Issue #55 contributors

The daily lives of the Brazilian people are permeated by African influences in the way we express ourselves – whether in intonation, vocabulary, pronunciation or the way we construct our thoughts. The temporary exhibition is about these influences. African languages ​​that make Brazil, curated by the musician and philosopher Tiganá Santana and realization do Museum of Portuguese Language, an institution of the Secretariat of Culture, Economy and Creative Industry of the State of São Paulo. The exhibition opens to the public on May 24 and will be on display until January 2025.  

The exhibition has master sponsorship from Petrobras, sponsorship from CCR, Instituto Cultural Vale, and John Deere Brasil; and support from Itaú Unibanco, Grupo Ultra and CAIXA. 

Languages ​​of the inhabitants of sub-Saharan African lands, such as Yoruba, Eve-fom and those of the Bantu group, play a decisive role in the configuration of the Portuguese spoken in Brazil, whether em their vocabulary or in the way they pronounce words and intonate sentences, even if this structure is not known to the speakers. It is a history and a reality left by around 4,8 million African people who were violently brought to the country between the 16th and 19th centuries, during the period of slavery. In addition to the language, this presence can be felt in other cultural manifestations, such as music, architecture, popular festivals and religious rituals.  

“At the same time that we want to show the public that we speak a series of expressions and structures that go back to black-African languages, we also want to reveal how this happens. Why do we speak youngest and not Benjamin? Why do we say doze and not doze“These words are part of our vocabulary, our life, our way of thinking,” says Santana. 

The exposure African languages ​​that make Brazil welcomes the public with 15 words from African languages ​​printed on oval wooden structures hanging around the room. Words such as bunda, to curse, marimbondo, Palm oil, hominy, worm e youngest. The public will also be able to hear them in the voices of people who live in the territory of Estação da Luz, where the Museum is located.  

Another highlight in the space is the work of the Bahian artist J. Cunha – a fabric printed with the words “Bantu Civilizations” who dressed the traditional Ilê Aiyê, the first Afro block in Brazil, in the 1996 Carnival. In addition, around 20 thousand cowries will also be suspended and distributed throughout the area. In the Afro-Brazilian tradition, shells are used in divinatory practices and function as a language that connects the physical and spiritual worlds.  

“The cowrie shells are present in Afro-religious spaces in Brazil, which were not exclusive, but the main centers of preservation and reinvention of African languages ​​in Brazil. From there, black presences radiated to other dimensions of Brazilian popular culture,” says Santana. 

Still at the entrance to the exhibition, the public will see several adinkras spread across the walls. These are symbols used as a writing system by the Ashanti people, who live in countries such as Ivory Coast, Ghana and Togo, in Africa. They can represent everything from different elements of culture to entire proverbial sentences in a single ideogram. Evidencing the presence of this people as part of the African diaspora, it is possible to find, in various regions of Brazil, railings of residences and other architectural constructions adorned with some of the more than 80 adinkra symbols. 

The exhibition includes two video installations by the renowned visual artist from Rio de Janeiro Aline Motta. In the work Celestial Body III, loaned by the Pinacoteca de São Paulo and projected on the floor on a large scale, the artist highlights ancient forms of Central African writing, specifically those of the Bakongo people, present in territories such as Angola. This work was developed with historian Rafael Galante. Already in Celestial Body V, created exclusively for the Museum of the Portuguese Language, four proverbs in Kikongo, Umbundu, Yoruba and Kimbundu, translated into Portuguese, will be displayed in movement on the walls and in dialogue with Celestial Body III.  

One of the main names of the new generation of sculpture in the country, the Bahian Rebecca Carapiá  signs works of art created in dialogue with Afrocentric frequencies and spellings, based on his work with metals. 

The exhibition also shows how popular songs in Brazil were created from the integration of African languages ​​and Portuguese, such as Slaves of Job and Open the Wheel, tindolelê. The “Jó”, from the track Job's Slaves, comes from the Kimbundu and Umbundu languages ​​and means “house”, “house slaves”. “Enslaved ladinos, creoles and black women, who performed domestic work and spoke both the Portuguese of their masters and the language of those who performed external work, were the bridge for the Africanization of Portuguese and for the Portugueseization of Africans in the linguistic and cultural sense”, says Tiganá Santana based on research by professor Yeda Pessoa de Castro. 

In addition to the cowries, the exhibition explores other non-verbal languages ​​originating from African or Afro-diasporic cultures. Among them, braided hair, which, during the period of slavery in Brazil, served as maps of escape routes. And turbans, whose different ties indicate hierarchical position within Candomblé. There are also two works by the designer Goya Lopes, whose main references are the capulanas, the colorful cloths worn by women in Mozambique. Such works emphasize a significant articulation with the Yoruba language. 

Another example of non-verbal language are the drums, which make up a scenography consisting of a projection created by Aline Motta, with images of the sea and excerpts from the text Racism and Sexism in Brazilian Culture, by Lélia Gonzalez, one of Brazil's leading intellectuals, a reference in studies and debates on gender, race and class. In these excerpts, the use of the expression Portuguese coined by the intellectual. Finally, still in this scene, it is important to highlight the presence of sculptures by Rebeca Carapiá, conversing with the frequencies of the drums. 

In an interactive cinema room, visitors will be surprised by a projection of images when pronouncing words of African origin such as axis, afoxé, zombie e Shrimp bean ball.  

The public will have access to a series of recordings of Afro-Brazilian cultural manifestations and content about African languages ​​and their presence in Brazilian Portuguese. There will be a performance by singer Clementina de Jesus, images of the Folklore Research Mission conceived by Mário de Andrade, interviews with researchers such as Félix Ayoh'Omidire, Margarida Petter and Laura Álvarez López, as well as recordings of performances by the Ilú Obá De Min group and the Orkestra Rumpilezz, and the video Soul Orderer, by Eustáquio Neves, which portrays Mr. Crispim, from the quilombola community of Ausente or Córrego do Ausente, in the Jequitinhonha Valley region.  

All this amidst the sounds of ritual songs and narratives in Yoruba, Fom, Kimbundu and Kikongo, recorded by the American linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner in the 1940s in Bahia and provided by Indiana University in the United States. It will also be possible to watch films about Quilombo Cafundó: one that had existed for over 40 years and another that was conceived for the exhibition, dealing with the Cupópia language in a more emphatic way. 

Service
Exhibition | African languages ​​that make Brazil
From May 24th to January 18th, 2025
Tuesday to Sunday, from 9am to 16:30pm (staying allowed until 18pm)

Through a partnership between the São Paulo Biennial Foundation and the Government of the State of Espírito Santo, together with the State Secretariat for Culture and the Government Secretariat, the city of Vitória (ES) will receive a special selection from the 35th São Paulo Biennial – choreographies of the impossible in two different locations: the Espírito Santo Dionísio Del Santo Art Museum (MAES) and the  Anchieta Palace Cultural Space. During the opening, on the day 28 August,  Anchieta Palace Cultural Space It also hosts a presentation by Vale Música, a series of original programs that are part of the Vale Cultural Institute.

Another artist native to the city, Rubiane Maia, will perform The tongue always bends before the unquestionable or cursedto, Performance Book, Chapter VI (2018-2024) on the day August 30th, at 17pm, at MAES, with free admission. The work was commissioned by the São Paulo Biennial Foundation for the 35th Biennial and co-realized with Sesc. In the performance, the artist organizes a series of actions designed in response to autobiographical texts, particularly influenced by traumatic transgenerational memories linked to issues of gender and race.

Curated by Diane Lima, Grada Kilomba, Hélio Menezes and Manuel Borja-Villel, the exhibition will be on display in the capital of Espírito Santo 29 August a 3 November, with free entry. Participating in this tour at the Espírito Santo Art Museum Dionísio Del Santo (MAES) Sasmita's image, Leilah Weinraub, M'barek Bouhchich e Rubiane Maia. At the Palácio Anchieta Cultural Space, participants will be Brazilian Castiel Vitorino, Ayllu Collective, Art and Politics Research Group (GIAP), Malanche, Marilyn Boror Bor, Maya Deren, Quilombo Cafundó, rosana paulino e Sarah Maldoror.

Service
Exhibition | 35th São Paulo Biennial – choreographies of the impossible
From August 29th to November 3th
Espírito Santo Dionísio Del Santo Art Museum (MAES)
Tuesday to Friday, from 10pm to 18pm
Saturday, Sunday and holidays, from 10am to 16pm
Anchieta Palace Cultural Space
Tuesday to Friday, from 9pm to 17pm
Saturday, Sunday and holidays, from 9am to 16pm

In September, Fortaleza will host another itinerant São Paulo Biennial, which this year reaches its 35th edition, with the title choreographies of the impossible. Curated by Diane Lima, Grada Kilomba, Helio Menezes e Manuel Borja Villel, the itinerary will open on September 10th, at 18 pm, marked by a ceremony at the Museums Balcony and a vernissage at Museum of Contemporary Art of Ceará (MAC-CE), at the Dragão do Mar Center for Art and Culture (with entrance via Av. Presidente Castelo Branco S/N, corner with Rua Almirante Jaceguai). Access is free.

After the opening, the exhibition will remain on display until November 10, with free visits from Wednesday to Friday, from 9 am to 18 pm, and from 13 pm to 18 pm on Saturdays and Sundays, with last admission always at 17:30 pm. The exhibition has sensory accessibility resources, such as audio guide, Libras, audio readings, prints in enlarged font, Braille, tactile map, easy reading, handtalk and tactile interaction.

The 35th São Paulo Biennial – Choreographies of the Impossible takes a poetic look at the complexities and urgencies of the contemporary world, encouraging visitors to reflect on social, political and cultural issues. Diane Lima, Grada Kilomba, Hélio Menezes and Manuel Borja-Villel are the curators of the exhibition, which for its tour in Fortaleza brings together works by Cozinha Ocupação 9 de Julho – MSTC, Deborah Anzinger, Denilson Baniwa, Gabriel Gentil Tukano, Katherine Dunham, Leilah Weinraub, MAHKU (Huni-Kuin Artists Movement), Maya Deren, Melchor María Mercado, Nadir Bouhmouch and Soumeya Ait Ahmed, Nontsikelelo Mutiti, Nikau Hindin, Rosa Gauditano, Simone Leigh and Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich.

Artists and Works

Among the artists who are part of the collective, Amazonian Denilson Baniwa, in Kwema [Dawn], combines resistance, belonging and beauty. With the set of works Kaá, Itá and Tatá, he makes reference to the ancestral practices of the Baniwa people in the face of the mythological and structural attacks faced by their community. Each of the works is produced in partnership with the educator and indigenous leader Jerá Guarani, Aparecida Baniwa and the researcher Francineia Baniwa.

Gabriel Gentil Tukano, also from Amazonas, who died in 2006, is honored with works that perpetuate the Tukano cosmogony and the sacredness of the ancestral territory.

Also on display are pieces by Jamaican artist Deborah Anzinger, whose work moves between language and materiality, exploring binaries that oppose and constitute each other.

The exhibition also includes the work of Katherine Dunham, a pioneer of modern dance, with video recordings of the choreographer's research into rhythms and gestures in the Caribbean region between 1940 and 1960.

In the film Shakedown (2018), Leilah Weinraub documents the life and culture of a lesbian strip club in Los Angeles, resulting in an intimate, daring and celebratory film-experience of African-American lesbianism.

The MAHKU collective, formed by artists Ibã Hunikuin, Kassia Borges Karaja, Acelino Hunikuin, Bane Hunikuin, Mana Hunikuin, Itamar Rios, Yaka Hunikuin and Cleudo Hunikuin, presents paintings that bring visual translations of the sacred Huni Meka songs, reverberating cultural activism and the preservation of the lands of the original peoples.

Visual artist and educator Nontsikelelo Mutiti, who designed the visual identity of the 35th São Paulo Biennial – choreographies of the impossible, promotes a dive into the meanings of braids and hair as one of the elements of the African diaspora that carry not only political and aesthetic meanings, but subjective ones, which say a lot about the daily lives, experiences and history of black people in the diaspora.

In the Album of Landscapes, Human Types and Customs of Bolivia, produced in the early days of the Republic of Bolivia, the watercolors painted by Melchor Maria Mercado during his travels through Bolivian territory are presented, now exhibited outside his native country.

The different formats of the works by the duo Nadir Bouhmouch and Soumeya Ait Ahmed constitute an expanded space for the arts and oral traditions of the Amazigh communities of North Africa, referring to a central square, a place of meeting and relationships.

In Nikau Hindin’s project Maramataka: The Stellar Lunar Calendar. De-colonising Time, next to a large aute (a fabric obtained from a long processing of mulberry bark) hangs a set of celestial charts that describe the current Maori year in thirteen lunar months. If these maps were once used to guide navigation and harvesting systems, today they reappear as a counterpoint to the Western, linear and progressive notion of time.

Maya Deren, one of the great names in experimental cinema, is also present with the film Meditation on Violence (1948), which explores dance and temporality.

The Fortaleza itinerary will be the only one to receive the collective Cozinha Ocupação 9 de Julho, from the Movimento dos Sem Teto do Centro (MSTC), which has been working in a broad multidisciplinary network since 2017, with redistribution policies, zero waste and a great concern for food security, giving visibility to the fight for housing in São Paulo.

Simone Leigh and Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich present the film Conspiracy, a work that, through overlapping tools, vocalizations and scenes that break through cinematic linearity and sequentiality, reinforces the networks of solidarity produced over centuries as spaces of insurgency by black and feminist women in the African diasporas, their multiple configurations, strategies and collective keys.

Finally, Vidas Prohibidas, with photographs by Rosa Gauditano, had its first exhibition at the 35th Bienal. The series brings together records of lesbian communities in São Paulo in the 1970s, still during the military dictatorship, which, with the fight for sexual freedom, resistance and pride, faced years of repression.

Ceará in the Visual Arts circuit

Fortaleza was one of the fourteen cities chosen, 11 of which are Brazilian and three are foreign, to host the exhibition, a critical and public success at the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion in São Paulo. The president of the São Paulo Biennial Foundation, Andrea Pinheiro, says she is pleased to see the capital of Ceará, her hometown, host the exhibition for the third time: “Bringing the 35th São Paulo Biennial – Choreographies of the Impossible to this emblematic place reinforces the connection between the Biennial and the culture of Ceará, establishing new bridges with the public and the local art scene,” she says.

MAC-CE’s manager, Cecília Bedê, emphasizes: “Over its 25 years, MAC-CE has organized an exchange of exhibitions of different types and concepts, being a vital space for the thriving artistic production of Ceará and for the circulation of national and international exhibitions. In 2017, the Museum hosted the traveling exhibition of the 32nd São Paulo Biennial – Incerteza viva. Hosting for the second time a traveling exhibition of the São Paulo Biennial, one of the most important initiatives in the world arts circuit, legitimizes this trajectory and consolidates the relevance of this space in fostering critical thinking and artistic creation.”

The superintendent of the Dragão do Mar Center for Art and Culture, Helena Barbosa, adds: “The reception of this powerful itinerancy makes this moment even more special for us, as the theme of this 35th edition dialogues with the ancestry of Dragão and its role in fostering critical thinking, by using poetics to address urgent contemporary issues, and thereby expanding institutional and curatorial limits.”

Educational actions

During the exhibition period, art education activities will be carried out by the educational centers of MAC-CE and the São Paulo Biennial Foundation.

Opening the September agenda, on the opening day, September 10, at 19 pm, visitors to MAC-CE will be able to participate in a tour led by the Biennial's educational team through the traveling exhibition. The tour will highlight the work of artists such as Cozinha Ocupação 9 de Julho – MSTC, Denilson Baniwa and Rosa Gauditano, addressing issues such as the right to housing, the presence, struggle and recognition of indigenous peoples and spaces for lesbian communities to live together.

On the 12th, starting at 16 pm, educators Bruna de Jesus and Danilo Pêra, who make up the Biennial's educational core, will guide a new visit to the exhibition, proposing dialogues with the works of artists such as Denilson Baniwa, Katherine Dunham, MAHKU and Rosa Gauditano, with poetic/pedagogical gestures-actions through reflections, expressions and experiences in the possibilities of writing, rewriting, erasures, orality and radical imaginations worked on by the education team of the São Paulo Biennial.

On the same day, at 19 pm, educators Bruna de Jesus and Danilo Pêra will hold a discussion group on the panorama of art education in São Paulo and Ceará. Access is free upon registration via the form (bit.ly/encontroitinerantebienal35ª), with registration open until September 6.

Service
Exhibition | 35th São Paulo Biennial – choreographies of the impossible
From September 11nd to November 10th
Wednesday to Friday, from 9am to 18pm (access until 17:30pm)
Saturday, Sunday and holidays, from 13pm to 18pm (access until 17:30pm)

A Nonada ZN welcomes the opening of four exhibitions that, although distinct in their approaches, present dialogues and intersections that enrich the view of contemporary artistic production. The gallery, located in Penha, Rio de Janeiro, will bring to the public works by Mario Cravo Junior, Raylton Parga, Erick Peres, Manu Costa Lima and the artists of the collective exhibition “Everything Tends To Ascend (Part II)”, which will occupy the gallery’s mezzanine. The exhibitions cover a wide range of media and artistic expressions, from sculptures and reliefs, to photographs and site-specific installations, to conceptual investigations that combine video and performance.

“Mário, Cravo, Parga and Stone” offers a rare opportunity to see two artists from different generations come together in a dialogue about the exploration of materiality in sculpture and other forms of expression. Mário Cravo Júnior (1923-2018), one of the leading names in modern Brazilian sculpture, presents works produced since the 1980s. Known for his monumental sculptures in wood and metal, Cravo developed a unique approach that deeply engages with popular Bahian culture and his Afro-Brazilian roots. Through themes such as identity and ancestry, his works reflect a search for symbolic representations that connect man to nature and local culture. Raylton Parga, in turn, brings a contemporary production that, while engaging with Cravo Júnior’s legacy, expands the possibilities of experimentation with different materials. Parga, born in Brasília in 1995, is an emerging artist with an investigative approach that combines painting, photography, cyanotype and three-dimensional sculptures. Using materials such as paper, plastic and found objects, his work questions the boundaries between the ephemeral and the permanent, and how these elements can be reconfigured in contemporary art. João Victor Guimarães' critical text highlights the contrasts and affinities between these two artists, highlighting the importance of materiality as a central point in their research.

In Room 2, the exhibition “Erick Peres – End of the City” presents a series of works by the artist Erick Peres, who returns to his hometown in Porto Alegre to revisit the memories and scars left by a flood that devastated the region. Peres, known for his work with photography and video, uses these mediums to explore the idea of ​​archive and representation. The exhibition addresses the relationship between the personal and the collective, between past and present, reflecting on the fragility of urban spaces and the resilience of their communities. Duan Kissonde’s critical text delves into the artist’s trajectory, connecting his personal experiences with broader issues of urbanization and geographic transformation. The room transforms into a space where the marks of destruction are visible, but also where memory reemerges as an element of resistance.

The installation “12”, by Manu Costa Lima, is a site-specific work that transforms the Nonada ZN warehouse through the manipulation of light. Manu, who has previously created works that interact with urban and architectural spaces, uses spot lights that run throughout the entire site and part of the space, converging at the central point. The work creates a sensory path for the public, who are invited to walk around the warehouse and explore the environment from a new perspective. The relationship between interior and exterior is central to her investigation, proposing a dialogue between the built space and the urban environment, in addition to revealing the hidden beauty that exists in everyday life. The installation, created in partnership with the Quadra gallery, is an invitation to contemplate and rediscover architecture and physical space.

The group show “Everything Tends To Ascend (Part II)” occupies the mezzanine of Nonada ZN and continues a project that began in Turin, Italy, at Societe Interludio. Curated by Francesco João, the show is inspired by the work “Rock My Religion” (1982-1984) by Dan Graham, a renowned American conceptual artist. Graham’s video, which mixes punk performances with Shaker woodcuts, explores how different cultures use art to achieve spiritual and cultural transcendence. This intersection between religion, music and art is the starting point for the participating artists – Bruno Moutinho, Francesco João, Luisa Brandelli and Virginia Ariu –, who expand this discussion through their own languages. The exhibition proposes a reflection on how art can be a vehicle for transcendence and transformation, both individual and collective. Bruno Moutinho, for example, explores the relationship between sound and image, creating installations that evoke the spirituality present in music. Francesco João, in addition to being a curator, presents works that investigate the aesthetics of repetition and ritualistic performance, while Luisa Brandelli and Virginia Ariu use video and photography to expand the concepts of memory and cultural representation. Together, the works bring a contemporary approach to historical and spiritual themes, questioning the function of art as a means of transformation.

The four simultaneous exhibitions, which occupy different spaces within Nonada ZN, propose a rich diversity of dialogues between materiality, memory, spatiality and transcendence. Each exhibition, with its own particularities and investigations, contributes to a comprehensive vision of contemporary artistic production. “Mário, Cravo, Parga e Pedra” explores legacy and innovation in sculpture; “Fim da Cidade” reflects on urbanization and community resilience; “12” transforms space through light and architecture; and “Everything Tends To Ascend (Part II)” offers a conceptual approach to the connections between art, religion and music. Together, these exhibitions provide the public with an immersive and plural experience, which unfolds in multiple layers of interpretation and sensitivity.

Service
Exhibitions | “Mario, Cravo, Parga and Pedra”, “End of the City”, “12”, and “Everything Tends To Ascend (Part II)”
From September 14th to January 25th 2025
Thursday and Friday, 12pm to 17pm || Saturday, 11am to 15pm

In a reflection on his creative process, Luiz Zerbini states that “To live is to ruminate on landscapes”. With this motto, the Banco do Brasil Brasilia Cultural Center presents the first major retrospective of the artist, one of the main exponents of the Generation 80 of Brazilian art. Entitled Ruminated Landscapes, the exhibition, curated by Clarissa Diniz, will run from September 17 to November 10, 2024, in galleries 2, 3 and 5 of CCBB Brasília. The show is an invitation to appreciate and reflect on the almost 50-year career of Luiz Zerbini, whose multifaceted and innovative work has left a profound mark on the national and international art scene.

Ruminated Landscapes was presented, with great success, at CCBB Rio de Janeiro, between June 19 and September 2, 2024. Sponsorship is from Banco do Brasil, through the Federal Law of Incentive to Culture.

In this retrospective, the public will have the opportunity to delve into the artist's peculiar and thought-provoking universe and immerse themselves in Zerbini's creative process, which describes his art as a journey of rumination, in which landscapes, dreams and memories are involuntarily crushed and reconfigured. With approximately 140 works – including paintings never before exhibited and an installation created especially for the CCBB – divided into five thematic sections, the exhibition takes visitors on a visual journey that encompasses the artist's constant reworking of landscapes throughout his career.

The exhibition highlights the centrality of landscape in Zerbini's artistic practice, which transcends the limits of painting to manifest itself in multiple languages ​​and experiments. His artistic production reveals itself as a true mosaic of shapes, colors, patterns and narratives, reflecting not only the artist's vision, but also his restlessness and sensitivity towards the world.

“Ruminated Landscapes explores some of the paths of Luiz Zerbini’s voluptuous and fascinating landscapes. By bringing together works from several decades and presenting sculptures, objects, monotypes, installations and videos, the exhibition nuances the already well-known protagonism of his painting, inviting visitors to observe how rumination has been the main creative method of this artist who, from an early age, has been chewing, digesting, regurgitating and again devouring his own references, signs, compositions, perspectives, narratives, shapes, colors, patterns and images”, comments Clarissa Diniz.

Zerbini's work is an invitation to reflect on the nature of art and its intrinsic relationship with life. In addition to his prominence as a painter, he stands out as a multimedia artist, whose multifaceted production explores the boundaries between visual arts, music and cinema. For almost 30 years, to be completed in 2025, Zerbini has been part of the sound collective Chelpa Ferro, created together with artists Barrão and Sergio Mekler, which produces works such as objects, installations, performances, as well as shows and CDs.

The exposure

The approximately 140 works in various media (painting, sculpture, installation, video) in the exhibition are divided into five sections:

“to live is to ruminate on landscapes”

This section aims to affirm the centrality of landscape to Luiz Zerbini’s artistic practice. His landscape work is not restricted to painting or specific languages, but constitutes a method of creation and experimentation that, both in art and in life, has permeated his almost 50 years of work. One of the highlights of this section is the monumental work (250 x 394 cm) “High Definition” (2009), which marks Zerbini’s return to figurative painting after a few years dedicated to working with the Chelpa Ferro group.

“the place of existence of each thing”

It brings together works that present some of Zerbini’s strategies for forging the “places of existence” in his work, combining the naturalist traditions of landscape representation with an interest in fables, memory, allegorization, dreams, and poetry. This section presents objects that are present in the paintings, exploring the idea of ​​“the place of existence of each thing”, also in the exhibition space, as in “Mesa Mar” (2017).

The core also points to the feeling of vertigo that emerges when things seem out of their place of existence, transformed into specters or fragments of themselves. This also leads to a reflection on death and mourning.

“On the allegorical nature of the landscape: Massacre of Haximu and First Mass”

In the last decade, the rumination that characterizes Luiz Zerbini's allegorical landscape has revealed its historical vocation, giving rise to paintings that reinterpret Brazil and its artistic-political representations. In this direction, the artist has combined signs and characters in large allegorical landscapes that revisit historicity in order to, through critical fabulation, remake historical readings and revive memories of resistance and insurgency. From this exercise have emerged works that iconographically confront the country's official narratives, which commonly erase

the memories of the social violence that characterizes the colonial constitution of the nation. The third core of the exhibition highlights two of these works – “Massacre of Haximu” (2020) and “First Mass” (2014) –, navigating through their allegorization to reveal Zerbini’s historical-artistic ruminations.

“I landscape”

Luiz Zerbini's landscape painting does not support the Cartesian separation between self and other, nature and culture, point of view and vanishing point. The fourth section of the exhibition presents works that, like “I Landscape” (1998), explore the implications between 'portrayed and portrayer' or 'subject and scene', recognizing that subjectivation is inherent to territories, objects, plants, chance, emptiness, etc.

Like “Useless Landscape” (2020), this section also features works that investigate the formal and ontological schemes of non-Western graphic structures that, like the Huni Kuin kenes or Indonesian Batik fabrics, develop aesthetics linked to worldviews that conceive the world without the Cartesian separation from which, in Europe centuries ago, the idea of ​​“landscape” emerged.

“it's not just about what you see”

As he writes in a poem in the book “Rasura”, for Zerbini, a visual work “is not only about what is seen”, but also about “what is thought when one is feeling, what is heard when one is seeing”. The last section of the exhibition features works whose landscape inscription extends beyond visual references, triggering sound, spatial, rhythmic or vibratory readings. In “Miragem” (2004), composed at a time when Zerbini was working intensively with Chelpa Ferro, it is possible to see how the artist articulates some of his main interests of the time: landscape, geometry and sonority/musicality.

Service
Exhibition | Ruminated Landscapes
From September 17th to November 10th
Tuesday to Sunday, from 9pm to 21pm

A Alma da Rua II Gallery opens the exhibition Playful Life, first solo show Bruno BIG in Sao Paulo. Curated by Tito Bertolucci e Lara Papa, the exhibition celebrates the artist's 18-year career, highlighting his trajectory marked by street art and the diversity of themes that accompany his personal and artistic life. The exhibition is open to the public until October 23, 2024.

Bruno BIG, known for his compositions with fluid lines, vibrant colors and striking gestures, presents in Vida Lúdica, a selection of approximately 20 works, including canvases, watercolors, drawings and sculptures. The exhibition brings together a miscellany of themes that are recurring in the artist's career, such as nature, sports, bodies and passions. According to Bruno, the choice of the title reflects the lightness and deconstruction of the symbols that mark his work, connecting art with his personal experience and life experiences.

The location chosen for the event is of great importance to Bruno BIG. From the beginning, the artist visited Beco do Batman, a reference point for street art in São Paulo, where he absorbed inspiration for his creations. For him, this is a place that symbolizes the transformation of street art and its integration with the urban and cultural landscape of the city. “When I started painting in 2006, I looked for painted walls in the cities I passed through. São Paulo has always been a destination, and Beco do Batman was one of the first places that left a deep impression on me,” says the artist.

Bruno BIG's creative process stands out for its versatility. He alternates techniques and media, ranging from graphic design to urban art, from watercolor to sculpture. In Vida Lúdica, the public will be exposed to works that refer to his childhood and the beginning of his artistic career, with colored pencil and watercolor drawings, as well as works that feature his most current technique, such as muralism; he will also present new sculptures, further expanding the limits of his artistic research.

The exhibition reflects the artist’s development over the years. After a solo exhibition in New York focused on Brazilian biomes, Vida Lúdica expands the themes, bringing to light other facets of his work, always marked by a positive visual message. “I always seek to captivate the viewer’s gaze with my compositions, regardless of the theme,” explains the artist.

Bruno BIG holds a degree in Visual Communication and a postgraduate degree in History of Art and Architecture in Brazil from PUC-Rio. Throughout his career, he has developed collaborative projects with brands such as Nike, Heineken and Red Bull, in addition to taking his art to cities such as Paris, New York, Beijing and Amsterdam. Recognized for his strong visual identity, Bruno stands out as a multidisciplinary artist, exploring different media and techniques, always with his own language. Vida Lúdica is a unique opportunity to appreciate the work of one of the leading names in contemporary street art, in his first solo exhibition in the capital of São Paulo.

Service
Exhibition | Playful Life
From September 21th to October 23th
Monday to Sunday, 10am to 18pm

Alex Červený (1963, São Paulo, SP, Brazil) opens his new solo show, Orbis sensualium pictus, and on millan, curated by ivo mosque. Featuring a set of more than twenty recent paintings, in addition to a pair of watercolors from the artist's collection, the exhibition is nourished by a myriad of narratives, from classic to contemporary, that bring reflections on the human condition on Earth, the relationship with other beings and environmental impasses.

Červený’s practice is marked by the use of multiple techniques and media, but has always been grounded in drawing and works on paper. This aspect is notable in his recent panoramic exhibition at Estação Pinacoteca, in São Paulo, entitled Mirabilia, which covered three decades of his production. Orbis sensualium pictus, however, is the first of his career dedicated almost exclusively to painting on canvas. In this, which is also his first solo exhibition at Millan, he brings together a set of more than twenty previously unseen paintings, including small and medium formats, as well as a trio of large-scale paintings, with a canvas that reaches 4 m wide.

Narrative diversity is a striking feature of the artist’s work. His paintings bring together references to different universes—from literature, music, and his own memories—in scenes filled with characters and meticulously calligraphed texts, which, when displayed together, result in new narratives in their own right. It is no coincidence that the title of the exhibition, Orbis sensualium pictus, is taken from a 17th-century textbook, often translated from Latin as “The Sensible World in Images.”

“Alex Červený is a great storyteller. Throughout his career, his artistic practice has been a work made up of maps, landscapes, portraits, travel accounts, permeated by myths, heroes, tragedies, satyrs, adventurers, gods, nymphs, saints and queens,” describes curator Ivo Mesquita in the exhibition text. “Based on his personal experience and his time, the narrative figuration of his creations takes us, with paintings, drawings and engravings, on imaginary journeys on the surface of paper or canvas, the patient, loving collection of extensive repertoires.”

Achieving this richness of detail, which fills the paintings with vibrant events, however, takes time. Born This Way (2019–2024), for example, took several years to complete. Indeed, for Červený, the process is as important as the final product, and he naturally returns to certain works every few months or even years.

Another canvas that attests to the artist's precise and zealous work is The Lusiads (2024). His largest painting to date (measuring 270 x 400 cm), it took over a year to complete and is “a dive into the feminine universe through the glossary of characters mentioned by Camões in The Lusiads”, as the artist explains. The work continues a series of large-format canvases that the artist has been producing since 2018, initially commissioned by the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain for exhibitions in Paris, Shanghai and Milan, and more recently, by the 15th Gwangju Biennale, which opened in September in South Korea.

Another turning point in the artist’s career was noted by the curator during the preparations for the exhibition at Millan. “The works gathered in this exhibition point to another moment in Červený’s production. If in previous works we experienced an elliptical time, between present and past, with the images and references they used, time now seems suspended,” writes Mesquita. “With a rarefied, dreamlike atmosphere, these works bring a more introspective, reflective look from the artist about his human condition, his time and his place.”

This feeling appears most clearly in the painting Castaway (2023-2024). The image of a man isolated on an island suggests interpretations that range from the intimate to the changes caused by the climate catastrophe. “It’s not just about loneliness. It’s also about territorial limitations, about the tightness we are beginning to experience on the planet we live on,” says the artist.

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Exhibition | Orbis sensualium pictus
From September 21th to October 26th
Monday to Friday, 10am to 19pm; Saturday, from 11am to 15pm

Neuroscience and Art dialogue in the exhibition “Neural Forest”, of the artist Janaina Mello Landini, on display in Zipper Gallery. With curatorial text by Ana Carolina Ralston, the exhibition brings together works that promote an artistic interpretation of the microscopic landscapes of the human brain.

The works are inspired by the artist’s research into the work of neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal, considered the father of neuroscience. In the late 19th century, Cajal used the Golgi technique to observe and draw brain cells in detail, revealing for the first time the so-called “neural forests” – networks of cells that make up the cerebral cortex. Using this framework, Janaina Mello Landini explores the invisible connections present in both the brain and nature, and focuses on the complex networks of synapses and nerve impulses to create a series of works that refer to neural structures and the landscape of a forest.

Described by Cajal as a “mysterious, fascinating and magical world”, this scientific universe serves as the conceptual basis for Janaina’s new series of works. The artist translates the complexity of the functioning of the human mind into her poetry, revealing, like laboratory slides, the interconnections of the cells that compose it.

“The series is not just a visual exploration, but also a philosophical reflection on individuality and the concept of “one,” not a static entity, but something in constant evolution, shaped both by the complex neural networks that govern our thoughts and by the emerging possibilities of an increasingly technological world.” – Ana Carolina Ralston, curator

In addition to the paintings, the “Bosque Neural” series features three-dimensional works, such as sculptures made of metal wires that appear to float in space, suggesting the lightness of treetops or the fluidity of brain synapses. The artist uses her iconic Cyclotramas technique, which consists of creating cyclical patterns that, based on mathematical algorithms, expand and narrow, creating a visual metaphor for the infinite expansion of thought and life.

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Exhibition | Neural Forest
From September 21th to November 01th
Monday to Friday, 10am to 19pm; Saturday, from 11am to 17pm

A Zipper Gallery presents the first solo exhibition “At Eye Level”, by the artist from São Paulo Jessica Costa. The exhibition explores the boundaries between art through sculpted tapestry, with installations that transform the exhibition space.

Jessica Costa, a graduate in design, brings her experience in tufting and textile art to the field of visual arts. In “At Eye Level”, the artist revisits tapestry, a practice situated between art, fashion and textiles, transforming it into architectural and sculptural elements. The exhibition proposes tapestry as a contemporary artistic practice and subverts the conventions that legitimize what is considered “art”.

Among the works on display, the “Sobejos” series stands out for questioning the conventional concept of a frame, extending across the gallery floor in the form of “soft sculptures”. The artist uses elements such as wool and embroidery, reimagining tapestry in artistic contexts. With references to medieval tapestry and the Arts & Crafts movement, she uses the tufting technique to “paint” and “sculpt” her creations, resulting in dense, sculptural pieces that are at the same time soft and welcoming. These works move between abstraction and figuration, often alluding to fragments of the human body.

“The exhibition questions the historical separation between 'fine arts' and crafts, using the tufting technique to create sculptural objects,” according to curator Ana Paula Cavalcanti Simioni.

The exhibition is part of the Zip'Up project, which aims to promote emerging artists and new artistic approaches. The program provides a platform for new talents to present their work and interact with independent curators and the public, in an environment that encourages experimentation and the exchange of experiences.

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Exhibition | At Eye Level
From September 21nd to November 01th
Monday to Friday, 10am to 19pm; Saturday, from 11am to 17pm

The exhibition Land of Giants invites the Sesc Casa Verde audience to immerse themselves in a new possible world and inspire visitors to think about contemporary Afro-Amerindian times and futures. Conceived and curated by artist, editor and researcher Daniel Lima, the exhibition unfolds into a video installation composed of eleven scenes, including a poetic intervention and an educational workshop, which exalt the poetic, symbolic and mythological forces that intersect between black and indigenous cultures in Brazil.

Packed with audiovisual resources developed especially to promote an interactive, sensorial and unique experience, the exhibition is inspired by theme park attractions such as ghost trains and mirror mazes. Throughout the tour, the viewer is challenged by a series of projections generated by optical sensors activated by presence: sometimes giant, sometimes tiny, in a path of lights and fantastic glimpses evoked by characters, performances, interviews and visual creations.

The scenes are starring 12 artists, collectives and leaders: Katú Mirim, an indigenous rapper from São Paulo; Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, an important Yanomami leader and author of the book “Queda do Céu” (Quendy of the Sky); Legítima Defesa, a collective of black actors and actresses; Naruna Costa, an actress, singer and theater director who performs the text “Da Paz” (From Peace), by Marcelino Freire; Jota Mombaça, a performance artist; Jonathan Neguebites, a passinho dancer from Rio de Janeiro; Daiara Tukano and Denilson Baniwa, artists from the Brazilian contemporary indigenous art scene; the central musical presence of Naná Vasconcelos; songs recorded by Juçara Marçal and Daiara Tukano, in addition to the poetic intervention of Miró da Muribeca, a poet and performer from Pernambuco.

“Land of Giants aims to bring together these generations of black and indigenous artists to question contemporary Brazilian ideology, claiming another image of Brazil, not the one created by Modernism from a white perspective,” argues Daniel Lima.

According to the curator, the exhibition was born from a process of research, self-education and investigation into quilombismo that began years ago, in previous projects led by him, such as Quilombo Brasil, and the video installation Palavras Cruzadas (2018/19), which provided the technical and poetic bases for the current project.

“Land of Giants is an expression of questions about the historical moment we are living in. A living document of the forces that constitute us as a contemporary society in Brazil. The video installation also invests in the representation of the oppressive forces that surround us like fire around us. In contrast, we position the lines of resistance articulated in this political-poetic imaginary”, concludes the curator.

Interaction and accessibility: learn more about some of the works in the exhibition

One of the highlights of the exhibition, whose gigantic scale symbolizes its title, the intervention by Davi Kopenawa Yanomami appears projected on a scale increased by 800%. Based on excerpts from his book The Fall of the Sky, Kopenawa speaks about the strength of resistance that exists not only in his figure, but in the culture of the Yanomami people who, symbolically, through the dance of their shamans, ensure that the sky remains above their heads and does not fall.

The “Kahpi Hori” series by indigenous artist Daiara Tukano is animated in three-dimensional format in a room of visual and sound immersion. Immersed in a cube with projections mapped onto the walls and floor and accompanied by songs sung by the artist herself, the audience experiences a dive into the symbolic universe of one of the expressions of contemporary indigenous Brazilian art.

In the body performance Get Up, Stand Up by Legítima Defesa, the members of the collective, divided into three groups and without speaking, challenge the audience with gestures of affirmation through projection that responds to interactivity, creating a game of actions and movements with the spectator.

Land of Giants has accessibility resources such as tactile maps, Braille subtitles, enlarged ink, audio description, video guide, audio guide and technological resources such as the vibroblaster, which transforms audio into sensitive vibrations. The exhibition also has an educational workshop open to the public with guided activities and a reading space.

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Exhibition | Giants land
From September 21th to December 22th
Tuesday to Friday, from 10:30 am to 18:30 pm, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, from 10:30 am to 17:30 pm

Exhibition Brasilia, the art of the plateau, curated by Paulo Herkenhoff and co-curatorship of Sara Seilert, at National Museum of the Republic, in Brasília. Held by FGV Arte, an experimental and artistic research space of the Getulio Vargas Foundation, in partnership with the Brazilian Institute of Education, Development and Research (IDP), the exhibition will be open until November 24.

Following Brasília, the art of democracy, an exhibition held in Rio de Janeiro from April to August, the new show portrays the history of the artistic culture of the plateau, its diversity and complexity, and its contemporary developments. While the Rio exhibition dealt with the transition of the federal capital from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília, along with the consolidation of republican structures, the one that will be shown at the National Museum of the Republic addresses the aesthetic dimension of the emergence of Brasília, understood as a collective work of art. At the same time, it highlights a cast of cultural agents from the capital and satellite cities.

“The concept behind this exhibition encompasses a historical arc, from the city’s creation to the current movements in defense of democracy and freedom. If Brasília is a remarkable epic on the international stage, its cultural history unfolds over six decades among residents of Brasília and Brazilians from all corners of the world,” explains Paulo Herkenhoff.

It also expands the view to the present day and to the art that is made in the Center-West, more specifically in this region of the Brazilian central plateau where Brasília was established more than sixty years ago. In addition, this project is a tribute to the writer Vera Brant, one of the pioneering inhabitants of the capital. Her friendship with central figures in Brazilian history, such as the anthropologist and founder of UnB, Darcy Ribeiro, President Juscelino Kubitscheck and the poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade, reinforces the centrality and importance of Brant in the construction of social relations in the capital city.

The idea behind Brasília, a arte do planalto was to reproduce a grand feast of the eyes, showing that the federal capital, which is not limited to its political sphere, is intense, broad and surprising. “This exhibition also represents a meeting between two curatorial perspectives. Because now we have joined the perspectives of Sara Seilert, who directed the Museu Nacional da República, and myself. So we seek to produce a perspective on Brasília. Thus, it is no longer just an outside perspective,” says the curator.

Exhibition

With an impressive number of artists, from those already established in the art market to contemporary artists, the exhibition brings together more than 200 items.

The exhibition features historical documents, such as the candango diploma – awarded to the workers who built the new city by Juscelino Kubitschek, president of Brazil from 1955 to 1961, responsible for the construction of Brasília and the transfer of power from Rio de Janeiro to the central plateau; the sketch of the pilot plan signed by Lúcio Costa; and Oscar Niemeyer's manuscript on the JK monument.

According to the curators, this project represents “the diversity of contemporary art in the Federal District,” as well as its historical and spontaneous process. By visiting the exhibition, the public is invited to understand the geographic region in all its creative power.

Located on the Esplanada dos Ministérios, the National Museum of the Republic, intentionally chosen to host the exhibition Brasília, the art of the plateau, was designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer and opened in 2006. Its monumental building has a semi-spherical shape, with the dome measuring 25 meters in radius, the base having a radius of 35,55 meters, and 26,25 meters in height.

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Exhibition | Brasilia, the art of the plateau
From September 25th to November 24th
Tuesday to Sunday, from 9am to 18:30pm

With a unique and influential trajectory, rosana paulino brings up discussions about memory, nature, identity and Afro-Brazilian history in the exhibition “New Roots”. The works on display are the result of extensive research into the architecture and collection of the Eva Klabin House Museum, in Lagoa, proposing a conceptual separation between the two floors. With the aim of celebrating the 30-year career of the renowned artist from São Paulo, “Novas Raízes” opens on September 26 (Thursday) and can be visited free of charge from Wednesday to Sunday until January 12, 2025.

The artist's solo exhibition is her first in Rio de Janeiro after her exhibition at the Museum of Latin American Art in Buenos Aires, MALBA. With the show, Rosana became the first black woman to have a solo exhibition at the Argentine museum, which presented a retrospective look at the artist's career.

“This is a unique opportunity to see Rosana Paulino’s work in direct dialogue with a classic collection, thus proposing a historical and epistemological review for the visitor,” says curator Lucas Albuquerque, regarding the combination of the house’s permanent collection with the artist’s works. “Rosana intends for this exhibition to have a very strong educational character, questioning how we can rethink contemporary production in dialogue with new readings of the world, this one very different from the one left by Eva Klabin over thirty years ago,” he adds.

The rooms on the ground floor will be dedicated to works that expose the relationship between architecture and botany, with drawings, collages and installations. The works from the “Espada de Iansã” series, part of the 59th Venice Biennale, join other works that aim to break down the separation between inside and outside, with plants taking over the different rooms. Rosana draws attention to the incisive separation between the domestic environment and the garden, the result of a school of European thought that points to the need to tame nature.

The rooms on the second floor touch on a discussion about the private lives of black women throughout history. Works such as “Tropical Paradise,” “Wet Nurse,” and “Das Avós” bring back photographs and symbols from Afro-Brazilian history, reflecting on the subjugation of bodies to the erasure policies resulting from the slavery model experienced by Colonial Brazil. Using voile fabrics, ribbons, lenses, cutouts, and other objects, Paulino proposes preparing a resting place for all black women who were victims of Brazilian history, especially Mônica, the wet nurse photographed by Augusto Gomes Leal in 1860, one of the few whose name has been preserved throughout history.

'Novas Raízes' is an initiative of the Eva Klabin House Museum, produced by AREA27, sponsored by Klabin SA and produced by the Ministry of Culture. It has the support of Atlantis Brazil, Everaldo Molduras and Galeria Mendes Wood, and a media partnership with Revista Piauí and Canal Curta!.

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Exhibition | New Roots
From September 26st to January 12th
Wednesday to Sunday, from 14pm to 18pm

O My, institution of the Secretariat of Culture, Economy and Creative Industry of the State of São Paulo, inaugurates the exhibition Frida: a singular vision of beauty and pain, Julia Fullerton-Baten. The exhibition, curated by João Kulcsár, is the first of its kind in Brazil and presents 18 images in homage to Frida Kahlo, 70 years after her death, produced in Mexico City by German photographer Julia Fullerton-Baten (a photographer recognized for her cinematic-style visual narratives and sophisticated lighting techniques).

To create these photographs, Julia worked with models, a local film costume designer – who was committed to finding authentic, handcrafted Oaxacan costumes – and Mexican producers (who gave her access to hidden and secret locations, such as an abandoned mansion in the heart of Mexico City, a private residence designed by internationally renowned architect Luis Barragán, old haciendas steeped in history and the enigmatic Island of the Dolls in Xochimilco, famous for its floating gardens and permeated with mysticism).

“The result is a series of images that capture Frida’s vibrant energy and unmistakable strength through contemporary Mexican settings and costumes,” says João Kulcsár, curator of the exhibition. “When I look at her paintings, I feel inspired to be brave. When I look at her paintings, I feel her love for Mexico,” says Julia.

Special workshop

The exhibition's program includes the free workshop Portraits like Frida (We are Frida) on October 17. During the activity, taught by Taiane Ferreiras and João Kulcsár, the public is invited to make a portrait against a colorful infinite background and with props that the participant can choose, using Frida Kahlo's images as a reference. The workshop will take place at 18 pm, in the MIS ground floor foyer, and has 30 spaces (to be filled on a first-come, first-served basis).

The Mexican artist remains one of the most iconic and revolutionary figures in 70th-century art. Frida Kahlo produced works with vibrant and moving colors, but she also lived intensely and deeply, confronting pain, love, loss and passion in a visceral way. Her paintings captured not only her image, but the essence of a woman who defied conventions, breaking cultural and gender barriers, and asserted her identity with courage and authenticity. Today, 1954 years after her death (XNUMX), her work remains utterly contemporary and resonates deeply with the spirit of our time.

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Exhibition | Frida: a singular vision of beauty and pain
From September 27th to October 27th
Tuesday to Friday, 10am to 19pm; Saturdays, 10am to 20pm; Sundays and holidays, 10am to 18pm

Luiz Sacilotto (1924-2003) is a renowned Brazilian artist recognized for his work with abstract art, particularly for works that explored shapes, colors, mathematics and geometry. Born in Santo André, in the Greater São Paulo area, he was one of the pioneers of concrete art in Brazil. In the 1970s, he continued his optical experiments developed in the middle of the century, further exploring kineticism, while keeping up with what was developing internationally. Thus, his contemporary work brings developments in abstract art on a global scale and points to the current situation that guided the artist's research.

Bringing together 113 works from national and international institutions and private collections, the exhibition “Contemporary Sacilotto: color, movement, sharing” is part of the special program to celebrate the artist’s centenary, in 2024. Among them, for the first time since they were incorporated into the collections of two American institutions, three works return to Brazil to compose the exhibition, which is curated by Ana Avelar and co-curated by Renata Rocco. They are: Concreção 5730, 1957 and Concreção 5942, 1959, sculptures from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, part of The Adolpho Leirner Collection of Brazilian Constructive Art (Brazilian collector) — and the sculpture Concreção 5941, 1959, from the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation and part of the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection in Miami. The exhibition also features works from MAC USP, Pinacoteca do Estado de SP, MAM -SP, Acervo Itaú and IAC.

“Contemporary Sacilotto: Color, Movement, Sharing” focuses on the artist’s work between the 1970s and the end of his life in 2003, when he delved into optical-kinetic experimentation combined with the exploration of color. To this end, he conducted a detailed investigation combining technical drawing with the chemical development of pigments. The artist suspended his work between 1965 and 1974, but continued studying while working as a metalworker. Upon his return, he explored chromatic and formal vibrations, as offshoots of the concrete art he developed in the 1950s.

The series, called twists, tensions, progressions, turns, are calculated and executed with precision. “Sacilotto invites us to move in front of the images, playing with the vibrational visualities”, writes Ana Avelar in the curatorial text. The effects are the result of the colors cataloged in their various tones, tested and studied – many of them recovered from his first paintings. “Observing the coherence of his work, we look at the approximation of different colors, compositions and times: earlier paintings gravitate over the most recent ones, indicating forms and chromatic solutions researched since the beginning of his career”, she adds.

For Sacilotto, concrete art was like an alphabet that could be shared with anyone who was interested, all they had to do was study it. Thus, he himself read and wrote down texts from various areas of knowledge (including in other languages), which were fundamental to mastering the knowledge of artists, craftsmen, workers, chemists, mathematicians and engineers that he applied in his work.

The exhibition “Contemporary Sacilotto: color, movement, sharing” and the entire program – which began in April – to celebrate Sacilotto’s centenary was supported by Almeida & Dale, which represents the artist’s estate.

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Exhibition | Sacilotto Contemporary: color, movement, sharing
From September 28 to January 26, 2025
Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 21 pm – Free entry

After a five-year hiatus without a robust exhibition of the artist in the country, the shows together offer a broad and complementary view of the artist's work. Cildo Meireles, for whom drawing is often the genesis of his practice in the three-dimensional field.

A Galatea presents a selection of drawings produced from 1964, when the artist was only 17 years old, until 1977, highlighting Meireles as a draftsman, a facet that is less explored in comparison to other aspects of his work. On the other hand, this is his most constant and long-lasting practice. Curator Diego Matos, who wrote the exhibition's critical text, comments on this subject that:

“Bringing to the public a generous selection of Cildo Meireles’ drawings is to make visible and accessible the most omnipresent practice in the artist’s career of over 60 years. A practice, in fact, inseparable from his object-based and installation-based production. Made in a hotel room, in the dead of night; in the homely calm of the morning; or in the studio, during a break from work — his drawings tell us a lot about a poetic and conceptual repertoire that he has been developing since the beginning of his production.”

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Exhibition | Cildo Meireles: drawings, 1964-1977
From October 03rd to November 01st
Monday to Thursday from 10am to 19pm, Friday from 10am to 18pm, Saturday from 11am to 17pm

Luisa Strina is pleased to present One and a few chairs / Camouflages, an unprecedented exhibition that brings together works by the artist Cildo Meireles, revisiting a series of projects conceived by the artist in the 1980s and 1990s. Scheduled to open on October 3, the exhibition will remain on display until November 23, 2024.

First performed at the Lelong Gallery in New York, the installation One and Seven Chairs (1997) pays homage to the artist Joseph Kosuth. Composed of eight elements made from different materials and techniques – in addition to a solid wood chair – the installation includes 110 sheets of glass that form a tower, the interior of which, in turn, reflects the image of another chair, created from 1.100 canvases painted with acrylic paint.

The chair reappears in the Camouflage series, this time accompanied by a bench, a parasol, an umbrella, a stretcher and tents. “This part of the exhibition, which I call Camouflage, would have another name: Ground Painting. Because all the works are placed on it,” explains Cildo Meirelles.

Also resting on the floor of the exhibition space is a set of hyper-realistic paintings created by the artist using only white brushstrokes on a blue background. Épuras, the mathematical concept that gives the series its title, are geometric and two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional forms. Two Épuras accompanied by two studies on chairs ultimately convey Cildo Meireles' artistic thought, connecting painting to mathematical rationality, where the artist uses descriptive geometry as a constitutive tool for the work, using two perpendicular planes where two views of the object are represented, one frontal and the other from above.

One and a few chairs/camouflages began to be produced in 2020, totaling 13 works in which Cildo resumes the practice of painting, in reverence to his great masters, among them the Brazilian Alfredo Volpi.

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Exhibitions | One and a few chairs / Camouflages
From October 03rd to November 23st
Monday to Friday from 10:19 to 10:17, Saturday from XNUMX:XNUMX to XNUMX:XNUMX

Marcelo Guarnieri Gallery | Sao Paulo is pleased to announce excess, second solo show by the artist from Rio de Janeiro Victor Mattina in the city. The exhibition, which brings together ten new paintings and a diptych, is accompanied by the poem “The Monster”, by Flávio Morgado.

In “Desmesura”, Mattina explores, through painting, the quality of monstrous representation and the condition of freedom under which the figure of the monster resides. His compositions are constructed from fragmented visions, figures, stains, anthropomorphic creatures and unlikely associations, as if we were faced with a world that, although guided by the same symbols that make up ours, operates under a different logic. It is on this threshold between the recognizable and the absurd that Mattina’s paintings are sustained, and it is in this impossibility of categorizing his figures, as in “Capital amanhece sob um novo sol” or his strange encounters, as in “Missa para raio catódicos”, that the artist sees a potential emancipation of the image. Although he bases his practice on figurative painting, Victor Mattina does not use it as a tool for transparent representation; on the contrary, it is his mastery of the technique that allows him to bring figuration closer to the implausible. “In 'Ka's Arteriogram' there is a somewhat baroque scene with bodies piled up in the foreground, in front of a kind of temple. It is a painting of indices, alluding to an idea of ​​antiquity without ever saying where or about whom.”, observes the artist.

The poem “The Monster,” by Flávio Morgado, which accompanies the exhibition, is divided into six parts, in dialogue with the montage of “Elegia I” and “Elegia II,” paintings that are over 4 meters long each, also divided into six parts. The poem explores some aspects of Mattina’s paintings – dimension, correspondence, making, technique, scale, palette – structural aspects that would point to a more categorical analysis of the work, but which, through poetic language, are freed from definitiveness, overflowing their limits. In “excess,” text and image recognize each other by refusing the functions they should perform in a normative world. Together, they create a kind of visual limbo. As Morgado writes in the first part of the poem: “a pile of bones, an inhospitable landscape / that welcomes us, the hand of strangeness / marks midnight in the conscience and / six canvases declaim, in the echo of their creation, / a great verse of exile.”

In dialogue with the exhibition “desmesura”, by Victor Mattina, a set of works by Marcello Grassmann (1925-2013), Oswaldo Goeldi (1895-1961), Guima (1927-1993) and Iberê Camargo (1914-1994), Brazilian artists who, through engraving and painting, also explored the monstrous dimension of figurative representation, will be presented on the Gallery’s mezzanine.

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Exhibition | excess
From October 04th to November 08th
Monday and Friday from 10am to 19pm Saturdays from 10am to 17pm

This is for video game lovers in the capital of São Paulo. From October 5th to 20th, Traveling Video Game Museum will be in City Park Shopping Mall, located at Av. das Nações Unidas, 14401 (next to Morumbi Station)

Stay tuned, as it will be an interactive exhibition that covers more than 50 years of video games, from the first in the world to current ones, such as PlayStation VR2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch, among others.

In addition to seeing rare consoles and games, visitors will also be able to play completely free on some video games that made history, such as the Philco-Ford Telejogo, Atari 2600, Odyssey, Nintendinho 8-bit, Master System, Mega Drive, Sega CD, Super Nintendo, Neo Geo, Panasonic 3DO, PC Engine, Nintendo 64, Game Cube, Sega Dreamcast, Xbox, Playstation 1, PlayStation 2, among others.

We will also have a Just Dance stage, PlayStation VR 2 area, racing simulators, giant controllers, cosplay contest, gaming tournaments and much more. We look forward to seeing you there.

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Exhibition | Traveling Video Game Museum
From October 5th to 20th
Monday to Friday, from 13pm to 20pm, Saturday and Sunday, from 14pm to 20pm

Get ready to embark on a magical journey with “Cordel’s Enchanted Dream, the Musical” No. Claro Mais Theater, presented by the Ministry of Culture and CAIXA Vida e Previdência, sponsored by the Federal Law of Incentive to Culture. The show is inspired by the plot “Uma Delirante Confusão Fabulística” from 2005 created by Rosa Magalhães for Imperatriz Leopoldinense, a samba school from Rio de Janeiro, which paid tribute to Hans Christian Andersen on his centenary. The play tells the life of the famous author and the fairy tales he created, surrounded by the rich tradition of cordel literature and set in the Northeast of Brazil. It is a celebration of art, poetry and the power of dreams, bringing to the stage a unique narrative that will move and inspire in a musical for all ages!

Written and directed by Thereza Falcão, the show is a dazzling fusion of elements of Northeastern culture with the enchanted universe of fairy tales. On stage, more than 10 sets and 50 costumes, created by the eternal Rosa Magalhães and directed by her right-hand man, carnival designer Mauro Leite, come to life. The visual experience is enriched by projections and videos directed by renowned visual artist Batman Zavareze. The choreography is by award-winning Renato Vieira, while the musical direction is by acclaimed Marcelo Alonso Neves. With 10 new and original songs composed by the brilliant Paulinho Moska, Chico César and Zeca Baleiro, the show blends the vibrant rhythm of the Northeast with the magic of timeless stories. This work is a fascinating cultural dialogue between Brazil and Denmark, in which each scene invites the audience to immerse themselves in a universe where everything is possible, and where hope and love always prevail.

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Musical | Enchanted Dream of Cordel, the Musical
From October 12th to November 03rd
Saturdays and Sundays, October 12th, 13th, 19th and 20th at 11:30 am, 15 pm and 17 pm, and October 26th and 27th and November 02nd and 03rd at 11:30 am
Tickets: from R$19,50 to R$120

Reopened in August, the Multiplan MorumbiShopping Theater, located on Floor G2 of the mall, has part of its programming exclusively designed for children, who will be able to enjoy Children's Month with the show From Ré Mika Show, which begins its season on October 12, Saturday, at 15 pm and continues until November 3.

A success throughout the country, the show features, in addition to children's favorite characters, a repertoire with the greatest hits from the cartoon and also songs known by the general public, such as “Pop Pop”, “A Dona Aranha”, “Borboletinha” and “Fui No Mercado”. A playful journey through time that promises to entertain parents and children, full of stage props and visual effects to delight the eyes of children and adults.

Going to the show is just one of the leisure options offered to visitors to MorumbiShopping, who can also find a variety of restaurants, cafes and spaces designed for children in its more than 500 stores, making their month even more special.

Service
Exhibitions | From Ré Mika Show
From October 12th to November 3rd (except October 27th)
Saturdays and Sundays at 15pm
TV Rating: Free
Duration: minute 50
Tickets: from R$28 to R$70 | Sales by Sympla