MERCOSUL BIENNIAL
30 September – 4 December 2005
www.bienalmercosul.art.br
One of the few Biennials that doesn’t carry its city’s name, the Mercosul
Biennial reaches its 5th edition as one of the greatest Latin American art
shows in the world. Since 1997 the event has been held in Porto Alegre,
southern Brazil. It takes place in nine different locations in the city:
museums, cultural centres, port warehouses and public spaces such as the
Guaíba Lakeside and Glênio Peres Square. The exhibition presents
approximately 900 artworks by 173 different artists from Brazil, Argentina,
Chile, Mexico, Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay.
Curated by the Brazilian art critic Paulo Sergio Duarte, together with three
assistant and six international curators, the 5th edition was conceived
around the theme ‘Histories of Art and Space’; a rather classic subject that
could work as the starting point for several different exhibitions. ‘Instead
of standing up for a personal thesis – which would satisfy my ego and
reinforce respectfulness among my colleagues – the exhibition project aims
at bringing the general public closer to contemporary art. In a country such
as Brazil, it wouldn’t be fair to use US$ three million [the show’s budget]
to support a personal vision of art’, says Duarte. These ideas help to
explain the didactic, and sometimes conservative emphasis of the exhibition,
which is divided into four thematic sections based on formal
categorisations: ‘The Persistence of Painting’, ‘From Sculpture to
Installation’, ‘Directions in the New Space’ and ‘Transformations in the
Public Space’.
The works presented in the first section seem to illustrate the insistence
of painting more than its persistence. Though it contains some very
interesting pieces, most of them don’t bring anything particularly new to
the debate about contemporary painting. Among the works that do succeed in
doing this are the object-paintings by Dudi Maia Rosa, created with resin,
pigments and fibre glass, and works by Nuno Ramos, which also question the
bi-dimensional nature of painting, although in a much more ostensive way –
his pieces literally throw themselves out of the canvas. The second section
brings vigorous examples of the work of artists who, just like Dudi Maia
Rosa and Nuno Ramos, are already renowned in Brazil. Lucia Koch is one of
them. She has covered three gates of one of the port warehouses with a
slightly coloured translucent canvas. The procedure, which is already a
trademark of Koch’s work, transforms the light, as well as the landscape, of
the large exhibition room. Another good example is the installation by Laura
Vinci – a giant hourglass called Máquina do Mundo [Machine of the World]
(2004-5). The piece is comprised of an apron that transports, grain by
grain, a large quantity of sand from one side of the room to the other.
Finally, the third section presents photography as well as video and web
artworks, while the fourth consists of two temporary interventions and four
permanent ones, built during the exhibition by the Guaíba Lakeside.
In terms of quantity and, most importantly, of quality, the Brazilian
production is the star of the 5th Mercosul Biennial. Among the 173
participating artists, 83 are from Brazil and many of them are represented
by more than one work. ‘The great amount of Brazilian art is proportional to
the international projection and respect it has been achieving. No other
country in Latin America is recognised in the same way’, says Duarte.
Amílcar de Castro, the artist chosen for the tribute in this edition, has
more than 150 pieces being exhibited, including jewels, drawings,
sculptures, paintings and public artworks. One of the great names of
Neoconcretismo, together with Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Clark, Castro is
known for his steel sculptures, which he builds using no more than two
simple movements: cutting and folding. The tribute is actually a great
chance to see remarkable examples of the sculptor’s work all assembled in
the same place.
The aim of bringing the general public closer to contemporary art – which
prompted Duarte to divide the show into the four mentioned sections – also
led him to preference renowned names instead of young and lesser known ones.
The great majority of Brazilian artists participating in this edition have
already gained national, and in some cases international, prestige. That’s
the case with Tunga, Ernesto Neto, Waltercio Caldas and Adriana Varejão,
just to give some examples. ‘Mature works offer better elements to bring the
spectators closer to the artistic production. Less experienced works, even
if they may have incredible qualities, generally commit more mistakes’,
explains Duarte.
The option not to take risks didn’t prove to be as safe as the curator
imagined. On the one hand, it did give the public the opportunity to become
familiar with essential names in Brazilian contemporary art, which is
certainly a notable achievement, especially in a country where even the
greatest contemporary artists are completely unknown by the people. On the
other hand, it didn’t accomplish one of the crucial roles of a show such as
a biennial: that of revealing new artists and trends. Not that biennials
should always present only young artists and take 100% risk, but I do think
they must be open to new production (even if the biennial format is not
always compatible with projects developed nowadays) and there is indeed a
percentage of risk they should assume. In the 5th Mercosul Biennial,
however, this percentage doesn’t exceed 10%. One of the few names
representing this minority is the young artist Thiago Rocha Pitta. He
presents a simple but extremely potent video. From an airplane window he has
filmed the whole trip from Santos Dumont Airport (situated in the middle of
the city of Rio de Janeiro) to Congonhas Airport (situated in São Paulo,
also close to great avenues and skyscrapers). The work presents the most
popular Brazilian air route – which links two cultural and economic centres
– in a very particular and poetic way. Pitta’s video proves it is possible
to support new names without being afraid of being mistaken.
FERNANDA ALBUQUERQUE