Dentro/fora [Inside/outside] is the title given by curators Luis Pérez-Oramas and André Severo to the exhibition representing Brazil at the 55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, which will be held between June 1 and November 24 at the Giardini complex. The title refers to a problem implicit in the matter of the Moebius strip – a structure studied by August Ferdinand Moebius in 1858 and the exhibition’s coordinating object – of great relevance to modern and contemporary Brazilian art, as exemplified by the work of Lygia Clark, one of the exhibit’s historic punctuations: “Created in 1963, Lygia Clark’s sculpture O Dentro é o fora [“The Inside is the Outside”] was the piece through which the artist understood the complete meaning of her work. For the title of the exhibit, I eliminated the verb, in the sense that all the artists occupying the Brazilian Pavilion are developing suspensions between the inside and outside,” Pérez-Oramas explains.
The official Brazilian representation is anchored in the works of Hélio Fervenza (Sant’Ana do Livramento, 1963) and Odires Mlászho (Mandirituba, 1960) and it dialogues with a historical nucleus composed of sculptures by Brazil’s own Lygia Clark, Italian artist Bruno Munari and Swiss artist Max Bill. Divided into two atmospheres, the exhibition contains a room in which the Moebius strip is the main feature and a setting composed of 35 new works by Mlászho and Fervenza created specifically for the exhibition.
The oldest of the great international exhibitions, Biennale di Venezia offers, every two years, a large collective exhibit and dozens of national pavilions. The Brazilian pavilion, in turn, constructed in 1964 in the Italian event’s most prestigious space, the Giardini, is the place where the nation itself selects and displays the work of artists which represent it in each new edition. In 1995, the responsibility for this selection process was bestowed by the Brazilian government upon Fundação Bienal de São Paulo [Biennal Foundation in São Paulo] in recognition of the great importance that the institution – the second longest-running of its kind in the world – has for the nation’s visual arts. “Organizing the Brazilian participation in the Venice Biennales of art and architecture is already part of the Fundação Bienal tradition. In this edition, the presentation of a conceptual snippet of the 30th Bienal de São Paulo demonstrates the extent to which we are aligned with and committed to furthering the Fundação’s projects, as well as strengthening the voices of contemporary Brazilian artists on a global scale,” states Luis Terepins, commissioner of the exhibition and President of the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo.
Participation of Brazil at the 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia
Commissary: Luis Terepins, President of the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo – Curator: Luis Pérez-Oramas | Co-curator: André Severo – Participant artists: Hélio Fervenza, Odires Mlászho, Lygia Clark, Max Bill and Bruno Munari
Exhibition title: Inside/Outside (Fervenza/Mlászho/Clark/Bill/Munari) – Venue: Brazil Pavilion – Address: Giardini Castello, Padiglione Brasile, 30122 Venice, Italy – Date: June 1st to November 24th, 2013
Words: Douglas Negrisolli / Photo: Helio Fervenza courtesy Leo Eloy | Fundação Bienal de São Paulo