Photo of the essay about Estação Primeira de Mangueira, carried out by Maureen Bisilliat in 1969.
Photo of the essay about Estação Primeira de Mangueira, carried out by Maureen Bisilliat in 1969.

Now or Never – return: audiovisual landscapes by Maureen Bisilliat

Em Now or Never – return: audiovisual landscapes by Maureen Bisilliat, English photographer Maureen Bisilliat, based in Brazil since 1957, brings together for the first time part of her audiovisual production in an exhibition, with extracts from 12 videos. 

Bisilliat begins to trace a relevant path in video from the 1980s, when she was already established in the field of photography. The exhibition seeks records of her, presenting an overview of her most recent production as well as a response to those who have been portrayed by her before in her photographs. There are interviews with Darcy Ribeiro, Roberto Burle Marx, Pietro Maria Bardi and Alberto Korda. Highlight for the video Mangueira Hill, where she meets characters photographed by her in the 1960s, when working for Quatro Rodas Magazine.

Your images of mangueiras in green and pink costumes (the colors of Estação Primeira de Mangueira), including a portrait of the composer Cartola, were made on the hill where the school is located and composed the subjects It's always summer in this bay e The drumming of the babes. Some of these records and others made by Bisilliat in the Banda de Ipanema in the 1960s/70s can be consulted in his own collection at Instituto Moreira Salles

WHEN: The visitation goes until April 5th at 20 pm
WHERE: Gallery 1 of Instituto Moreira Salles Avenida – Avenida Paulista, 2424, São Paulo/SP

Mice and Vultures, Drop My Fantasy

The photo shows the sculpture "Cristo Mendigo" that was the opening car of the Ratos e Urubus parade. In the image, the sculpture is covered in garbage bags as a censure, and carries the banner that reads "Even forbidden, watch over us!"
Open wing “Cristo Mendigo” in the Ratos e Urubus parade, Drop My Fantasy. Photo: Sebastião Marinho (O Globo Agency)

Named after the emblematic parade of the Beija-Flor de Nilópolis samba school – which took place some carnivals ago, more specifically at dawn on February 7, 1989 – the exhibition that occupies the Tarsila do Amaral Gallery, at the São Paulo Cultural Center (CCSP) , pays tribute to the parade and the carnival artist Joãosinho Trinta, who referred to the event as a “Street Opera”. 

In the show, Ratos e Urubus enters as more than inspiration or reference, the samba plot is brought as one of the works that are part of the exhibition, through a curatorial work with the imagery and video records of the parade, the sketches of the floats and the “ behind the scenes” of its construction process. Raphael Escobar, Barbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca, Nuno Ramos and Márcia X are part of the exhibition with selected works and also commissioned works. Check out our full article by clicking on this link.

WHEN: The visitation goes until the first of March at 20:30
WHERE: Tarsila do Amaral Gallery, at the São Paulo Cultural Center (CCSP) – Rua Vergueiro, 1000, São Paulo/SP

MAKE IT GO 

Still from the video installation "FAZ QUE VAI" by Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca showing the dancer Edson Vogue
Still from the video installation “FAZ QUE VAI” by Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca

“Faz que vai”, a frevo step that simulates a moment of instability, names the 12-minute short by the audiovisual artist duo Barbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca. For the work, they portray four dancers in their respective ways of articulating a form of this popular tradition in the state of Pernambuco. In fact, this is one of the points of greatest interest for the duo when developing the project: the updating of tradition – a place of instability for the artists, which is metaphorically related to the movement of faz que vai. 

Frevo emerges shortly after the end of slavery in Brazil, when troops at the carnival of military bands hired groups of capoeiristas to lead the procession and ward off street gangs from the city by opening their umbrellas in front of the crowd as a movement to control violence. improvised crowds. When the umbrellas diminished and the movements of the capoeiristas began to become more and more stylized, frevo appeared. Throughout our history, people of diverse origins have found means of collective expression in opposition to colonialism. Today, frevo has become a UNESCO heritage site and is taught in schools. 

In the way of updating the tradition, the capoeiristas of Wagner and Burca are not male bodyguards, but mostly effeminate men and a trans woman. In her work, the manifestation of this street dance, in a three-dimensional space, is completely transformed in front of the camera, weaving a series of notes between it, the registered body and the typical dance that moves it, without losing sight of the music as the core of the issue. since for the duo “music is the element that constitutes a kind of foundation for the practices we research. Be it dance, video clips, song”.

Check out the complete work on Wagner and Burca's website, accessing this link.


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