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in closed tubes does not slip through and, with the same material, even the 1980s and was impressed. Her
the hourglasses and alludes to one of recorded how to make medicine”. This collection of pigments placed in
man’s oldest wishes: to stop time. With mixture of science and culture is at the bottles already exceeds thousands
a serialist character, the tubes, which beginning of the study of colors that and she does not intend to stop. Each
are repeated, can be produced up to moves in a very vast field. “Chemistry glass is a window into the fascinating
several meters, which impacts when is of decisive importance, because world of geology and earth history.
they are installed in large spaces, as we have to know what the material is The clays that make up the collection
happened in Germany. and how that material is transformed”. were formed over millions of years by
In the field of sculpture, there are For her, alchemy also has its charms the action of wind and rain on the cliffs
large pieces made with cellulose and because the idea of transmuting things, and rock formations of Paraíba. Over
natural pigments that take on organic to transform them in a more poetic time, the minerals present in the rocks
forms. A series of circular cellulose way, it’s magical. “Aristotle spoke of were deposited in the clay, giving each
plates takes center stage due to the colors, as did Vitruvius, Pliny the Elder, layer a unique color and texture. The
pictorial materiality of the dense layers long before Christ. For me, philosophy Greeks call paradox what we call things
of pigments. This year she opened a structures everything in a person’s life. that amaze, the materials collected and
gallery, the Costa e Almeida Art Office, If today I were to start all over again, I classified are, for the most part, from
located in Bananeiras, in one of the would choose philosophy again so that the Northeast, but there are examples
historic places of the city, where she I could be an artist and a researcher”. of clays from all over Brazil.
was born, with an exhibition of her Marlene reveals that her ideological Marlene’s idea is, in the future, to
latest works. Under the title Copaóba, structure also comes from philosophy. leave this material, which also has
brought together large-scale works She has always been a notorious lef - a pedagogical character, in some
with tempera paintings. When visiting wing political activist. public space, to have a more collective
the exhibition, the critic Marcos Lontra She exalts the ancestral wisdom of the purpose. “Also so that people who visit
wrote: “All the landscapes built by indigenous peoples by remembering it can get to know and imagine a land.
Marlene aim to present to each one of that some native peoples work with the A different land, for us to look at, feel
us the physicality and transcendence clay where they are settled and name and, above all, love, and then we will
of the lands of the world and, with that, their territory by the color of the soil. “The be free to dream”.
give meaning and beauty to that breath, clay from the Tabatinga region, which
to that enchanted and small period of is an indigenous name, means white book review [pages 64 and 65]
time that constitutes human life on this land. That of Tauá means colored land
planet, on this earth”. and presents an infinite range of colors. A LIGHT ON THE
Looking through the rearview mirror, There are many names of territories INDIGENOUS UNIVERSE
the artist is not sure exactly when she derived from the color of the soil”. Sesc Ipiranga launches a book about the
decided to live for these endeavors. “I The museum she intends to create work of photographer and ethnologist
don’t know if I was in the studio, looking in João Pessoa, with all her finds and Harald Schultz, who recorded the daily life
at a blank canvas and thinking: I don’t studies, will be an extension of her of Brazilian villages
want these paints anymore, I need to go work that now connects with the rest writing
to a barrier to get some dirt to make a of the world. “From the beginning of my
special paint. Or if I was in Cabo Branco, research, I had wonderful sources. Today, photographer harald schultz
where I saw some beautiful clay and the internet enhances my searches even emerged at a time when the indigenous
decided to take it to the studio and make more”. Marlene cites study groups in universe was not fully revealed. Almost
paint”. In any case, Cabo Branco, the Chile that are conducting an important all knowledge about the culture of
northernmost point on the Brazilian study on clays. “In Portugal there are the original peoples was transmitted
map, is the emotional landmark of also researchers with good studies by “accredited” ethnologists,
her work. Marlene has not read Lucy on pigments. Currently, we have the anthropologists and sertanistas.
Lippard, the American art critic, but, opportunity to discuss the work with Schultz had a dual profession, he was an
like her, she emphasizes the need to a much broader perspective”. ethnologist and a photographer, which
establish a singular relationship with With all the violent climatic changes, made his coming and going between
the surroundings, to account for the I wonder if the colors have also the University of São Paulo (usp) and
geographic imagination. changed in these more than 50 years. fieldwork in the villages much easier.
The insatiable desire for discoveries “No, because 50 years in geology is a Today, the decolonial process has
was the driving force to broaden her very short time. In the early 1980s, in changed the panorama, and indigenous
research, which she only understood Chapada do Araripe, Ceará, I found people from various Brazilian tribes
much later. “In addition to being a green clays, very difficult to locate. A attend universities, make films, videos,
researcher, this work made me a clay long time later I returned to the same write books, and many of them also have
collector.” Marlene speaks of the study place and found the same formation still their place of speech. In short, they are
of colors as something very broad, and with the green clays that I had collected their own mouthpieces.
which began with the philosophers 40 years before. Geological time is slow, Within the context of disseminating
of antiquity. “They studied medicine, a different time”. essential works and research, Sesc
pharmacy, geology and geography at Marlene’s studio is astonishing to Ipiranga launches the book Indigenous
the same time. These scientists wrote anyone unfamiliar with geology and Cultures in Brazil and the Harald
down not only color in the codex, but used to thinking of the earth as brown. Schultz Collection, organized by
also the recipe on how to prepare it I myself discovered the collection in curator Ana Carolina Delgado Vieira and
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