31st Panorama of Brazilian Art: Mamõyguara opá mamõ pupé
This controversial Panorama of Brazilian Art organized with foreign artists attests to the importance of Brazilian culture for a significant number of non-Brazilian artists. The phenomenon is related to the growing international recognition of the art of Lygia Clark, Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Pape, the architecture of Lina Bo Bardi, Oscar Niemeyer and Paulo Mendes da Rocha, bossa nova or tropicália. If with anthropophagy, celebrated by Oswald de Andrade in the “Anthropophagic Manifesto” of 1928, our modern intellectual appropriated European culture to digest it and produce something of his own, now it is Brazilian culture itself that is cannibalized by the foreigner.
The exhibition brings together Brazilian works by foreign artists – brazilian art is understood here as one that establishes strong references to Brazilian content. A second group of artists was invited to carry out residencies in São Paulo, in partnership with the Armando Álvares Penteado Foundation, so that they would have the opportunity to establish a relationship with Brazilian culture. Eight resident artists come to São Paulo not to create a work for Panorama, but to start a story here. The result is an exhibition composed of Brazilian works made by foreigners not so much with exotic elements, but through a strong presence of geometric abstraction, in which the grid is often subverted by organic elements, signaling a legacy of neoconcretism.
The title Mamõyguara opá mamõ pupé is borrowed from a work by Paris-based artist collective Claire Fontaine. This is the translation into ancient Tupi of the expression foreigners everywhere, and is part of a series of neon sculptures presented in different languages. In a Panorama that since the announcement of its project has sparked discussions about nationalism, territoriality and xenophobia in the field of artistic practice, the expression in a native language, which in reality few Brazilian citizens understand, can sound bitter: foreigners everywhere.
Adriano Pedrosa
Curator
Artists: Adrián Villar Rojas | Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck (with Eugenio Espinoza) | Armando Andrade Tudela | Carlos Garaicoa | Cerith Wyn Evans | Claire Fontaine | Damian Ortega | Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster | Franz Ackermann | Gabriel Sierra | Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla | Jorge Macchi | Jorge Pedro Núñez | José Dávila | Juan Araujo | Juan Pérez Agirregoikoa | Julião Sarmento | Luisa Lambri | Marjetica Potrc | Mateo López | Mauricio Lupini | Nicolás Guagnini (with Carla Zaccagnini) | Nicolás Robbio | Pablo Siquier | Valdirlei Dias Nunes | Pedro Reyes | Runo Lagomarsino | Sandra Gamarra | Sean Snyder | Simon Evans | Superflex | Tamar Guimarães | Tove Storch
