Page 96 - ARTE!Brasileiros #48

THE ART OF MEMORY ENGLISH VERSION
KEEK SEE forms. So being able to work with collections and programming that allows you to cross
A section of the fair that emphasizes video art productions, MIRA will be guided by the literature, photography, visual arts, cinema is for me a fascinating challenge.
title New Horizons. The curatorship will be done by Victor Gorgulho, independent curator, There is so much here that opens the way, that criticizes the dominant paths in the
journalist and researcher. His chosen films will have a cut between the 2000s and the classic centers of the construction of modernity, the avant–garde, the geopolitics of the
present day, being already part of the list the works RISE (2018), by Barbara Wagner and world, that make my presence here a great challenge and a great possibility of work.
Benjamin de Burca, and ZERO (2019), by Luiz Roque. It is the third year that ArtRio has For all that, I confess that nothing shakes my belief that Brazil will survive and I believe
run a program especially focused on video art. that culture has a role in that.
And that’s one of the reasons I work with art, which is this wonderful thing of anyone
INSTITUTIONS INTERVIEW | PAGES 30 TO 32 thinking or feeling a work of art in the same way. We all have different impressions before
WORKING WITH MEMORY a symphony, nobody sees a picture in the same way and when they see the second time
they see it differently. And this characteristic of art, which allows radicalization without
IS WORKING WITH PRESENT weakening the feeling of community, is what I believe to be the role of museums, cultural

PORTUGUESE CURATOR JOÃO FERNANDES, NEW ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE institutions, concert and theater halls, or even the street. The experience of difference, of
being together being different, is very important. And the art is the human activities that
MOREIRA SALLES INSTITUTE – IMS, WANTS TO WORK WITH THE INSTITUTION’S stimulate it, which teaches how to build community and be together from the differences
COLLECTIONS TO REFLECT THE CURRENT TIMES of feeling and thinking, even in such a tight country as Brazil is. After all, the structuring
of this country was so hatred that it manifested itself in forms of threat to the human
BY FABIO CYPRIANO condition – slavery plays a central role in this, it is one of the most heinous holocausts
in human history. Unfortunately, all this still manifests itself in the lack of respect for
AMAZON DESTRUCTION, war on the arts. Despite the climate of catastrophe, the curator João racial issues, ancestral cultures, and nature. But for this very reason art and culture have
Fernandes arrives optimistic. “Brazil, in the midst of every tragic dimension of its history, survived and created new forms, erudite or popular, that make Brazil a unique situation, I
has always been able to create ways to overcome these traumas,” he observes from his say perhaps because it is my language, but all this has become an undeniable invitation.
new room, on Paulista Avenue, just across the headquarters of the Moreira Salles Institute. In fact, despite all that is happening, there is a perception that cultural institutions
Respected in the international circuit, Fernandes was head of the Serralves Foundation, have grown in public.
in Porto, between 1996 and 2012, today one of the most renowned in contemporary art, I arrived a week ago and saw wonderful events. The energy that currently exists in
and served six years as artistic director of Reina Sofia in Madrid, an essential institution Brazil is very unique. The Panorama da Arte Brasileira is a remarkable exhibition, which
for the creation of new narratives in art history. escapes the stereotypes of contemporary art seen in art biennials, I do not speak here of
Knowledgeable about Brazilian art in depth, regular visitor since 1998, when he appointed any specific, which begin to look like art fairs. In the Panorama, there is a Brazilianness
Portuguese representation at the biennial dealing with Anthropophagy, Fernandes tells that is not nationalistic, but of connection with popular cultures, with the themes of
of his new plans in his new role: the present, with cultures seen as marginal, and all this converges in a very original
way. I was also fortunate to see a show by Flávio de Carvalho where the Teatro Oficina
ARTE!Brasileiros – What is it like to arrive at such a dramatic moment in Brazil that group presented O Bailado do Deus Morto, written in the 1930s, a text that directly
until the evening comes in the middle of the afternoon? links a postcolonial experience with a universal culture of neoclassical and European
JOÃO FERNANDES – I was amazed, I did not know what was going on, I imagined that in origin – those masks are Greek, in a way they can be Greek and Brazilian. I also attended
winter Sao Paulo darkens at 3 pm (laughs) as occurs in Germany. the premiere of Kleber Mendonça’s Bacurau, which is a unique moment in the history
of cinema: in addition to being the most antifascist western ever made, it is also the
Yeah, but getting through all this doesn’t carry a certain urgency, although the IMS possibility of a popular western that reinvents a genre without falling into stereotypes.
has had very relevant shows about the Brazilian history and moment as Corpo a All this in one week in Brazil.
Corpo, Conflitos or even Claudia Andujar, A Luta Yanomami, in the last two years?
I came to Brazil because I thought it was important to be in Brazil. I recognize that the And how do you intend to work at Moreira Salles?
invitation surprised me, it was far from my expectation to leave the Reina Sofia anytime I confess that on the one hand I will learn much more than I know so far, in relation to
soon. But when João [Moreira Salles] and Flávio [Pinheiro] asked me to consider taking everything that happened in Brazilian art and culture, and I want to deepen a whole
over the artistic directorship of the institute a year ago, I confess that I was very fascinated. series of possibilities that the collections of the institute offer and even the crossing of
That’s because I knew a part of the institute’s collections and its programming, and at the these areas, which It’s something I’ve always enjoyed doing, bringing performing arts
same time, I think the institute has an ideal condition in its autonomy with its collections and visual arts closer to literature. There are synchronicities in the time of Lygia Clark’s
and practices to be able to work in Brazil. I know it is not easy to build an institution in works with Clarice Lispector, and many questions may arise from these syncs, these
Brazil, but neither is it in Portugal, my country. The museum I worked for in Portugal was parallel universes. But I am also aware that Brazil is so far from other places in the world
the first museum of contemporary art in the country and was created only in the late 20th and a lot has not gone here and can be known. At the same time I think it is important
century. Although museums started here before, I know that institutionality is not easy. that these magnificent collections of the institute and its relation to memory and the
For all these reasons, I think the institute is one of the most possible institutions for concept of document are brought to the world.
relating to memory and the present, because memory cannot be indistinct from the
present, as the present cannot be indistinct from memory. This is what led me to Reina Is it a mission? Did they asked you to work these collections abroad?
Sofia, because I was very interested in how Manolo [Manuel Borja–Villel] builds a point No. But knowing these collections and how they are unknown in the world, there is no
of view on history from art history and art history from history, which makes Guernica way not to think about that urgency. You have to know the wonderful things that exist
is not only a masterpiece of art history, but also an important document of a time of here, because Brazil has been seen in many stereotypes that were created. If I can
conflict that reveals a story from the point of view of the vanquished rather than the contribute to this it is important. It is fantastic to understand how Claudia Andujar, who
victor, which generally conditions the historical narratives. in museums and institutions. was not born here but she arrives here and realizes that one of the riches of Brazil, lies
So, working with Moreira Salles’ collections means being able to work with the best of a in this wonderful treasure that are indigenous cultures. And she goes there, lives with
culture that has always fascinated me, and in the language I speak. them and becomes an ambassador. And she is still little known. Similar to it is the Lothar
What also interested me in inviting my curatorial work was not to be confined to a kind of Baumgarten, which from Germany and Humboldt also comes to Brazil and one of his
specialization, an art that is constituted by certain stereotypes to call itself contemporary earliest works in Europe is Eldorado, I would rather be there than in northern Westphalia,
art, which is paradoxical with the history of art in the 20th century, that always had hybrid which is a Voltaire phrase, until He already had that awareness. Anyway, these two

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