Embassy of Brazil in London

SERTÃO — GUIMARÃES ROSA AND HIS LEGACY

17 November - 3 December 2008

Exhibition by Brazilian photographer Walter Firmo

As part of the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the birth of João Guimarães Rosa, the Embassy of Brazil and TAM Airlines are showing a collection of black and white photographs by the renowned Brazilian art photographer Walter Firmo at Gallery 32.

      

'Sertão' is the result of Firmo’s journey in the footsteps of Guimarães Rosa along the trails between the towns of Andrequicé and Sete Lagoas in northern Minas Gerais, beautifully capturing the rural landscape, memorable characters and traditional customs of the local communities.

LANDSCAPES IN PERSPECTIVE — ARTISTS LINK ENGLAND/BRAZIL

15 October - 12 November 2008

The Embassy of Brazil and Artists Links present the work of participants in international artist residency programmes in Brazil and England. Artist Links is a joint initiative by the British Council and Arts Council England that aims to support artistic development through research and to promote individual and collaborative artistic practice. Artists from different backgrounds are exposed to a transnational context and challenged to explore the grounds of the undefined notion of the creative process.



Curated by Caroline Menezes and Roberta Mahfuz, Landscapes in Perspective: Artist Links England/Brazil juxtaposes the work of Fabiano Marques, Matt Lewis and the duos FrenchMottershead and Fernanda Chieco & Victor Lema Riqué to underline reflections resulting from a nexus of cultures. These artists share an interest in the interactive nature of encounters created through artistic investigations and the playful character of their propositions. Their work pursues the unforeseen experiences that emerge from the displacement of individual poetic and critical discourses, rewriting the notion of landscapes into perspective through the mutual relationships between environment, people and the symbolic construction of reality.



For more information on the Artist Links programme visit www.artistlinks.org.uk

AFROBRAZIL

16 September - 2 October 2008



Portraits by celebrated photographer Walter Firmo and works by artists from CAPA (Afro-Brazilian Artists Association)

Bucolic scenes of the slums and visual references to their childhood in the countryside are represented in their work. Their art also depicts other manifestations of popular culture such as roda de samba (game-like dancing and singing in a circle), carnival as well as other expressions of popular culture filled with faith and devotion derived from Afro-Brazilian religions and their syncretism.

Walter Firmo, master photographer now in his 70s, with over fifty years of practice in photography and a CAPA member since its creation, used his lenses to portray the visual poetry of the CAPA artists.

AfroBrazil is part of the Brazilian Season in London, an exciting range of cultural events adding a splash of colour to autumn in the city.

RAW — NEW BRAZILIAN ARCHITECTURE

22 June - 18 July 2008



As part of the main programme of this year’s London Festival of Architecture, the Embassy of Brazil will host the exhibition RAW – New Brazilian Architecture, curated by the London-based Brazilian architect Ricardo de Ostos.

RAW aims to reveal emerging talents in Brazilian architecture through a display of recent projects shown alongside works by more established architects. The exhibition will also feature projects by architecture students from various Brazilian universities, who were encouraged to produce work in response to a brief formulated by the exhibition's curator. The exhibition will focus on buildings and spatial experimentations which dare to propose new visions and challenge the way Brazilians live. Can architects propose social change through basic spatial scripts, interdisciplinary partnerships and still communicate and bring architecture to a wider public?

Consequently, RAW will work less as a container of the national architectural production and more as a gateway for talented Brazilian designers to bring forward their unique achievements and prospective visions of the near future. In an age where social and political engagement seem increasingly more disentangled from the contemporary architect's agenda, the exhibition will open an essential field for debate.

          

Participating architects will include the Pritzker Prize Winner Paulo Mendes da Rocha (São Paulo), Brasil Arquitetura (São Paulo), Sérgio Roberto Parada (Brasília), Fernando Maculan/GALAPAGOS (Belo Horizonte), Igor de Vetyemy (Rio de Janeiro), Metro Arquitetura + Juliano Dubeux (Recife), NaJa-deOstos (London), and SUBdv - Franklin Lee/Anne Save de Beaurecueil (São Paulo and London).

For more information, please visit rawbrazil.wordpress.com

STREET ART BRAZIL — TINHO | PATO | FLIP

9 - 30 April 2008



In a bold new move the Embassy of Brazil is giving three of Brazil's most popular street artists an exciting platform in the UK, with Street Art Brazil, a one-off exhibition at Gallery 32.

Having long boasted a particularly rich and diverse urban art scene, Brazil's uniquely colourful and exciting approach to this form of painting has, in a short time, propelled it to the very forefront of the global graffiti movement. The exhibition has come about due to a shared commitment by the Embassy of Brazil and ocontemporary to bring the thriving spirit of Brazilian street art to a wider audience in the UK.

Courtesy of TAM Brazilian Airlines, celebrated São Paulo street artists Tinho, Pato and Flip have made a special visit to the UK for Street Art Brazil, their first ever exhibition in London. In Gallery 32 they have been given free rein to create the kind of extraordinary murals for which they have become famous in Brazil, and a selection of their other artworks are displayed on the graffitied walls.

Tinho, Pato and Flip are all accomplished artists who have developed their skills in the unique atmosphere of São Paulo, Brazil's graffiti capital. As a result, their innovative techniques and emotive styles come in stark contrast to the more traditional forms of street art we are used to in the UK, painting a vivid and colourful picture of modern Brazil.

In its 20-page special supplement devoted to Brazil, published 24 March 2008, The Guardian’s Tom Phillips says that Brazilian design is 'usually recognised for its flamboyance, but it is only recently that its unusual mix of influences is being embraced for its inventiveness, originality and sheer diversity.'

Tristan Manco, author of Graffiti Brasil, says: 'The innovation of Brazilian graffiti is reminiscent of those heady days of New York’s graffiti boom, and artists all over the world are now looking to Brazil as a source of inspiration.'

According to Olivia Connelly, Director of ocontemporary, 'Urban Art is by far the most significant global movement since Pop Art, and Brazil is now considered by many to be the most important root of this movement. It shows great understanding on the part of the Embassy of Brazil that, as a government body, they are willing to open themselves to this exciting new style of art and demonstrate some of the fantastic living artists they have in their country.'

ocontemporary is one of the UK's top contemporary art spaces, showcasing a compelling and diverse selection of national and international artists' work.

MARIANNITA LUZZATI — OCUPAÇÕES - PROJECT 3

20 February - 12 March 2008

As part of its programme aimed at promoting internationally renowned and up-and-coming Brazilian contemporary artists, Gallery 32 is pleased to announce Ocupações – Project 3, an exhibition of works by the São Paulo-born artist Mariannita Luzzati.

Ocupações took shape in 2006 as a commission for a site-specific exhibition to be housed in the 800 sq m² Museu Vale do Rio Doce in Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil. The project emerged from the artist’s observation of man and his effects on nature. The Gallery 32 exhibition, which includes works in different media, will consist of six large scale paintings and an 8-minute video piece.

Well-known both in Brazil and abroad, Luzzati has been described as ‘one of the greatest working Brazilian painters’ by the journalist and art critic Maria Hirszman in the Estado de São Paulo newspaper. Since 1994 she has divided her time between London and São Paulo, and her work has been exhibited in galleries and institutions in both Europe and Brazil. In 2005, the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, one of Brazil’s leading art institutions, hosted a major retrospective spanning fifteen years of her artistic career.

Mariannita Luzzati was born in São Paulo, Brazil. She lives and works in São Paulo and London, having shown in leading international institutions, such as Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo; Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo; Museu de Arte Contemporânea de São Paulo; Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro; Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro; Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Curitiba; Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte; Museu Vale do Rio Doce, Vitória; Museo Nacional, Buenos Aires; Museum of London; Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin; Museu de Arte Moderna, Salvador; Maison de Saint Gilles, Brussels; among others.

RICARDO CARIOBA — IN SIDE#NO FORM

19 December 2007 - 1 February 2008

The Embassy of Brazil in London is pleased to announce Ricardo Carioba’s IN SIDE#NO FORM. Ricardo Carioba is currently an artist-in-residency in London through the Artist Links programme, a joint initiative from the Arts Council of England and the British Council, with support from the Visiting Arts. IN SIDE#NO FORM is his first exhibition in the UK, including both newly commissioned and existing works in different mediums such as sculpture, photography, video and sound.

In IN SIDE#NO FORM, Carioba creates a completely immersive environment in which the only sources of light are the works themselves, and in which light and sound are the key elements. Drawing on the 20th century legacy of geometric abstraction, Carioba is interested in investigating the structure of forms and subverting the technical processes involved in the production of digital images.

Structure is the underlying principle in the digital video projection 48, which consists of a two-dimensional simulation of a cube-like shape whose faces are continually recombined in a virtual four-dimensional space. By adding a fourth dimension to the traditional 3D simulation of prisms, Carioba arrives at 48 possible combinations that unfold in time, creating distorted shapes. Indication For The Displacement Of A Point In The Three-dimensional Structure, a site-specific glowing resin sculpture which projects itself from one of the corners of the gallery, plays with the architectural structure of the room by altering the viewer’s perception of space. Carioba also establishes a dialogue with architecture in exarq#3, where the image – displayed, digitally constructed and then photographed from the computer screen – closely resembles technical drawings for an impossible building.

Ricardo Carioba was born in São Paulo in 1976, and lives and works in the city. His recent exhibitions include the solo show Ládó 4/4, Technô#2 at Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro (2007) and the group show The Communism of Form: Sound + Image + Time – The Strategy of the Music Video at Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo (2007).

DISPONHA — CONTEMPORARY BRAZILIAN PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE INHOTIM COLLECTION

4 - 13 December 2007

Disponha – Contemporary Brazilian Photography from the Inhotim Collection is a collaborative project on the part of the Inhotim Contemporary Art Centre and the Brazilian Government represented by the Ministry of External Relations and the Embassy of Brazil in the United Kingdom. This is the first exhibition abroad of the collections of the Inhotim Contemporary Art Centre, which is located in Minas Gerais. The exhibition will run until 13 December 2007.

The exhibition comprises works by six Brazilian artists. These leading artists research photographic images in the contemporary creative context. Although the artists belong to different generations and pursue different lines of creation, Mauro Restiffe, Miguel Rio Branco, Rochelle Costi, Rosângela Rennó, Rubens Mano and Vik Muniz share their elemental interest in the use of photography that widens the limits of its capacity by exploiting other fields of knowledge.

Disponha borrows its title from the works by Rubens Mano, which are being shown in this exhibition. In his diptych, we can see the images of two parked cars in a street in São Paulo. Between the first and the second images, part of the body of the cars is ripped off – a movement that is placed between the randomness of photography and suggestion of the artist’s interference in the scene. In Portuguese ‘dispor’ has various meanings but here it concurrently means to make use and to make available along with setting in space, arranging. The title of this exhibition refers to the use of existing contexts alongside both the added intention and gesture of the artist to those contexts.

In Mauro Restiffe, we can see a work by Vermeer hanging on the wall, thus, establishing a relation between the photographed object-painting and the object that we can actually see. In the celebrated images of the Red Series by Rosângela Rennó, the archive of military images undergoes a digital monochromatic treatment. One of the great masters of photography in the world, Miguel Rio Branco promotes a personal fusion between realism and poetry. His picture, shown in this exhibition, presents an image of a series of boxers photographed in Rio de Janeiro in the 1990s. Rochelle Costi explores the intimacy of bedrooms in an image that portrays the interior of a fleeting reality while Vik Muniz participates with an image made by using large scale, hence, referring to land art.

The Inhotim Contemporary Art Centre is a venue that undergoes continual transformations where art and nature interact in a unique and singular fashion. It is situated in a museum complex in the municipality of Brumadinho in the State of Minas Gerais, 60 km from the capital of the State, Belo Horizonte. Inhotim is a venue for meditation, education and delight with a profound commitment to the socio-cultural development of the local community achieved by means of educational and training programmes available to the public. Its collection holds about 400 works by Brazilian and international artists from the 1960s to date compounding a multi-generational panel and, by the same token, bringing together the largest collection of contemporary art in Brazil on show. At Inhotim, artists are invited to create exclusive works on a permanent basis which transform it into a space for creativity and reflection upon the contemporary creation process.

FLAGS OF BRAZIL — BANDEIRAS DO BRASIL

16 - 28 November 2007

The exhibition "Flags of Brazil – Bandeiras do Brasil" focuses upon the national flag as a national symbol.

Artists working at different moments in history present their personal interpretations of the flag, creating works in which we can identify aspirations, refutations, exaltations and demands from within the soul of the Brazilian people.

A selection of ten works – part of the first 2003 Bandeiras do Brasil exhibition at the Museum of the Republic in Rio de Janeiro – have been selected for this exhibition at Gallery 32. They aim to inspire reflection on aspects of social, economic and cultural life in present-day Brazil, as well as on the country’s recent history.

Martha Niklaus – Curator

"Flags of Brazil" features the following artists: Adolfo Montejo, Anna Bella Geiger, Brígida Baltar, Chang Chi Chai, Hélio Oiticica, Julia Csekö, Marcos Cardoso, Martha Niklaus, Sueli Fahri, Xico Chaves.

This exhibition is sponsored by our cultural partners (TAM Brazilian Airlines, Tristão Group, Noronha Advogados and Banco do Brasil), the Museu da República, and IPHAN.

MÁRCIA GANEM — TEXTILES AND CLOTHING

25 October - 2 November 2007

Exhibition of works by the acclaimed fashion and textile designer Márcia Ganem and launch of a book by the photographer Ricardo Fernandes.

Márcia Ganem’s reputation as one of the most interesting and innovative fashion designers in Brazil stems not merely from the intrinsic beauty of her creations but also from her assiduous research into the development of new textiles and fibres and her close collaboration with exponents of traditional arts and crafts, for instance, lace makers of Saubara and 25 de Junho. Employing new materials such as polyamide fibre and incorporating local tradition, her works combine the existing knowledge of local crafts with cutting-edge design.

The Atelier Márcia Ganem supports local craft communities by developing a significant production programme committed to research, innovation and the continual involvement of crafts co-operatives and trade associations. The programme aims at disseminating traditional crafts, creating new market opportunities and generating sustainable craft business.

Márcia Ganem introduces new crafts to every collection. This means that opportunities are created for more arts and crafts co-operatives to contribute. The cooperatives and trade associations have always used the traditional methods but under the lead of Márcia Ganem they make use of new materials that she applies and develops. In this way the collections have maintained a link between innovation and Brazilian cultural identity, whilst cultivating social responsibility. Her work thus ensures the sustainability of partner communities.

Fashion, art and jewellery interact in manner that Márcia Ganem expresses her creation fashion, which is achieved by applying special techniques and materials developed through research and development. Márcia Ganem is a member of a select group of designers that participate in Rio de Janeiro’s Fashion Week - Fashion Rio - and make strong cultural references in their collections. Márcia is also a member of the ‘Brazilian Guild’, a group of internationally acclaimed jewellery designers as well as ‘Jóias de Cor do Brasil’ Group that promotes Brazilian jewelry internationally.

For more information on Márcia Ganem and her designs, please visit www.marciaganem.com.br

SUE CUNNINGHAM — HEART OF BRAZIL

10 - 18 October 2007

Sue Cunningham’s passion for photography has generated a series of outstanding projects. Over the past twenty years, she has documented the life of indigenous people and the environment along the Xingu River in Brazil creating an unmatched photographic collection.

Sue Cunningham is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and an Associate of the British Institute of Professional Photography. Apart from her photography, Sue is also a trustee of the Indigenous People's Cultural Support Trust, a UK charity. She is the photographer and co-author of Out of the Amazon (1992, HMSO) with Professor Sir Ghillean Prance, former Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Science Director at the Eden Project.

Sue has recently returned from her latest expedition 'Heart of Brazil' along 2,500 km down Xingu River to revisit the indigenous communities she had met earlier assessing changes both in their lives and environment. The expedition was supported by the Neville Shulman Award of the Royal Geographical Society, Rainforest Concern and the Artists' Project Earth. She was accompanied by her husband Patrick, a writer, on her mission. They visited 48 communities and met 17 groups of indigenous peoples.

She also works for advertising agencies and her reportage style of photographing people is valued. Her images, for example, on and off shore oil rigs, coffee production, Sting’s and Body Shop’s Ana Roddick’s visits to the Brazilian Amazon, migrating people in Europe have appeared in various venues and publications creating much impact. The month long ‘Brazil 40 Degrees’ used her unforgettable images of Brazil at Selfridges in London.

Highlights of her work include 'Personal View', Nikon Gallery, London; 'Amazon Values', Kew Gallery, Royal Botanic Gardens, London; 'Amazon', Brazilian Embassy, Paris; and 'Viva Amazonia', Natural History Museum, Lisbon. Her pictures have featured in several special exhibitions, including the Global Forum at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 'The Knowledge of Plants', Asahi building, Tokyo, 'Amazonia', Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, and 'Unknown Amazon' at the British Museum.

SEBASTIÃO SALGADO — IN PRINCIPIO

11 September - 6 October 2007

A photographic journey by Sebastião Salgado - Amazonas Images, documenting the stories of coffe growers and their hard work.

"In Principio" is Illy Caffè's homage to coffee growers. It is the story of men and landscapes, earth and harmony, narrated through the images of Sebastião Salgado, one of the world's greatest humanist photographers.

It presents a photographic journey lived back to front, describing how coffee is harvested, dried and selected bean by bean. From this reportage undertaken in Brazil, India, Ethiopia and Guatemala, emerges the fascinating coffee culture that lies behind this daily beverage.

This exhibition is sponsored by Illy Caffè and has the support of The Embassy of Brazil in London, The International Coffee Organisation and Contrasto.

CARLOS MUNIZ — LATEST WORKS

9 - 25 May 2007

The Embassy of Brazil invites you to visit the exhibition of latest works by Carlos Muniz.

The works of the Brazilian artist Carlos Muniz were described by Thomas Lawrence as a creation of ‘forms that are pure and resonant, stripped of decoration and detail’. He adds that Carlos Muniz ‘presents his Minimalist works of art as objects of elemental form with the least amount of visual components, and divorced from either symbolic or personal expressions’.

Muniz was inspired by urban geography such as the traffic signs and roads set in infinite views. Gradually, he has replaced the brighter colours of his earlier works by softer hues. Muniz insists upon using essential and basic shapes, and by the same token, probes the more enduring character and content of the imagery, which inspired his works in the first place.

Purity of the geometrical shapes meticulously distributed on the canvas is combined with hard-edge toughness. His works are modernist combined with elegance or sensuousness. The viewer is led to stand back and observe the reduced vocabulary and muted colours as a whole within the world at large. In addition, through subliminal suggestion, Muniz’ works invite the viewer to ponder upon his or her own place in the universe created by the interaction of spectator and art.

Carlos Muniz paints with accuracy and precision – the skills he transfers from a successful career as a plastic surgeon.

GEORGE ISO & PATRICIA SECCO — BRAZIL ABSTRACTS

12 - 28 April 2007

The Embassy of Brazil invites you to visit the exhibition Brazil Abstracts, consisting of works by George Iso and Patricia Secco.

Iso's works take the forest as their theme, and could perhaps best be described as metaphors of time and space. He says, 'Brazil Abstracts relates to our environment in a way that constrains or liberates my mind, rather than to nature itself'.

The exhibition at Gallery 32 has special significance for him as he lived in London in the early 1970s and early 1990s. He has further exhibitions planned for Washington DC in September and Rio de Janeiro, his home city, in November, both of which will feature some of the paintings on show at Gallery 32.

Secco's paintings, with their distinctive backgrounds worked with gypsum and papier-mâché, express a contemporary vision of the natural world in Brazil – its forests, earth, wood and waters – while also reflecting the colours of the artist's personalities and of the Brazilian people. The elegance and sophistication of the individual works provide an intriguing contrast with the primitive character of the theme by which they are inspired, and thereby provide more space for the flights of our imagination.

For more information about the artists, visit their respective websites: www.georgeiso.com and www.patriciasecco.com.

MILTON GURAN — AGUDÁS, THE BRAZILIANS OF BENIN

19 January - 3 February 2007

'It just so happens that they are baianos'. This was how the sociologist and writer Gilberto Freyre described the 'Brazilians' on the Gulf of Benin, on Africa's west coast.

In fact, the people in question provide a unique example of the adoption of Brazilian culture – Bahian culture to be exact – outside Brazil. They are not a Brazilian colony, but instead a social group that sees itself as Brazilian when interacting with the rest of society.

The 'Brazilians' of Benin, Togo and Nigeria, known in the native language as Agudás, are descendants of 19th century Brazilian slaves – mainly of Fon and Yoruba origin – who returned to Africa in the 19th century, and of African slave traders already established there since the 18th and 19th centuries, among them the emblematic Francisco Felix de Souza, known as 'Chachá'. It is estimated that approximately 5 to 10 per cent of Benin's population (250,000 to 500,000 people) are Agudás. They have family names of Portuguese origin, celebrate carnival and Our Lord of Bonfim, dance the burrinha (an archaic form of the bumba-meu-boi), and often get together to eat a feijoada.

The photographs, part of the permanent collection of Benin's Ouidah Historical Museum, were taken between 1994 and 1995 and have already been displayed in many countries. The objective of the exhibition is to reveal how the Agudás overcame the stigma of slavery by constructing a new social identity by befriending the ancient slave traders and reviving their memories of life in Brazil. They asserted themselves as one more ethnic group among the many already established in the region, thereby achieving social and economic integration into a society which had previously excluded them but now recognised them as full citizens.