Page 86 - ARTE!Brasileiros #54

ENGLISH VERSION IN THE DEBACLE...

space to store blankets to donate to people But we managed to invent conditions to answers your questions, tells Casa stories.
on the streets. We also opened a call for continue acting and this allowed us to This robot has personality, he is a grumpy
volunteers and overnight we got 120 people go after funds without being in a tight old counterpart of Jewish theater. So we
registered. And, as always, the things we skirt. We had the fundraising campaign want to take advantage of the virtual
do and the things we take in came together, for the theater, we had fundraising via the possibilities to create experiences other
becoming more blurred, as well as the Cultural Incentive Law, we had fundraising than just viewing rooms and lives. Trying
separation between those who help and crowdfunding to help the neighborhood not only to reproduce an analog experience
those who are helped. And this is very and then a fundraiser looking for recurring in the digital space, but to do something
interesting, sometimes the person who supporters. So we stopped some things, different. This is something that Ana Druwe,
goes to get the food afterwards is also on but new alliances emerged, with residents, from our communication, has been talking
the other side of the counter, distributing neighborhood institutions and donors. It about a lot. In this sense, we are also going
food; whoever gets soap afterwards helps was interesting to put into practice this to have a play, directed by Martha Kiss
to find tailors in the region and so on. So, discourse that fundraising is not just Perrone - a rehash of Goldfadn’s Dream,
answering your question in one sentence: about money, but about making alliances, Jakub Rotbaum’s plot from the 1940s - that
it was a very organic reaction, which came creating tactical dependencies. And of the is being filmed there in the theater. And
from an ethical need, which was articulated projects that were contingent, some are it’s crazy, putting up a Yiddish play in the
with our own history and developed based being resumed now, because before I had middle of a pandemic! This will become a
on the tools that we usually use, listening no physical conditions to do, others we will kind of audiovisual installation projected
to the territory and proposing actions . wait a little longer, and others did not stop. on the second floor [with a date yet to be
defined], an immersive experience. It is
This reminds me of a phrase from the I could then start talking about the really a thing to shake the ghosts, because
interview we did two years ago: “Culture reactivation of the Library of Casa, which we are there with our hands on, talking
is not limited to the arts. Housing is culture, was reopened in 2019 after being closed about these several generations that
cuisine is culture, sport is culture. So here more than 30 years… passed by there.
is creation, activism, people in situations For the library, we won a public notice,
of social vulnerability, but we never fail to Proac, for the modernization of the You already talked about the subject, but
understand this as an art place as well”. collection, and we hired a new collection I think it is important to go a little deeper
Did this make even more sense in the coordinator, Jean Camoleze - who has into the financial and administrative
pandemic? worked in the archives of the MSt and question of Casa, considering that if it
Because suddenly we become more Uneafro -, and who looks at the collections was difficult to raise funds before, the
useful. Casa do Povo is a place that puts of Casa as the collection of an institution, picture seems even more complex now ...
itself at risk. Marília Loureiro [curator of but of a social movement, proposing other In general, 2021 is looking like those
Casa] always says that, that words come methodologies. We also work with artist series in which the second season is
after gestures. So we do it, based on clear Mariana Lanari and designer Remco van made with less money, you know? So we
premises, but without knowing where we Bladel. And with this team we are rethinking are concerned. For 2020 we had more
are going. There is a rabbinic proverb in cataloging, organization, etc. There is a resources raised, and now in 2021 the crisis
this regard, but the secular version is by very interesting project to bring the library is hitting even more radically. Sure, we
Clarice Lispector, who said: “Getting to the internet of things, that is, we are have the vaccine, but when are we going
lost is also a way”. What I mean is that going to put chips in each book and create to be vaccinated? So it’s going to be a
we don’t ask ourselves, “Is this art?” We a tracking system, by means of RFid (radio difficult year. And even thinking about the
find what we want on the way. And very frequency identification), so that we can incentive mechanisms for Culture. Proac
strong things come up. For example, the register the way people use the library. And iCMS was cut overnight in São Paulo, by a
production of soap with oil donated from then when you get the book you will not government that even has a dialogue with
restaurants in the neighborhood. And there only have the technical sheet, but you will the artistic class. It was not the federal
is a restaurant that delivers its food and know how it was used, close to what other government, which has no dialogue at all.
sends a soap together, saying that the books were placed. And this generates So right now, my way of being optimistic
soap was made with the oil that fried that clouds of knowledge, which come from is to prepare for the worst.
food. This closes a circuit, and I think that the user, and that whoever researches may At the same time, last year we had peaks
these things are, in their own way, artistic have access to. For that, we will have the in philanthropy, in donations, and I think
interventions. public, study groups, an Yiddish group, that could continue this year. If we continue
Of course there is something very people linked to the black and indigenous to be useful, we may be able to raise funds.
delicate there - to think about who the artist movements and so on - to, so to speak, And things are also emerging. There is a
is and to understand that the monopoly poke this collection and give it a bigger project called South South, and we were
of artistic creation is not always in the agency. The idea is that the library and one of the three non-profit institutions in
artist’s hand. It’s a little taboo, because collections can speak for themselves and the world chosen - alongside Raw material
our job is to defend artists. But I even think that people can read not only the books, (Dakar, Senegal) and the Green Papaya
that with the next Documenta, with the but also the library. Project (Manilla, Philippines) - to receive
ruangrupa [collective selected to curate a percentage of sales from works from an
the event], suddenly we can start to look at And there is the taib restoration and art auction. And it’s really cool, because
this more. Think, for example, what a shared reactivation project, originally designed we always tell people in the art world that
authorship means. And in this sense, many by Jorge Wilheim and now designed by we are an art space, but they tend to see
artists have also approached Casa, because André Vainer, Ilan Szklo and Silvio Oksman. us as something more peripheral. And
I think they see a pulsating, living context, How is this work? suddenly people are realizing that we
and want to get closer. So it’s interesting tAiB turned 60 last year, it couldn’t stop, are also part of this universe. In fact, we
because it creates a context for the arts, but we had to focus on raising funds for will also increasingly need to depend on
which is not just about the circulation of other, more urgent areas. In any case, this international associations. We recently
works, but an inspiring experience. fundraising for the restoration should received support from the British Council,
resume this year. But we already have the the Relief Fund (from the German Ministry
There are some specific projects, which basic projects ready, we are arriving at the of Foreign Affairs) and the Foundation for
come from before the pandemic, that I executive projects. It is an intervention that Art Initiatives (Ffai).
would like to ask you where they are, if they respects what the building is historically. But anyway, we have limited resources
had a sequence in this critical moment ... And in addition, we were building layers of and we have a guaranteed schedule for this
In general, we had to pause some things, meaning. First, the fundraising campaign year, with funds raised through the Culture
because we made a contingency of funds. counted on the participation of Fernanda Incentive Law, partnerships, associates
But fortunately, in general we managed to Montenegro, talking about her relationship and the friends program. So my biggest
capture relatively well, and I think that was with the Casa, with tAiB, with the Jewish concern is really 2022. Why and if we don’t
because we continued to work. I say this community. Now, at a time when people get it at the end of this year, how are we
without flirting with any denialist speech are still unable to visit the theater, we going to do it? Are we going to have public
- I think there are people who don’t have decided to launch a chatbot, which is notices? At the same time, Casa do Povo
to work and should be supported by that. a robot that welcomes you online and returned to work with everything when the
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