Page 110 - ARTE!Brasileiros #56

ENGLISH VERSION IMAGE AND POWER

more like art fairs’ special booths. Koch still loses compared to 5,000 in pre-pandemic times - the sales or computer courses, and at the same time, they
because she’s being exposed in places of passage, institute continued with relative financial stability will be replaced by images that the public does not
a poetic set that deserved to be on a smaller scale. thanks to its current multiannual plan, which already really understand what they do there... this type of
But yes, there are a few works that think the had guaranteed resources from sponsors such as disturbance is what interested me to put in that place”,
present, and one of the most striking is Derrubada, Vale, Itaú and Barbosa Mello Construtora. At the says the artist. In addition: “Empty packages have to
by Clara Ianni, who simply leaves on the ground all the beginning of the pandemic, some cuts were made in do with the “after” of things, which is something that
flagpoles, which are in the external area of the pavilion the workforce - there are about 400 direct contractors we and Brumadinho have to deal with”.
and that usually celebrate the internationality of the and a few hundred more outsourced - but, according The site specific work by Rommulo Vieira
event. It is one of the few works that point to the place to Grassi, with the gradual resumption of operation, Conceição, entitled O espaço físico pode ser um lugar
of pariah that Brazil has become in the world, without the number is already approaching what it has been. abstrato, complexo e em construção, is also based
possible dialogue in the international scenario, even “And at that point, we prioritized reformulating the on the relationship with the physical and cultural
if in the catalog this is seen only as a commentary of boards, cutting ‘on top’ to preserve the jobs of place. With strong colors and shapes that refers to
the end of “national representations” in the show. those who needed it most, especially the people of both religious elements - such as Christian, Jewish
Brumadinho”. As 80% of its workers live in the city - and Muslim temples - and a playground, the artist
institutions inHotim [paGEs 20 to 24] located in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte proposes a reflection on knowledge and coexistence.
and which has around 40 thousand inhabitants -, “The work leads the visitor’s gaze to different
ART AS A “VACCINE Inhotim is one of the main pillars of the local economy. points of view, accentuating the disorientation of
The institute has never ceased, however, to
this space in a state of construction”, explains the
FOR THE SOUL” also depend on the contributions of Bernardo artist. According Conceição, originally from Bahia,
Paz to close the accounts - which vary between
but who has lived in Porto Alegre for over 20 years,
Open-air contemporary art museum R$ 36 and R$ 39 million a year. Away from the “by shuffling architectural elements from different
and Botanical Garden, Inhotim seeks to presidency since 2017, Paz is still present in the religions, with which the public can identify, I sought
overcome difficult times through new museum’s daily life. In this sense, Grassi reports to create a kind of harmony, albeit labyrinthine; make
partnerships and with the inauguration on the current efforts to increase funding, not possible a strange coexistence”. Finally, he refers to
of works by Lucia Koch, Rommulo Vieira only through Brazilian companies and the circle the importance of this debate in the context in which
Conceição and Aleksandra Mir of patrons, but also through international funds that religious extremism and fundamentalist discourses
support culture and the environment. Categorized
increase in Brazil.
as a civil society organization of public interest The third opening in Inhotim, the Entre Terras
By marcos Grinspum fErraZ (oscip), Inhotim was also recognized in 2010 as a show, brings together four large-scale drawings by
Botanical Garden, as well as a museum, and gathers the Polish artist, based in England, Aleksandra Mir.
on a saturDaY in november 2019, alongside more than 4.3 thousand Brazilian native and exotic Part of the Mediterranean series (2007), the works
hundreds of visitors who strolled through the gardens species. According to Grassi, if the total costs for were produced during a period spent by the artist in
and pavilions of Inhotim, this arte!brasileiros report maintenance were covered by sponsorship and Sicily, when she paid attention to the importance of
followed what the institution considered to be a support, the resources coming from Bernardo the Mediterranean Sea as a political territory, marked
celebration - the end of a troubled period and a breath Paz could be used for new projects at the institute. by migratory flows and power disputes. With the
recovery for the largest open-air museum in the world. Grassi has a clear perception, however, that appearance of maps, mixed with representations
With the opening of a major exhibition, the reopening the current situation in the country is not the most of small people, flowers, crosses and writings in
to the public of famous works by Matthew Barney, favorable for those who work with culture, environment stylized letters, “the work draws attention to the
Tunga and Yayoi Kusama, and the inauguration of and education - the museum’s educational sector cultural manifestations carried by those waters over
new permanent works by Robert Irwin and Claudia involves an extensive training program and music millennia, as agents of exchange between societies
Andujar, Inhotim had put an end to a period that school. “Even if the current political situation has and the displacement of individuals”, as stated by
included court battles of its creator, Bernardo Paz, not directly affected us, in the sense of having an the institute’s curator, Douglas de Freitas.
in 2017; an outbreak of yellow fever in the region approved plan, with well-established supporters Like Lucia and Rommulo’s works, Mir’s exhibition
in 2018; and the tragic collapse of the Vale mining and sponsors, it is inevitable to see that we are in is part of the program entitled Território Especifico,
dam in January 2019, which flooded large areas of a scenario where artistic and cultural institutions, a research axle that guides Inhotim’s programming
Brumadinho and left more than 250 dead. It was art and culture in general, has skated to survive. for the 2021/2022 biennium. After the collapse of
hard to imagine that anything worse would happen. And although this had already been announced the dam, the transformations in Brumadinho and
However, just four months later, Inhotim, like all since the electoral campaign [of Bolsonaro] -, it was the crisis generated by a global pandemic, Minas
cultural institutions in the country, had to close its thought that the exercise of power would bring some Gerais museum’s quest to intensify its relations
doors because of the covid-19 pandemic - and its diplomatic adjustment. And, tragically, we haven’t had with the city and, at the same time, reflect on the
especially tragic consequences in Brazil. that, we’re seeing an escalation worse and worse. This social and territorial conflicts advancing in different
It was once again in the search for better times, is very serious”. As for the environment of censorship regions of the world.
therefore, that Minas Gerais’ “museum park” of the arts that reappears in the country, Grassi adds:
inaugurated, at the end of August of this year, large “We never had any specific case in Inhotim, but living *The journalist was invited to a press-trip by Instituto Inhotim
commissioned works by Lucia Koch and Rommulo in a context in which we know this exists already
Vieira Conceição and an exhibition by the Polish artist contaminates us, affects us”.
Aleksandra Mir. If the public, with masks on their institutions paulista musEum [paGEs 26 to 30]
faces, was much less numerous than that seen in new works
2019 due to sanitary protocols, It did not cease to be From Inhotim’s relationship with Brumadinho comes A PRIVILEGED PLACE
noticeable once again a celebratory mood - or at least the commissioned work by Lucia Koch, which
relief - from visitors, employees, artists and curators occupies both museum areas and billboards on TO RETHINK HISTORY
present. “Precisamos de ‘vacina no braço’” (a saying the city’s streets. Koch says, in fact, that Propaganda
in Brazil that means: “We need to get vaccinated”), appears in the city and ends up in the institute, not After extensive renovation, Paulista Museum,
says the institute’s president, Antonio Grassi. “But the other way around. Invited to think about a work in Ipiranga, should reopen in 2022 with
here we also take care of people’s heads. I think we in 2019, the artist from Rio Grande do Sul, based in physical and conceptual adaptations,
should work with this idea that Inhotim can be a São Paulo, found an atypical situation in the region establishing new correlations between past
vaccine for the soul”. after the collapse of the Córrego do Feijão dam: and present that do not perpetuate watertight
“We have come from a series of experiences “The entire city, in mourning, overturned by mud
that affected us a lot and, when we thought we had and ore, begins to receive huge indemnities [from visions and consolidated discourses of power
overcome these stages, the pandemic hit us, the worst Vale], a situation that leads to an explosion in the
of all situations”, says Grassi about the seriousness market for imported cars and luxury condominiums. By maria HirsZman
of the current situation. On the other hand, he This is revealed in the images around the city, in
emphasizes: “It’s not that we have specialized in the number of billboards there”. Intrigued by that Closed to visitors in 2013 due to structural problems
facing crises, but we certainly learned a lot about paradoxical situation, Koch continued a research in the building, the Paulista Museum of the University
this ‘survival mode’ that we were forced to undergo in of nearly three decades in which she photographs of São Paulo - known as the Ipiranga Museum -
these periods”. The “survival mode” in the pandemic the interiors of empty packages and prints them in has been going through an extensive physical and
went in different directions. In the relationship with large dimensions. conceptual renovation project. And it should reopen
the public, the virtual presence was intensified - with This time, the packages chosen were a sack of its doors next year, taking advantage of the occasion
online exhibitions, posts on social media with images Arco-Íris charcoal - a common brand in the markets of Brazil’s Bicentennial of Independence, to bring
and texts about the collection, unpublished videos of Brumadinho -, a cheese maker (queijeira) used its new configuration to the public. In addition to
made with artists and musical presentations, among in the region and a cardboard box. Without leaving adapting the neoclassical palace to the demands of a
others. “We know that it would never be possible for completely clear what the photos register, which end contemporary museum, the modernization process
Inhotim to exist without face-to-face experience, up resembling a type of cave or some architectural faces the challenge of proposing new readings and
but today I believe that we can no longer give up the structure, the images started to occupy billboards in interpretations of history, re-discussing, reclassifying
virtual experience either. That will stay”, says Grassi. the city. “The idea that these panels will not have, for and rethinking this heritage in order to establish
Now, the allowed audience is 1,000 people a day, a year, advertising for cars, condominiums, insurance new correlations between past and present that do
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