Exhibition "Politics of the Surface"

The Park's Cultural Center presents the exhibition "Surface politics", Ana Raylander Mártis dos Anjos, as part of the II Exhibition Cycle From the House. Installed in the Office, the exhibition is curated by Claudio Cretti, artistic director of the House, and investigates the influence of maestro Heitor Villa-Lobos on the implementation of school music education in Brazil.

the visual artist Ana Raylander Mártis dos Anjos (Minas Gerais, 1995) develops long-term projects focused on research. She seeks to establish a dialogue between collective history and her own biography, frequently drawing on knowledge from education and writing. After participating in the 36th São Paulo Biennial and the 59th Carnegie International in Pennsylvania, USA, the artist presents at the Casa de Cultura do Parque a new development in her investigation of choral singing, a choral practice widely disseminated in Brazil throughout the 20th century.

Taking as its starting point Heitor Villa-Lobos's role in implementing music education in schools during the Vargas Era, the exhibition recovers a moment when music was incorporated as a tool for promoting the nationalist ideology of the ruling regime. The choral singing performances—held in schools, squares, and stadiums—brought together large groups under unified direction, composing a sonic mass that participated in the symbolic construction of a national identity.

“During this period, the idea of ​​Brazil emerged as a myth of unity, sustained by the promise of a collective voice that, while including groups, also ended up suppressing what deviated from them,” reflects the artist. In “Politics of the Surface,” she uses the baseboard of the Cabinet as a similar operator, in dialogue with the institution's location on the edge of Villa-Lobos Park. Situated between the wall and the floor, this architectural element occupies a liminal region: although associated with the finishing of domestic space, it also acts as a discreet technology of normalization, capable of masking irregularities and producing continuity where there are fractures—a kind of social veneer, as Raylander points out.

In “Politics of the Surface,” the artist returns to her interest in orpheonic and amateur choral singing, initiated with the Choro Choir [Choratório] project in 2018, to deepen her research on the contradictions that permeate Brazilian music education, the construction of the idea of ​​the people, and the narratives of Brazilianness crystallized in the nation's imagination. “I seek to observe with precision what remains close to the ground, what accumulates on the edges, the evidence that history pushes to the lowest portion of the social stratum. Perhaps it is precisely in this lower region, near the baseboard, where the promises of unity begin to show their fissures,” Raylander adds. In this context, silence assumes a central role for the artist in the project, where it ceases to be the absence of sound and operates as a political field.

In addition to Raylander's individual story, the II Exhibition Cycle includes the group exhibition "Crimson burst" (Park Gallery) and the individual exhibition "Mythologies of mystery", de Omep (Project 280X1020). For curator Claudio Cretti, “this cycle proposes to challenge the constitutive dimensions of contemporary artistic practice, expanding the possibilities of interpreting the world and highlighting, in these frictions, the power of opposition”.

Still on July 25th, the program of Performances from the House presents "Love is a forest", an installation performance of Rodrigo Munhoz aka Experimental Love in which urban plants, connected to sensors, convert touch into sound.

The II Exhibition Cycle is an initiative of the Institute of Contemporary Culture (ICCo) and was carried out with resources from the Rouanet Law, Ministry of Culture, with sponsorship from Banco BV, Laranjinha and Banco Itaú, support from Casal Garcia and Interfood, and media support from Catraca Livre.

Service
Exhibition | Surface politics
From July 25th to October 25th
Wednesday to Sunday, from 11 am to 18 pm