Mythologies by Proxy

Mythologies by proxy brings together more than fifty works belonging to the mam collection and selected by the 22 participating artists, including two chosen by the curators. This project came from the Mythologies exhibition, held in December 2011 at the Cité Internationale des Arts, in Paris, which included works by this same group of artists. The project, commissioned by Itamaraty, sought to reflect on the growing interest, internationally, in Brazilian contemporary art, while at the same time bringing together practices that dialogue with some of the multiple cultural legacies characteristic of our modernity.

When proposing a version of Mitologias no mam, we were mainly interested in raising the questions raised in the first version in order to reflect on the works that form the museum's collection. To this end, we created a mechanism through which each artist present in Mitologias was invited to select one or more works from the collection to be part of this exhibition. Thus, this time, the entire curatorial work was characterized by uncertainty regarding the final format of the exhibition, as the artists were completely free in their choices. Once the selection deadline was established, Mythologies by Proxy revealed itself little by little, as we received nominations. These are characterized not only by the variety of media and styles selected, but above all by representing a set of works that are currently less known to the museum's public. In fact, the absence of what could be called “key pieces” from the mam collection is notable: big names such as Geraldo de Barros, Hélio Oiticica, Mira Schendel, among many others.

The commitment and seriousness with which the artists took on their task is revealed in choices that dialogue with their own trajectories and interests, opening other possible paths of associations between modern and contemporary legacies of Brazilian art than those proposed by critics, historians and curators . There is also a kind of interesting inversion in this second stage of the project: if in the Mythologies exhibition the curators sought to investigate our historical legacy through contemporary works, in Mythologies by proxy they are mostly historical works that point to the development of contemporary production.

Kiki Mazzuccheli
Curator