Page 87 - ARTE!Brasileiros #54

economic crisis was beginning, around sinCe the beginning oF the panDemiC Festival, on the occasion of the launch of the
2012 and 2013. So we are a crisis specialist. and the need for social isolation, the world as a 19th edition, in a remarkable speech. Some of
whole has been forced to create communication these events continued to be available online.
Not to mention the crisis that Casa came strategies in the virtual universe, online, using I highlight three excerpts from his hour-and-
from 30 years ago, right, almost closed… various tools. Meeting platforms, Instagram a-half speech that I consider very significant
Yes ... And in the middle of it all, now we accounts, websites, Facebook and newsletters in the current context of art. The first is when
are making some bold bets. We hired new have imploded networks, making network Jaar reveals how his creative methodology
people, increased some remuneration to channels even slower. Most sectors were not takes place, which includes daily reading of
consolidate the team. So we are betting, prepared for this turnaround, let alone their newspapers from different countries, since
even in the midst of the crisis, on this investments in equipment or professionals he went into exile in the United States in
consolidation. Because we think this is what in the field. the 1970s and lives there today: “I can only
will save the institution. Casa do Povo works In culture, live broadcasts of concerts and dedicate myself to talk about the world if I can
with little, the budget this year is estimated shows began to be produced, as well as debates, understand it”.
at R$ 1.9 million. It seems like a lot, but it is lectures and courses. One of the formats It may seem like an obvious phrase, but
not. So we have room to grow yet, there is used in a massive way were precisely these few artists are able to transform daily issues
no fat, and we are flexible enough to adapt. lives, live meetings broadcast on Instagram of daily life, whether individual or collective,
or Youtube, with experts or commentators into powerful artistic works like the ones he
Finally, I would like to ask one more from different areas. On any given night, an presents throughout his speech, in what Hal
question related to the political context. Instagram user would log into their account Foster calls “utopian brilliance of fiction”,
We have, even before the pandemic, a and find dozens of broadcast offers occurring paraphrasing Ben Lerner.
federal government that has been carrying simultaneously, making it difficult to even select The second excerpt is the observation that
out strong attacks on the cultural sector, what would be worth watching or not. For each “the world of art is the only one that still has a
both with cuts in resources and with interesting presentation - however subjective space of freedom”, something very similar to
attitudes that border on censorship. What that evaluation may be - they seemed to pop up what defended Grada Kilomba two years ago,
is it like to work, being a cultural center, thousands of others that were poorly planned, at the Pinacoteca do Estado, when she said
in this context? with random content or even technical flaws why she preferred to leave her academic career
Yes, this is very worrying. What happened (audio, image or connection). The important to follow artistic production. In fact, it is not
now with the Vladimir Herzog institute thing was not to stand still. by chance that artists have been vehemently
[which had its annual plan vetoed for In the field of visual arts, more specifically, pursued by far-right governments, such as
funding via the Incentive Law] is at least museums, cultural institutions, galleries, the one that settled here.
curious. At the same time that when we curators and artists have promoted hundreds Finally, the third excerpt, directly focused on
had a democracy working better, we also of presentations, debates and so-called the theme of his table, is divided into two parts.
cannot say that the cultural area was no webinaries on the most diverse topics. In The first when he deals with the trivialization of
longer precarious - even with the points addition, they intensified the posts on their violent scenes, whether on the networks or in
of culture and other incredible policies. social networks, with videos, images and the media: “The image of pain is lost because
Because there is always this motto texts, in an effort not to distance themselves it is decontextualized in a sea of consumption”.
of “get your resources, go for private completely from the public at a time when And this is completed with: “And the lack of
financing”. And we never ask a physicist everyone - at least a good part of the visual context adds to the lack of visual literacy”.
to be popular, why do we have to ask a arts public - was closed in their homes. There There, for me, one of the crucial dramas of the
museum to be popular? Since the museum was also the alternative of viewing rooms, present moment is synthesized, that is, the
also creates knowledge, memory, it is exhibitions set up especially for the virtual urgent need to make facts or images widely
not just a space for spectacle. So I think universe, and the fairs needed to readjust to seen, in all the complexity that is interwoven
we were already experiencing a kind of the digital medium. and not just on the surface.
censorship embedded in the neoliberal As expected, it didn’t take long for criticisms
understanding of what culture is, which to emerge precisely as to how this migration to Image policy - Alfredo Jaar - ZUM Festival 2020
was economic censorship. Now we see the virtual was made, especially to the excess - https://youtu.be/nyAFmt1ehpU
a kind of ghost from the past, which is of lives of all kinds. In April of last year, the
a possible political censorship. But, like artist and researcher Giselle Beiguelman thE viRtUAl on PAndEMiC | Ailton KREnAK And
everything in Brazil, this happens in a kind wrote in an article in Folha de S.Paulo: “The RoSAnA PAUlino [PAgE 54]
of legality, through commissions that delay, coronavirus resurrected the internet of the
refuse, etc. So it is difficult to define exactly 1990s. Between video calls, lives and virtual World in dispute
the censorship, but, that there is a general visits, we discovered what we already knew -
climate of distrust, this is clear; that has living in the parallel universe is very boring. (…) The artist Rosana Paulino and the
an economic and legal insecurity, it has. And we discovered something else - museums, environmentalist and indigenous leader
Even so, going back to the more art galleries and cultural institutions are in Ailton Krenak discussed the deep limits
economical issue, I think we are also the stone age of the internet. Run over by the of the worldview linked to a supposed
“good”. Unlike what I see in France, where pandemic and without artistic and cultural civilizing project, which only accepts
a cultural center depends almost entirely content created for the web, they joined the only equals and which relegates the “other”
on an agreement with the State, we here fields of life online they know, social networks, to the margins
are much more used to surviving in the ecommerce and emergency exits aimed at
adverse environment. And creating Google Arts & Culture”. By PoR MARiA hiRSZMAn
structures, however fragile and precarious
they may be. So, of course, we want and thE viRtUAl on PAndEMiC | AlFREdo JAAR [PAgE 23] ailton krenak anD rosana paulino are
need improvements and solid programs, among the most prominent thinkers on the
but I want to say that the situation is not The importance Brazilian scene, especially in these pandemic
entirely binary. Anyway, the context is of context times of so many virtual meetings. If their
cloudy and we are concerned, but not contributions alone are already fundamental
desperate. There is usually so little public Live at the ZUM Festival, at the end of last to the immense challenges faced by the
support that when we fall it is not very year, the Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar dealt indigenous and Afro-Brazilian communities,
high. But we need to fight this, with the with the politics of image. when they jointly address fundamental aspects
tools we have, because culture is a basic of contemporary life, such as environmental
right. There is no stream. By FABio CyPRiAno preservation, social inequality and the
permanent exclusion to which they have been
thE viRtUAl on PAndEMiC [PAgE 22] sinCe i saw alFreDo Jaar’s performance at subjected for centuries, they still acquire
the San Juan Triennial in 2015, and the following greater density and sharpness when combined
LIVES, A NECESSARY year at the International Seminar of Brazilian in a fertile dialogue of ideas.
“On the planet, 80% or 90% are excluded,
TORMENT Art! In São Paulo, I have always sought to follow they are disputing another narrative about
the Chilean artist’s sensational lines. In 2020,
as the lives replaced a good part of the face- the world,” said Krenak at the meeting held
By thE nEWSRooM to-face events, Jaar participated in the ZUM between them in June last year by the Ashoka
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