Main cover photo: Maltese bird cage
SHELTER: ARCHITECTURE OF DEATH NORBERT FRANCIS ATTARD 5TH BIENAL VENTOSUL, CURITIBA, BRAZIL, 2009.
SHELTER: ARCHITECTURE OF DEATH NORBERT FRANCIS ATTARD Stone, bricks, corrugated sheeting, timber and various other disused building materials. Centro Cultural Solar do Barão, Curitiba, Brazil, 2009. 5th Biennial VentoSul, Curitiba, Brazil. Curated by Ticio Escobar and Leonor Amarante. Curatorial Council: Fábio Magalhães, Fernando Cocchiarale, Ivo Mesquita, Justo Pastor Mellado Suazo, Andrea Giunta, David Kiehl, Tereza de Arruda, Berta Sichel, Fernando Castro Flórez and Maria Tornaghi.
The Maltese Girna or what is known as the hunter’s or farmer’s hut has a long tradition in Malta. This typical shelter for bird trappers is made of Maltese limestone blocks and wooden strips mostly used to hide from passing birds, and as a shelter from rain and sun. Bird hunting was always a controversial issue in Malta and conservationists see it as a barbaric abuse of these little flying creatures. Norbert Francis Attard’s inspiration and point of departure for this installation is the archetypal construction of the Maltese hunter’s hut. It is a significant reminder of the architecture of death. Attard based his construction of the installation on recycled building materials found in Curitiba, the capital of the Brazilian state of Paraná. The structure is also synonymous with the favelas’ shanty buildings where the poor citizens dwell in the far suburbs of the rural areas of Brazil. Such architecture articulates poverty and premature death. Unfortunately such places are known for illegal activities, such as drug trafficking and high murder rates. Although at first glance of the structure of the installation the viewer does not associate the work with death, there is a common thread which appears to run in the symbolical aspect of the meaning of shelter, a place of protection or ‘safe haven’. But conceptually this ‘safety’ is transformed by the artist into a place of horror, like a station of death from where hundreds of birds are trapped and slaughtered. It is even worse when it is associated with the human habitat. The great provocation of Shelter: Architecture of Death is to link the psychic and the social, “the degeneration of architecture”, as exposed metaphorically in the installation. It reveals our melancholic culture and traumatic social events. Its social resonance is expressed in the material used by the favela builders by using cheap, disposable materials such as wood, cardboard, corrugated metal sheets, rocks, plastic, and left-over concrete blocks. We find that there is a deficiency with the impermanence of such materials which becomes catastrophic during storms or flooding and death. Norbert Francis Attard’s uses of these readymade materials for the construction of the hut are derived from the real world. It is an artwork fashioned to replicate aspects of the real world, to show what is actually happening to our environment and society. This work is an effort to create a visible, meaningful and durable statement and a sheer reminder of the negative effects that poaching and hunting would have on wildlife. Attard’s work also shows that there is human discrimination. LOUIS LAGANA
REAL PARQUE FAVELLA, SAO PAULO, BRAZIL.
TYPICAL HUNTER’S HUT FROM THE MALTESE ISLANDS.
INTERIOR OF A HUNTER’S HUT IN MALTA.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Assistants: Fernando Loyola, Icaro Veiga and Fernando Rosenbaum. Theatre lighting by Antonio de Souza. Electrician: Jose Carlos. Material supply by Paulo R. Amaral of A Reciclar Demolicoes e Terraplanagem Ltda.
With special thanks to:
Tereza de Arruda, curatorial council of the Bienial. Solange Lingnau, cooridinator of Bienial. Alexandre Mandarino, architect and project manager. Simone Landal, director of Centro Cultural Solar do Bar達o.
Photography of installation by Norbert Francis Attard. Photography of favelas by Norbert Francis Attard, made possible with the help of Gustavo Godoy (Real Parque ), Olavo Ekman ( Guarapiranga and Paraisopolis) and Walter Nomura (San Rafael ).
The project is a realization of Institute Paranaense de Arte in partnership with Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Brazil, National Foundation for Art - FUNARTE, Secretary of State for Culture of the Government of Parana, the Cultural Foundation of Curitiba, and the Federal University of Parana.
NORBERT FRANCIS ATTARD www.norbertattard.com norbert@norbertattard.com