Brazil is the guest of honor in Madrid

The 27th edition of Madrid International Contemporary Art Fair (27 Feria Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo) or ARCO, as it is best known, has Brazil as the guest of honor. ARCO is one of the largest contemporary art fairs in the world, with 295 international galleries from 34 countries. The organizers of ARCO directed their attention to Brazil because Brazil is one of the key emerging markets internationally, with one of the most exciting art scenes nowadays.

Brazil is going to be represented by 31 galleries and 128 artists exhibiting their paintings, sculptures, photographs and installations, and also performing in the new pavilion “Performing Arco”. The Brazilian performers will be Marcos Paulo Rolla, Franklin Cassaro and Cabelo. The artist Caetano Almeida from the gallery Luisa Strina was chosen to be part of “Solo Projects”, a section of ARCO with projects made by a single artist. Most of the “Solo Projects” were specifically created for the Fair and all of them were previously selected by an international committee. More than 40 artists were selected for the “Solo Projects”, from countries like the United Kingdom, France, Spain, the United States and Japan.

The art in ARCO is valued at 100 to 300,000 euros. In the section dedicated to video art and new technologies, “Expanded Box”, the most expensive piece of art is the installation “Infinito ao Cubo”, from the Brazilian Rejane Cantoni, which is valued at 120,000 euros! Do you have your checkbook ready?

ARCO will be open to public from Feb 15 – Feb 18, 2008. So, if your are close to Madrid, don’t miss the chance to check what is going on with contemporary art in Brazil and other countries!

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Images:
Wave Field, from Rui Toscano (Source: http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/bbc/ult272u372016.shtml) TEPMOAH-1, from Lia Chaia (Source: http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/ilustrada/ult90u371279.shtml Infinito ao Cubo, from Rejane Cantoni (Source: http://connectingurbanspaces.blogspot.com/2007/07/infinito-ao-cubo-rejane-cantoni-e.html)

Oscar Niemeyer, 100 years old!

The most renowned architect from Brazil completed 100 years of age in the end of last year. If you ever went to Brazil, you probably saw some of his buildings. Among the most famous buildings are the “Copan”, the “Memorial da América Latina” and the buildings at the Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo; the “Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói” in Rio de Janeiro state; the “Catedral Metropolitana” in Brasilia; the “Igreja de São Francisco”, in Pampulha, Belo Horizonte.

Leonardo Finotti, a Brazilian photographer, specialized in architecture, traveled around Brazil and other countries to shoot buildings planned by the famous Brazilian architect. You can visit his exhibition, “100 fotos, obras, anos de Oscar Niemeyer” (100 photographs, buildings, years of Oscar Niemeyer) at “Museu da Electricidade”, in Lisbon, Portugal, until March 2.



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Imagens
Copan Building, downtown São Paulo, Brazil - picture taken by Rodrigo Ferroni (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rolifer/2253137467/)
Catedral Metropolitana, Brasília, Brazil - link

The World as a Stage

This is the title of the new exhibition at The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. You can visit the exhibition until April 27. If you are nearby, check the installation from the Brazilian Renata Lucas, “Falha”, which reminds us of a temporary theater stage.

Renata Lucas is well known in Brazil, having participated in the 27th Bienal de São Paulo in 2006 and has exhibited also in Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte. She is now taking her first steps towards an international career. In the end of 2007, she participated in the exhibition “The World as a Stage”, at the Tate Modern, in London, with her installation called “The Visitor”. She introduced a diagonal section of trees and bushes into the planned gallery’s yard, transforming a controlled and harmonic environment into chaos. Renata Lucas said she “tried to reproduce the exact position of the plants in the forest so the apparent naturalness of the scene contrasted with the artificiality of the garden.”

If you’re thinking the exhibition was inspired by theater, you’re right. “The World as a Stage” was inspired by the play “As You Like It”, from Shakespeare, who wrote “all the world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” So, if you don't want to be a bad actor, give your best performance every day! And, as the artists say, break a leg!

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Image
"Falha", from Renata Lucas - picture taken by John Kennard (http://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/exhibit/world-as-stage/)

Hélio Oiticica in London

More than 150 works from Hélio Oiticica (1937-1980) will be exhibited at Tate Modern, in London. The exhibition opens tomorrow and will last until September 23. So, if you are going to be in London during this time, don't miss one of the most innovative artists of his generation!

Hélio Oiticica is known from his work "Tropicália", which has inspired the cultural movement called "Tropicalism" that embraces music, plastic arts and cinema. His works have great affinity with modern artists such as Paul Klee and Piet Mondrian.

In the 60's Hélio Oiticica has created "Parangolé", a cape made of a colorful fabric that can have poems written on it or pictures. It can only be revealed through the gestures and movements of the person that wears it. Therefore, the spectator of this work becomes a participant and the "Parangolé" becomes a mobile sculpture!

If you are not in London and can't fly to see the exhibition, get inspired by Oiticica! Give a party where guests can only come if wearing their own "Parangolés"! And since samba was what inspired Oiticica to create the "Parangolé", don't forget to have a good collection of samba music so your guests can dance and show their art!

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Images:
Grande Núcleo (Grand Nucleus) 1960-66, one of a series of dangling mazes through which visitors were meant to wander. (Source: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article1825498.ece)
Singer and composer Caetano Veloso wearing one of Oiticica's capes in 1968 (Source: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article1825498.ece)

A foreign eye on the Northeast coast of Brazil

If you happen to be in the DC area between June 8th-29th, 2007, don't miss the installation of photographic works by award-winning Washington DC-based artist, Anne Pellicciotto, who traveled and lived on the Northeast coast of Brazil for 8 months. There, she captured images of Saudade - reflections of her own longing and that of the people from the Northeast of Brazil, also known as "Nordestinos".

The exhibition will take place at BACI (Brazilian-American Cultural Institute), located at: 4719 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20016. The opening reception will happen on Friday, June 8th, between 6:30-8:30 p.m, with live Brazilian music, performed by Gigi Rezende McLaughlin. You can check some of Anne's work on her site, Anne's eye.