Page 102 - ARTE!Brasileiros #58

ENGLISH VERSION DEMOCRACY AND REPARATION

with a collaborative and conceptual activity, which puts formation of a more plural national culture, were some of a period of darkness and this resistance, this moment of
into practice the maxim preached by the German Joseph the objectives of the event, which unfolded in 10 meetings strength of possibilities, of openness is fundamental”,
Beuys: “Everyone is an artist”. Through this, new ethics between March and December, with dozens of guests he concludes.
are in fact realized. and which can be seen on the organizers’ Youtube. It “This is a never-ending theme”, says Gênese Andrade,
was also in 2021 that many museums (MAM-SP, MAC- organizer of the anthology Modernisms 1922-2022 and
the Centennial week of 22 rEPort [PAGES 56 to 62] USP and Pinacoteca, among them) preferred to hold who defines the Week as the first performance with great
their exhibitions around modernism, detaching itself repercussion in the country. “As performances tend to be,
RETHINKING MODERNISM from the obligation to participate in the celebratory it was very little seen. There is talk about a scene about
calendar and opting for a less nuclear perspective. The
which there is only a blurred memory, a fame without
FROM THE WEEK OF 1922 Museum of Modern Art stood out with the exhibition of these fluid contours that it lends itself so well to the
ballast many times,” she says. Perhaps it is because
and catalog Modern where? Modern when?, curated
The Centenary celebrated this year by Aracy Amaral and Regina Teixeira de Barros, and role of synthesizing a disparate, scattered, prolonged
broadens the debate on the vanguards, which not by chance adopted the phrase: “The Week and unequal process as was the penetration of modern
relativizes the centrality of the São Paulo of 22 as motivation”, evidencing the importance of the thought and language in Brazil.
Another interesting aspect of this centenary, which
event and stimulates discussion about the Week as a fundamental element, but not necessarily the will possibly bear fruit in the future, is the effort to
locomotive of the process of “ updating ” of Brazilian art,
unfolding and effects of movement in time which unfolded in different ways in time and territory. bring together thinkers from different backgrounds,
and space By the way, the terms adopted in the titles of the areas of knowledge, regions of the country and even
numerous publications already released or still in from different generations. Memories, reflections,
By MArIA HIrSzMAN press on the subject are very illustrative: Semana questionings compose a diverse panorama, sometimes
de 22: Antes do Começo, Pós do Fim (Brazil Station), even contradictory, but complementary, as it is possible
Celebrations of ephemeris are often a mere Modernidade em Branco e Preto and Modernisms 1922- to discover in the pages of the anthology. There are
formality. But in the case of the Modern Art Week, this 2022 (Brazilian Station), Modernidade em Branco e studies that help to understand the symbiosis between
remembrance is unavoidable. After all, if we keep looking Preto and Modernisms 1922-2022 (Cia. das Letras) the Week project and a larger project to elevate São
at that past for too long, something of it survives and translate in a very synthetic way some of the fundamental Paulo to national political and economic leadership.
makes us think not only about our roots, but about how questions that constitute the backbone of how the São Felipe Chaimovich, for example, makes an interesting
they help define our future. There is something singular Paulo movement is being thought of today. analysis of the Prado family’s articulations with the ways
in these festivities around the 100th anniversary of the After all, how does 2022 see 1922? And how has of seeing and sponsoring Brazilian arts.
event, a desire to better understand its meaning. And this vision been transformed over time, helping us to Therefore, the association between the Week and the
there is also a kind of anxiety, a desire to revive a spark understand more about the historical moment and idea of avant-garde is diluted. To use a military term other
that helps us to illuminate the present, finding some also about the current moment? How does Ana Maria than the front platoon (after all, modernity was imported
breath that helps us to face contemporary anguish and de Moraes Belluzzo write in a text published in the from France, years later, and adapted in different ways
paralysis – seeking with a mixture of nostalgia and fatigue Modernismo catalog where? Modernism when?, it is across the country), one can adopt the cannon metaphor,
to understand and defend transformative projects. a collective project of national interpretation, which as an instrument that launches a projectile far forward,
The list of meetings, exhibitions, book and magazine places us in front of different modernisms. She reminds as a weapon of prolonged effect.
launches that revolve around the three-day meeting held us that we cannot forget that, in addition to the Semana
at the Municipal Theater of São Paulo in February 1922, de 22, we have other moments of great historical density alternative moDernisms anD popular Culture
is enormous, which over time became the founding that helped to compose our modernity, such as the There are, especially in São Paulo, options of all kinds for
myth of national modernity. And it just grows. There are Revolutionary Salon of 1931, in which great names of those who want to dive into this universe. The exhibition
countless approaches adopted and it is a relief that in national art participated in even greater intensity (such Once upon a time the Modern , on view at the Fiesp
this centenary there is little room for frozen and merely as Cícero Dias, Ismael Nery, Guignard, Goeldi…). As Cultural Center and organized in partnership with the
laudatory looks. It is true that such a profusion of studies other prominent events in the modernist field, it is also Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros (IEB), has been identified
and presentations leaves room for both long-term debates possible to mention the Regionalist Congress, held in as the largest exhibition on Brazilian modernism ever
and neighborhood fights that have long been outdated, 1926 in Recife, in addition to a series of publications, held, with more than 300 works and documents that they
but that act as bait for clicks and likes in our world of magazines or manifestos published in different places in are normally preserved from the public in the technical
digital warmongering. Brazilian territory without the Week being even mentioned. reserves of the USP institution, which has among its
The contrast between the volume of thought contained “Modernism cannot be seen as a canon, but rather as treasures the archives and collection of Mário de Andrade,
in the exhibitions, catalogs and anthologies and the a moment of very great wealth,” she says. “I don’t know material extensively revisited in publications, studies
shallow aspect with which the mainstream media has why these people keep wanting to know where it starts. and theses.
been treating the event is glaring, as the little that Don’t start, popcorn”, she jokes. “Whoever asks this Also with stunning dimensions, there is the Raio-que-
has been seen in the press on the subject is riddled question thinks that history is a linear process”, explains o-parta exhibition which is part of Sesc-SP’s celebrations
with historical errors, usually called fake news, which the researcher, who this year organizes the program around the Week and which brings together an expressive
perpetuate widely repeated misconceptions such as the Modernismo Hoje , a series of 11 episodes that discuss set of more than 600 works, made by 200 artists from
alleged participation of Tarsila do Amaral in the Week the emergence and development of modernism, an different regions, generations and languages. The
(she was in Paris and only joined the group later) or initiative of the Academia Paulista de Letras. exhibition provides important space for more popular
the conspiratorial idea that the boos heard during the Nobody really knew what that was in 1922, explains forms of expression such as print, photography and
presentations at The Municipal Theater would have Thiago Gil de Oliveira Virava, author of Um Boxeur na popular art, which are usually less valued by the
been hired cheerleaders by the artists themselves to Arena: Oswald de Andrade and the Visual Arts in Brazil, literate elite, but which play a fundamental role in the
value their performances, something that recalls the to be released this year by Biblioteca Brasiliana and Sesc, dissemination of modernity in the country.
daily manipulations of contemporary times and which along with other award-winning works that deal with our The strength of popular culture and the erasure
was vehemently denied by Oswald de Andrade in Diário double celebration of the year: the centenary of the Week of the racial issue are also important elements of the
Confessional, a work republished by Cia. das Letras of Modern Art and the bicentennial of Independence. book Modernidade em Preto e Branco , by researcher
along with other works of his authorship. At that moment, according to him, what differentiates Rafael Cardoso. “The names of our canon derive
Despite accusations of excessive paulistocentrism the movement is that there is a group, which began to almost exclusively from the elitist spheres of literature,
and a certain effort to point out a series of gaps and form around the Anita Malfatti exhibition in 1917, whose architecture, art and high music, while the alternative
contradictions present in that group, there is an increasing participants defend each other and prepare for this modernisms that sprang from popular and mass culture
consensus among researchers that the importance offensive. Evidently there was a political articulation are forgotten or ignored”, writes the author who analyzes,
of the Week is more symbolic than real. It is also no and it was not for nothing that they chose the year 1922 among others, the cases of Arthur Thimoteo da Costa
longer news that many of the participating authors only (they even considered organizing the Week in 1921, but and Lima Barreto, black painter and sculptor, both dead in
consolidated their modernity in the future and that it is the coincidence with the celebrations of the centenary 1922, whose “alternative” modernism was long ignored.
necessary to expand the look beyond São Paulo, beyond of Independence made them postpone the exhibition). But as Cardoso himself says, “the past always finds a
the milestones of 1922 and to social segments ignored by The project was gradually built up, based on both an way to haunt the present again”.
the modernists in the period. This does not take away from articulation with the Parisian avant-gardes – with Tarsila The racial issue, which in recent years has yielded
the emblematic importance of the Week, as a moment and Oswald later, between 1923 and 1928, acting as a kind some of the most innovative reinterpretations of the
of condensation of a slow and more comprehensive of ambassadors in the French capital – and the attempt country’s history, was also markedly present in the cycle
process of modernization in the country. Perhaps this to create a national network of exchange and dialogue. of events organized by the Municipal Theater itself, stage
more attentive and diverse observation confirms that “Which does not mean that they were determining what of the actions of 100 years ago. In a speech marked by
there was something premonitory in the answer given modernism would look like in those places,” he warns. denunciation and reflection, the poet and researcher
by Manuel Bandeira to a reporter in 1952. Said the Allan da Rosa deconstructed myths and not only clearly
poet,Os Sapos , read during the week, was booed: “I a theme that never enDs demarcated the elitist character of the event, but also
think it’s perfectly unnecessary to celebrate the thirtieth “1922 is a landmark of modernism, if it was built a posteriori, described what was happening in the city of São Paulo
anniversary of the Week. Waiting for the centenary. If in it doesn’t matter” highlights Lauro Cavalcanti, director while the elite fought on the theater stages. Averse to
the year 2022 they still remember it, then yes.” of Casa Roberto Marinho and curator of the show Fluxos the celebration of the popular as an explosion of carnival
do Moderno , on display at the Rio de Janeiro institute joy, Allan spoke about urbanity, exclusion, opacity and
visions that transform until June. Bringing together works by the Week’s forgetfulness. According to him, just remembering that
The kick-off for reflections on the week’s developments unavoidable names and lesser-known artists today, such the Week was held under the sponsorship of the coffee
began last year, with a series of meetings sponsored as Roberto Rodrigues, brother of Nelson Rodrigues who aristocracy, allied to financial capital and commercial
by a consortium of cultural institutions in São was murdered at the age of 23 by a journalist - who was capital, is to take sand to the beach. It is important to
Paulo: Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo Museum of outraged by the publication of a cartoon alluding to her look at urban culture, ignored, present in work corners,
Contemporary Art and the Instituto Moreira Salles. alleged betrayal -, the exhibition has moments of great in the kitchen, in everyday life. It is important to think
Illuminating blind spots, placing the Week in a less actuality and defense of modernist ideals. “More than ever about those people who did not even know about the
mythical and more real context, inserting it in a process of in Brazil it is necessary to celebrate modernity. We are in Week, because it had “a very white, terribly white look,
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