Group exhibition "Underdeveloped Art"

From the 1930s onwards, more precisely after the Second World War (1939-1945), economically and socially vulnerable countries began to be called “underdeveloped”. In Brazil, artists reacted to the concept, commenting, taking a stand and even fighting the term. Part of what they produced during this time will be present in the exhibition Underdeveloped Art, which will be on display between February 19 and May 05, 2025, at Cultural Center Bank of Brazil Rio de Janeiro (CCBB RJ). Curated by Moacir dos Anjos and production of Tuia Art Production, the exhibition will have free entry, upon collection of tickets at the box office or on the CCBB website.

The concept of underdevelopment was common for five decades until it was replaced by other expressions, including emerging or developing countries. “That is why the exhibition covers the period from 1930 to the early 1980s, when there was a transition in the nomenclature in the public debate on the subject, as if it were something natural to move from the state of underdevelopment to the state of development,” reflects curator Moacir dos Anjos. “At some point, we lost the awareness that we still live in an underdeveloped condition,” he adds.

The exhibition, sponsored by Banco do Brasil and BB Asset, through the Federal Law of Incentive to Culture, presents paintings, books, records, sculptures, movie and theater posters, audios, videos, and a large collection of documents. The pieces are from private collections, including two works by Candido Portinari. There are also works by Paulo Bruscky and Daniel Santiago loaned by the Museu de Arte do Rio – MAR.

After the Rio season, the exhibition will move to CCBB Brasília, still in 2025.

MAIN HIGHLIGHTS

Pieces of great importance to national culture are present in Underdeveloped Art. Two works by Cândido Portinari, Burial (1940) and Menina Ajoelhada (1945), are part of the exhibition's collection. Many of the artist's paintings depict despair, death or escape from a territory marked by the lack of almost everything.

Another work that also stands out in the exhibition is Monument to Hunger, produced by the winner of the Venice Biennale, the Italian-Brazilian Anna Maria Maiolino. It consists of two bags filled with rice and beans, typical foods from any region of Brazil, wrapped in a black ribbon. This ribbon is a symbol of mourning, as the artist points out. The public will also have access to a series of photographs by the artist entitled Aos Poucos.

Another highlight of the exhibition is the work Sonhos de Refrigerador – Aleluia Século 2000, by Randolpho Lamonier. “The materialization of dreams has several forms of representation, which include a large volume of textile works, drawings and notes made by the people interviewed themselves, objects from vernacular culture and elements that refer to advertising language”, highlights the artist. “Among the elements that make up the work, I can list, in addition to textiles, LED neons, digital signs, inflatables, banners and handwritten banners, even sound content with detailed accounts of some dreams”, adds Lamonier.

Just like in SP and BH, the playful and lively multimedia installation will also carry out an inventory of consumer dreams of Rio de Janeiro residents, which includes everything from audio and manuscripts of the people interviewed to objects and textile pieces. It will occupy the entire Rotunda of CCBB Rio and, as curator Moacir dos Anjos explains, “it will reflect, starting today, on issues raised by artists from other decades.”

In all, more than 40 artists and other Brazilian personalities will have their works displayed in the exhibition, including: Abdias Nascimento, Abelardo da Hora, Anna Bella Geiger, Anna Maria Maiolino, Artur Barrio, Candido Portinari, Carlos Lyra, Carlos Vergara, Carolina Maria de Jesus, Cildo Meireles, Daniel Santiago, Dyonélio Machado, Eduardo Coutinho, Ferreira Gullar, Graciliano Ramos, Henfil, João Cabral de Melo Neto, Jorge Amado, José Corbiniano Lins, Josué de Castro, Letícia Parente, Lula Cardoso Ayres, Lygia Clark, Paulo Bruscky, Rachel de Queiroz, Rachel Trindade, Solano Trindade, Regina Vater, Rogerio Duarte, Rubens Gerchman, Unhandeijara Lisboa, Wellington Virgolino and Wilton Souza.

During the period in which the exhibition will be on display at CCBB RJ, integrated educational activities will be held, such as the lecture “Art and Underdevelopment in Brazil” with curator and researcher Moacir dos Anjos. The event will discuss the ways in which Brazilian art reacted to the country’s underdevelopment between the 1930s and the early 1980s, and how it incorporated, thematically and formally, the paradoxes of this condition. This discussion is important for understanding the recent political shift in contemporary Brazilian art. The lecture will have simultaneous translation into LIBRAS.

UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN DECADES

The exhibition will be divided by decades. The first axis, People Are Hungry, presents the initial discussions around the concept of underdevelopment. “The artists and writers who began to raise this issue in the 1930s and 1940s,” says curator Moacir dos Anjos.

In the second axis, Work and Struggle, there will be a series of works by artists from Recife, Porto Alegre, among other regions of Brazil where strikes and struggles for rights and better working conditions began to proliferate.

The third section is divided into two. In World and Movement, “politics, culture and art are radically mixed,” explains Moacir. This section contains documents from the Popular Culture Movement (MCP) in Recife and the Popular Culture Center (CPC) of the National Student Union (UNE) in Rio de Janeiro. In the second part, Aesthetics of Hunger, poverty is a central theme in artistic productions, in films by Glauber Rocha, works by Hélio Oiticica and plays by the Opinião group. “At that time there was a lot of inventiveness that ended up being hampered after the 1960s,” adds the curator.

The last part of the exhibition, O Brasil é Meu Abismo, features works from the period of the military dictatorship and artists who reflected their anguish and uncertainty about the future. “These are darker works that describe the paradoxes that existed in Brazil at that time, as in the text O Brasil é Meu Abismo, by Jomard Muniz de Britto,” concludes the curator.

Service
Exhibition | Underdeveloped Art
From February 19th to May 05th
Open every day from 9am to 20pm, except Tuesdays