101st
September 6th 2014
The installation Casa de caboclo, by Arthur Scovino | Photo Pedro Ivo Trasferetti - São Paulo Biennale Foundation
BAHIA IN IBIRAPUERA In what way is your project close to Bahia no Ibirapuera, held by Lina Bo in 1959, during the 5th São Paulo Biennale?
Photo Alfredo Mascarenhas
Curumins & Cunhantãns | Photo Reproduction
The attic of the Palacete das Artes receives Hipernatureza, a series of documentaries by the filmmaker Regina Jehá. The action is part of the exhibition the Imaginary Museum of the Northeast | Department of the Endless Journey | Section: Naturalisme intégral, which occupies the whole villa. Curumins & Cunhantãs (1981), Pantanal, a última fronteira (1983), Catehe (1994) and Bootstrap (2005) are the works comprised in the session.
Arthur Scovino - My perception of the world changed in 2001 when I first stepped into the Abaeté Lagoon. It was my first spiritual experience and one of a profound relationship with a place, a city. I chose this city to live in seven years ago, and everything I think and do come from Salvador and the things from Bahia. I believe that Lina thought about taking this rapture to Bahia in Ibirapuera. There were the ephemera of life and art in Bahia. Objects of art that promoted relationships with people; the relationship of man with nature, and the energy that comes from it. In this project I bring the spirit of it all. I bring my references, herbs, smells, objects, performance artists and friends, the School of Fine Arts, the Solar do Unhão, the Bahia Biennial. It’s a universal conversation, but which comes from here; the <Church of> Aflitos, the Terreiro de Jesus and all of the Caboclos. In what does this change in perspective (from Salvador to São Paulo) affect the project Casa de Caboclo? Arthur - Since I started attending shows and exhibitions, I have been present, whether in performance or painting. In Bahia, I was already accustomed to people. Relations with the public are born from my experience with the people and the city. I am now experimenting this work for the first time outside of Bahia. Regardless of the context, or the importance of São Paulo or the Biennial; I’m focused on this. I’m still in the first month of the process, of meetings, and I already
feel the changes. São Paulo has a broad view of the concept of ‘Brazilianness’, and the northeast is both near and far at the same time. It’s what I can say for now. There at Abaeté I thanked them and asked for leave to bring the Caboclo dos Aflitos to São Paulo. I noticed here that the essence of this work is in harmony with the universal longings and desires, and not only with Bahia. It is the starting point. Do you believe this journey, from one city to another, implies a reenactment of Casa de Caboclo? How is it the same, yet different, in this journey from one place to another? Arthur - The Casa do Caboclo (dos Aflitos) is in Bahia. This title, Casa de Caboclo, is a metaphor for conducting the work, and emphasizing the presence of the Caboclo there. In fact, there are many Caboclos. I thought of it the moment I left Bahia with this project; when I thought about fusing the references of my childhood home in Rio de Janeiro with the house where I live in the Aflitos. The objects, the things that change place and are exposed and processed every day. I think of our ancestors, the history of the independence of Bahia and Brazil, in our present life marked by beliefs and feelings influenced by this spirit that comes from the forest to communicate with the men of the city. By being out of Bahia, I created an installation with various symbols and objects that trigger these stories and feelings in the form of meetings, rituals, performances. Casa de Caboclo is a work that can be displayed anywhere in the world where it is interesting to discuss the history of miscegenation, faith and Brazilian culture with its conflicts and delights.
T I M E L I N E Screening of Doméstica (Gabriel Mascaro) and Caixa d'Agua: Qui-Lombo é Esse? (Everlane Moraes Santos) in the Cineclube Filhos do Sol, in Heliópolis, for Cinema Yemanjá. Photo Reproduction
The artists Caetano Dias, Eliezer Bezerra and Deusi Magalhães return to Salvador after six days of setting up night camps in the cities of Juazeiro and Xique-xique for the project Rabeca Camp.
The workshop Potinhoterapia takes place, with Ivana Magalhães at the Laje Collection.
The 3rd Millennium Chess Tournament continues at the Sartre COC school, reaching the semifinals. Photo José Eduardo Ferreira