Page 92 - ARTE!Brasileiros #46

THE PLACE OF ART ENGLISH VERSION
remember the impression I had on the artist’s early works, which I EXHIBITION SÃO PAULO | PAGES 54 TO 58
angry and definitive seam takes on the space of decorum and modesty A GARDEN OF CODES
saw, especially the series Bastidores/Backstage (1997), in which an
(white, feminine and bourgeois) blind black women. Or the monotypes
Proteção extrema contra a dor e o sofrimento/Extreme protection THE DUO DETANICO LAIN PRESENTS ITS SECOND INDIVIDUAL IN AN
against pain and suffering (2011), in which sewing lines fall from the INSTITUTION IN BRAZIL AND SHOW ITS RELATION WITH THE LANGUAGE
eyes of a naked woman figure to make up something that looks like a
fragile protective coverup, but also a tangle that limits and imprisons. BY JAMYLE RKAIN
This last series was chosen by the artist and curator Daniel Lima to
integrate the exhibition Agora somos todxs negrxs?, that composed the IT IS LIMITING TO ATTRIBUTE TO THE PAIR Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain separately a
program at Galpão Videobrasil in 2017. The show also included Tecido formation when speaking in its artistic production. It is truer to say that both are
Social/Social Fabric, ironic title engraving in which Paulino joins images linguists, graphic designers, typographers, and semiologists. And, of course, artists.
with sloppy sutures and forced seams to challenge ideas of peaceful After all, for more than 20 years together, since they migrated for the first time,
sociability and national unity. In order to challenge the perpetuation from Rio Grande do Sul to São Paulo, everything that was learned was shared. So
of the myth of Brazilian racial cordiality, even in the midst of art, Lima much so that it is admirable even to complete the other in a precise way when a word
brought together a generation that proposes to deconstruct what he escapes reasoning, although words can hardly escape the duo that dominates it.
describes as the “triple trauma of colonization (extermination of native “A big part of our production is the creation of typographies, of writing systems, we
populations, slavery and religious persecution) of the micropolitical are very interested in the codes, the alphabets from different places in the world”,
power of art”. says Angela. The show at Espaço Cultural Porto Seguro, in São Paulo, which extends
These past experiences with the artist’s work did not prepare me for until April 7, gives the dimension of this in the work of the duo.
the impact I felt when I went through the Rosana Paulino’s exhibition: Now married and with two children, Rafael and Angela live in Paris and are part of
a costura da memória (translated as ‘the sewing of the memory’). It a select group of artists, watched closely by collectors and institutions from around
was only in front of the body of work gathered by the São Paulo’s the world. The art became their final dedication when, in 2002, they received a
Pinacoteca that I realized the real dimension of the artist’s production. scholarship at the Palais de Tokyo. Already worked with graphic design, developing
She impresses with the mastery with which she uses a variety of projects and visual identities.
techniques and languages, such as watercolor, drawing, ceramics, Angela and Rafael commented that the idea to organize the show was part of a
video, embroidery, sculpture. But even more so, the poetic and political garden concept, but the Japanese, not the Parisians: “The ones from France are
power of her narrative that plunges into history to bring forth a painful very organized for us”, she jokes and continues: “Although we are well organized in
past and its very present inheritance, whether in the form of sensory these works, but I think the garden experience corresponds more to the Japanese,
impact or through instigating associations of ideas. a little wilder”. All works have some connection with light. After all, it is the light
Looking back over more than two decades of the artist’s production, that indicates the passage of time, which pervades all works at some point. And it
it is especially noteworthy to realise the delicacy with which she is the light that keeps a garden alive and strong.
exposes extreme issues and situations, such as violence imposed The first works that the public finds when entering the exhibition in the ECPS do not
on women, especially black women, the ill-concealed Brazilian yet give the exact tone of what will be found in the upstairs and the underground,
racism, and the absence and social invisibility on black people, besides the works in the outside of the building. Although everyone has a dialogue
often reduced to the condition of object of study to the natural between them and start from codes, they do not invade and do not dictate a truism.
sciences by our historical iconography - a repertoire of which Rosana, Silence Waterfall (2018) was specially produced for the diagonal wall at the entrance
not for nothing, is widely used. Some among many examples are of the site. Based on a photo of a waterfall that the pair visited in Kyoto, it is worked
the delicate and fluid trait with which she reconnects to the land vertically on top of the pixel lines of the image, triggering the colors all over the
the black female body, fragmented and uprooted by slavery, in wall, explains Angela: “It is a still image that is being shown little by little”. Rafael
Assentamentos/Settlements; and the lightness of the small ceramic says that the sound that accompanies the work is the original Japanese waterfall.
sculptures assembled at the installation Tecelãs/Weavers (2009),
which evokes with great poignancy the pain of the dual submission Another work that represents an affectionate place for the artists and that is shown
of being a woman and a black woman. for the first time is From Luz to Paraíso (2018), that traces the route between the
Rising to a mature production of rare power, the exhibition at Pinacoteca paulistanos districts, respecting the layout of the streets and the relief of the path.
reveals Rosana Paulino as one of the most important artists in action in In the same environment, Ulysses (2017) is reproduced on a wall, a work in which
the Brazilian contemporary scene. This perception reinforces, but does a human figure defined by words walks, referring to the book of the same name
not precede, the invitation we made to Paulino to present, at the 21st by James Joyce. In the narrative, the main character walks through the city of
Biennial of Contemporary Art Sesc_Videobrasil, an unpublished work, Dublin for 18 hours, redefining its relationship with space (the city) and time. The
which is being commissioned by the event. The Biennial stars in October text that builds the body on the wall is Joyce’s book, each step is an upset page.
in São Paulo and investigates, through an expressive set of works, This sense of the modification of space and time can be felt by those who visit the
poetics from the South that relate to the idea of new communities, exhibition, which is always bringing the reflection on this temporality. And that is
created by principles distinct from those that founded the national the intention of the pair, it can be said that they conclude this desire with success.
states. As those that approach a familiar or tribal character, expressing Also unpublished, the work Clouds of São Paulo (2018) hides a text by Oswald de
their affections in domestic or memorialistic experiences. Starting Andrade, graphically transformed into cloud formats as they are blurred, moving
from recurring issues in her work, related to memory and ancestry, through the huge screen on the mezzanine wall. Literature is very present in the
Rosana Paulino dialogues with this universe and ventures into a new life of Angela and Raphael, being a material of much research as well: “Our library
language. The exhibition presented at Pinacoteca will be at MAR - Rio is a very important part of our life”, recognizes Detanico. And language, whether
Art Museum on April 13 and can be visited until the end of August. by codes, pixels, words or images, pervades the whole exhibition. Everything is

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