Series Moments, 2017

The works that Nazareth Pachecho brings together in her new exhibition at Galeria Kogan Amaro, in São Paulo, are perhaps the most affective objects that the artist has produced in her career. It's just that during this process, and especially in the last five years, a lot has happened in her private life that has made her turn intimately to creation.

In interview with ARTE!Brasileiros, the artist says that during the period in question her parents became ill. Her mother had lung cancer and died some time later. In the following months, it was the family's turn to pay attention to the care of the father, who was diagnosed with the same cancer. “During this entire period, there was a whole moment of, in addition to mourning, dedication to both during treatment. I became more focused on my work and dedicating myself to them. With the death of both, I turned to myself, in a more intimate process and respecting my moment of mourning”, she says.

While dismantling the house where her parents lived, Nazareth found belongings of the two who interested her as materials for her work, as her father's doctor's work tools and her mother's nightgowns. These objects were transformed by her into works that make up the exhibition. The aforementioned were converted into the series Give and in the work Life.

Born in 1961, the artist faced, throughout her growth, a congenital disease that affected the formation of her body. Her life was marked by a series of so-called "corrective" surgeries. About three months after her father died, she says, Nazareth began to have a problem with one foot, which she had had surgery on at the age of 16: “A whole history of the body was coming back, which I had treated since I was born. . But in the past, my parents were responsible for this. This time they weren't here anymore and I was the one who had to be ahead of it”.

Nazareth had to undergo orthopedic, reconstructive surgeries, similar to those he underwent as a child, but he also decided that he would like to have cosmetic surgeries, which he recorded in the series of portraits. Moments. Taking care of the body, she says, was also a way of overcoming grief: “I think this was linked to my parents’ struggle always for the possibility of improvement when it came to my body issues”. At this point, she also focuses on women's issues: “I was at a stage in my life, today I am 57 years old, going through a woman's moment, menopause, which begins to have a drop in hormones”.

Em Records/Records, she takes up much of what she had already dealt with in the 90s, linked to the times when she had to deal with her body. If in 1993 she presented the installation Imprisoned Objects, with boxes that brought medicines, leaflets, radiographs, among other things, today she exhibits the work pack, in which he assembles a frame of collages of medicine boxes, and the installation Attend the events, where Nazareth sculpts a kind of waterfall with X-ray clippings of her parents.

Despite all the personal burden of the works, the artist points out the care so that each of the pieces could have its own meaning, its own story. “Regardless of my history, the works need to be formally supported”. In them, therefore, she sought to emphasize issues of the individual itself, passing through issues of gender and inclusion.

It is in this autobiographical way that she revisits not only her family history, but also her entire career as an artist. This becomes even more concrete with the launch of the book containing her works, launched at the opening of the event. The edition organized by Regina Teixeira da Costa and built with several people who surrounded the artist over the years has critical texts by several names in Brazilian art published on other occasions, such as Marcus Lontra, Moacir dos Anjos and Tadeu Chiarelli, in addition to some unpublished, such as by Cauê Alves.

In addition, the publication has pages that present a vast chronology of Nazareth's life, illustrated with photos of the family, works, residences, among other passages. In the presentation, Regina emphasizes that Nazareth, throughout her thirty-year career, created works in “unlike her peers, she did not bother to insert the individual expressiveness of her gesture into these objects, creating works free from personalist romanticism”.

Nazareth Pacheco: Records/Records
Kogan Amaro Gallery
until June 15

Nazareth Pacheco - Nazareth Pacheco
Allucci & Associados Support Marcos Amaro Foundation -FMA Org. Regina Teixeira de Barros
R$100
216 Pages


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