so vast is art...

Welcome Ai Weiwei!

Couldn’t be happier! 2013 already feels like an amazing year for arts, culture, design and what else makes our lives brighter and smarter! Here in São Paulo it is time to welcome Ai Weiwei’s first exhibition ever in Brazil at MIS (Museum of Image and Sound).

Ai Weiwei Interlacing presents photographs, videos and texts that were produced by Ai in between 1983 and 2011. For the first time, these works will be exhibited outside Europe and will give the brazilians a chance to get in touch with one of the most influential artists of our time and his controversial social activist works. Too bad we won’t be seeing a lot of Ai around. He is currently held under house arrest in China. #freeaiweiwei

Text Juliana D Chohfi

Images World Wide Web

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Não podia estar mais feliz! 2013 já tem sabor de um grande ano para as artes, cultura, design e tudo o mais que alimenta a alma e faz a vida mais feliz. Aqui em São Paulo, chegou a vez de dar as boas vindas à primeira exposição de Ai Weiwei no Brasil, que acontecerá no nosso querido MIS. 

Ai Weiwei Interlacing apresentará fotos, vídeos e textos que Ai produziu entre 1983 e 2011. Pela primeira vez esses trabalhos serão exibidos fora da europa dando a chance aos brasileiros de estarem em contato com a obra de um dos artistas mais influentes de nossos tempos. Trabalhos controversos e socialmente ativos, que a gente ama. Infelizmente não vamos ter o ar da graça de Ai que está sob prisão domiciliar na China. #freeaiweiwei

Texto Juliana D Chohfi

Fotos Divulgação

Words are not enough to describe…Olafur Eliasson

Happy to say: ‘finally an exhibition by the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson in South America!’. The Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo presents the first solo exhibition of Eliasson ‘Seu corpo da obra”  and it’s being held in three different venues in São Paulo.

Olafur Eliasson is another artist that needs no introduction and to be honest, quite hard to put into words since his work is all about perception as it is lived in the world.

Eliasson creates complex optical phenomena using simple and makeshift technical devices such as lights, spotlights, strobes, water and mirrors, playing with the concepts of reality, perception and representation. His works are always attached to architecture and urban structures exploring the relationship between museum and city, architecture and landscape, as well as space, body and time.

I still haven’t been to this exhibition but I certainly remember the one I’ve been to in Berlin at the Martin-Gropius-Bau. I recall walking into a room and seeing my friend pale, sort of a monochrome ‘greyish’ dead color and asking if she was alright…it took us a while to realize we we’re all grey because of the light! Yep..quite hard to explain, you don’t just stand in front of his works, you live the work.

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Feliz em dizer: “finalmente, uma exposição do artista dinamarquês-islandês Olafur Eliasson no Brasil!”. A Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo apresenta a primeira exposição individual de Olafur ‘Seu  Corpo da obra’ que está sendo realizada em três locais diferentes em São Paulo (Pinacoteca, SESC Pompéia e SESC Belenzinho).

Olafur Eliasson é outro artista que dispensa introduções  e sinceramente, muito difícil colocar sua obra em palavras, uma vez que seu trabalho é todo sobre a percepção. 

Olafur cria fenômenos ópticos complexos usando simples e improvisados dispositivos técnicos, como luzes, holofotes, câmeras, espelhos e água, brincando com os conceitos de percepção, realidade e representação. Suas obras são sempre ligadas à arquitetura e estruturas urbanas explorando a relação entre museu e cidade, arquitetura e paisagem, bem como corpo, espaço e tempo.

Eu ainda não fui à exposição, mas certamente não vou me esquecer da que fui  em Berlim, no Martin-Gropius-Bau. Lembro de entrar em uma sala e ver minha amiga pálida, tipo acinzentada, monocromática, cor de morto e perguntar se ela tava bem… demorou um tempo até a gente perceber que estávamos todos cinza por causa da luz! É…difícil explicar, a verdade é que você não observa uma obra do Olafur, você vive a obra.

*Seu corpo da obra está em exposição até 08 de Janeiro de 2012.

Must see!

So I finally made it to the ®Nova Cultura Contemporânea festival at the Cinemateca here in São Paulo and I must say it is definitely a ‘must see’!

I couldn’t hope for a better way of spending my Saturday evening.

I got there a bit late so the short movies were already screening and people were already hanging out at the Absolut bar…lovely lightening and atmosphere. I rushed in to watch David O’Reilly’s animations and laughed much more than I thought I would. Right after the screening I took myself to the bar for some drinks, perfect timing as Shima was about to start. Beautiful live “video-sound-installation-performance” (?)…as I watched was part of that hybrid presentation I thought about how to put it down into words here on the blog and it seems there isn’t a proper definition and that’s probably what makes it so special! Forget the classic cinema format, have a sit on the floor, lean back on the wall or whatever…have your drink and enjoy! 

(®NOVA Cultura Contemporânea São Paulo is on every Staurday until October 29)

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Eu finalmente consegui ir ao ®Nova Cultura Contemporânea  festival na Cinemateca aqui em São Paulo e digo, é definitivamente um ‘must see’! Melhor programa para um fim de tarde em São Paulo.

Cheguei um pouco atrasada, os curtas já estavam rolando e algumas pessoas já estavam ali no bar Absolut…deliciosa atmosfera e iluminação. Eu corri para assistir as animações de David O’Reilly e ri muito mais do que eu imaginei. Logo depois da exibição de curtas fui ao bar para um drink, timing perfeito já que Shima estava prestes a começar. Muito bom o live “audio-visual-performance-instalação” (?)… enquanto eu assistia fazia parte da apresentação híbrida, pensei sobre como descrevê-la em palavras aqui no blog e parece que não há uma definição adequada, o que provavelmente faz o ®Nova tão especial! Esqueça o formato de cinema clássico, sente-se no chão, encoste na parede ou tanto faz…aprecie o seu drink e aproveite!

(® NOVA Cultura Contemporânea São Paulo rola todos os sábados até 29 de outubro)

Urban Art - 6emeia Project

The 6emeia project was created and developed by the artists Anderson Augusto, a.k.a. SÃO, and Leonardo Delafuente, a.k.a. Delafuente. The duo live in Barra Funda neighborhood of São Paulo, Brazil where they began the project with the purpose of changing and transforming daily life.

The duo’s objective is to modify the means in which we all live, proposing a new way to view things of every day life. Such modifications are made by painting storm drains, light posts, manhole covers and any other object of the urban environment. Art then becomes within the reach and at the service of everyone.

Their works bring certain life and humor to the passageways of a gray city and brightens the day of us all.

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O duo 6emeia foi criado e desenvolvido pelos artistas Anderson  Augusto, aka SÃO, e Leonardo Delafuente, aka Delafuente, moradores do bairro da Barra Funda onde se iniciou o projeto com o intuito de mudar e transformar o cotidiano.  

 O objetivo é modificar o meio em que vivemos propondo um novo olhar e uma reflexão sobre temas gerados pelo trabalho inusitado e criativo, que consiste em pintar bueiros, postes, tampas de esgoto e qualquer outro objeto que construa o cenário urbano.   

Suas obras trazem vida e cor para as ruas da cidade cinza, e certamente humor para o nosso dia a dia.

http://www.6emeia.com/index.php

®NOVA Cultura Contemporânea - deconstructing the big screen

Exquisite press breakfast at the Cinemateca Brasileira on Tuesday morning. The venue itself is one of the most charming and well kept memorable sites in São Paulo (the Cinemateca Brasileira is an audiovisual library responsible for preserving, diffusing and restoring one of the largest collections of films in Latin America).

As I drank my coffee and read the press release I started to question what was the conference/exhibition all about, specially after I realized that the 3D glasses I was given had three eyes! What would you expect of an exhibition brought together by ROJO® magazine, Absolut Vodka, BossaNovaFilms (major film production company in Brazil) and Art Unlimited ?

 ®NOVA Cultura Contemporânea brings together a whole new way of story telling in films. It takes the public out of the big screen format and into a fantastic ride among color, light, projections, music and space.

The exhibition space is imagined as a big cinematic installation that uses other forms of art as support and props to the bigger picture. The interaction of the public goes beyond the classic format of observing the pieces in a white cube and is likely to determinate some of the ‘happy ending’ of the scripts.

I personally like the play across time, spaces and states of perception that the exhibition contemplates, it gives form to the relationship of contemporary life and technologies.

The exhibition will be held in six different Saturdays showcasing sixty renowned artists from around the globe. Each Saturday is divided into a screening session of a 30 to 45 minute movie, drinks and interaction in the terrace garden ‘Absolut Blank Space’ and finally the experiment of the installations. Expect improvisation and mutation along the six weeks. On the last Saturday the public will be contemplated by the BYOB night!

I’d say the event is more than a full-environmental interactive experience…it is the mutant that fits perfectly the three eyed glasses…

®NOVA Cultura Contemporânea São Paulo

September 24 – October 29 2011

@ Cinemateca Brasileira - Largo Sen. Raul Cardoso, 207 - São Paulo +55 11 3512-6111

for more information: http://rojo-nova.com/2011/sao/

(Pictures clockwise: Cinemateca Brasileira; press kit; press conference - Rafael Souza from Pernod Ricard Brasil, Paula Trabulsi from BossaNovaFilms, David Quiles from ROJO® and Pieter Tjabbes from Art Unlimited; screening one of the trailers)