Opened on May 28 of this year, in Vila Velha (ES), the Casa do Governador Cultural Park is one of the newest cultural initiatives in the country that propose a dialogue between contemporary art and nature. Known as the Sculpture Park, it houses 21 works by artists from Espírito Santo and other Brazilian states, such as Marilá Dardot from Minas Gerais, Alexandre Vogler from Rio de Janeiro, Fernando Velásquez from Uruguay, and Narcélio Grud from Ceará.

Among sculptures, installations and site-specifics, the works were all selected through a public notice, launched in 2021, ten of them temporary and 11 permanent. In all, R$ 2 million were invested, with funding of R$ 40 thousand, 100 thousand and up to 200 thousand per project, which is guided and supervised by the first lady of the state, Maria Virgínia Casagrande, with the support of her husband, Governor Renato Casagrande.

Open only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with free admission, the Park receives around 200 visitors a day. The temporary sculptures will remain in place until the end of May 2023, when there will be another public notice for the selection of new works.

Curated by Nicolas Soares, also director of the Espírito Santo Art Museum, the project has three thematic axes – environmental, historical and artistic –, explored in a 93-square-meter visitation area, close to Praia da Costa. There is also installed the official residence of the Government of the State of Espírito Santo.

“The curatorial proposal involves the relationship between art and nature, landscape, architecture, history and also technology”, says Soares. “But not only in a sense of information technology, of the digital universe, but also something that can be ancestral, which brings an understanding of the environment, of its weather. And artists were led to take advantage of that, with outdoor installations, exposed to the sun, wind, rain.”

Soares has the support of an interdisciplinary and inter-institutional team, through the Research and Innovation Support Foundation (Fapes) and the Culture Secretariat (Secult), with the participation of the Federal University of Espírito Santo (Ufes) and the Federal Institute of Education. , Science and Technology of Espírito Santo (Ifes).

The architectural project of the Park is still being implemented and, according to the curator, there are still many work fronts, infrastructure and technology, which are still being built. As, for example, a new entrance – the current one is still made by the official government access –, in addition to two viewpoints in a higher part of the land and an auditorium for various activities with the public. There is also a desire to create permanent galleries.

For the curator, the Casa do Governador Cultural Park creates the possibility of accessing a place that already lived in the capixaba's imagination, and the initiative, as a whole, reflects a good moment of contemporary art in the state, in which there is a dialogue each increasingly intense with the artistic scene in the rest of the country.

“There are many capixaba artists circulating outside Espírito Santo and Brazil. And, when opening a public notice of this size, and of a national character, we bring, to the state collection, works from all over the country, putting us in a discussion with the art that strengthens the local production, at the same time that we reinforce the possibilities of visibility outside Espírito Santo”, concludes Soares.

Service

Governor's House Cultural Park
R. Santa Luzia, Praia da Costa – Vila Velha (ES)
Visitation on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 9 am to 17 pm, by appointment by phone (27) 3636-1032
Free admission.


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