20 DISARRANGEMENTS
Panorama on Brazilian art
MARCO, Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo
Vigo Museum of Contemporary Art
21 January – 8 May 2005
Artists on the exhibition:
• Jorge Barbi (A Guarda, Pontevedra, 1958)
• Paulo Climachauska (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1948)
• Umberto Costa Barros (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1948)
• José Damasceno (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1968)
• Wim Delvoye (Wervik, Belgium, 1965); lives and works in Gant, Belgium; and London, United Kingdom
• Fernanda Gomes (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1960)
• José Guedes (Fortaleza, Brazil, 1958)
• Adriano and Fernando Guimarães (Brasilia, Brazil, 1968; Brasilia, Brazil, 1962)
• Kan Xuan (Xuan Chang, China, 1972); lives and works in Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Leonilson (Fortaleza, Brazil, 1957 – São Paulo, Brazil, 1993)
• Lucas Levitan and Jailton Moreira (Porto Alegre, Brazil, 1977; São Leopoldo, Brazil, 1960); live and work in Porto Alegre, Brazil
• Jorge Macchi (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1963)
• Cildo Meireles (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1948)
• Marcone Moreira (Pío XII, Brazil, 1982); lives and works in Marabá, Brazil
• Vik Muniz (São Paulo, Brazil, 1961); lives and works in New York, USA
• Ernesto Neto (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1964)
• José Patrício (Recife, Brazil, 1960)
• Sara Ramo (Madrid, Spain, 1975); lives and works in Belo Horizonte, Brazil
• Adriana Varejão (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1964)
• Alex Villar (Vitória, Brazil, 1962); lives and works in New York, USA
This exhibition was produced by the MAM, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. The exhibition is composed of approximately 57 works of art in different forms: installations, interventions, objects, paintings, engravings, sculptures, videos, etc.
The exhibition “20 DISARRANGEMENTS”, curated by the well-known Cuban art critic Gerardo Mosquera, has its origins in the 2003 edition of the Panorama da arte brasileira, (the second most important periodic exhibition of contemporary art in Brazil, only surpassed by the São Paulo Biennial), organized since 1969 by the MAM, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. This is the first time that the Panorama leaves Brazil and is internationally presented. MARCO is the only Spanish museum hosting this exhibition, which shows what is currently being produced in one of the most innovative contemporary art scene.
The fact that the MAM decided to engage a foreign curator shows the interest of the organizers in modernizing an event so strongly consolidated. That is why the curator considered his task in two directions: working with art and artists, but also calling into question the Panorama as an institution. He aimed to organize an exhibition and at the same time to “disarrange” its institutional framework in order to undertake a complete change. Gerardo Mosquera has somehow created an “anti-panorama”, because he consciously refuses the idea of presenting an anthology or a study of contemporary Brazilian art, in order to present an exhibition based on a concept of its own, capable of standing by itself and travelling abroad.
The concept of “disarrangement” has not been imposed by the curator, but created from what has been learned through art practice, after a research carried out in eleven Brazilian cities where the work of more than a hundred artists was assessed. The title was taken from a Cuban pianist and composer of the sixties, Felo Bergaza, who aroused great enthusiasm among the audience with his musical arrangements, so radical that he would call them “disarrangements”. “His passionate imagination as composer and performer used to outshine the original performance, even though its framework was never broken”. This is the concept on which the exhibition is based: creative disarrangements of structures, materials, formal dimensions or the content of the works of art. As Gerardo Mosquera said, “some artists create their works through the formal and conceptual recourse to “disarranging” a structure. Disarrangements can be carried out in the formal dimension of the work of art, in its content, in its projection or in all of them”.
All the artists on exhibition were selected because they played a leading role in these trends and their works intertwine in a perfect manner with the visual discourse of this exhibition. Four of the 20 artists on exhibition do not come from or live in Brazil (the Galician Jorge Barbi, the Belgian Wim Delvoye, the Chinese Kan Xuan and the Argentinian Jorge Macchi). The addition of these artists stamps the exhibition with a more thematic and open character, and is the result of an “auto-criticism” from within intended to exhibitions determined by regional or national frameworks, which, according to the curator, are now obsolete. That is why an artist whose work complies with the exhibition concept is included in the country hosting the exhibition. On this occasion, it is the Galician Jorge Barbi.
DESARREGLOS is presented as a thematic exhibition of international interest. This target, according to the curator, has three different aspects:
First, encouraging the dissemination of contemporary art in Brazil, which is nowadays one of the leading art scenes in the world. There are many Brazilian artists in the international scene, but very little is known of Brazil as a first-class art space with its particular character. People often get the impression that Hélio Oiticica, Ligia Clark or Cildo Meireles came out of nowhere, due to the ignorance of Brazilian cultural processes, artists and movements.
Second, taking the exhibition to countries or cities that do not belong to “international circuits” and that show an emerging energy. The know-how and the example set by Brazilian plastic arts may encourage a fruitful exchange of experiences in these places, particularly for young artists and critics.
And third, striving to create a plurality of international circuits capable of establishing their own practices and values beyond the context. This will give a meaning to terms like “international art”, “international art language” and “international art scene”, and introduce in the international circuit an exhibition that can raise interest by itself.
CATALOGUE:
MARCO publishes a bilingual offprint in Spanish and Galician with the adaptation of texts that appeared in the catalogue published in 2003 by the MAM (Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo) to mark the opening of Panorama da arte brasileira 2003. This catalogue, on sale together with the offprint at the museum shop, is a trilingual edition in Portuguese, Spanish and English with texts written by Gerardo Mosquera and Adrienne Samos about the artists and an interview with the curator by the journalist Washington de Carvalho Neves, apart from technical specifications and reproductions of most of the works on exhibition.
ABOUT THE CURATOR:
Gerardo Mosquera –art critic, curator and art historian– was born in Havana in 1945 and has been curator of exhibitions in the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York for more than a decade. He is member of the editorial board of the magazines Art Nexus, Calabar, Ideas & ensayos, Nika and Third Text, as well as founder of the Havana Biennial and co-curator of “Ante América” in 1992-94. Among his latest exhibitions, the most remarkable are “No es sólo lo que ves. Pervirtiendo el minimalismo”, MNCARS Madrid, 2000, and “Wilfredo Lam”, XXIII São Paulo International Biennial, 1996. Gerardo Mosquera has written many books on contemporary art, such as "Beyond the Fantastic. Contemporary Art Criticism from Latin America" (editor), London, 1995; "Contracandela, Caracas", 1995, and "El diseño se definió en octubre", Havana, 1989, Bogotá, 1992.
MARCO, Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo
Vigo Museum of Contemporary Art
Rúa Príncipe 54, 36202 Vigo, España
