Page 111 - ARTE!Brasileiros #57
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With regard to the inclusion of artists   in Brazilian underground cinema, the subject of   at this moment, it is what is connecting us”, she
          representing art brut or art outsider in the “official   her graduation work at ufBa, Solange let herself   told arte!brasileiros still in 2020.
          market circuit”, which has been growing since   be carried away by Thomas’ stimuli, added to the   Another long battle waged by vB over the
          the Palazzo Enciclopedico exhibition, at the 2013   clear perception that video was establishing itself   decades, perhaps tougher and more permanent,
          Venice Biennale, and inserting itself in museums   as a new language in the country and in the world.  refers to the association’s decision to dedicate
          such as the Met and the Moma, the Christian Berst   “In the early 1980s, video was emerging as   itself to the artistic production of the so-called
          Art Brut, from New York, introduced Czech artist   a piece of equipment. There were cinema and   Global South, defined in one of its publications
          Luboš Plný, whose potent work is the product   television, but not what we call video”, she says   as “the term referring to cultural condition,
          of his fascination with medical iconography. He   in an interview with arte!brasileiros. The Brazilian   economic and political aspects of countries
          even provokes and studies situations in his own   production prior to this period, still in the 1970s,   and territories on the margins of hegemonic
          body, almost like performances, testing his limits.   was basically limited to the core of professor   modernization and central capitalism”. After the
          His work has already been presented at the 17th   Walter Zanini, who after acquiring equipment   festival’s internationalization in the 1980s to 1990s
          Venice Biennale and at the Musée National d’ Art   abroad for mac-usp ceded its use to artists such   and the inclusion of the term “electronic art” in
          Moderne in Paris, in 2013.        as Regina Silveira, Wesley Duke Lee, Carmela   the event’s name in 1994, Videobrasil established
           In the contemporary art sector, Brazilian   Gross, Julio Plaza and José Roberto Aguilar. “But   itself in fact as a platform dedicated to productions
          gallery Jaqueline Martins, who recently opened   the most affordable video equipment only arrived   “outside the traditional axis formed by Europe
          a branch in Brussels, presented a landscape built   in the early 1980s and Thomas realized there was   and the United States”.
          with wooden sculptures, each part of a fictional   something big there. And he asked me if I didn’t   The concept of the Global South, however, has
          composition.                      want to do an exhibition, or something like that,   always been changing and also includes territories
           As always, fiac took over the city in association   that would encourage artists to use the video and   that are internal to the central countries: “It is a
          with the Louvre Museum,  presenting Hors   show this production.”   political South, not exactly a geographical one.
          les Murs, around 20 works and installations   And so the first edition of the festival was held,   It’s not cutting the globe in half”. The approach
          distributed along the Jardin des Tuileries and in   at the Museum of Image and Sound in August   to different regions in Africa, Latin America,
          the center of Paris.              1983, on a still small scale compared to the   the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Asia,
           Visiting fiac, for shoppers or for those who are   current biennial, but with a competitive exhibition,   among others, has placed vB at the forefront,
          aware of the international movements of modern   performance presentations, installations and even   but it has also created a series of difficulties in
          and contemporary art, is always an immense   a fair of new technologies such as computers,   a geopolitically unequal world. “Even among
          pleasure, even more so because it allows you   teletext and video games. It was the context of   the artists, some told me: I don’t want to go to
          to visit French museums and institutions whose   the last years of dictatorship - works had to be   Africa, I want to go to Paris. Because everyone,
          curatorships and exhibitions are always a new   subjected to censorship - and the general tone was   in order to exist, wanted to go either to Europe or
          discovery.                        one of criticism of the open television monopoly,   the usa”, she says. “It was our activism to try to
                                            which was appeased in the following years with   create bridges, networks, which would allow the
          institutions vidEoBrasil [paGEs 28 to 36]  the approach of video producers and directors to   transit between us in the Global South, so that
                                            tv channels . Since then, history is long, full of   it could exist without artists always having to be
          FOUR DECADES WITH                 changes and upheavals, and always linked not only   stamped by the north.”
                                                                                If the issue is far from being resolved, Farkas
          LENSES POINTING                   to political and cultural contexts, but also to the   sees a huge change these days, with the
                                            path of audiovisual technological development.
          THE SOUTH                          After holding eight festivals, Solange created   proliferation, for example, of cultural spaces and
                                            the Associação Cultural Videobrasil in 1991, with   artistic residencies in places previously excluded
          After an unstable period, Associação   a statute that provided for the maintenance and   from the global map of the arts. In an interview
          Cultural Videobrasil announces the 22nd   activation of the growing collection of works and   given in 2020, at the first peak of the pandemic,
          Bienal Sesc_Videobrasil for 2023, 40 years   publications gathered at the events. The following   she said: “There is an interesting thing - if it is
          after its first festival, and will schedule a   year, Sesc-sp joins as the festival’s main partner,   possible to talk about something interesting at
          large exhibition of the collection in Vitória   which has enabled it to be held with great structure   this time when there is so much suffering, so
          (ES) starting in March            since then, in units such as Pompeia, Belenzinho   many people suffering - which is that all the great
                                            and 24 de Maio.                   certainties, the guidelines always placed from
          By marcos Grinspum fErraz                                           there to here, from North to South, are being put
                                            first battles                     into question. (…) In this sense, we are a little alike.
          after a perioD of great unCertainties   Not only were the filming equipment changing, but   facing some alternatives and solutions; we who
          anD instabilities - which obviously have not   the storage technologies and care of the collection   live in permanent crisis and who have always had
          completely dissipated in Brazil today - the next few   themselves. “Keeping the video physically alive is   to deal with precariousness and find alternatives,
          years promise to be a prolific and even celebratory   very expensive,” explains Solange. “It’s extremely   especially in the field of art and culture”.
          period for Associação Cultural Videobrasil (vB).   fragile media for conservation and extremely
          First, for the 40th anniversary of the 1st Videobrasil   fickle, because every few years the preservation   fall anD Come baCk up
          Festival, held in 1983, still in the last years of the   media of the moment changes and you have to   Long before the pandemic, other milestones
          country’s civil-military dictatorship. Second, for   convert everything again. I’ve been doing this for   in Videobrasil’s history were the inclusion, as
          the confirmation of the holding of the 22nd Bienal   40 years and it never stops, it’s even possible to   of 2011, of a wide range of artistic supports
          Sesc_Videobrasil in 2023, postponed for two years   do a media archeology based on this vB story.”   beyond video and electronic art in festivals and
          due to the pandemic and which will already have   Due to the enormous costs of this work, Farkas is   exhibitions; and the move of its headquarters,
          activities scheduled for next year. There is also a   already negotiating the transfer of the vB collection   in 2015, to a great warehouse in Vila Leopoldina
          major exhibition of vB’s vast collection in Vitória   to the technical reserves of institutions with   (São Paulo). In 2019, the event also assumed
          (Espírito Santo), starting in March, the continuity   greater structure, in a process that should have   the name of Biennial, renamed Bienal de Arte
          of virtual exhibitions on Videobrasil Online and   a conclusion in the near future.  Contemporânea Sesc_Videobrasil (Contemporary
          participation in other projects such as an exhibition   Connected to this technological history is also   Art Biennial Sesc_Videobrasil). But the vB, like so
          on display at the Museu da Língua Portuguesa.  the institution’s long battle for the recognition of   many cultural institutions, was not immune to the
           Established curator with extensive experience   video as a relevant artistic support, as important   uninterrupted crises experienced by the country in
          in Brazil and abroad, former director of the mam-  as any other. “Prejudice against video, within   recent years, especially under the Jair Bolsonaro
          Ba (Modern Art Museum of Bahia) and in charge   the arts scene itself, was very heavy”, she says,   government. With the difficulty in raising funds,
          of Associação vB since the beginning, Solange   who was both an observer and an agent of the   the association returned the shed (where it held
          Farkas was just a recent graduate - in journalism   transformation of this perspective over the   important exhibitions) in 2019 and faced a kind
          and art history from the Federal University of   decades. Interestingly, with the current Covid-19   of institutional paralysis. “It is impossible to
          Bahia - when she decided to hold the Videobrasil   pandemic and the long confinement of people to   plan any project in front of a government that
          Festival. Already based in São Paulo, her father-  their homes, the curator notes a greater return   disrespects culture, attacks culture, eliminates
          in-law, Thomas Farkas (1924-2011) was the main   to this media: “It is interesting to think about   culture. In fact, this concerns culture, the press
          motivator, one of the most important names in   how video, at this moment, occupies a central   and democratic institutions, in this clear flirtation
          modern photography and cinema in Brazil and, at   place in all fields of culture. Video is the mode   with totalitarianism”, said Farkas in 2020.
          the time, owner of Fotoptica. Already interested   of communication, it is the possible expression   The director also says that in a deep period
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