Page 117 - ARTE!Brasileiros #49

Leite’s work also causes insults. She won the news pages when her painting Criança occupation to stimulating the visitor to listen to Georgia Miessa’s Serenade of Love,
Viada was censored at the Queermuseu exhibition at the Santander Cultural Center a compilation of macho songs in Brazilian popular music since 1920.
in Porto Alegre. Under protests from some visitors the exhibition was closed and she Living in the Occupation, Felipe guarantees a close link between artistic production and
was pursued and threatened with death. The show was only released after a collection its context. Not that works are placed there outside of space, as if it were a white cube.
program promoted by Parque Lage in Rio de Janeiro was created, where the show Far from it. But it is precisely this vital character triggered by occupation that gives
was exhibited with epic queues. The painting that horrified the people in Porto Alegre particularity and relevance, and Philip’s voice is essential. But getting into ReOcupa
brings printed several prejudiced insults suffered by homosexuals since childhood. is also smelling the food being prepared on the floors above, the cleaning products
Bia was discovered and awarded by the Edital Transarte LGBT, in 2015 and has now in use, listening to the children playing, watching the weather wearing away from a
just signed an exclusive contract with the gallery where she exhibits paintings inspired once abandoned public building. All very far from the traditional and sanitized spaces
by alienists and a Japanese poster of horror film, by director John Carpenter. Her of art. All much more powerful.
painting resembles the neo-expressionist traces of the 1980s, with corrosive colors Not only is the environment libertarian, but the curation strategies themselves,
and quotes from the pop universe. starting with selecting the name of the show. As you descend from the first floor to
Under also expressionist influence, Eduardo Mafea defends his work as a dive into ReOcupa, you can read the message exchange in the group of artists participating
the dualism of gay men and the compulsory connection to the macho universe of in the show to choose the name. “It’s our fender,” explains Cuquinha, describing the
soccer, a sport appreciated by families as a symbol of virility. With other concerns, assumed transparency process, even if the names are erased. The important thing
Pedro Stephan, passionate about Rio de Janeiro, author of several homoerotic photos, is the process after all.
shows for the first time the essay Lâmpadas de Mercúrio, which can be seen as a Most of the artists present there have collaborated in the occupation in an active and
non-narrative photonovel having as scenario the Parque do Flamengo, local where systematic way, whether in the kitchen or in other functions. But not necessarily. Who
he has lived since childhood while riding there by bike. The 30 images from the essay inaugurated the space, by the way, was the carioca Nelson Felix, last year, in parallel to
show Stephan’s friends clicked in 2005 in love scenes. “I tried to subvert the cliché his presence at the Bienal de São Paulo, at the invitation of the Apparel.
by proving that groping is not only slutty, it can also be romance.” The current show took four months to conceive and, as the name implies, part of
The director of Transarte, Maria Helena Peres writes in one of her catalogs that we two very current issues: the forest as a space for survival in the face of burning and
need to be attentive to Brazil that has been proposing the gay cure, which closes indigenous genocide, and the current political prisons, which range from Lula to other
exhibitions, beats and kills transvestites and creates monsters within the members leaders. popular, such as Preta Ferreira, daughter of Carmem Silva, of the MSTC.
of the LGBTq movement. Not surprisingly, obviously, Lula, Carmen and Preta are remembered in this scenario,
present in several works, including works by Suspresa de Uva, the name given for when
EXHIBITIONS SÃO PAULO | PAGE 68 TO 72 the authorship is not essential and a work is created collectively.
But what is really important is to understand how this exhibition starts a new
WHEN ART IS RESISTANCE artistic positioning key, stimulated through a collaborative network outside the
traditional institutional circuit and away from the conventional commercial circuit
of galleries and fairs, because there are works sold to maintain the art. space and
MORE THAN 100 ARTISTS PARTICIPATE IN THE SHOW WHAT IS NOT A FOREST IS aid to occupation, pointing out that it is possible to rethink the relationship of sales
A POLITICAL PRISON AT REOCUPA GALLERY, ENGAGING CULTURAL PRODUCTION in art. In this sense, Galeria ReOcupa adds to other strategies involving artists, such
IN A HOUSING MOVEMENT STRUGGLE PROJECT as Casa Chama, in São Paulo and Lanchonete <> Lanchonete, in Rio de Janeiro. If
present times seem like constant nightmares, “What is not forest is political prison”
shows that the dream still has room and can be viable. And Dona Irene still says
BY FABIO CYPRIANO goodbye smiling with an invitation: “Come back always!”
AT THE MODEST ENTRANCE OF 427 ÁLVARO DE CARVALHO STREET, in downtown São Paulo, it is EXHIBITION FORTALEZA | PAGE 72 TO 75
Dona Irene Silva who honors the house. She lives there, taking care of the entrance
during the day, where about 500 residents of 120 families pass daily to enter the 9th A DIVE INTO
of July Occupation, managed by the Center’s Homeless Movement (MSTC).
In addition to the entrance, Dona Irene also takes care of the garden and garden of the
occupation, “great hands that when they plant everything gives”, as the artist Lourival CEARÁ’S POETICS
Cuquinha wrote, when answering my message requesting her name.
It is Dona Irene, with a smile on her face, which indicates how to get to the ReOcupa THE 20TH UNIFOR ART SHOW: SIMULTANEITIES - THE ART WITH THE WORD OPENS
gallery, where the show What is not a forest is a political prison, with about 100 AT UNIFOR CULTURAL CENTER, IN FORTALEZA, WITH CURATORIAL WORK BY
artists, including Cuquina himself. Art in the central space of a space of resistance.
I felt in Bacurau. DENISE MATTAR. READ THE FOLLOWING INTERVIEW WITH THE CURATOR
The show, which runs from Wednesday to Sunday, from 2 pm to 8 pm, has been
held since September with 74 artists, 15 of which were added in October and now in BY PATRICIA ROUSSEAUX, IN FORTALEZA
November another group will be added. It is not known exactly how long it remains,
but it is safe to see until the end of the year. ARTE!Brasileiros - What is the history of Unifor Plástico? How does it work, how
Artist is the proper term to name who participates in it, even though not everyone is the selection of artists performed?
there has their main activity in art. There are internationally recognized figures in Denise Mattar - The 1st Plastic Unifor opened its doors in 1973, the year the University
the art circuit, such as Ernesto Neto and Renata Lucas, among others who live and of Fortaleza was created, showing the vocation of the Edson Queiroz Foundation and
produce in the Occupation itself, while others stand out in nearby areas, such as its proximity to the regional and national arts and culture. From its inception, it worked
photojournalist Marlene Bergamo or philosopher Peter Pál Pelbart. However, this through a public notice and the works were chosen by a notorious commission in the
is the best place to put into practice Joseph Beuys’s famous expression that “every arts field. From 2013, a more curatorial model was adopted and started to operate
human being is an artist.” every two years as the Unifor.
Despite the 89 names on the maps that indicate the layout of the works in the exhibit, The first two exhibitions were curated by art critic and curator Ivo Mesquita. He did,
at least two dozen also participate in interventions along eight other floors of the in one of the exhibitions, a tribute to Sérvulo Esmeraldo, called A Constellation for
occupation - the ReOcupa gallery is actually on the ground floor of the building, Sérvulo Esmeraldo.
where the entrance to 9 de Julho avenue, which is not in use, and its surroundings. When I thought about the current exhibition, focusing on a cast of Ceará artists, I was
With 14 floors, the building was built as the headquarters of the INSS in São Paulo, careful to select a significant number of artists, but allowing an unpolluted show. With
inaugurated in 1943. Designed by Jayme Fonseca Rodrigues, the building is one of the help of Cecilia Dedê, and together with conversations with Bitu Cassundé, from
the icons of São Paulo architecture during the Vargas Era, president honored with the Dragão do Mar cultural center, which has a wide knowledge of Ceará’s history,
bust in the entrance, which disappeared after throughout recent history. Since 1997, I looked at almost 100 portfolios and ended up editing approximately 25 artists.
occupations have taken place there after 20 years of neglect, and the current one,
organized by the MSTC, began in 2016. Do you feel that the contact with these artists brought you a differential?
In it, artists have been collaborating organically since the beginning. The Rigging, for I have noticed for many years in the North and Northeast production. In 2012, I went to
example, which emerged in 2016, when Funarte began to be shut down by the Temer Belém and met Emmanuel Nassar, born in Capanema, Pará, with a work that impressed
government, helped to organize the communal kitchen, which prepares festive lunches me deeply. In fact, being out of the Rio-São Paulo axis, artists from the North and
once a month, and has been important for maintaining the building’s condition. Northeast are harmed. I knew his sparse works and not the whole work. For the first
In the gallery, who speaks of the works is Felipe Figueiredo, monitor and activist time I made an important exhibit of him at the CCBB of Rio and Brasilia and I’m sure
who lives in the Occupation since its first moments in 2016, and who knows not that contributed to his visibility. I saw several exhibitions by curator Paulo Herkenhoff
only about each work, but about the history of the movement itself. He develops who, in my opinion, was of great importance to make this understanding of Brazil as a
his narrative from the importance of carrying mattresses in the early hours of an whole, donated much of his time to know these new production centers.

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