Page 103 - ARTE!Brasileiros #50

“I returned to Brazil, in 2006, for an exchange philosophy, Yoga and art. “In Vedas, they are the place has always been a place of residence
with USp and that was when Lisette Lagnado the bases that support a community”, explains (popular and bourgeois) and leisure (having
was doing the Bienal. It was a moment of great Mattos. At Veras, however, a free translation of one of the first swimming pools in the city).
initiation in curation. And, at the same time, there two of these concepts was made: science was It is unfortunate that the recognition of the
was a large exhibition of the MAM collection at changed to education and sustainability was importance of the Village as a heritage passed
Oca and I was invited by Tadeu Chiarelli, my replaced by philosophy. through the withdrawal of what makes it a
professor at USp, to be one of the educators at Mattos notes that, in Brazil, this transversality heritage - its residents. It is as if the desire (to
the exhibition”, recalls Mattos. already occurs in other cultural spaces, such preserve) killed its object (the Vila). It is not by
The experience was essential in his journey: as SESC. “I really believe in transversality as a chance that Vila crossed the times precisely
“Visiting the Bienal every day and living with the way to overcome the challenge of forming an because it was somewhat on the fringe of real
MAM collection led me to decide that, when I audience in our region,” says the curator, from estate speculation - relative abandonment was
returned to Brazil, what happened in 2010, I his experience as director of the Santa Catarina its greatest preservation factor. Today, being in
would try to act as a curator to facilitate the Museum of Art for two years, in 2017 and 2018. He the spotlight, care must be taken not to destroy
construction of the cultural center.” left from there to an artistic residency in Japan. it altogether.
Over the past ten years, all the work
undertaken by the monk curator has helped dIalogues the future does not exIst
to make the new space feasible, including the “When I decided to start the process of When will it be ready? What is going to be?
conception and curatorship of the first edition designing a cultural center, then lonely and These are the first questions that visitors
of the Frestas - Triennial of Arts project, at Sesc silent, I couldn’t imagine how much contact asked when entering the restoration site of
Sorocaba, a periodic exhibition of contemporary with Art History would allow me to bring the centenary Vila Itororó when it opened its
art, which had beginning in 2014. “Invited to together experiences previously experienced gates to the public in 2015, already empty of its
design a project for a biennial in the interior, only in contact with spiritual path seekers. That residents. It is curious how the belief in the future
I suggested that it be a triennial, in virtue of was when I came across the work of artists who persists despite living in a city full of abandoned
debates at the 28th Bienal de SP, and even earlier, seemed to go in the same direction and I had flowerbeds, discontinued public policies and
in the 1980s, when Aracy Amaral pointed out the feeling of belonging to a vast community”, broken promises ... And when will São Paulo
the short time to organize a show of this size says the curator. be ready? Public authorities feel obliged to
in two years”, he explains. For him, references to work in the new cultural propose responses as if an unrealizable plan
In addition to mobilizing his fees for the center will be, among others, the experiments would comfort more than a realistic look at our
construction of the cultural center, he made of Joseph Beuys (1921 - 1986), the mysticism of capacities to act in the present.
two exchanges that allowed the financing of Mondrian (1872 - 1944) or Agnes Martin (1912 -
the workforce and the building’s elevator. In 2004), the clinical condition of Lygia Clark’s last the thIckness of thIs
the first case, at Instituto Adelina, in São Paulo, experiments (1920-1988) as well as the creator Trying to answer a wrong question is the
he assumed a kind of artistic direction that of happenings, Allan Kaprow (1927 - 2006) or guarantee that we will never find the right answer.
reinforced the institution’s non-profit vocation. the super-sensorial Hélio Oiticica (1937 - 1980) For this reason, the Vila Itororó Canteiro Aberto
In Ribeirão Preto, Mattos led the foundation of with environmental art. Today, he points out project avoided superficial responses such as
the Contemporary Art Center W, created by Jorge Menna Barreto, “who made Beuys’ social “artistic residency”, “public cultural center”,
the artist Weimar, where he has been a curator sculpture what he calls environmental sculpture, “museum of the city’s history”, to elaborate new
ever since. involving unconventional communities in the questions: what can be now? How does its
Another important form of contribution was the art system”, Mônica Nador, with his notion of history and the city’s current needs inform its
donation of works by around 120 artists, including shared authorship, Sandra Cinto, Ernesto Neto, potential? How to activate it? What is public?
Cildo Meireles, Rivane Neuenschwander and Bené Fonteles, Rodrigo Bueno, with whom he What is culture? - and thus invent what architect
Ernesto Neto, many of them sold at an auction preserves strong links. Yona Friedman calls “realizable utopias”, a
at Casa Goia and at Feira Parte, both in São In the field of exhibitions, “what we intend to radical exercise of imagination, however, within
Paulo. A multiples program, carried out with develop here are the immersion of some artists a possibility of action that aims to add thickness
works entirely donated by Regina Silveira, Jorge with the community, very unfamiliar with the to the present.
Menna Barreto, Sandra Cinto and Albano Afonso status of this artist who does not need to develop
has also generated resources for the purchase objects”, he says. A reference is the Biennial the temporary cultural center
of construction materials. Manifesta, which took place in Zurich, in 2016, The shed attached to the Vila became an
In total, Veras is budgeted at R$ 2.35 where artists went to create projects in the city. experiment, on a full scale, of what the Vila
million, including the purchase of the land, “In Florianópolis, we have 40 or so beaches, could be once renovated ... or better, inhabited.
the architectural project, construction and two rural communities, a minimally developed Many partnerships were made to strengthen
equipment. Of this total, R$ 630 thousand urban center, and the question is how to create the project beyond political management.
remains to be raised. If everything is achieved contemporary art mechanisms that make this The temporary architecture of the Franco-
this year, with the crowdfunding campaign to unique topography worthwhile. What we want German collective Constructlab created the
be launched in the first half of 2020, the space is to give a voice to artists who are willing to basis for an active listening to the demands of
will be opened in early 2021. create relationships and promote dialogues, the neighborhood. These did not arise through
regardless of whether what is accomplished can public consultations, but through the uses of
pIllars be called art, because I believe that this issue the kitchen, the mobile bleachers, mirrors,
When speaking of Veras, Mattos usually refers is no longer relevant”, he concludes. public bathrooms, cabinets for people on the
to the plural, “our project”, which includes his street, open woodwork and other devices that
partner and four other friends, “who are not from ON THE EDgES: VILA ITORORó [pAgES 72 TO 76] came to replace cafes, coffee shops. design and
the field of art”. The cultural center, therefore, other services that today seem more important
“belongs to a private non-profit association, the VILA ITORORÓ than the public utility of cultural spaces.
same legal structure as most private museums
in Brazil”, as defined by the curator. PERMANENT PLAT InhabItIng the culture
The 1,100 m2 building was designed by Terra In parallel, there was an opening in the notion
and Tuma Arquitetos Associados and Gabriella The Vila Itororó project, in progress, in the of culture - since, legally, space has to be
Ornaghi Arquitetura de Paisagem, both from words of the curator and cultural manager used for cultural purposes. But if culture
São Paulo. In 2016, Terra e Tuma won the award Benjamin Seroussi extrapolates artistic practices, why not use
for best home in the world by ArchDaily, thanks space in other ways? Isn’t inhabiting culture?
to Dona Dalva’s home in Vila Matilde. How to label Vila Itororó? As a Cultural Isn’t cultivation culture? Isn’t eating a culture?
The name Veras comes from the street where House? Theater? Museum? We are aware of Would practices not foreseen by the social
he is located, Vera Linhares, in the center of the limitations of public policies that need to fit and cognitive limitations of the project’s
Florianópolis Island, which does not coincide a unique reality into bureaucratic rubrics that curators not have space in cultural centers?
with the city center, but is 500 meters from the is outside the general rule. However, between Defining basic agreements with the public
two public universities in the capital, Federal and one administration and another, there was a under construction, what we call “spontaneous
State. However, Veras could also be a reference continuous effort by the Municipal Secretary of uses” emerged: fencing, circus rehearsal,
to the Vedas, the four books that formed Sanskrit Culture (SMC) to adapt both sides of the equation. meetings of ex-residents and other practices
and where, in fact, the inspiration for the four It is impossible to look at the complex history carried out by regulars, without other curatorial
conceptual pillars of space comes from: science, of Vila Itotoró without taking into account that mediations.

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