressing current environmental issues.
artists from Asia, featuring both well-established and emerging artists. They will
be, in all, 21 conceptual expositions in a limited space and with special curation
within the stands. Highlights for Simon Starling at The Modern Institute and Joan FAIRS SP-ARTE | PAGES 32 TO 35
In the Film sector, multimedia artist and film producer Li Zhenhua has separated NEW AIRS AT SP-ARTE
Miró at Lelong Gallery.
27 film and video works that address the current socio-political context, including
works that have been shown at major festivals such as Lou Ye’s Spring Fever, which THE CURATORS ALEXIA TALA, MARCOS GALLON AND TIAGO MESQUITA
won the award for Best Screenplay at Cannes in 2009 and Jia Zhangke’s Dong, TALK ABOUT THEIR PROPOSALS FOR THE FAIR THIS YEAR
screened at the Venice International Film Festival and the Toronto International BY THE EDITORS
Film Festival in 2006. In Conversations, the highlight is the conversation between BETWEEN APRIL 3 AND 7, the Biennial Pavilion, in Ibirapuera Park, will be home to the
several curators who produced exhibitions based on Asian geography “ discussing São Paulo Art Festival (SP-Arte) again. Celebrating the 15th edition, the fair will
the format of exposure as a way to make maps that seek new understandings, have its art sectors led by new curators. In addition, there will be 165 exhibitors in
perspectives and dis / connections in a region composed of many regions. “ total: 121 Art galleries, and 44 Design and inaugurates the OpenSpace sector, which
takes sculptures to the outside of the building, curated by Cauê Alves.
THE BRAZILIAN CLARISSA TOSSIN is one of the highlights of the Discoveries sector of When invited to the curatorship of the Solo sector, the Chilean Alexia Tala
Art Basel Hong Kong, being represented by the gallery Commonwealth and Council, immediately thought of a phrase that was said to her by Aracy Amaral a few
based in Los Angeles, she introduces a new line of work. In 2018, Tossin had already years ago: that Brazil was with its back to Latin America. What she wanted to say
exhibited in the Asian city, invited to display the video work Ch’u Mayaa (2017) at was that the country was always focused on Europe and the United States, without
the Emerald City show at the K11 Art Foundation. creating ties with the very continent of which it is a part. That is why, says Alexia,
The artist spoke to ARTE!Brasileiros about the work she presents at ABHK 2019: who offered as a proposal to Fernanda Feitosa, director of the institution, “use
A!B: How did Octavia Butler’s book inspire you in these works for Basel Art HK? the fair, specifically the projects in Solo, as a platform to open ourselves to look
Clarissa Tossin: The works presented at Art Basel Hong Kong are part of a larger at themselves, understanding that Brazil is so much part of Latin America like the
work that emerged from my interest in the use of indigenous Amazonian traditions rest”, says the curator to ARTE! Brasileiros.
by Octavia E. Butler in her science fiction trilogy Xenogenesis (1987-89), where the The thought led her to a work in the series Profecias, by Randolpho Lamonier,
Amazon became makes the site for a new civilization of human-alien hybrids, the an artist who will be present at the show in the sector, in which it is predicted
Oankali, after the Earth’s self-inflicted ecological collapse. I love the Ooloi figure that by 2050 everyone will discover that Brazil is Latin America. Alexia, who is
in the Butler series, they are the third indeterminate sex of Oankali who, in my also working on curating the Bienal de Arte Paiz in Guatemala, has been putting
opinion, incorporate certain characteristics of a native shaman, given their ability together ideas and shaping her desire to form a curatorial structure that speaks
to store all the genetic information they acquire inside their bodies by ingestion of of territory through postcolonial theories: “I have been selecting artists since the
samples. The fact that Ooloi “ingests” samples of our living world to understand territorial contextual perspective of Latin America How do we see ourselves? “”
/ decode it provides a connection to Anthropophagy, about cannibalizing culture How many different identities were created, and what became fictitious? “These
as a survival strategy. I do not think the Anthropophagic Manifesto was one of were the first questions that made me think about colonial ideology”, she explains.
Butler’s references but it was one of the links I made. I was also interested in the In this perspective, the curator of SOLO takes to SP-Arte Rafael Pagatini (Brazil, OÁ),
fact that the protagonist of the trilogy, Lilith, incorporate characteristics of an Maria Edwards (Chile, Patricia Ready), Ayrson Heráclito (Brazil, Portas Vilaseca),
Amazon warrior (Icamiabas!). He could not stop thinking of her in a marajoara Nicole Franchy (Peru, IK Projects), Feliciano Centurión Argentina, Walden), Manata

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