Page 109 - ARTE!Brasileiros #56

the capital of Brazil is no longer Rio de Janeiro, it is curator brought the event into a direct relationship one of the first sets of the show, a display that shows
transferred to Brasília and materializes an aesthetic with the new, exposed the postal art, the video text, a rock burned along with the entire building of the
ideology launched by Le Corbusier. It was just the showed the anti-art of the Fluxus group, opened it to Museu Nacional in 2018, and that, because of the
beginning of an explosive era. Mario Pedrosa, the the performances of the English duo Gilbert & George heat, went from amethyst, a variety of quartz of violet
best known Brazilian critic internationally, is chosen and provided a deep analysis of Arte Incomum with color, to citrine, yellowish in color. “It’s still the same
as curator of the edition, which exhibited a consistent participation of psychoanalysts and scholars on the rock because it knew how to transform,” explains the
retrospective of the German Kurt Schwitters, a production of people with mental illnesses. text next to the window.
revolutionary in the assemblages who influenced In the process of occupying the 33,000 square This vision of resistance, which is already after all
the pop Robert Rauschenberg. Pedrosa exhibited meters of the Bienal’s pavilion, the 18th edition, in the terrible title of the Biennial - an excerpt from
works by Maria Helena da Silva, who won the award, curated by Sheila Leirner, distinguished itself with Thiago de Mello’s poem, from 1965, when associating
and also showed the socialist realism of the Italian the impact caused by Grande Tela, a set of three the black with something negative was not a poetic
Renato Guttuso and the paintings of the Mexican corridors measuring 100 meters each that displayed license in question, as it is being attentive today - ends
muralist Orozco. Pedrosa, since years before, wanted hundreds of neo-expressionist paintings from various up reinforcing, at the end, a vision of meritocracy:
to show suprematism, the revolutionary movement countries. Also in this edition, Marina Abramović and “Because it knew how to transform itself”. And what
created by Malevich in 1915 and consolidated in the Ulay finished the performance Nightsea Crossing, about all the other treasures, burned, that turned to
first years of the Russian Revolution, but ended up started at the Sydney Biennale in 1981 and which dust because they weren’t rocks?
bringing in insignificant young artists, which, in some totaled almost 600 hours and 94 days. In it, the Thus, what is perceived from the very beginning is
ways, has let down certain critics and artists. performative couple remained seated, looking at that it is a show about a capacity of resistance based
each other for seven hours, in seven days, without more on individualistic than collective actions, on
DiCtatorship anD repression moving. Alex Vallauri takes his mundane graffiti to isolated rather than community acts.
The 1960s shook the world and the Bienal, also the Bienal and builds the house of the “Queen of Other examples in the same vein are the thought-
affected by political-ideological changes, tries Roasted Chicken”, personified by his friend, the provoking portraits of Frederick Douglass (1818-1895),
to survive under Pedrosa’s slogan: “Art is the actress Claudia Raia, then 18 years old. a black American abolitionist, and especially the
experimental exercise of freedom”. It was the time It would be unwise to neglect the 24th edition, from “Black Admiral”, leader of the Chibata Revolt, João
of counterculture, Vietnam war, Latin American 1998, with its approach charged with “brasilidade”, Candido (1880-1969). Arrested in 1910, in the dungeon
dictatorships. The 1964 civil-military coup, delivered translated into Antropofagia and curated by Paulo of Ilha das Cobras, in Rio de Janeiro, he participates
against Brazilian democracy, put many intellectuals in Herkenhoff. The cross-sectional historical exhibition in the “Biennial of Hope” with two embroideries
prison. The period coincides with the Bienal’s decline. included works from the colonial period of the made there, while 16 cellmates died asphyxiated.
In 1965, Maria Bonomi, upon receiving the award for 19th century and established juxtapositions with Released two years later, he was expelled from the
best engraver, takes the trophy with one hand and, contemporaneity, as in Tunga’s Eixo Exógeno, which Navy and had a life of deprivation. Romanticizing
with the other, hands over to President Castelo Branco dialogued with the painting Lea e Maura, by Guignard, these embroideries verges on being perverse.
a letter signed by intellectuals and artists asking for one of the girls portrayed being Tunga’s mother. The At this time, it is unavoidable the question of what
the release of critic Mário Schenberg, of sociologist silent contemplation of the visitors contrasted with led the team of curators, composed of Jacopo Crivelli
Fernando Henrique Cardoso and other intellectuals. the strident objects gathered in Paulo Bruscky’s Visconti (general), Paulo Miyada (adjunct) and the
Two years later, iconic works of American pop room in the 26th edition, 2004, curated by Alfons guests Carla Zaccagnini, Francesco Stocchi and Ruth
art land at the Bienal. Works by Andy Warhol, Roy Hug, whose reinterpretations opened up to other Estévez to select examples of actions of resistance
Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg experiences of time and memory. in distant times, when one is facing the greatest
and Robert Indiana show that one can work with the At the 2006 Bienal, curated by Lisette Lagnado, health crisis of the last 100 years, which has shaken
icons of a country’s mass culture, with criticism and American artist Jimmie Durham, of Aboriginal origin, the artistic activity in a catastrophic way, combined
humor, without making it socialist realism. The award wrote an open letter that he sent along with his work, with the unprecedented political crisis in Brazil, which
is given to Jasper Johns for the series Three Flags, in which he denounced the situation of indigenous virtually made unfeasible the laws to culture support.
while Quissak Júnior, a young Brazilian artist, had people in Brazil, stating that the Bienal had not been We live the politics of the culturally scorched-earth,
his work banned by the police for using the national interested in the subject. This intervention to confront but the biennial sings.
flag. Brazilian pop also showed its dimension with colonialism was an unusual milestone. By choosing There is virtually no reference to the present, and,
works critical to the system, such as those by Claudio Incerteza Viva as the theme, curator Jochen Volz scheduled to be held last year, the exhibition now
Tozzi, Antonio Henrique Amaral, Rubens Gerchman placed the environment in the debate of the 32nd on display ignores the urges of those who actually
and Nelson Leirner. Quoting Michel Foucault, “power Bienal de São Paulo, edition with major participation resist. Perhaps it is in their own good will to want to
produces before it represses; it produces ways of of women and the first black co-curator, Gabi Ngcobo. give some kind of hope that the show sinks into an
living and it produces realities”*. In recent years, the Bienal has opened its doors escape from the present. The French writer André
Two years later, the Bienal suffered an international to various collectives of artists who gravitated, still Gide (1869-1951) argued that “good literature is not
boycott as a result of military intervention in the oblivious, around Brazilian production. Most with done with good intentions or good feelings”. The
exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio, gender insertion, Afro-descendant and indigenous same stands for a biennial, of course.
which exhibited the works that would go to the 6th minorities, who updated the dialogue, but not always There is more biennial atmosphere in the show
Paris Bienal; some were considered offensive to with works worthy of a biennial. There is no single Dizer Não, organized by Ateliê 397, in its new space in
the regime. Mario Pedrosa was exiled to Chile in worldview as a means to relate the present to the past, the neighborhood of Barra Funda, than in Ibirapuera
1971 and provoked a letter of repudiation signed memory to identity and to open up to the multiplicity Park. There are hard-hitting works, such as João
by dozens of personalities, such as Octavio Paz of readings and debates about current socio-political Loureiro’s installation, Serpente, which houses a
and Pablo Picasso. Contrary to expectations, demands. The Bienal de São Paulo reaches its 34th boa constrictor hidden in the environment.
leftist critic Mário Schenberg did not boycott the edition and shows signs that the artistic and political
Bienal. For him, staying was a form of resistance, moment calls for deep reflection and new attitudes inDigenous presenCe
of guaranteeing the place of protest. Convinced of to overcome the poverty and obscurity that currently Although too sanitized, which also includes
his position, he organizes a hall with young artists, grips Brazil. architecture, even if innovative in materials and
among them José Roberto Aguilar, Carmela Gross, transparencies, Faz escuro mas eu canto has a
Ione Saldanha, Claudio Tozzi and João Câmara. The *Loose translation from Portuguese historical presence of indigenous artists: Daiara
Bienal was experiencing a sad moment when it saw Tukano, Sueli Maxakali, Jaider Esbell, Uyra and
the biggest art project the country had ever had in review 34 sÃo paulo BiEnnial [paGEs 18 and 19] Gustavo Caboco. It is not, however, a research with
tH
tatters. And why has Brazil never received the Grand new discoveries, after all the group in its entirety has
Prix (Itamaraty) at the Bienal de São Paulo? There “BIENNIAL OF HOPE” been already inserted in the contemporary art circuit,
was never a convincing explanation. What is known having participated in exhibitions at Pinacoteca do
is that the only Latin American country to achieve this ROMANTICIZES Estado (Véxoa-nós sabemos, organized by Naine
feat was Argentina in 1977, with Grupo de los Trece, Terena, in 2020), Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de
led by Jorge Glusberg. CATASTROPHES Janeiro and even at Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil,
with the exhibition Vaivém in 2019. Undoubtedly it is
DemoCratization Faz escuro mas eu canto (Though It’s a deservedly conquered presence, which someday
In the 1980s, with the beginning of the political Dark, Still I Sing), in Ibirapuera Park, also needs to reach the curatorship, a difficult issue
overture, the countries that signed the boycott brings significant and aestheticising in the institution, which continues with under-
returned to the Bienal. Galleries multiply and the traffic sets of Brazilian artists, but leaves representation in the presence of women and without
of the international artistic community intensifies, transgressive activities in the past any black representation in the general direction of
no longer just centered on the event period, but the show; in what Venice and Kassel, with whom the
throughout the whole year. Walter Zanini takes over By faBio cypriano Bienal de São Paulo likes to compare, are already
the 1981 edition emphasizing the experimental and much more advanced.
creates zones of questioning, without worrying about Faz escuro mas eu canto, the 34th São Paulo The 34th Biennial also brings significant sets
certainties. Like Harald Szeemann, he is directly Biennial is undoubtedly a “Biennial of Hope”, as of star artists on the circuit, such as Antonio Dias
involved with artists in carrying out their work. He promised by the direction of the institution. Many (1944-2018), Lygia Pape (1927-2004), Lasar Segall
changes the structure of the Bienal, exchanging the are the works that seek to point to a character of (1889-1957) and Eleonore Koch (1926-2018). Groups
montage by countries for the language analogy. The resilience, transformation through struggle, as in of artworks always pleasant to see, but that look
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