"Badauê" exhibition by Andrea Brazil

A Park Culture House presents the exhibition “Badauê, "In Andrea Brazil (Cabinet), as part of its First Exhibition Cycle. Curated by Claudio Cretti, artistic director of the House, and text by Ana Avelar, The exhibition brings together works marked by the geometrization and visual reconfiguration of vernacular architecture.

Andrea Brazil's (São Paulo, 1972) journey between Salvador and Itaparica Island, in the Recôncavo Baiano region, underpins her functional visual style. The artist grew up in contact with coastal architecture marked by anonymous interventions – made with tile shards and leftover materials – that configure what she calls "drawing in space".

In this process, facades of houses and establishments, railings, and other urban elements are reorganized as lines, colors, and voids. "It is a collective and vernacular production that condenses history, climate, technique, and aesthetic desire into a single constructive gesture," says Avelar.

Brazil's understanding of the vernacular architecture of her childhood deepened during a trip to the Algarve region of Portugal. There, the Moorish influence, recognizable in the rounded corners and geometric patterns, resonated with what the artist knew of Bahia.

For Avelar, the connection is not accidental: Brazil observes that the Malê blacks, protagonists of the 1835 revolt in Salvador, were mostly of Muslim origin and bearers of a visual tradition that infiltrated the city's material culture. Ornament, in this sense, holds historical layers that the surface of the facades does not explicitly reveal.

One of the series presented is constructed on wooden boards with layers of filler applied in two stages. The grid design—the result of an internalized visual memory—is carved into the surface until the underlying color is revealed. When the work focuses on color, it stands out for its optical vibrancy, transitioning between the stridency of Pop Art and the silence of opaque surfaces.

In addition to Brazil's solo exhibition, the 1st Exhibition Cycle includes the group show "Horror, Humor and Absurdity" (Galeria do Parque) and "Calendar" by Felipe Rezende (Projeto 280X1020). The cycle navigates the boundary between the real and the imaginary and articulates fabulation as an indispensable instrument for subverting current world configurations. Claudio Cretti states that this cycle seeks, through different languages, "to stretch the limits between the conceivable and the inconceivable, highlighting the potential of fiction to critically reflect on reality."

Finally, the Performances program will open on March 28, 2026, at 17 pm, with performer and dancer Maria Noujaim presenting “Lago”. Through the transposition of mythology into movement, the artist explores the hybridity between animal and human, taking as a starting point the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan.

The OI Exhibition Cycle is curated by Claudio Cretti and is an initiative of the Institute of Contemporary Culture (ICCo) and was made possible with resources from the Rouanet Law, Ministry of Culture, with sponsorship from Banco BV, Laranjinha and Banco Itaú.

Service
Exhibition Badauê
From March 28 to June 28
Wednesday to Sunday, from 11 am to 18 pm