Page 107 - ARTE!Brasileiros #55

monster that grew inside her, due to the bullying All this learning was leveraged with other notion of eternal war, exemplified very well in
she suffers. The painting participated in the initiatives permeated with social and political four records of televised speeches by the past
collective Queermuseum, at Centro Cultural issues. Last year, with the Covid-19 pandemic U.S. presidents (Bush Senior and Junior, Obama
Santander, in Porto Alegre, when it was the advancing, Transarte sought an art response and Trump; with the exception of Bill Clinton),
target of protests, censorship and became one to the theme, producing the quarantena edict, whose addresses should announce the end
of the vertices of the insane cultural alienation which totaled 400 entries and distributed six of certain conflicts and end up reinforcing, in
of the moment. Delicacy can also be an act R$1200 prizes. Artists responded to the call with these frozen excerpts by Peter, the other way.
of resistance. Silva M works randomly found works about this cruel time of physical exclusion. The title of the book, found in a pink post-it
objects and randomly builds sculptures whose The Transarte Institute appears at the time of the on the cover of the publication, comes from a
surface resembles woodcuts. The young woman dismantling of culture in Brazil. The prognosis photograph taken by Peter of an action, with the
invents an active response to this dispersed is that this pioneering, challenging project, with name Balloons for Kabul, at an art gallery in New
and abandoned world, weaving fragments an artistic and social impact, will survive in the York. “New Yorkers wrote notes to the people of
with a disconcerting delicacy, replete with fine direction of long-requested transformations. Kabul that would be handed out to them with pink
sutures that reach the edges and recesses, like balloons during their morning commute. It was
a dermal aid. report | images of ConfliCt [pages 58 to 65] a well-intended but totally out of touch response
Transarte reinvents itself, but the residences to a then already decade-long conflict. Much
remain in the future perspectives that will occur WHAT HAPPENS WHEN of the work that I do is about the disconnect
in the new headquarters, the house that Maria between the us and the consequences of its —
Helena got from her grandfather when she was WE UNMAKE THE or of our — imperial actions abroad. That note,
just 12 years old. Since its creation, Transarte and that event, seemed to symbolize a lot of my
has operated with its own resources, without WORLD? mistrust and cynicism I had for our distorted
the support of incentive laws, which is why idea of collective empathy.”, he tells, the also
Maria Helena and her partner Maria Bonomi Works by Peter Van Agtmael, Steve photographer, Tanya Habjouqa. “That note
did not think of a foundation. McQueen and Emily Jacir reflect on seemed appropriate because this book is my
The art landscape is urban and marked by conflict and preclude our oblivion of war’s apology, and a statement of helplessness, about
surveillance. In order to guarantee a definitive cruel consequences what has happened these past two decades. I
and legitimate space for the artists, it is planned can’t change any outcome, but I can certainly
to organize a long-term private initiative so that By miguel groisman create a rigorous document interpreting
the Institute can survive after the death of its what’s come to pass. And I think that’s partly
owners, and there is already money for that. “We on november 13, 2015, American why the gaze on the Americans in this book is
had a moment of progress with the approval of photographer Peter Van Agtmael was in Paris kind of brutal and sardonic. I’ve come to know
the stf of marriage between people of the same during a massive terrorist attack by isis. In the violence at the heart of America very well.
sex, but now it has become much worse”, says the evening, upon returning to the hotel room, The generosity and grace as well, but just
Maria Helena. Expanding the range of actions, Peter felt paranoid for the first time in a long this unremitting violence.”, complements the
they will form partnerships with residences such time. “I’d been covering conflict for ten years, photographer.
as Casa Florescer or with other institutions and I’d always been able to prepare myself for The choice of satire as a vehicle for criticism
that also welcome lgBtQ+ people with trauma the experience. This time, caught unawares, I - rather than the deliberate use of shock - shows
and of all ages. stayed half awake the whole night”, he says. not only his experience (vast to such a young
The artists’ reports have terrifying social The shock continued to reverberate even after professional), but outlines a path contrary to that
and psychic intensity. “Many people run away the photographer returned home to New York. of the news market, as Susan Sontag explains in
from their place of origin, others leave their Until then, while using the subway, Peter found the book Regarding the Pain of Others: “The hunt
parents’ homes because of threats or leave the himself keeping his back to the wall whenever for more dramatic (as they’re often described)
streets because of beatings, all with nowhere it was possible, and scanning every face, while images drives the photographic enterprise, and
to go”. Maria Helena also wants to propose charting his escape routes. “I’d always been a is part of the normality of a culture in which shock
something like art education as a distraction visitor to other people’s conflicts, but in Paris, has become a leading stimulus of consumption
or as a support for traumatized people. In this when violence arrived so suddenly in a space and source of value”. Concerning the ‘shock-
way, art seems to have no meaning in itself, but I’d associated with comfort and sanctuary, I photos’ (as Roland Barthes called it), Sontag
in fact it is crossed by other powers, knowledge, got a small understanding of what ordinary would question: “Can you look at this?”. “There
affections, discoveries, which will be part of the people living in a war feel every day. Ten years is the satisfaction of being able to look at the
Institute’s content. A council will be formed of work in conflict, and I’d missed one of the image without flinching. [But also] there is the
with people from different areas, not only to most fundamental lessons.” pleasure of flinching [in the face of horror]”.
introduce artists and works in the exhibition Such dissonance between the Americans’ Whether by indignation, mystery or satire, Peter
circulation, but also to think about the plurality of perceptions of the post-9/11 wars and the manages to maintain, throughout Sorry for the
projects to be generated. Instituto Transarte will violence experienced by people trapped in War, the prevalence of “why?”. “Why was this
continue to include exhibitions, public notices, conflict zones is the narrative basis of Peter’s face in Guantanamo hidden?”; “why do people
book publications and artistic residencies. “We latest project, Sorry for the War. In it, the photos go to museums to look at drones?”; “why is the
are talking about an Institute, but it would be a sequenced in a non-linear manner interlace scenario behind this child in ruins?”; “why is
non-profit ngo. Our proposal is anti-market, we and sew together the war in Iraq during the there a huge sporting celebration in the middle
start selling at a low price between three and time of isis, the mass exodus of refugees to of a book about conflict?”
five thousand reais, divided into up to 10 times, Europe, militarism, terrorism, nationalism,
and the artist can still receive it in advance, myth-making and war propaganda. The material visualizing war?
except for works by foreigners.” gathered in Sorry for the War (whose texts and At a time when politics is often consumed by
Maria Helena’s boldness in adolescence, subtitles are written in both English and Arabic) citizens in a visual way - through social media,
living in a conservative society, seems to be reminds us that although the recent wars of the video news coverage or popular culture - the
the foundation of her strong and determined United States have been virtually forgotten, need to become aware of the weight of visual
personality today. Born and socialized in an their consequences continue to reverberate, communication is ever-more pressing. “This
elite family, she has always been involved in art, as the author notes. The disturbing, endowed need becomes even greater when we consider
influenced by her close relationship with her with acid humor (accentuated by the plasticity that so few of us now have direct experience
uncle Arthur Luiz Piza and by her marriage to brought in by the use of flash and the cunning of war or the military”, argue Nick Robinson
Maria Bonomi, both emblematic engravers in the ordering of images in the book), contradictory, and Marcus Schulzke in the study Visualizing
history of Brazilian art. Maria Helena remembers mysterious and sometimes condemning records War? Towards a Visual Analysis of Videogames
the time of delusions, of love deprivation, when are articulated by Peter to study the construction and Social Media. According to the authors,
a kiss with another teenager was only possible of the idea of an endless war. Although it shows war - as it is increasingly experienced by its
inside an elevator. She talks about her part of a a post-9/11 world - “attack that ‘gave us license’ citizens remotely - ends up being presented as
void that was only filled after she left São Paulo to use our fears as an excuse for anything” -, a spectacle centered on the usage of ever-more
to settle in San Francisco, a city with loose Sorry for the War fulfills the duty of using recent powerful and technologically sophisticated
social rules and where she got even closer to history as a guide, but not to be limited to it, since artillery (e.g. recent images demonstrating the
art. Graduated in chemistry and with an mBa one should “also have to look at the totality of power of the Iron Dome in Israel, sometimes
from fgv, Maria Helena completed her studies American history as a framework. Things don’t similar to scenes from Star Wars, other times
in the United States with Masters in Marketing just happen because of one event, they happen with fireworks).
and in Arts Administration, working at sfmoma, as part of the continuum of history”. Off the front, Robinson and Schulzke point out that: “The
at the San Francisco Opera House and at the the photographer focuses on the aftermath consequences of this increasing portrayal of
Catharine Clark gallery. of this culture, “serving both as evidence and war as entertainment may suggest a move
She returned to Brazil in 2002 and produces interpretation of a country gone adrift, with often towards an increasingly soporific citizenry that
and coordinates exhibitions in several museums. disastrous consequences”, and including the becomes progressively disengaged, no longer
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