Occupations/Discoveries, 1998, Antonio Manuel
The selection of artists featured in the Pavilion of Brazil at the 56th International Art Exhibition– La Biennale di Venezia is based on the main criteria of the relevance of their poetics in the contemporary arts scene and, at the same time, their place in the history, not just of art, but of Brazil’s conflicted society. Responsible for the conception of Brazilian pavilion, curator Luiz Camillo Osorio and deputy curator Cauê Alves agreed to present pieces by artists Antonio Manuel, Berna Reale and André Komatsu.
According to the curators, “faced with the dictatorship in the late 1960s, some artists were forced into a kind of activism in which conceptual strategies were aligned with material precariousness and corporal fragility. Such actions and pieces, without losing their lyrical intensity, fractured the established forms of perceiving reality.”
American, 2013, Berna Reale
The State of Things 2 (Three Powers), 2011, André Komatsu
Antonio Manuel was part of this generation and, since then, he has maintained his career with a body of work in which constructive rigor refuses any kind of illustrative discursiveness without denying its political tone – on the contrary, affirming it. Dialoguing with his work are two artists whose careers began in the 21st century: Pará native Berna Reale and São Paulo-born André Komatsu. “With both artists we see the same courage in the use of body and the raw materiality that surrounds us, shedding light on what is on the margins of the visible, but which reveals the conflicts of a country and a world that is fragmented and brutal,” Osorio underlines.
Semi-O(p)tics, 1975, Antonio Manuel
The title of the exhibition, “So much that it doesn’t fit here” was inspired by the signs seen in demonstrations which took place in Brazil’s capital cities in June of 2013. Direct contact with the streets is also something shared by the three artists.
Exhibited works list:
Antonio Manuel
Semi-O(p)tics, 1975 (35-mm film, 7’)
Nave, 2013 (4 wooden doors, tv, acrylic and video)
Occupations/Discoveries, 1998 (Brick walls, cement and paint)
Until the Image Disappears, 2013 (mixed media, variable dimensions)
André Komatsu
Status Quo, 2015 (Galvanized steel tube, iron grab, screw and galvanized steel grail)
The State of Things 2 (Three Powers), 2011(Official aluminum mast, galvanized steel support, rope and old snickers)
Berna Reale
American, 2013 (video 3’42’’)
About the Brazilian participation at the 56th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia
Built in 1964, the pavilion of Brazil at the Art Biennale reflects the aesthetic, political and social debates that have developed in the country over the past decades. In 1995, the Brazilian government granted the responsibility for selecting the curators and artists to the Bienal de São Paulo Foundation, in recognition of the importance of the institution – the second oldest of its kind in the world – to the visual arts in Brazil. Since 1995, Brazil’s participation in the event has been organized in collaboration with the Ministry of External Relations, the Ministry of Culture and the Bienal de São Paulo Foundation – responsible for selecting the curator and producing the exhibits.
Pavilion of Brazil at the 56th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia
de 9 de maio a 22 de novembro de 2015
Commissioner: Luis Terepins
Curator: Luiz Camillo Osorio
Deputy Curator: Cauê Alves
Venue: Giardini Castello, Padiglione Brasile, 30122 Venice, Italy