Gallery 32

Estela Sokol | Secret Forest exhibition catalogue

2011-07-14T03:20:00.001-07:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More art

Estela Sokol | Interview

2011-06-14T02:52:00.000-07:00

Estela Sokol: Secret Forest | 10 June - 15 July 2011

2011-05-10T04:17:00.000-07:00

‘Secret Forest’ (series), Upper Austria, 2011
photographic print on cotton paper | 110 x 165 cm

photo: Pablo Vilar, courtesy Zipper Galeria, São Paulo

The Embassy of Brazil in London, in collaboration with Zipper Galeria, proudly presents 'Estela Sokol: Secret Forest'. The show, which is the first solo presentation of the artist’s work in the UK, includes a selection of recent sculptures and installations, as well as a series of previously unseen photographs.

Part of a generation of up-and-coming artists working in São Paulo today, Estela Sokol works on the expansion of the traditional idea of the work of art as the container of colour and form – in Sokol’s work, the environment around the work of art is also charged with colour and energy, through the artist’s use of materials and manipulation of scale. According to the artist, ‘problems appear and are solved in the very act of making things’. There is no inspiration from any mysterious source, there is no creative force detached from the direct manipulation of materials, colour and light. The idea is, therefore, not simply attached to the work but is born out of it, it buds from the construction of form.

‘Ofélias’ (Ophelias), 2010 | PVC, Plexiglas | 150 x 500 x 64 cm

photo: Pablo Vilar, courtesy Zipper Galeria, São Paulo

Aesthetically, Estela Sokol belongs to a tradition of constructivism that flourished in Brazil at the end of 1950’s, in the ‘Objetos Ativos’ (active objects) and ‘Pluriobjetos’ (pluriobjects) by Willys de Castro, in the ‘Superfícies Moduladas’ (modulated surfaces) by Lygia Clark and in the research into colour pursued by Hélio Oiticica in his ‘Invenções’ (inventions), ‘Relevos Espaciais’ (spacial reliefs), ‘Bilaterais’ (bilaterals) and ‘Núcleos’ (nuclei). Coloured, semi-translucent plastics in fluoridated colours innovate the palette of Brazilian constructivism, enveloping small stretchers and overlaying fields of fluctuating colour, reminding us of the interplay between frame and surface in the work of Lygia Clark. Sokol’s series A cor é que tem cor nas asas da borboleta (It is colour that has colour on the wings of the butterfly), also included in this exhibition, is made of such objects, often no larger than15 centimetres in their largest dimension; these might even be confused with studies for larger pieces. They are, however, normally bundled in a flock covering a large wall alongside small engravings, numerous variations in the use of acrylic and plastic pieces coated with a layer of black automotive rubber, removing the possibility of shine and allowing for further research into the interaction between the colour-pigment and the colour-light.

The reduced dimensions of these objects, presented in the exhibition in great number, additionally suggest a notion of ‘lesser art’, of handicraft, whilst the repetition of the objects, that differ from each other in minute details, combined with the use of materials such as plastic, acrylic, synthetic varnish and automotive rubber coating reminds us of industrial processes. The synthesis of industrialisation, handicraft and visual arts clamours for a reading linked to Bauhaus. These objects invoke famous images of constructive art, and the way in which they are installed creates a simulation of the artist’s own studio in São Paulo, an experimental laboratory in light-colour lined with pieces that leave traces of colour on the white walls.

partial view of the artist’s studio, São Paulo, May 2011

photo: Pablo Vilar, courtesy the artist

In the exhibition are also a series of acrylic and PVC objects that create large bulging shapes that appear to come off the wall: Ofélias (Ophelias) – serialised and juxtaposed, they create a grey tunnel from which fluorescent green shines as neon light. However, it is pure colour-light pulsating in a time tunnel that transports us to other constructivist experiences. The show also includes a series of works that result from Sokol’s recent 40-day long expedition to Upper Austria, awarded through the Brasil Arte Contemporânea programme (Ministério da Cultura and Fundação Bienal de São Paulo). During her visit, Sokol captured, in photographs, traces of prosaic objects that appear to imbue the white Austrian snow with intense colour, such as in the Secret Forest series, which gives name to the exhibition. This first attempt to implant colour into a natural landscape has also resulted in the works of the series Polarlicht and Making of or Not, both of which are also included in the exhibition.

The exhibition has been made possible by support from the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zipper Galeria (São Paulo, Brazil) and Galerie Wuensch (Linz, Austria).

Estela Sokol was born in 1979 in São Paulo, where she lives and works. In 2002, she graduated in Printmaking from Centro Universitário Belas Artes, São Paulo.

Recent solo exhibitions include Licht Konkret, Galerie Wuensch, Linz, Austria (2011); Clarabóia, Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil (2010); Dawn for Interiors, Bisagra Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2010); Sol de Inverno, Palácio das Artes, Belo
Horizonte, Brazil (2008); Halo, Galeria Virgílio, São Paulo, Brazil (2007); Meio Dia e Meia, Centro Universitário Maria Antonia, São Paulo, Brazil (2006); Lastro, Centro Cultural São Paulo, Brazil, (2003). Future solo exhibitions include Polarlicht, Bisagra Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2011) and A Morte das Ofélias, Galeria Anita Schwartz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2011), as well as a participation in the III Bienal del Fin del Mundo, Ushuaia, Argentina (2011).

Selected group exhibitions: Light Art Bienalle, Linz, Austria (2010); Silêncio, Zipper Galeria, São Paulo, Brazil (2010); Trajetórias em Processo, Galeria Anita Schwartz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2009); Nova Arte Nova, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil (2009).

Awards: Brasil Arte Contemporânea, Fundação Bienal São Paulo, Brazil (2010); Temporada de Projetos Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil (2009); Edital Revelação MACC, São Paulo, Brazil (2004); Projéteis FUNARTE de Arte Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2005) and 34° Salão de Arte Contemporânea Luiz Sacilotto, São Paulo, Brazil (2006).

View full press release

Download press images

Oswaldo Goeldi | Cena Urbana exhibition catalogue

2011-05-09T03:39:00.000-07:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More gallery 32

Oswaldo Goeldi | Interview

2011-05-08T03:59:00.000-07:00

Oswaldo Goeldi: Cena Urbana | 15 April - 13 May 2011

2011-04-07T02:51:00.000-07:00

Céu Vermelho II (Red Sky II), c.1950 | woodcut print, 21 x 29.8cm

The Embassy of Brazil in London proudly presents Oswaldo Goeldi: Cena Urbana. The show, curated by Paulo Venancio Filho, will present a selection of 22 woodcut prints that reveal a subterranean vision of the city of Rio de Janeiro’s urban scenes and anonymous individuals by one of the greatest Brazilian modern artists.

Oswaldo Goeldi was the son of the eminent Swiss naturalist Émil Goeldi (1859-1917), one of the many scientists that Emperor Dom Pedro II was involved with during his reign. While Goeldi was studying in Switzerland during the First World War, he was influenced by the group Der Blaue Reiter and became acquainted with the works of Alfred Kubin (1877-1859), with whom he would correspond to the end of his life.

Although still not acclaimed internationally, Goeldi’s oeuvre awakens immediate interest in those that come in contact with his drawings and engravings as they reveal a singular vision of Brazil, captured through an expressionistic sensitivity, rather infrequent in Brazilian art. Goeldi was a rare case, perhaps unique, of an expressionist in the tropics.

Solitário (Lonely), c.1929 | woodcut print, 18.5 x 13.7 cm

The exhibition shows the Goeldian vision of a Brazilian reality that is quite distant from the commonplace postcard image of a mythical tropical nation. This sombre world, which Goeldi expresses through the black and white contrast of xylography, fulfils the power of a plastic idiom that matches his work to that of German Expressionists.

Brazilian modern art has recently been gaining rightful international acclaim, in particular the great constructive period in Brazilian art as illustrated by Neoconcretism and its artists. This fact is now well established and it is time to advance further and focus upon other artists that, despite pursuing differing poetics, have the same stature and importance, such as Oswaldo Goeldi. By revealing various aspects of Brazilian Modernism, which is both sufficiently original and complex, this exhibition corroborates the fact that it cannot be exhausted in a single version. Very aptly, the show follows the special nucleus dedicated to Goeldi’s work at the 29^thSão Paulo Biennial (2010) and celebrates the artist in the year of the fiftieth anniversary of his death.

All works in the exhibition kindly loaned by Raul Schmidt Felippe Jr.

Silêncio (Silence), c. 1957 (post mortem print, 1971) | woodcut print, 17.8 x 24.5cm

Oswaldo Goeldi was born in Rio de Janeiro on 31 October 1895. At six years of age, Goeldi moved with his family to Switzerland, where he began school in Berne. When the First World War broke out he was a student at the Academiae Technicae Helveticae in Zurich. He joined the Swiss army, serving as a guard on the Swiss-Austrian border. After his father’s death in 1917, Goeldi enrolled in the École des Arts et Métiers, Geneva, where he studied for six months. He exhibited for the first time at the Wyss Gallery in Berne, where he had close contact with the work of Alfred Kubin, during the presentation of the Der Blaue Reiter Group.

In 1919 he returned to Brazil, and in 1926 he began to correspond with Kubin. In 1930 he visited Kubin at his home in the town of Zwickledt, Austria, and in the same year exhibited at the Gutekunst & Klipstein Gallery, Berne, and – having been recommended by Kubin – at the Werthein Gallery, where his works were displayed alongside those of Matisse and Utrillo. In 1951 Goeldi received the First National Engraving Prize at the 1^st São Paulo Biennial and in 1953 was appointed engraving professor at the School of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro. His work was exhibited extensively, both in Brazil and abroad. He died on 15 February 1961 in Rio de Janeiro.

Paulo Venancio Filho is an art critic, independent curator and full professor of art history at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He has published articles on modern and contemporary Brazilian artists, among them Cildo Meireles, Hélio Oiticica, Anna Maria Maiolino, Waltercio Caldas, Mira Schendel, Antonio Manuel and Fernanda Gomes. He has curated a number of exhibitions in Brazil and abroad, including Rio de Janeiro 1950-1964 in Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis (Tate Modern, 2001), Rachel Whiteread (MAM, Rio de Janeiro, 2003), Soto: A Construção da Imaterialidade (CCBB, Rio de Janeiro, 2005), Anna Maria Maiolino: Territories of Immanence (Miami Art Central, 2006), Time and Place: Rio de Janeiro 1954:1964 (Moderna Museet, 2008), Hot Spots (Kunsthaus Zurich, 2009), Wifredo Lam- Gravuras (Caixa Cultural, Rio de Janeiro, 2010), David Batchelor: Chromophilia (Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, 2010) and Sergio Camargo: Claro Enigma (IAC, São Paulo, 2010).

Download Press Release
Download Press Images

Oswaldo Goeldi | Cena Urbana: Curator's Talk - Wednesday 13 April, 6.15pm

2011-04-06T07:04:00.000-07:00

Briga de Rua (Street Fight), c. 1926 | Woodcut print, 14.3 x 20cm

The Embassy of Brazil in London and TrAIN proudly present a curator's talk accompanying the exhibition Oswaldo Goeldi: Cena Urbana. The curator Paulo Venancio Filho will discuss the relationship between Goeldi and the Tropics.

One of Brazil's major artists, Owaldo Goeldi was an expressionist out of place. Unlike European expressionism, which expressed the dramatic inner conflict between man and the world, Goeldi's expressionism reflects precisely the absence of the problem-ridden man of the early twentieth century and focuses on the conflict generated by the transitional social and urban reality of Rio de Janeiro at that time.

Paulo Venancio Filho is an art critic, independent curator and full professor of art history at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He has published articles on modern and contemporary Brazilian artists, among them Cildo Meireles, Hélio Oiticica, Anna Maria Maiolino, Waltercio Caldas, Mira Schendel, Antonio Manuel and Fernanda Gomes. He has curated a number of exhibitions in Brazil and abroad, includingRio de Janeiro 1950-1964 in Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis (Tate Modern, 2001), Rachel Whiteread (MAM, Rio de Janeiro, 2003), Soto: A Construção da Imaterialidade (CCBB, Rio de Janeiro, 2005),Anna Maria Maiolino: Territories of Immanence (Miami Art Central, 2006),Time and Place: Rio de Janeiro 1954:1964 (Moderna Museet, 2008), Hot Spots (Kunsthaus Zurich, 2009), Wifredo Lam- Gravuras (Caixa Cultural, Rio de Janeiro, 2010), David Batchelor: Chromophilia (Paço Imperial, Rio deJaneiro, 2010), Sergio Camargo: Claro Enigma (IAC, São Paulo, 2010) and Oswaldo Goeldi | Cena Urbana (Gallery 32, London, 2011).

CURATOR'S TALK

Chelsea College of Art and Design

Banqueting Hall| Attenbury Street, Pimlico

Wednesday 13 April, 6:15pm*

* Attendance is free, but booking is essential: gallery32@brazil.org.uk

Frederico Câmara exhibition catalogue

2010-09-21T03:42:00.000-07:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More gallery 32

Frederico Câmara | 15 October - 17 November 2010

2010-09-20T03:44:00.000-07:00

Untitled (Ningbo 0413), 2009

The Embassy of Brazil in London proudly presents the first solo exhibition by Frederico Câmara in London. The show will present a group of previously unseen works resulting from the artist’s recent one-man expedition to China.

In his trip to China, supported by the British Council’s Darwin Now Award, Câmara photographed the country’s main zoos and aquariums. The expedition, which took place in the second half of 2009 and lasted 86 days, stems from a wider research project to create a World Atlas of the built environment of zoo cages, divided by regions or countries photographed. Zoos not only represent this geographical division in their own collections, but they also reflect, in their design, the “styles” or cultural aspects that are peculiar to the visual culture of the country to which they belong. Previous work for this research project was done in Germany, the UK, Romania, Canada, France, Switzerland, Norway, Singapore and Japan.

installation views

Zoological gardens have been created for the appreciation of animals and plants foreign to Europe, brought from the colonial territories that were then considered exotic to the European taste. They occupy an ambiguous position in society, as they can be seen as both a space of protection and a space of imprisonment. Protection comes from the zoos’ aim to be a place for conservation, research and education. Imprisonment derives from their early format as 'menageries', a place for exhibition of exotic species of animals meant to simply entertain the human curiosity. At the same time good and bad, this ambiguity of
function and form is a reflection of our need to care for our environment against our inability to re-create in the zoo, an environment as perfect as nature itself, or to preserve it in the wild.

By concentrating on China for this portion of his project, which despite not being a former European colony it embodies ideas of exoticism in its images, artifacts and materials, Câmara asks the question: How does a country seen as exotic respond to the idea of the exotic through the environmental reproductions in its zoos?

For the artist, the chosen medium of photography best reveals subtle patterns that relate to social as well as aesthetic peculiarities in the areas where the images are created. In Câmara’s words, ‘photography has the power to make us “re-view” a situation after it transformed it into an image. For example, no one stops at an empty cage when visiting a zoological garden, because the objective of such a visit is the contemplation of the animal. The cage is in this case just a background or stage. However, with the cage transformed into an image without the presence of the animal, the cage becomes the subject. This shift in focus from the animal to its artificial environment results in a series of observations related to science, the environment, as well as art and religion, in questioning the act of creation.’

For Câmara’s exhibition, Gallery 32 will be transformed into a projection room, where a selection of the artist’s photographs will be displayed in large-scale, recreating a space of contemplation that resonates the presence of the environments in which they were taken.

installation views

Frederico Câmara was born in 1971 in Governador Valadares, Brazil, and has lived and worked in London for the last ten years. In 1993, he graduated in Printmaking from Escola de Belas Artes (UFMG, Belo Horizonte) and in 2004 he obtained an MA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art, London.
Fellowships: Unesco Aschberg and Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder – Trondheim, Norway; International Research Center for the Arts, Kyoto University of Art and Design – Kyoto, Japan; La Chambre Blanche – Quebec City, Canada; Nordic Art Centre – Dale, Norway; Henry Moore Institute – Leeds, United Kingdom; Akademie Schloss Solitude – Stuttgart, Germany
Awards: Brasil Arte Contemporânea, Fundação Bienal de São Paulo – São Paulo, Brazil; Darwin Now Award, British Council – London, United Kingdom; Pavilion Commissions – Leeds, United Kingdom; Marcantonio Vilaça Award for the Visual Arts, FUNARTE / MinC – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Solo exhibitions: Gallery 32, Embassy of Brazil – London, United Kingdom; In an Ideal World, Pavilion Commissions – Leeds, United Kingdom; The Henry Moore Institute – Leeds, United Kingdom; Landscapes, Galeria Noua – Bucharest, Romania;
Selected group exhibitions: Territories of the (In)Human, Kunstverein Stuttgart – Stuttgart, Germany; New Photography: Pavilion Commissions, Djanogly Art Gallery – Nottingham, United Kingdom; 50 Years of Brazilian Art, Museum of Modern Art – Salvador, Brazil; 10° Salão da Bahia, Museum of Modern Art – Salvador, Brazil; Rumos Visuais, Instituto Itaú Cultural – São Paulo, Brazil

Download Press Pack (press release + high resolution images)

Frederico Câmara | Interview

2010-09-19T02:32:00.000-07:00

This text will be replaced

Frederico Câmara - Artist's Talk* | 19 October | 6-7pm

2010-09-18T02:55:00.000-07:00

Frederico Câmara in conversation about his work with Dr Fern Elsdon-Baker, Head of the British Council's Darwin Now project.

Untitled (Changsha 0115), 2009

Fern Elsdon-Baker is currently head of the British Council Darwin Now project: an international project celebrating the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and the 150th publication of his most famous book On the Origin of Species. Having originally studied Environmental Sciences, Fern then went on to complete her doctoral studies in the history and philosophy of evolutionary theory. In particular, her thesis explored the way in which usage of undifferentiated terminology has constrained both historical and contemporary scientific discourse around key concepts in evolutionary theory. Her ongoing research interests focus on the history, philosophy and communication of theories of heredity and evolution, in relation to Darwinism and Neo-Darwinism from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. She also has a broad lecturing and research background that includes medical ethics, history and philosophy of science and science communication. During, 2009 she published a popular book that critically analysed Richard Dawkin’s contribution to science communication entitled Selfish Genius: How Richard Dawkin’s rewrote Darwin’s Legacy.

*Attendance is free, but booking is essential: gallery32@brazil.org.uk

LFA 2010 | Swarming Futures exhibition catalogue

2010-07-06T09:11:00.000-07:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More gallery 32

LFA 2010: Swarming Futures | 25 June - 11 August 2010

2010-06-07T10:20:00.000-07:00

'Swarming Futures' shortlisted as one of the top 3 exhibitions in the International Architecture Showcase! Voted by a prestigious jury that included Tom Dyckhoff (The Times), Julie Lomax (The Arts Council), Sarah Ichioka (Architecture Foundation) and Catherine Ince (Barbican Art Gallery).

installation view
photo by Samantha Lee

detail of installation by João Wilbert + NaJa & deOstos
photo by Samantha Lee

The Embassy of Brazil proudly presents Swarming Futures, a selection of cutting-edge contemporary Brazilian architectural projects. Part of the International Architecture Showcase of this year’s London Festival of Architecture, the exhibition explores the Festival’s Welcoming City theme through the way innovation in design can be generated by large patchworks of inclusive collaboration and creative exchange. Recently appointed hosts of high-profile international events, most notably the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, Brazilian cities have become an extremely fertile ground for speculation and intense scrutiny. Designers, politicians, communities, businesses, participants and visitors are all agents and stakeholders in a massive swarm of interests and possibilities that will ultimately reshape Brazil’s cities in the near future.

EXHIBITION
Curated by London-based architect Ricardo de Ostos, the exhibition explores how unique associations between mainstream and underground forces can open new fields for innovative buildings and city planning. Aiming for fresh ideas, Swarming Futures displays projects that explore trans-disciplinary and spontaneous networks between the social, economic and cultural fields. Maverick cooperation and urban experiments in and for the city are uncertain, and at times unpredictable, but fundamental to encourage social progress.

Swarming Futures brings together a cross-section of recent Brazilian architectural proposals. Selected projects include large infrastructural interventions such as the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Park, designed by BCMF, as well as local and sensitive proposals by São Paulo practice MMBB. The inventive Brazilian-French architects Triptyque display their well-known ecological projects alongside new and exciting experiments. Strengthening the speculative vein of the exhibition theme, Vazio S/A present their hyper-critical project Ultimate Skyscraper which analyses the impact of large scale commercial developments, while additional features investigate innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration in the contemporary scene of Brazilian architecture.

BCMF: Marina da Glória (sailing), Rio 2016, proposal bid image

MMBB: Antonico Creek re-urbanization (view of the main square) São Paulo, 2009/2010

Triptyque: Harmonia_57, Vila Madalena - São Paulo, 2008

Vazio S/A: Amnésias Topográficas II, Buritis Neighbourhood, 2009 Belo Horizonte

The exhibition itself is an assemblage of diverse urban elements, including already built and yet to be built projects, from individual buildings to larger city scale projects. Following the exhibition opening, there will be a symposium with invited guests from Brazil and abroad, providing an invaluable opportunity to foster new partnerships not only amongst designers but also between different welcoming cities across Brazil and the world.

SYMPOSIUM
Following the 'Swarming Futures' opening, on 26 June, there will be an all-day symposium chaired by the exhibition curator Ricardo de Ostos, with invited guests from Brazil and abroad, providing an invaluable opportunity to discuss new partnerships not only amongst designers but also between different welcoming cities across Brazil and the world. Morning session (11am-1.30pm): Guillaume Sibaud (Triptyque), Ellie Stathaki (Wallpaper*), Carlos Teixeira (Vazio S/A) and Abraham Thomas (Architecture Curator, V&A)
Afternoon session (2.30-5pm): Bruno Campos (BCMF), Eleanor Fawcett (Head of Design for Olympic Fringe, Design for London) and Marta Moreira (MMBB)
*Attendance is free, but booking is essential: gallery32@brazil.org.uk

RIBA SPEAKER'S CRESCENT
A preview of the exhibition will be presented on June 20 (10.00 - 10.40am) by Ricardo de Ostos in a special event organized by RIBA.

Brazil

’s optimism related to yesterday’s futures illustrated by letters from writers, explorers’ diaries, historical narratives and satirical cartoons.

Attendance is free but booking is essential: http://www.lfa2010.org/event.php?id=312&name=speaker_s_crescent_brazil
________________________________________

This text will be replaced

Ricardo de Ostos: A Director of NaJa & de Ostos, a London-based studio developed as a platform for experimental architectural design, Ostos is Unit Master at the AA School of Architecture in London, director of the AA Madrid Summer School and guest professor at Ecole Speciale d’Architecture in Paris. He is a co-author of the books The Hanging Cemetery of Baghdad (Springer, Vienna and New York) and Ambiguous Spaces (Pamphlet Architecture 29, Princeton Architectural Press).

BCMF Arquitetos: Established in 1995 by partners Bruno Campos, Marcelo Fontes and Silvio Todeschi, BCMF Arquitetos has been involved in a broad range of projects. Their practice is highly diversified in terms of scale and typology, ranging from interior design, commercial and residential buildings to large-scale projects, such as the Deodoro Sports Complex, designed for the Rio 2007 Pan American Games as well as twenty venues and facilities for the Rio 2016 candidature.

MMBB: Created in 1991 by Fernando de Mello Franco, Marta Moreira and Milton Braga, the practice has established itself through its international collaborative projects in the development of public and institutional designs. Keen to maintain a critical and analytical stance, MMBB has also extended its activities to the cultural and academic sphere by organising or participating in cultural events, exhibitions and biennials, as well as by engaging in academic activities through teaching and research.

Triptyque: Established in São Paulo (2000) and Paris (2008), Triptyque is a French-Brazilian practice run by Greg Bousquet, Carolina Bueno, Guillaume Sibaud and Olivier Raffaelli. Known for innovative projects such as the Harmonia 57 building (São Paulo), the Mediatheque in Osny and a skyscraper in Issy Les Moulineaux (France) and their participation in various Biennales, such as Venice (2008 and 2010), Hong Kong (2009) and São Paulo (2009 – 1st Prize for Constructed Buildings).

Vazio S/A: Founded in 2001 by Carlos Teixeira, the practice seeks an active role in which the city and its problems are stimuli for new projects: actions in urban voids, architectural interventions in mining areas, and landscape design in vacant plots – a vision in which informality and a lack of planning are seen as pointers towards new solutions and opportunities.

Download Press Pack (press release + high resolution images)
View the exhibition catalogue

LFA 2010: Swarming Futures Symposium | 26 June, 11am - 5pm

2010-06-07T09:31:00.000-07:00

Following the 'Swarming Futures' opening, on 26 June, there will be an all-day symposium chaired by the exhibition curator Ricardo de Ostos, with invited guests from Brazil and abroad, providing an invaluable opportunity to discuss new partnerships not only amongst designers but also between different welcoming cities across Brazil and the world.

Morning session (11am-1.30pm): Guillaume Sibaud (Triptyque), Ellie Stathaki (Wallpaper*), Carlos Teixeira (Vazio S/A) and Abraham Thomas (Architecture Curator, V&A)

Afternoon session (2.30-5pm): Bruno Campos (BCMF), Eleanor Fawcett (Head of Design for Olympic Fringe, Design for London) and Marta Moreira (MMBB)

*Attendance is free, but booking is essential: gallery32@brazil.org.uk

LFA 2010 | RIBA Speaker's Crescent: Brazil | 20 June, 10 - 10:40am

2010-06-07T09:14:00.000-07:00

Swarming Futures: Ambiguities and Opportunities in Designing Brazilian Cities

A preview of the 'Swarming Futures' exhibition will be presented in the LFA 2010 Speaker's Crescent Pavilion by the curator Ricardo de Ostos in a special event organized by RIBA.

The talk will discuss the history of future visions embodied in Brazilian cities, the role of speculation and large scale urban propositions that have been embedded in Brazilian culture. From economical to political causes infrastructure has been created and deployed in distant parts of the country. Fast urbanisation aided by an unique mix of technological dexterity and DIY created a rich scene where city planning and unplanned development cope side by side. A study of different yesterday's futures experienced by Brazilian cities will be put together in relation to the current optimism surrounding the country. As part of the 'Welcoming Cities' exhibition at the Embassy of Brazil in London the talk will highlight current proposals for the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio de Janeiro alongside innovative architectural works by young upcoming architects. Drawing from a series of references the lecture will debate the emergence of this archaeologies of the future and their practical and ideological implications. Letters from enthusiast's writers, satirical cartoons, explorer's diaries and historical narratives will illustrate the talk.

Speaker

Ricardo de Ostos is a director of NaJa & deOstos, a London-based studio developed as a platform for experimental architectural design. He is Unit Master at the AA School of Architecture in London, director of the AA Madrid Summer School and guest professor at Ecole Speciale d’Architecture in Paris. He is a co-author of the books The Hanging Cemetery of Baghdad (Springer Wien New York) and Ambiguous Spaces (Pamphlet Architecture 29, Princeton Architectural Press).

Useful Information:

LFA Speaker's Crescent Pavilion, Park Crescent, Westminster, London, W1B 1

20 June, 10 - 10:40am

Attendance is free but booking is essential: http://www.lfa2010.org/event.php?id=312&name=speaker_s_crescent_brazil

Nuno Ramos: fodasefoice exhibition catalogue

2010-04-15T04:22:00.000-07:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More brazil

Nuno Ramos: fodasefoice | 5 May – 5 June 2010

2010-04-14T16:44:00.000-07:00

‘Lâmina 2’, 2007 | glass, 220 x 250 x 6 cm

photo: Estúdio Eduardo Ortega | courtesy Galeria Fortes Vilaça

The Embassy of Brazil in London proudly presents Gallery 32’s second exhibition this year: fodasefoice, Nuno Ramos’ first solo show in the UK.

fodasefoice is the title of a group of works by Ramos, which comprise a wide variety of media: sculpture, drawing and performance. Nuno Ramos has been working on this series for a number of years, and the exhibition at Gallery 32 will include a group of especially commissioned large-scale sculptures and a video.

Resulting from simple shapes that relate closely to Brazilian Constructivism, the works in this series are infused with a symbolic charge (the sickle, a symbol of death) and yet retain their basic geometric structure. Bearing its origin in drawing, the shape of the sickle was reworked into glass sculptures, whilst the meaning of the noun ‘foice’ (sickle) was presented in a performance that involved two sound speakers, two actresses, and a large heap of hay. Thus, both of the elements that are always present in Ramos’ work – the physical body, or the matter (present in the sculptures), and meaning, or the name (which commands the performance) – seem to be dealt with side by side in this exhibition.

The sculptures, which are the main feature of this exhibition, are two giant glass sickles, leant on the wall and pierced by their own handles, which here take the shape of large glass tubes. These tubes are filled with liquids that are charged with an antagonic symbolism – petroleum and Coca-Cola. The liquids are circulated around the room by a pump that mixes them, dissolving their difference whilst they move through the sickles.

'Platão com Sol I (Cal e Leite)', 2010
acrylic, charcoal and gold leaf on paper [42 x 59.4cm]
photo by Laura Barbi

'Platão com Sol I (Cal e Leite)', 2010
acrylic, charcoal and gold leaf on paper [42 x 59.4cm]
photo by Laura Barbi

installation view
photo by Laura Barbi

detail of 'fodasefoice (fuckitsickle)', 2007-2010
blown glass, toughened glass, stainless steel, plastic hoses, pump, chalk and milk
[dimensions variable]
photo by Laura Barbi

detail of 'fodasefoice (fuckitsickle)', 2007-2010
blown glass, toughened glass, stainless steel, plastic hoses, pump, chalk and milk
[dimensions variable]
photo by Zeca Alkmim

In the performance, which appears here as a video, two actresses stand on sound speakers and reap, in slow motion, a giant heap of hay which lays in front of them, while the words ‘foda-se’ (fuck you) and ‘foice’ (sickle) are sounded. It is important to point out that ‘foice’ (sickle) and ‘foi-se’ (has gone) are homophones in Portuguese. The work, therefore, acquires a new meaning – the ridding of something which has gone, in an exorcising ritual of both death and the past.

fodasefoice, 2007 | performance | FUNARTE, Belo Horizonte

photo: artist’s archives

Nuno Ramos was born in São Paulo in 1960, where he lives and works. In 1982, he graduated in Philosophy from USP (University of São Paulo). The artist has participated in various group exhibitions: the Venice, São Paulo, Havana and Mercosul Biennials; MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), New York; MAC-USP (Museum of Contemporary Art), São Paulo; MAM (Museum of Modern Art), São Paulo; MAM (Museum of Modern Art), Rio de Janeiro; Instituto Itaú Cultural, São Paulo; Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Brasília and Rio de Janeiro; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Fundação Gulbenkian, Lisbon; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
Ramos has had solo exhibitions in museums and art galleries in Brazil and abroad: MAM (Museum of Modern Art), Rio de Janeiro; Fundação Eva Klabin, Rio de Janeiro; Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro; MAM (Museum of Modern Art), São Paulo; Funarte, Belo Horizonte; Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo; Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo; Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Brasília and São Paulo; Centro Cultural São Paulo; Galeria Anita Schwartz, Rio de Janeiro; Galeria Matias Brotas, Vitória; Silvia Cintra Galeria de Arte, Rio de Janeiro; Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo; Galeria Camargo Vilaça, São Paulo; Galeria Bernardo Marques, Lisbon; Brooke Alexander Art Gallery, New York and Pulitzer Art Gallery, Amsterdam.
In 2007, Ramos won the Grand Award from the Barnett Newton Foundation; he is also a writer and was awarded the Portugal Telecom prize in 2008 for his book Ó.

This text will be replaced

Download Press Pack (press release + high resolution images)

Daniel Senise exhibition catalogue

2010-02-03T03:51:00.001-08:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More brazil

Daniel Senise | 19 Mar - 14 Apr 2010

2010-02-02T03:01:00.000-08:00

detail of 'Skira', 2010
paper collage on aluminium

detail of 'Hallway', 2009
watercolour collage on aluminium, 154 x 700 cm

R. Silvio Romero, 34 DEZ/09 I, 2009

inkjet print and collage on aluminium and residue from the studio space | 158 x 150 cm each

R. Silvio Romero, 34 DEZ/09 II, 2009

inkjet print and collage on aluminium and residue from the studio space | 158 x 150 cm each
(images courtesy the artist)

The Embassy of Brazil in London proudly presents a solo exhibition by Daniel Senise, one of the major talents to have emerged from what became known as the 'Geração 80' (1980s Generation) in Brazilian painting. The artists of 'Geração 80' were part of a worldwide return to painting, a movement which took the form of Neo-expressionism in Germany, 'Transavantgarde' in Italy, and, in the United States, brought forth a large number of works of great dimensions with runny paint and with large areas of pictorial mass. Senise, though, has developed a body of work that goes much further than the issues raised during that period, creating paintings that relate directly to both history of art and architecture.

In this solo exhibition, organised in collaboration with São Paulo's Galeria Vermelho, the artist presents three recent works, all of which were finished in 2009. The title Skira was inspired by the French publisher Albert Skira, whose art books became known for the outstanding quality of their reproductions. This was achieved by the craft of printing each work individually, on small pieces of paper and then affixing them manually in his editions, creating thus a kind of album, or collection.

The emptiness left on the pages by the pictures removed by he artist has become a dynamo for Senise, instigating him to produce the Skira series, initiated in 2008. Once the illustrations were removed from the pages, a difference in the shade of the colour of those pages became visible. The collages that the artist makes with those pages exploit the chromatic gradation in order to construct façades of a building, using the books as a basis. This reminds us of the brise-soleil – a fundamental element in Brazilian Modernist architecture from the 1950s onwards, which, similarly to Skira, originated in France. In this series, Senise intermingles his relationship with history of art and with a sense of absence – present in important works such as Ela que não está (She, who is not) and Retrato da mãe do artista (Portrait of the artist's mother) – as well as with architecture, which has always been crucial in his practice.

In Hallway, Senise presents a large panel made up of 546 small watercolours, which reproduce the wooden parquet flooring in the hallway of the artist’s house in the district of Arpoador, Rio de Janeiro. This work blends two important pathways in the artist's trajectory: the painting at the beginning of his career and its relationship with floors.

'Hallway' - installation view

installation view

This text will be replaced

download press release

The Year My Parents Went on Vacation | 10 February 2010 | 6.30pm

2010-02-02T02:51:00.000-08:00

The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (O ano em que meus pais saíram de Férias) is a 2006 Brazilian film by Cao Hamburger.

In 1970,

Brazil

and the rest of the world seem to be turning upside down, but the main concern of 12-year-old Mauro has nothing to do with the Brazilian dictatorship. His biggest dream is to see

Brazil

win the World Cup for the third time. But when his parents leave for vacations, and he is left behind, the boy has to adjust to a “weird” and fun community – Bom Retiro, a neighborhood in São Paulo that shelters Jews and Italians amongst other cultures. A moving story about accomplishment and solidarity.

Portuguese with English subtitles.

Admittance is free on a first-come, first-served basis.

Neoconcrete Experience | Exhibition Catalogue

2009-12-12T08:05:00.000-08:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More gallery 32

Neoconcrete Experience | 11 Dec 2009 – 30 Jan 2010

2009-12-10T02:40:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Neoconcrete art movement, this exhibition focuses on the principle platform for the dissemination of Neoconcrete concepts and critique between the late 1950s and the early 1960s: the Sunday supplement of the Jornal do Brasil newspaper. The exhibition highlights how not only the content put also the layout of the supplement were radically changed by the contributions from avant-garde artists, poets, designers and art critics.

Although increasingly referred to at an international level, particularly through the recognition of artists such as Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Clark, the Neoconcrete movement itself still remains relatively unknown and often misunderstood. This exhibition is therefore timely as it unveils a central driving force in the contemporaneous local dissemination and the depth and breadth of the discourse generated by the Neoconcrete group.

In addition the renowned 'Manifesto Neoconcreto' (March 1959) and the 'Theory of the Non-Object' (December 1959), research undertaken in the archives of the Jornal do Brasil has uncovered other, lesser-known articles and reviews, reproductions of which will be on display for the first time in Britain. While the exhibition focuses on the graphic re-structuring of the newspaper following the Neoconcrete intervention, a facsimile has been produced offering English translations of a selection of pages containing reviews and critical comments on the activities of the movement, such as the I Exposição de Arte Neoconcreta (1st Neoconcrete Art Exhibition) which included artists Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape, Amilcar de Castro, Franz Weissmann, Reynaldo Jardim, Theon Spanudis and Ferreira Gullar, all signatories of the Manifesto.

The exhibition also includes a documentary by Katia Maciel in which artists recall the 'Neoconcrete Experience' and further contextualise the significance and the controversial nature of the movement.

Design based on the cover image of Suplemento Dominical
– Jornal do Brasil, 1959

installation view

Neoconcretism and the sdjb

This exhibition celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Neoconcrete Movement. However, without dismissing the notoriety of artists such as Lygia Clark, Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Pape, the principle focus here is on the Sunday Supplement of the Jornal do Brasil newspaper (Suplemento Dominical do Jornal do Brasil – SDJB), whose pages during the course of 1950s, displayed the graphic, poetic and critical interventions of a group of artists and intellectuals who towards the end of that decade would form the Neoconcrete Movement. In fact the newspaper’s role in both the formation and the development of this influential avant-garde group was crucial, giving them not only a public voice but contributing towards many of their innovative ideas, such as the formal parallels that were established between Neoconcrete poetry, particularly with the book-poem, and the widespread presence of the fold within Neoconcrete threedimensional works of art. In this development the roles of Reynaldo Jardim, Amílcar de Castro and Ferreira Gullar were fundamental. The partnership between Jardim and de Castro led to the radical graphic restructuring of the newspaper between 1956 and 1960, which this exhibition aims to highlight, while Gullar, already an acclaimed poet and during the course of the 1950s establishing himself as one of the foremost Brazilian art critics and polemicists, added to the sleek page designs uncompromising, intelligent and highly critical articles that would forge the theoretical identity of the Neoconcrete group. If we are to consider the current content of newspaper print, and here I am not even thinking of the tabloid press, it seems hard to believe the level and the breadth of theoretical discussion that a Brazilian newspaper, in mid-twentieth century, was able to provoke. In order to understand how this feat was accomplished it is useful to remind ourselves of the fact that Brazil during the 1950s was a country undergoing immense change, where modernity seemed to be the national destiny, and its promised utopia almost within reach. If the connection between the government of President Juscelino Kubitschek (1956-1961), the architectural and urban confidence that brought the construction of the new capital Brasília (1956-1960) and the Neoconcrete Movement (1959-1961), undeniably sets a historical context marked by the ideology of developmentalism – or demonstrates, in the words of the art critic Mário Pedrosa, to what extent Brazil was a ‘country condemned to modernity’ – Neoconcretism itself should not be simplistically reduced to such a historical frame of reference. Although it shared with Brazilian modern architecture a lineage that connected it back to early 20th century European Modernism, its development was very distinct and far less hegemonic. According to Ronaldo Brito, it was a ‘laboratory of aesthetic experimentation’, which suggests a certain detachment from the contemporaneous drives in society.

As we can see in the pages here selected, the prevailing tone of the articles is often one of stubborn defiance in the face of the diverging international tendencies in the art of the time. The attacks against Tashism (see the articleby Gullar ‘Critique and Engament’ 31 October 1959) which appeared as the predominant tendency at the 5th São Paulo Biennial are a case in point. If we consider the earlier versions of the Biennial, which from 1951 brought the international art circuit into ‘live contact’ with local artists and intellectuals, constructivist movements had certainly received a warmer reception, but this was far from unanimous. Many important figures, such as Alfred Barr (the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York), could not see how the constructivist tendencies, with their overwhelming reliance on the rational, could possess any relation to life in Latin America. Barr had dismissed works by the Brazilian Concrete artists as being nothing more than Bauhaus exercises, implying the movement was clearly derivative and backward. With hindsight, however, we recognise in those early experiments and those that would follow, particularly with the advent of Neoconcretism, a close relation with theories that would arise in the US around the mid-1960s with the emergence of Minimalism. The relation for instance between Gullar’s ‘Theory of the Non-Object’ (see 19 December 1959) and Donald Judd’s seminal text on Minimalism ‘Specific Objects’ (1965) is uncanny.

Neoconcretism as the name suggests was a reaction to the intransigence of Concrete poetry and art. It rejected the idea that a work of art could be predetermined, since this would inevitably dispose of intuition and expression within the creative process. Yet Neoconcretism is also inextricably connected to Concrete art: it was, as will become evident in these pages, an attempt to take it further, beyond those premises determined by its European pioneers. In this sense it is inaugural within the Brazilian context, since by ignoring the perverse desire to be up to date with metropolitan fashions, it stubbornly became the first instance in which genuinely new theoretical propositions within the field of art were able to arise, and thus established an autonomy for the local production which became highly productive for artists of the most diverse tendencies during the following decades. In short, the constructive tradition in Brazil, to which Neoconcretism belonged, inscribed itself within a set of historical conditions that pertained both to a local political context as well as to the more general post-war re-evaluation of Modernism which affected artists around the world. Ferreira Gullar (Cocchiarale and Geiger, 1987) concisely described the legacy that the 1950s left to Brazilian art:

‘The 50s were, in the artistic field, disturbing, polemical and fertile; moreover, they were indicative of a moment of maturity and of an increasingly profound aesthetic experience. While one could say that
Brazilian art from the end of the first decade of the twentieth century experienced a phase of renewal and creativity, it did not develop the essential issues that governed the modern artistic tendencies from impressionism onwards. Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism and Surrealism did not possess their true significance when adopted and assimilated by Brazilian artists and critics. It was from the 50s that
these questions were placed at the centre of Brazilian art. It lost, in this way, its innocence, and precisely because of this, it experienced the crisis of art at that moment. And this is why it became capable, in some cases, of anticipating European and North American art, responding through theory and practice to that crisis’.

This exhibition brings to a UK audience reproductions of a selectionof pages from the SDJB during the 1950s while this facsimile presents some pages relative to the Neoconcrete Movement translated into English. We have attempted to keep these as close as possible to the original layout. The project as a whole is the product of a collaborative effort between the University of the Arts Research Centre for Transnational Art Identity and Nation (TrAIN), the Embassy of Brazil in London and the Jornal do Brasil (JB). Two doctoral students under my supervision, German Alfonso Adaid and Caroline Menezes carried out research at the Jornal do Brasil
archives, selecting a series of relevant pages that demonstrate the graphic evolution of the supplement. They acted as research curatorsin this sense, further contributing to the production of this facsimile in partnership with the Embassy’s Cultural section. As far as the latter is concerned I am truly grateful to the work and assistance provided by Minister Ruy Amaral, the cultural attaché Carlos Pachá and exhibition manager Laura Barbi. The Neoconcrete Experience exhibition would not have been possible without the generous assistance of the Jornal do Brasil which allowed us to publish the first collection in English of these landmark texts. I would like to express particular gratitude for the assistance we received from Humberto Tanure and Ana Paula Amorim. I would also like to thank Prof. Ildo Nascimento from the ‘Universidade Federal Fluminense’ for sharing
his research regarding the development of the Jornal do Brasil, particularly his scholarly text ‘Diagramação, Jogo de Armar: A Arte Aplicada de Amílcar de Castro na Modernização Gráfica do Jornal do Brasil’ (2004). Finally a special thank you to my friend, Kátia Maciel, who kindly permitted the screening of her documentary ‘Os Neoconcoretos’ during the exhibition.

M I C H A E L A S B U R Y c u r a t o r

download facsimile

download press release

Chico Mendes Vive! & Children of the Amazon | 25 Nov 2008 - 6pm

2009-11-25T06:14:00.000-08:00

Chico Mendes Vive!
Maria Maia, 2008, Brazil, 86 min, Portuguese with English subtitles
Marking the 20 years of the death of Chico Mendes, the rubber tapper who became known for defending the Amazon rainforest, this documentary includes interviews with key Brazilian political figures and those who fought alongside him.

Children of the Amazon
Denise Zmekhol, 2008, USA/Brazil, 72 min, Portuguese with English subtitles
An invitation to see through the eyes of the people who inhabit the forest, 'Children of the Amazon' engages our senses and sympathies as global issues take a profoundly human perspective.

Visit www.childrenoftheamazon.com

Followed by a Q&A session with Denise Zmekhol and Elenira Mendes, the daughter of Chico Mendes.

Free but booking is essential: +44(0)20 7399 9284 | cineclub@brazil.org.uk

Collector Collecting I exhibition catalogue

2009-10-17T04:27:00.000-07:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More brazil

Collector Collecting | 16 Oct – 18 Nov 2009

2009-10-16T02:30:00.000-07:00

Lucia Nogueira, 'Untitled', 1989 wire mesh, organza, beans, 14 x 26 x 15cm
photo courtesy Anthony Reynolds Gallery

Marcius Galan, 'Isolante', 2007, plastic and metal, 60 x 110 x 35cm
photo by Edouard Fraipont, courtesy the artist

Sandra Cinto, 'Bookshelf II', 1999 pen on wood, 26 x 27.2 x 18cm
photo courtesy the Zabludowicz Collection

André Komatsu, 'PedaçoRetalhoFragmentoAçãoFração', 2006 graphite on concrete, 26 x 39 x 9cm (object), 36,5 x 45 x 19cm (support)
photo by Ding Musa, courtesy Galeria Vermelho

Brígida Baltar 'Juazeiro', 2008 brick dust on paper, 74.5 x 54 cm
photo courtesy Galeria Nara Roesler

The Embassy of Brazil proudly presents Collector Collecting, an exhibition on collecting, with Brazilian works selected from private collections in Britain.

A showcase of works by prominent Brazilian artists past and present, curated by Isobel Whitelegg and Maria do Mar Guinle, the exhibition will concentrate on key pieces in UK private collections and will be accompanied by a publication exploring the act of collecting and the relationship between artists and collectors.

The exhibition will include works by:

Brígida Baltar / Sandra Cinto / Lygia Clark / Detanico & Lain / Marcius Galan / André Komatsu / Cinthia Marcelle / Lucia Nogueira / Nicolás Robbio / Mira Schendel

Preceding the Private View on 15 October, the curators Maria do Mar Guinle and Isobel Whitelegg will be joined for a round table discussion by Guy Brett, John and Stuart Evans, Bel Pedrosa and the newly appointed Chief Curator of the 29th São Paulo Biennial, Moacir dos Anjos.

The works in the exhibition were kindly loaned by Guy Brett, Serena Cattaneo, Stuart and Margaret Evans, Jack Kirkland, Catherine and Franck Petitgas, and by the Lodeveans and Zabludowicz collections.

Guy Brett, John Evans, Isobel Whitelegg, Moacir dos Anjos, Bel Pedrosa and Stuart Evans at the round table discussion at the Embassy of Brazil

download press release

Brazil Illustrated | 10 Sep – 2 Oct 2009

2009-09-10T02:19:00.000-07:00

Handmade typeface designed by Eduardo Recife

Eduardo Recife, 'E o Amor'

Eduardo Recife, 'Heal'

Wagner Pinto, detail of mural

Bruno Kurru, 'Procuro'

The Embassy of Brazil proudly presents Brazil Illustrated, an exhibition of works by three up-and-coming Brazilian illustrators: Bruno Kurru, Wagner Pinto and Eduardo Recife.

As an artistic expression, illustration is probably one of the most inclusive, comfortably accommodating seemingly disparate visual elements such as line drawing, photography, painting and collage.

Part of this year’s London Design Festival, Brazil Illustrated does not aim to create a geographical representation of the practice of illustration in Brazil today, but brings together three individual artists whose work synthesizes the numerous possibilities of the medium in its multiple variations. All three artists incorporate a wide variety of media and materials in their work, whilst still maintaining drawing at the very heart of their practices.

Bruno Kurru's work often surfaces as a response to the environment in which it is presented, and is characterized by a strong relationship between elements of line drawing and appropriated materials, creating an unexpected and yet harmonious ensemble – www.brunokurru.com

Wagner Pinto draws inspiration from the iconography of native and Afro-Brazilian myths, producing works that move subtly between an extravagantly colourful subjectivity and religious symbolism – www.wagnerpinto.com

Eduardo Recife creates pieces which are a combination of textures, patterns and overlaying objects that create joyful compositions, yet often bearing uncomfortable underlying themes – www.misprintedtype.com

All three artists have exhibited extensively in Brazil and in other countries in Latin America, as well as in the United States and Europe.

The exhibition, curated by João Guarantani, concentrates on the possibilities of illustration outside its applied state, before it is appropriated by design and visual communication, and presents an exploration of the most expressive qualities of the medium in its raw state through site-specific installations.

download press release
read the article on wallpaper magazine

Regina Vater | Memory of Light exhibition catalogue

2009-06-24T08:28:00.000-07:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More art

Regina Vater: Memory of Light | 23 June – 19 Aug 2009

2009-06-23T01:58:00.000-07:00

from the series 'To Leonardo 13', 2008
plotter print on canvas, 157.65 x 106.68cm

from the series 'To Leonardo 7', 2008
plotter print on canvas, 106.68x149.79 cm

Still from We All Inter Are, 2008,
with performer Amelia Winger-Bearskin, video, approx. 8’

from the series 'To Leonardo 6', 2008,
plotter print on canvas, 106 x 144 cm

project for 'Memory of Light', 2009,
clear plexiglass, vinyl letters and metallic chains, 300 x 110cm

The Embassy of Brazil proudly presents Memory of Light, an exhibition of works by an artist who has been at the forefront of the Brazilian art scene since the 1970s, Regina Vater.

Described by Guy Brett as 'creating installation works of great delicacy', Regina is internationally recognized for her engagement in the production of visual arts and for her closeness to the poetic expression of the Concrete movement in Brazil. In Brazil, Europe and the United State - where she has lived since the 1980s – she has developed close relationships with important artistic figures including Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Clark, Augusto de Campos and John Cage. She is also known for her long-standing commitment to disseminating the work of other artists, both Brazilian and international.

Regina has participated in some of the most important Brazilian exhibitions and visual art events of the last 30 years and her work forms part of major private and public art collections in, for example, the Museums of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo; the National Library of France, Paris; the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Latin American Art, San Antonio, Texas; the Blanton Museum, Austin, Texas; and the Ruth and Marvin Sackner Visual Poetry Archives, Miami.

Memory of Light will present a variety of recent works: To Leonardo, a series of large photographic images, or 'digital paintings', of dilapidated walls in colonial towns in the northeast of Brazil, on which Vater later has inscribed poetic notes in reverse and drawings for installations; and the installations Seek in the Unseen and Beauty will Appear, a homage to the Sufi poet Farid Ud-Din Attar; Om Mani Padme Hum, a visual representation of the compassion mantra of the Buddha, Avalokiteshvara; and Memória da Luz (Memory of Light), a piece designed especially for this exhibition at Gallery 32. These works echo Vater's preoccupations with questions of time, metaphysics and the human condition.

Artist’s Talk – Regina Vater in conversation with Guy Brett, Michael Asbury and Isobel Whitelegg.

download press release

Maria Bonomi exhibition catalogue

2009-05-07T04:29:00.000-07:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More art

Maria Bonomi | 6 May – 10 June 2009

2009-05-06T09:54:00.000-07:00

Tetraz VB, 2003
xylography on Nepalese paper / 148 x 297 cm

'Apoteose', 1993
xylography on Japanese paper, 97 x 131 cm

Epigrama (Kandinsky), 1984
aluminium / 24 x 24 cm

The Embassy of Brazil proudly presents an exhibition by Maria Bonomi, one of the most respected visual artists currently working in Brazil.

Maria is recognised for her prolific production covering a wide variety of media, including large public art pieces in various cities around the world. Her work also features in important private and public collections in Brazil and abroad.

The exhibition will present a series of large format engravings, woodcuts and lithographs, as well as sculptures. Some of these works were displayed at Huelva Museum, Spain, in 2005 and at her latest solo exhibition at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil, in 2008. The show will also present a selection of previously unseen works.

Maria's works are regarded as a milestone in the history of xylography on account of the special treatment given to the matrices, transforming them into highly elaborate sculptural pieces in their own right.

The defining characteristics of Maria's work are her respect for the artistic craft, her craftsmanship in the technique of woodcutting, and her engagement in the production of large scale public works. She has turned woodcutting into a paradigm and has recovered it via seemingly distant themes: lyrical visions of planted fields, horizons, and poetic forms capable of unfolding into multiple meanings and endless cycles. These shapes repeat and multiply themselves in various ways, generating new identities each time: 'I always do the same thing, and it is always different,' Maria says.

Born in 1935 in Meina, Italy, Maria holds a PhD in Public Art from the University of São Paulo. Her work includes sculpture, engraving and costume and set design. She has been awarded various prizes, including Best National Engraver, VIII São Paulo Biennial, 1965; Theadoron Prize, V Paris Biennial, 1967; International Jury Prize, XV International Engraving Biennial in Ljubljana, 1983; and Santos Prize – Engraving, Bunge Foundation, 1997.

download press release

Luisa Lambri | 11 Feb – 11 Mar 2009

2009-02-11T09:34:00.000-08:00

'Untitled (Casa de Baile #03) ', 2003, laserchrome print, 73.9 x 85 cm image courtesy Thomas Dane Gallery

'Casa das Canoas #02', 2003, laserchrome print, 99 x 115 cm image courtesy Thomas Dane Gallery

In celebration of Oscar Niemeyer, the Embassy of Brazil in association with Thomas Dane Gallery, is pleased to announce an exhibition of Italian artist Luisa Lambri. The show will bring together a previously unseen selection of Lambri's photographs taken in Brazil. Far from documenting it, Lambri proposes a more personal recording of architecture, using photography to redefine the ways we physically and mentally experience space.

In early 2003 Lambri spent two months photographing various buildings by Niemeyer in Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, São Paulo and Brasília. She went upon the invitation of Brazilian curator Adriano Pedrosa, on behalf of the Coleção Teixeira de Freitas, Rio de Janeiro and Lisbon.

Having been drawn to the geometry and formal details of modernist interiors, the artist recalls being compelled by Niemeyer’s uniquely sensual approach to his materials. She was interested in the way Niemeyer was able to open up and distort the orthogonal modernist grid structure by introducing feminine, curved lines. Through her photographs, Lambri wanted to articulate the dialogue that Niemeyer sets up between architecture and nature.

Included in the exhibition are photographs of 'Casa das Canoas', Niemeyer’s own home built in Rio de Janeiro in 1953, known locally as 'the architect's house'. Lambri returned to the house many times to photograph it. The resulting understanding of the building is revealed in her paired images of the covered patio and the way in which the dense tropical garden encroaches into the space.

During her trip Lambri also photographed 'Casa do Baile', a dance hall in Belo Horizonte built by Niemeyer in 1942. Her three photographs of the outdoor terrace of 'Casa do Baile' look out across the water - the straight, centred horizon line in the distance, punctuated by cylindrical columns, dramatizes the heady optical effect created by the undulating concrete structure that skirts the water. Often working in series and recording minute changes, or editing the framing of each image slightly, Lambri requires the viewer to look closely and carefully to see subtle differences. Similarly in this group, the movement of the clouds, the shifting shadow on the ground and the faint billow of smoke in the distance track the passing of time.

Born in Como in 1969, Lambri studied Literature and Philosophy at the University of Milan. She currently lives in Milan. Her work has been exhibited in dAPERTutto, 48th Venice Biennial, 1999, Dreams and Conflicts: The Viewer's Dictatorship, 50th Venice Biennial, 2003, Made Up: the Liverpool Biennial, 2008, and Italics: Italian Art between Tradition and Revolution 1968-2008, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 2008. Solo exhibitions include the Baltimore Museum of Art, The Carnegie Museum of Arts, The Menil Collection in Houston and Kettle's Yard, Cambridge. A solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles is scheduled for September 2009. Currently, Lambri has a solo show at Luhring Augustine, New York.

download press release

Sérgio Vieira de Mello: En Route to Baghdad | 3 Dez 2008 - 6:30pm

2008-12-03T06:31:00.000-08:00

En Route to Baghdad

Simone Duarte

'En Route do Baghdad provides an inside look at the sometimes overlooked power of diplomacy and reminds audience of the power that a single human being can have on the world.' (PBS, Independent Lens)

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Special Representative of theIraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, was Secretary-General in among the 21 people killed in a bombing attack on the UN Headquarters in Baghdad on August 19, 2003.

En Route to Baghdad is a documentary on the life and humanitarian work of the diplomat who endeavoured to bring peace and security to countries torn apart by dictatorships and civil war, working for cooperation and stability.

The film features interviews with Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General, Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the UN, King Sihanouk of Cambodia and Xanana Gusmão, president of East Timor, among others.

Followed by a Q&A session with Simone Duarte

Free but booking is essential: +44(0)20 7399 9284 | cineclub@brazil.org.uk

Mutum | 18 Nov 2008 - 6:30pm

2008-11-18T07:11:00.000-08:00

Sandra Kogut, 2007, Brazil/France, 95 min, Portuguese with English subtitle

premiere of the Brazilian feature film Mutum, based on Guimarães Rosa's Manuelzão e Miguilim.

A film that successfully blurs the boundaries between documentary and fiction. Mutum is the name of a remote region in Brazil, the setting for this piece about the adult world seen through the eyes of a small boy, Thiago. The sensitive ten-year-old is loved deeply by his mother, but her implied infidelity sees him unwillingly drawn into a secret. His brother Felipe is his friend and confidant, but his own anxieties only add to Thiago's vulnerability. The harsh, unyielding landscape offers little by way of a future, and when family circumstances worsen, it seems that a move to the city is the only way for him to escape the narrow world of his childhood. Anchored by an exceptional performance by its non-professional young lead, Sandra Kogut's adaptation is based in the story of Miguilim, of the novel "Campo Geral", by the acclaimed Brazilian writer João Guimarães Rosa.

Free but booking is essential: +44(0)20 7399 9284 | cineclub@brazil.org.uk

Sertão: Guimarães Rosa and His Legacy | 17 Nov - 3 Dec 2008

2008-11-17T09:27:00.000-08:00

Exhibition by Brazilian photographer Walter Firmo

As part of the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the birth of João Guimarães Rosa, the Embassy of Brazil and TAM Airlines are showing a collection of black and white photographs by the renowned Brazilian art photographer Walter Firmo at Gallery 32.

'Sertão' is the result of Firmo’s journey in the footsteps of Guimarães Rosa along the trails between the towns of Andrequicé and Sete Lagoas in northern Minas Gerais, beautifully capturing the rural landscape, memorable characters and traditional customs of the local communities.

download artist's text

Artist Links: Landscapes in Perspective | 15 Oct – 12 Nov 2008

2008-10-15T09:25:00.000-07:00

Fabiano Marques
'Untitled', 2008

The Embassy of Brazil and Artists Links present the work of participants in international artist residency programmes in Brazil and England. Artist Links is a joint initiative by the British Council and Arts Council England that aims to support artistic development through research and to promote individual and collaborative artistic practice. Artists from different backgrounds are exposed to a transnational context and challenged to explore the grounds of the undefined notion of the creative process.

Curated by Caroline Menezes and Roberta Mahfuz, Landscapes in Perspective: Artist Links England/Brazil juxtaposes the work of Fabiano Marques, Matt Lewis and the duos FrenchMottershead and Fernanda Chieco & Victor Lema Riqué to underline reflections resulting from a nexus of cultures. These artists share an interest in the interactive nature of encounters created through artistic investigations and the playful character of their propositions. Their work pursues the unforeseen experiences that emerge from the displacement of individual poetic and critical discourses, rewriting the notion of landscapes into perspective through the mutual relationships between environment, people and the symbolic construction of reality.

ARTISTS' TALK — On 28 October at 6pm, the artists will participate in a conversation with João Guarantani at Gallery 32.

download press release

Nzinga | 17 Sep 2008

2008-09-17T03:30:00.000-07:00

Atabaques Nzinga
Octávio Bezerra, 2006, Brazil, 87 min, Portuguese with English subtitles

In the words of Octávio Bezerra, Nzinga is a film that is feminine and black, and that shows a new style of language since it is music that defines the rhythm of its production. Nzinga tells the history of African influence on Brazilian music in three states (Pernambuco, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro). The film shows the main character, Ana, heeding to the calling of the drumbeat. The young woman is looking for guidance and candomblé helps her. She gets to know various rhythms, music and choreography groups, searching and finding her integration in Brazilian society.

Free but booking is essential: +44(0)20 7399 9284 | cineclub@brazil.org.uk

AfroBrazil | 16 Sep – 2 Oct 2008

2008-09-16T09:20:00.000-07:00

photos by Walter Firmo

Portraits by celebrated photographer Walter Firmo and works by artists from CAPA (Afro-Brazilian Artists Association)

Bucolic scenes of the slums and visual references to their childhood in the countryside are represented in their work. Their art also depicts other manifestations of popular culture such as roda de samba (game-like dancing and singing in a circle), carnival as well as other expressions of popular culture filled with faith and devotion derived from Afro-Brazilian religions and their syncretism.

Walter Firmo, master photographer now in his 70s, with over fifty years of practice in photography and a CAPA member since its creation, used his lenses to portray the visual poetry of the CAPA artists.

AfroBrazil is part of the Brazilian Season in London, an exciting range of cultural events adding a splash of colour to autumn in the city.

download press release

Baptism of Blood | 29 May 2008

2008-05-29T03:22:00.000-07:00

Batismo de Sangue

Helvécio Ratton, 2006, Brazil, 100 min, Portuguese with English subtitles

At the end of the sixties, a monastery becomes a hub of resistance against the military dictatorship. Moved by the Christian ideals of the Theology of Liberation, monks Tito, Betto, Oswaldo, Fernando and Ivo, as well as other Dominicans, decide to support the guerrilla movement Ação Libertadora Nacional, commanded by Carlos Marighella. Under the surveillance of special agents, they are arrested and dreadfully tortured. Adapted from the book by Frei Betto, based on true events.

Followed by a Q&A session with Helvécio Ratton

For more information please visit www.batismodesangue.com.br

Free but booking is essential: +44(0)20 7399 9284 | cineclub@brazil.org.uk

Raw: New Brazilian Architecture, LFA 2008 | 22 Jun – 18 Jul 2008

2008-05-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

As part of the main programme of this year’s London Festival of Architecture, the Embassy of Brazil will host the exhibition RAW – New Brazilian Architecture, curated by the London-based Brazilian architect Ricardo de Ostos.

RAW aims to reveal emerging talents in Brazilian architecture through a display of recent projects shown alongside works by more established architects. The exhibition will also feature projects by architecture students from various Brazilian universities, who were encouraged to produce work in response to a brief formulated by the exhibition's curator. The exhibition will focus on buildings and spatial experimentations which dare to propose new visions and challenge the way Brazilians live. Can architects propose social change through basic spatial scripts, interdisciplinary partnerships and still communicate and bring architecture to a wider public?

Consequently, RAW will work less as a container of the national architectural production and more as a gateway for talented Brazilian designers to bring forward their unique achievements and prospective visions of the near future. In an age where social and political engagement seem increasingly more disentangled from the contemporary architect's agenda, the exhibition will open an essential field for debate.

Participating architects will include the Pritzker Prize Winner Paulo Mendes da Rocha (São Paulo), Brasil Arquitetura (São Paulo), Sérgio Roberto Parada (Brasília), Fernando Maculan/GALAPAGOS (Belo Horizonte), Igor de Vetyemy (Rio de Janeiro), Metro Arquitetura + Juliano Dubeux (Recife), NaJa-deOstos (London), and SUBdv - Franklin Lee/Anne Save de Beaurecueil (São Paulo and London).

SUBdV – Franklin Lee + Anne Save de Beaurecueil
Sonic Studio, São Paulo

Brasil Arquitetura
Museu Rodin Bahia, Salvador

Brasil Arquitetura
Museu do Pão, Ilópolis

Brasil Arquitetura
Museu do Pão, Ilópolis

Metro Arquitetura
Nox Club, Recife

Metro Arquitetura
Nox Club, Recife

Sérgio Parada
Brasília Airport redevelopment

'The architecture of Brazil is both strikingly distinctive from Latin America as a whole and marked by internal diversity. Often regarded as a reference in the history of Modernism, Brazilian architecture currently broadens the boundaries of traditional movements, and yet manages to draw inspiration from the legacy of its remarkable 20th century Modernist heritage.

RAW aims at presenting the contemporary practice of architecture throughout Brazil, both revealing emerging talents and celebrating well-established practices, featuring: Brasil Arquitetura and SUBdV - São Paulo, Fernando Maculan+Mariza Machado Coelho - Belo Horizonte, Sérgio Roberto Parada - Brasília, Igor de Vetyemy - Rio de Janeiro, Metro Arquitetura+Juliano Dubeux - Recife, and the London-based NaJa & deOstos. Consequently, RAW does not aspire to be a full survey of the national architectural production but a gateway for talented Brazilian designers to bring forward their unique achievements and prospective visions of the near future. All of the works on display are recent projects, either completed or processual. They include buildings and spatial experimentations which dare to propose new visions and challenge the way Brazilians experience the built environment.

In juxtaposition with the emerging landscape of up-and-coming Brazilian architects, the exhibition also honours the work of one of Brazil’s most celebrated contemporary architects, the Pritzker Prize winner Paulo Mendes da Rocha. In his recent ambitious project for a cultural complex in Vitória, Espírito Santo, Paulo Mendes da Rocha proposes a spatial intervention that both relates sympathetically to and contrasts with the natural environment of the site.

In an age when social and political engagement seems increasingly more detachedfrom the contemporary architect’s agenda, RAW opens a field for a cardinal debate:Can architects propose social change through basic spatial scripts and interdisciplinary partnerships whilst bringing architecture to a wider public?'

Ricardo de Ostos - curator

download press release

For more information, please visit rawbrazil.wordpress.com

How Tasty Was Little Frenchman | 15 Apr 2008

2008-04-15T03:13:00.000-07:00

Como era Gostoso o meu Francês

Nelson Pereira dos Santos, 1971, Brazil, 84 min, in Portuguese, Tupi, French with English subtitles

Black comedy set in the jungles of Brazil, during the 16th century with the age of colonization, when France attempted to colonize part of Portugal's Brazil. A Frenchman is mistaken as an enemy of the tribe that captures him. They think he's Portuguese since all white men look the same and so he is their enemy until they can be convinced otherwise. The tribe treats its prisoner better than one might think. They give him food, his own hut and even a wife. The Frenchman strives to learn the ways of the tribe, hoping to figure out a way to avoid his prescribed fate of being the main course of a ceremonial tribal dinner.

Nelson Pereira dos Santos is considered to be one of the most innovative directors in the Brazilian film industry, he is also well-respected for his efforts to promote Brazil’s national cinema. His first feature film, Rio 40 Graus (1954), remains a groundbreaker in that it is the first to critically and realistically chronicle the plight of Brazil's impoverished citizens.

Followed by a Q&A session with Prof. Marco Antonio Guerra/USP

Free but booking is essential: +44(0)20 7399 9284 | cineclub@brazil.org.uk

Street Art Brazil: Tinho, Pato, Flip | 9–30 April 2008

2008-04-09T09:05:00.000-07:00

In a bold new move the Embassy of Brazil is giving three of Brazil's most popular street artists an exciting platform in the UK, with Street Art Brazil, a one-off exhibition at Gallery 32.

Having long boasted a particularly rich and diverse urban art scene, Brazil's uniquely colourful and exciting approach to this form of painting has, in a short time, propelled it to the very forefront of the global graffiti movement. The exhibition has come about due to a shared commitment by the Embassy of Brazil and ocontemporary to bring the thriving spirit of Brazilian street art to a wider audience in the UK.

Courtesy of TAM Brazilian Airlines, celebrated São Paulo street artists Tinho, Pato and Flip have made a special visit to the UK for Street Art Brazil, their first ever exhibition in London. In Gallery 32 they have been given free rein to create the kind of extraordinary murals for which they have become famous in Brazil, and a selection of their other artworks are displayed on the graffitied walls.

Tinho, Pato and Flip are all accomplished artists who have developed their skills in the unique atmosphere of São Paulo, Brazil's graffiti capital. As a result, their innovative techniques and emotive styles come in stark contrast to the more traditional forms of street art we are used to in the UK, painting a vivid and colourful picture of modern Brazil.

In its 20-page special supplement devoted to Brazil, published 24 March 2008, The Guardian’s Tom Phillips says that Brazilian design is 'usually recognised for its flamboyance, but it is only recently that its unusual mix of influences is being embraced for its inventiveness, originality and sheer diversity.'

Tristan Manco, author of Graffiti Brasil, says: 'The innovation of Brazilian graffiti is reminiscent of those heady days of New York’s graffiti boom, and artists all over the world are now looking to Brazil as a source of inspiration.'

According to Olivia Connelly, Director of ocontemporary, 'Urban Art is by far the most significant global movement since Pop Art, and Brazil is now considered by many to be the most important root of this movement. It shows great understanding on the part of the Embassy of Brazil that, as a government body, they are willing to open themselves to this exciting new style of art and demonstrate some of the fantastic living artists they have in their country.'

ocontemporary is one of the UK's top contemporary art spaces, showcasing a compelling and diverse selection of national and international artists' work.

'Raimunda' and 'Estamira' | 26 Feb 2008

2008-02-26T02:55:00.000-08:00

Raimunda, a Quebradeira

Marcelo Silva, 2006, Brazil, 52 min, in Portuguese with English subtitles
'The film - Raimunda, the Quebradeira - takes its title from the name of the woman uniting opposition to big business. Sixty-year-old Raimunda leads other quebraideiras, indigenous women, in the fight for land to support their families in their struggle against poverty. They eke out a living in the Amazon forest, breaking and selling the leaves, shells and kernels of babaçu palm tree nuts which produce roofs, baskets, charcoal and soap. But large-scale profiteers want to destroy the trees to make way for biofuels, mining and cattle. War on Want supports the Movement of Women Babaçu Breakers which helps the 300,000 women resist this threat'. From the website of the UK War on Want Website.

Estamira
Marcos Prado, 2004, Brazil, 115 min, in Portuguese with English subtitles

Estamira tells the story of a 63 year-old woman who suffers from schizophrenia. Estamira has lived and worked for the past 20 years at the waste disposal site of Jardim Gramacho in Rio de Janeiro. Charismatic and maternal, Estamira shares her life with a community of elderly folk at the waste site. Filming began in January of 2000, when Estamira started getting treatmen at a state-run psychiatric clinic. The film shows her life during four years of continuous medication; reveals her transformation and the effects the drugs had upon her. In her children’s statements, her arduous existence becomes exposed: her childhood in poor, rural Brazil, her tormented loves and marriages, ad her frustrations. With a poetic philosophical and eloquent discourse, Estamira lives for the mission that was set upon her: to reveal and to reclaim the truth.

For more information please visit www.estamira.com.br

Followed by a Q&A session with Marcelo Silva

Free but booking is essential: +44(0)20 7399 9284 | cineclub@brazil.org.uk

Mariannita Luzzati: Ocupações - Project 3 | 20 Feb - 12 Mar 2008

2008-02-20T08:57:00.000-08:00

‘Pari 1’, 2007
oil on canvas, 142 x 142 cm, photo by Romulo Fialdini

As part of its programme aimed at promoting internationally renowned and up-and-coming Brazilian contemporary artists, Gallery 32 is pleased to announce Ocupações – Project 3, an exhibition of works by the São Paulo-born artist Mariannita Luzzati.

Ocupações took shape in 2006 as a commission for a site-specific exhibition to be housed in the 800 sq m² Museu Vale do Rio Doce in Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil. The project emerged from the artist’s observation of man and his effects on nature. The Gallery 32 exhibition, which includes works in different media, will consist of six large scale paintings and an 8-minute video piece.

Well-known both in Brazil and abroad, Luzzati has been described as ‘one of the greatest working Brazilian painters’ by the journalist and art critic Maria Hirszman in the Estado de São Paulo newspaper. Since 1994 she has divided her time between London and São Paulo, and her work has been exhibited in galleries and institutions in both Europe and Brazil. In 2005, the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, one of Brazil’s leading art institutions, hosted a major retrospective spanning fifteen years of her artistic career.

Mariannita Luzzati was born in São Paulo, Brazil. She lives and works in São Paulo and London, having shown in leading international institutions, such as Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo; Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo; Museu de Arte Contemporânea de São Paulo; Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro; Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro; Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Curitiba; Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte; Museu Vale do Rio Doce, Vitória; Museo Nacional, Buenos Aires; Museum of London; Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin; Museu de Arte Moderna, Salvador; Maison de Saint Gilles, Brussels; among others.

download press release

Ricardo Carioba: IN SIDE#NO FORM / 19 Dec 2007 – 1 Feb 2008

2007-12-19T08:51:00.000-08:00

installation view

The Embassy of Brazil in London is pleased to announce Ricardo Carioba’s IN SIDE#NO FORM. Ricardo Carioba is currently an artist-in-residency in London through the Artist Links programme, a joint initiative from the Arts Council of England and the British Council, with support from the Visiting Arts. IN SIDE#NO FORM is his first exhibition in the UK, including both newly commissioned and existing works in different mediums such as sculpture, photography, video and sound.

In IN SIDE#NO FORM, Carioba creates a completely immersive environment in which the only sources of light are the works themselves, and in which light and sound are the key elements. Drawing on the 20th century legacy of geometric abstraction, Carioba is interested in investigating the structure of forms and subverting the technical processes involved in the production of digital images.

Structure is the underlying principle in the digital video projection 48, which consists of a two-dimensional simulation of a cube-like shape whose faces are continually recombined in a virtual four-dimensional space. By adding a fourth dimension to the traditional 3D simulation of prisms, Carioba arrives at 48 possible combinations that unfold in time, creating distorted shapes. Indication For The Displacement Of A Point In The Three-dimensional Structure, a site-specific glowing resin sculpture which projects itself from one of the corners of the gallery, plays with the architectural structure of the room by altering the viewer’s perception of space. Carioba also establishes a dialogue with architecture in exarq#3, where the image – displayed, digitally constructed and then photographed from the computer screen – closely resembles technical drawings for an impossible building.

Ricardo Carioba was born in São Paulo in 1976, and lives and works in the city. His recent exhibitions include the solo show Ládó 4/4, Technô#2 at Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro (2007) and the group show The Communism of Form: Sound + Image + Time – The Strategy of the Music Video at Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo (2007).

Disponha: Contemporary Brazilian Photography from the Inhotim Collection | 4 - 13 Dec 2007

2007-12-04T08:48:00.000-08:00

installation view

Rubens Mano, Disponha, photographic print, 108 x 106cm [each]
Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporânea, Minas Gerais

Disponha – Contemporary Brazilian Photography from the Inhotim Collection is a collaborative project on the part of the Inhotim Contemporary Art Centre and the Brazilian Government represented by the Ministry of External Relations and the Embassy of Brazil in the United Kingdom. This is the first exhibition abroad of the collections of the Inhotim Contemporary Art Centre, which is located in Minas Gerais. The exhibition will run until 13 December 2007.

The exhibition comprises works by six Brazilian artists. These leading artists research photographic images in the contemporary creative context. Although the artists belong to different generations and pursue different lines of creation, Mauro Restiffe, Miguel Rio Branco, Rochelle Costi, Rosângela Rennó, Rubens Mano and Vik Muniz share their elemental interest in the use of photography that widens the limits of its capacity by exploiting other fields of knowledge.
Disponha borrows its title from the works by Rubens Mano, which are being shown in this exhibition. In his diptych, we can see the images of two parked cars in a street in São Paulo. Between the first and the second images, part of the body of the cars is ripped off – a movement that is placed between the randomness of photography and suggestion of the artist’s interference in the scene. In Portuguese ‘dispor’ has various meanings but here it concurrently means to make use and to make available along with setting in space, arranging. The title of this exhibition refers to the use of existing contexts alongside both the added intention and gesture of the artist to those contexts.

In Mauro Restiffe, we can see a work by Vermeer hanging on the wall, thus, establishing a relation between the photographed object-painting and the object that we can actually see. In the celebrated images of the Red Series by Rosângela Rennó, the archive of military images undergoes a digital monochromatic treatment. One of the great masters of photography in the world, Miguel Rio Branco promotes a personal fusion between realism and poetry. His picture, shown in this exhibition, presents an image of a series of boxers photographed in Rio de Janeiro in the 1990s. Rochelle Costi explores the intimacy of bedrooms in an image that portrays the interior of a fleeting reality while Vik Muniz participates with an image made by using large scale, hence, referring to land art.

The Inhotim Contemporary Art Centre is a venue that undergoes continual transformations where art and nature interact in a unique and singular fashion. It is situated in a museum complex in the municipality of Brumadinho in the State of Minas Gerais, 60 km from the capital of the State, Belo Horizonte. Inhotim is a venue for meditation, education and delight with a profound commitment to the socio-cultural development of the local community achieved by means of educational and training programmes available to the public. Its collection holds about 400 works by Brazilian and international artists from the 1960s to date compounding a multi-generational panel and, by the same token, bringing together the largest collection of contemporary art in Brazil on show. At Inhotim, artists are invited to create exclusive works on a permanent basis which transform it into a space for creativity and reflection upon the contemporary creation process.

download press release

Flags of Brazil - Bandeiras do Brasil | 16-28 Nov 2007

2007-11-16T08:20:00.000-08:00

Hélio Oiticica
'Seja Marginal, Seja Herói', 1967
screeprinting on fabric, 83 x 115 cm

detail of Marta Niklaus
'Bandeira de Farrapos', 1993
180 x 200 cm

The exhibition "Flags of Brazil – Bandeiras do Brasil" focuses upon the national flag as a national symbol.

Artists working at different moments in history present their personal interpretations of the flag, creating works in which we can identify aspirations, refutations, exaltations and demands from within the soul of the Brazilian people.

A selection of ten works – part of the first 2003 Bandeiras do Brasil exhibition at the Museum of Republic in Rio de Janeiro – have been selected for this exhibition at Gallery 32. They aim to inspire reflection on aspects of social, economic and cultural life in present-day Brazil, as well as on the country’s recent history.

Martha Niklaus – Curator

"Flags of Brazil" features the following artists: Adolfo Montejo, Anna Bella Geiger, Brígida Baltar, Chang Chi Chai, Hélio Oiticica, Julia Csekö, Marcos Cardoso, Martha Niklaus, Sueli Fahri, Xico Chaves.

installation view

installation view

This exhibition is sponsored by our cultural partners (TAM Brazilian Airlines, Tristão Group, Noronha Advogados and Banco do Brasil), the Museu da República, and IPHAN.

Swarming Futures | Exhibition installation

2007-07-29T02:08:00.000-07:00

Swarming Futures from laura barbi on Vimeo.

Daniel Senise | Interview

2007-07-16T03:04:00.000-07:00

This text will be replaced

Nuno Ramos: fodasefoice | Interview

2007-07-16T03:02:00.000-07:00

This text will be replaced

Swarming Futures | Interview

2007-07-16T03:00:00.000-07:00

This text will be replaced

Nuno Ramos: fodasefoice | Exhibition Installation

2007-07-16T02:45:00.000-07:00

Nuno Ramos: fodasefoice | Exhibition installation | Gallery 32 from laura barbi on Vimeo.

Condor | 5 Jun 2008 - 6:30pm

2007-06-05T06:47:00.000-07:00

Condor
Roberto Mader, Brazil, 2007, 106min, Spanish and Portuguese with English subtitles

Between September 2005 and August 2006 the director Roberto Mader visited 5 countries in Latin America and 3 countries in Europe in search for registers and testimonials about Operation Condor, a political-military alliance between various South American military regimes: Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay. The filme presents a contemporary analysis of these events marked by political plots, assassinations and toture.

Free but booking is essential: +44(0)20 7399 9284 | cineclub@brazil.org.uk

Gallery 32

Estela Sokol | Secret Forest exhibition catalogue

Estela Sokol | Interview

Estela Sokol: Secret Forest | 10 June - 15 July 2011

Oswaldo Goeldi | Cena Urbana exhibition catalogue

Oswaldo Goeldi | Interview

Oswaldo Goeldi: Cena Urbana | 15 April - 13 May 2011

Oswaldo Goeldi | Cena Urbana: Curator's Talk - Wednesday 13 April, 6.15pm

Frederico Câmara exhibition catalogue

Frederico Câmara | 15 October - 17 November 2010

Frederico Câmara | Interview

Frederico Câmara - Artist's Talk* | 19 October | 6-7pm

LFA 2010 | Swarming Futures exhibition catalogue

LFA 2010: Swarming Futures | 25 June - 11 August 2010

LFA 2010: Swarming Futures Symposium | 26 June, 11am - 5pm

LFA 2010 | RIBA Speaker's Crescent: Brazil | 20 June, 10 - 10:40am

Nuno Ramos: fodasefoice exhibition catalogue

Nuno Ramos: fodasefoice | 5 May – 5 June 2010

Daniel Senise exhibition catalogue

Daniel Senise | 19 Mar - 14 Apr 2010

The Year My Parents Went on Vacation | 10 February 2010 | 6.30pm

Neoconcrete Experience | Exhibition Catalogue

Neoconcrete Experience | 11 Dec 2009 – 30 Jan 2010

Chico Mendes Vive! & Children of the Amazon | 25 Nov 2008 - 6pm

Collector Collecting I exhibition catalogue

Collector Collecting | 16 Oct – 18 Nov 2009

Brazil Illustrated | 10 Sep – 2 Oct 2009

Regina Vater | Memory of Light exhibition catalogue

Regina Vater: Memory of Light | 23 June – 19 Aug 2009

Maria Bonomi exhibition catalogue

Maria Bonomi | 6 May – 10 June 2009

Luisa Lambri | 11 Feb – 11 Mar 2009

Sérgio Vieira de Mello: En Route to Baghdad | 3 Dez 2008 - 6:30pm

Mutum | 18 Nov 2008 - 6:30pm

Sertão: Guimarães Rosa and His Legacy | 17 Nov - 3 Dec 2008

Artist Links: Landscapes in Perspective | 15 Oct – 12 Nov 2008

Nzinga | 17 Sep 2008

AfroBrazil | 16 Sep – 2 Oct 2008

Baptism of Blood | 29 May 2008

Raw: New Brazilian Architecture, LFA 2008 | 22 Jun – 18 Jul 2008

How Tasty Was Little Frenchman | 15 Apr 2008

Street Art Brazil: Tinho, Pato, Flip | 9–30 April 2008

'Raimunda' and 'Estamira' | 26 Feb 2008

Mariannita Luzzati: Ocupações - Project 3 | 20 Feb - 12 Mar 2008

Ricardo Carioba: IN SIDE#NO FORM / 19 Dec 2007 – 1 Feb 2008

Disponha: Contemporary Brazilian Photography from the Inhotim Collection | 4 - 13 Dec 2007

Rubens Mano, Disponha, photographic print, 108 x 106cm [each] Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporânea, Minas Gerais

Flags of Brazil - Bandeiras do Brasil | 16-28 Nov 2007

Swarming Futures | Exhibition installation

Daniel Senise | Interview

Nuno Ramos: fodasefoice | Interview

Swarming Futures | Interview

Nuno Ramos: fodasefoice | Exhibition Installation

Condor | 5 Jun 2008 - 6:30pm

Rubens Mano, Disponha, photographic print, 108 x 106cm [each]
Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporânea, Minas Gerais