Page 93 - ARTE!Brasileiros #50

reverberating in a potent way in that place, was being executed. The story changed, I took a chapter, Edicto contra la ideolatria,
making sense with that audience. Tiradentes became a national hero and the which narrates customs, rituals and how to apply
This idea of expansion is very present in bell was taken to Brasilia and rang on the punishments. From there, I started assembling
the history of the biennials, but it is rare opening day of the new capital. We will talk graphic groups with the seeds reproduced in
to see it implemented in practice. about how its history has been repeated ceramics. Building a new graphic text, based
vIscontI - It may seem that the idea is to in the most unpredictable ways over the on morphology and color sets.
make a very large project, as if the Biennial centuries. The notions of resistance, of
needed more space. But I think we are how things appear and disappear, are other [1] The city was built around 200 BC. His name
actually proposing a very intimate exercise, approaches contemplated. is a reference to “Pacha Kamaq”, the earth’s
a different way, of creating a relationship Who else would deal with this question of creator god according to the belief of the local
with the works, something that these very repetition? pre-Inca population. Pachacamac was an
large events do not normally allow. These vIscontI - Morandi is a good example. He important administrative and religious center
individual exhibitions will coexist for some painted a relatively small repertoire from for great pre-colonial civilizations in different
time. And there will also be performances on an iconographic point of view for decades. periods, such as the Limas, the Huaris and, for
the opening days (Palabras Ajenas, by Leon But it also reverberates particularly the final, powerful Incas; until it was completely

Ferrari, and A Ronda da Morte, unpublished idea of Faz escuro mas eu canto. It is one plundered and destroyed by the Spanish. Today,
piece by Hélio Oiticica). of those artists who, like Monet painting 500 years later, efforts to rebuild its numerous
Are you practically curating works? Water Nymphs in World War I, can be seen pyramids, temples, squares and houses are
mIyada - Exactly, compared to other as alienated or as - and this is how I think we unremitting.
biennials, it will be much more a curatorial need to see them - someone who considers
work than an artists’ curatorship. Perhaps that persevering while the world is on fire BIENNIALS: MERCOSUL [pAgES 16 TO 18]
in this we also distinguish ourselves from it is not escapism.
the majority, who have a lot of emphasis Are the approaches to reacting to the dark ENJOYMENT AND
on the production of new works. Especially different?
because with them you cannot have such a mIyada - We must remember that for THOUGHT
precise tuning and what interests us here some people it has been dark for a year;
is this more intimate scale, it is this work for another 10 years, 500 years, a thousand The 12th edition of the Mercosur Biennial,
here together with this and this, that you years. As you listen to the voices that are headed by Argentine curator Andrea
can understand. included in this experience, the idea of what Giunta, will bring a “beauty experience”

Let’s start with the story of the poem. it means to sing in the dark changes. If at dealing with problems around women
mIyada - It was written by Thiago de first reading the dark is seen as a threat, a
Mello, an Amazonian poet, between 1963 risk, and that’s it, up close it can be an ally for By FABIO CypRIANO
and 1964, between the state of Amazonas many artists. On the contrary, transparency despIte focusIng on women’s issues, the
and Santiago de Chile, where he was a can be a highly ideological resource, of 12th Mercosur Biennial uses the gender of
cultural attaché. It was a poem of hope, in control, of repression, of surveillance. the title in males: in portuguese, feminino(s),
a moment of progressive desire. But it was visualidades, ações e afetos translated to
only published in 1965 when, as we know, the [pAgE 15] feminine(s), visualities, actions and affections.
reality in Brazil was already very different. According to curator and academic Andrea
In 1968, Thiago de Mello was arrested. He PRE-INCAIC LANGUAGE Graciela Giunta, “feminine is not only a ma tter
says that he entered the cell, very afraid, not of women” and “feminine (written in female
knowing what could happen and when he Conversation with the artist Ximena gender in portuguese) would reinforce binarism”.
looks at the wall he sees that the previous Garrido-Lecca, on the occasion of the She has been responsible for high-profile
prisoner had left his verses written: “It is opening of her exhibition at the São Paulo shows, such as León Ferrari-Retrospective, in
dark but I sing because the morning will 2004, at the Recoleta Cultural Center of Buenos
come”, which he did with him to resume the Biennial in 2020. The artist talks about the Aires, which angered the then archbishop of
belief. In a few years, that verse was hope, work “Botanical Insurgencies: Phaseolus the city, Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis.
persistence, called, sigh. And we wonder: Lunatus” The exhibition was seen at the Pinacoteca do
how does he arrive today? By pATRICIA ROUSSEAUx Estado de SP, in 2006, a museum that hosted
Let’s resist on top, right? another important exhibition by the curator,
vIscontI - And don’t just sing about this When did the idea to develop this project arise? Radical Women, in 2018, organized with Cecilia
darkness. It takes a lot of courage to talk In 2010 I visited the Pachacamc ruin [1], near Fajardo-Hill and Valéria Piccoli.
about other things at a time like what we Lima. Talking to the archaeologist, I learned that For the biennial based in Porto Alegre, which
are experiencing. It is this courage that during the excavations they had found white is scheduled to be open to the public this year,
we are defending here, as a starting point. and black Phaseolus Lunatus seeds, which she works with three other curators: Poland’s
mIyada - Within the exhibition, the were not common and had been lost. They were Dorota Maria Biczel and Brazilians Fabiana
idea of repetition itself would be one of thinking of reinserting them in the culture. At Lopes and Igor Simões. According to Giunta,
these statements, these subthemes or that moment he gave me several seeds as a gift. the show will address issues emerging from
convergence diaries. It is very clear in From then on I was very curious about the society, such as black feminism: “we would
the project that an exhibition is made as story, and started to research. In fact, these like this to be the strongest contribution of
an essay, maintaining a relationship with seeds, species of beans, had been represented the biennial.” Politicization, however, will not
Francis Alys’ reading of how progressive in several Peruvian cultures, pre-Hispanic in abandon aesthetic fruition: “We are interested
projects, especially in the Americas, always ceramics and textile pieces, especially in the in thinking about a proposal of problems and
seem to be an essay, in the sense of a Moche culture, the Mochica culture. Another also approaching an experience of beauty”.
repetition, of something that looks like it will archaeologist, Rafael Arcofuego, at the Throughout its history, the Mercosur Biennial
now and then it’s abandoned. Everything beginning of the 20th century developed a has done several essays on how to be true to the
turns into ruin very quickly. theory where these representations would be name, based on a trade treaty, while rethinking
Is it possible to give a concrete example a system of writing. There are other theories such frontiers from art. In this edition, Giunta
about this core of repetition? refuting this idea, saying no, that they would be promises a broad participation, from various
vIscontI - It will not be a block because games or part of an agrarian ritual, but I decided continents, that starts from artists who work
there will be no separation, because these to focus on your theory. He maintains that each with “the representations of feminines” in
various issues (about six or eight) are seed paillard represents an idea, not ideograms, addition to “colonial legacies, which translate
intertwined. For example, we are trying to but a symbolic communication system. in terms of stereotypes or racism”. The list of
bring a bell from Padre Faria’s chapel in There would have been 100 to 850 B.C., and artists will only be published at the opening of

Ouro Preto. It is a very typical bell, but it that would confirm the idea of having existed, the show, but then the curator details some of
has the particularity of having been rung another Peruvian scripture, ancient, pre-Inca. the main axes of the projec.
at very important moments in the history So I decided to do more research and set up a
of Brazil. Legend has it that it was played project based on translating a colonial text, La – Biennials have sought to give
on the night of Tiradentes’ execution, when extirpación de la ideolatria en el Peru, written by attention and voice to local communities,
obviously there was a ban on ringing the Pablo José de Arriaga in 1621, a kind of colony as a way to gain relevance in the context in
bells because an enemy of the empire manual on how to eradicate indigenous customs. which it is inserted. How does this occur
93

10/04/2020 01:29
Encarte_INGLES_50_16pags.indd 93
Encarte_INGLES_50_16pags.indd 93 10/04/2020 01:29