Page 112 - ARTE!Brasileiros #57

ENGLISH VERSION EVERYTHING IN CHECK

of reflection in recent years, she realized that curatorial proposal, you can go to the collection – topics that also guide the program of the new
she needed to rethink some structures of the and find things on any topic. You can tell many phase of the institute and mark the artist’s work.
association, including establishing a type of stories, assemble different clippings, including In this proposal, the “Nature” pillar allows us to
independence for vB in relation to her own person. ones that dialogue with local contexts. This is think of the ecosystem as identity, but it also
“Because the huge, wonderful collection is also our great treasure.” offers an opportunity to eliminate the supposed
frightening. The pandemic brought a cruel fact Finally, the biggest celebration should be the dichotomy between nature and culture. At the
of life, the realization that we can die at any time. holding of the 22nd Bienal Sesc_Videobrasil - same time, its choice is linked to the fact that
And what happens to this collection? It can’t just which was on hold due to the pandemic - in 2023. “it is impossible to think about nature without
be in my hands, I saw that I need to think about Now it will happen exactly four decades after thinking about territory, without thinking
continuity. the incipient 1983 festival. Curated by Raphael about cosmologies”, says Júlia Rebouças, the
The responsibility for a collection with high Fonseca, from Rio de Janeiro and Renée M’boya, institution’s current artistic director, who shares
maintenance costs, which includes not only the from Senegal, the exhibition at Sesc 24 de Maio the exhibition’s curatorship with the Venezuelan
works gathered over the 21 festivals - several of was already in the planning stages when it had to Julieta González .
them made from commissions -, but also entire be canceled, but it is now resuming production at “In Brennand’s universe of creation there is
collections donated by artists (or their families) an accelerated pace. At the beginning of the year, a great diversity of hybrid species, which fuse
such as Rosangela Rennó, Rafael França, Marina there will be an open call for projects by artists, animal, mineral and vegetable existences, always
Abs and Moysés Baunstein accelerated the idea who will be added to the five artistas that was in tension with human forms. Nature is also

of transferring the care of the collection to other already invited for the edition. “We will have to present from the coexistence with these two
institutions. The implementation of this plan adapt the themes and the curatorial approach to very important entities, the Capibaribe River and
would not mean, however, the disengagement a different world, very different from that of two the Varzea forest, constituents there of what he
of this collection from the association, as Farkas years ago”, concludes Farkas. understands as the factory’s territory, ”, explains
emphasizes. At this point, she exemplifies the Rebouças. It is precisely to this environment
richness of the material citing some names that institutions BrEnnand institutE [paGEs 34 to 37] that the “Territory” axis refers, with a focus
have at least two works in the collection: Akram on the geography and history of the region.
Zaatari, Barbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca, “BUT THE CLAY AND “We are developing specific actions for the
Enrique Ramirez, Eder Santos, Bouchra Khalili, region, which began with the strengthening of
Cao Guimarães, Jonathas de Andrade, Liu Wei, THE WATER CONTINUE a relationship network. In 2021, in addition to
Marcellvs L., Maya Watanabi, Sebastian Diaz TO TURN IN THE extensive teacher training and partnerships
Morales, Seidou Cissé, Vincent Carelli, Virgínia with Federal University of Pernambuco,
de Medeiros, Walid Raad, Walter Silveira, Ximena POTTERS’ HUTS” we launched an educational residency that
Cuevas and Ximena Garrido-Lecca. even served to raise job propositions in the
With all this in hand, vB began to come out of its Transformed into an institute, the factory region. With the deepening of these actions,
paralysis with the creation of the Videobrasil Online of the late painter and sculptor Francisco our educational sector is being formed and
platform, in September 2020, at the height of the Brennand moves towards the future and projects and work policies with Varzea must
pandemic. “In this absence of physical space, it balances itself between the founder’s be announced soon”, says the artistic director.
was very clear to me that the video’s place is in fact tradition and growth beyond his self “Cosmologies”, in turn, intends to approach the
on the small screen. And that it makes sense, more mythologized figure fabulatory and self mythologizing aspect of the
than ever, to refocus on video, which is the origin of artist (who described himself as “feudal” and
the association.” The virtual page, which features By miGuEl Groisman “superstitious”) through the archetypal and
both exhibitions with works from the collection philosophical evocations in his works. “They
and unpublished productions, is already in its when his father hanDeD him the keYs to the [referring to the sculptures Brennand called
ninth exhibition, by the Argentine artist Gabriela olD faCtorY, the artist Francisco Brennand ‘guards’] are on top of the wall that actually
Golder. The exhibition, the second of a partnership confessed that he went in there, never to leave, surrounds the entire factory and that closes
with Kadist (an institution with headquarters and so he did. It was on November 11, 1971 that off the citadel, with all its mysteries.”
in San Francisco and Paris) which opened with Brennand, aged 44, decided to occupy the ruins According to Rebouças, “Brennand understood

an exhibition by the American Lynn Hershmann of Ceramic São João da Várzea - a 15 km² complex that the memory and preservation of his work
Leeson, will continue with a collective only for - and turn it into his studio. needed the tension of the present. The creation
women from the two institutions’ collections. Brennand took two steps before he died (in of the institute with the purpose of housing other
The exhibitions of Abdoulaye Konaté (Mali), December, 2019): “He made his own funeral urn in productions was a result of this”. Here are two
Ayrson Heraclito (Brazil), Ayoung Kim (South a set of sculptures called the Temple of Sacrifice; missions for the new phase of the factory, one is to
Korea), Giselle Beiguelman and Ilê Sartuzi (Brazil), and transformed Oficina Brennand into a private create dialogues with the contemporary - whose
Calderon y Piñeros (Colombia) and a group show institution for public purposes. It was ensured that art Francisco publicly acknowledged: “None of this
on the prison system in Brazil, curated by Juliana the land where the factory is located could not be interests me”; the other is to preserve the artist’s
Borges, also took place at vB Online this past sold or have its purpose altered. In this way, his memory beyond his fortress. An example of this
year. “So Videobrasil Online emerged, in large work could not be forgotten”, as noted by art dealer are the pieces he donated to the Sculpture Park, in
part, as a project that works in this virtual world Cecília Ribeiro Peirão. The creation of the urn is Recife, due to the 500 years since the discovery of
and that minimally fulfills this role of digitizing intrinsically linked to its deep relationship with the Brazil - many of which were stolen over the years.
and activating the collection. It’s an exhibition place. To Folha de S. Paulo, in 2013, he confessed: Curiously, in the 2012 documentary, homonymous
platform that forces us to digitize the media, “I’ve been dealing with fire for many years… I want to the artist, he says: “The sculptures will receive
subtitles, create new entries and put everything to transform myself into what is ceramics, so I’ll sun and rain, cross night and day and they will last
on the air, with a global audience reach, which is be cremated, I go back to this urn, part of my forever if they are not destroyed, only the hand of
fascinating”, says Farkas. ashes will be in it and the rest will be thrown at man can destroy them”.

The “bounce back” of vB also takes place in the house in the [engenho] São Francisco, where Regarding the future safety of the pieces in the
Vitória, at the invitation of the Espírito Santo I lived, where my family came from”. Sculpture Park, Marianna Brennand, grand-niece
State Government, with a large exhibition that Now, half a century after the artist’s occupation, of the sculptor and president of the institute, says:
will occupy two spaces in the city: at the Espírito the factory transformed into an institute organizes “This project has suffered from vandalism since
Santo Museum of Art there will be a large part of a large exhibition that will show around 200 items - its inauguration, with great misfortune. Over time
the collection of the association; at the Homero including paintings, sculptures, prints, serigraphs some works were replaced, but in recent years
Massena Museum, a curatorship based on more and documents - from the institute’s permanent the situation has worsened and almost all works
than 300 videos of performances kept by vB, collection (which has more than 3 thousand works), in bronze were stolen”. She notes, however, that
which will be assembled in a large audiovisual private collections and museums. “I never worried the current administration of the city hall (from
installation. In addition, on display at the Museu about unity because the feeling I have is that there João Campos) is committed to bringing a long-
da Língua Portuguesa, in São Paulo, there will are many, we are many”, the artist attested. term solution, not only with the restoration of the
be the Sonhei em Português! exhibition, which Titled Devolver a terra à pedra que era: 50 anos park, but with actions to reinforce the safety of
houses a room with vB videos related to themes of da Oficina Brennand, it will run until October 2022. the space. “Oficina Brennand is collaborating
migration and the diaspora of peoples around the Its curatorial approach is based on the conceptual and providing the necessary support, in addition
world. “It’s an example of how, based on a given pillars “Nature”, “Territory” and “Cosmologies” to supplying replacement parts and working
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