Last week São Paulo saw the opening of the exhibition The Expanded Body, an historic photo exhibition about performance art, that presented an unprecedented crop of photographs that show performances, happenings and actions carried out between 1950 and 1980. The images attempt to stop time and bring ephemeral reflections on these activities designed to last the brief moment of their performance / ritual.
Rescued from important private collections in Rome and Turin in Italy, the approximately 110 photographs bring records of performances that took place in several cities around the world including: NY, Tokyo, Paris, Rome. Many of them are necessary to allude to the first performance actions of avant-garde and artists who experienced the disruption of patterns hitherto established. Among the major artists stand out Salvador Dalí, Yves Klein, Francesca Woodman, Joseph Beuys, Gilbert And George, Piero Manzoni, Allan Kaprow, Hermann Nitsch, Dennis Oppenheim, Jannis Kounellis, Nam June Paik, Charlotte Moorman, among others. As a matter of fact it’s quite exciting that this exhibition is happening in São Paulo. Most of those art works are the influence of all new generations of local contemporary artists. Including is possible to see a series of pictures of Marina Abramovic & Ulay’s “Imponderabilia”. It’s also really important to see the italian performance artists, that are not so well know, but historically important, since Lea Vergine’s “Body Art e Storie Simili: Il Corpo come Linguaggio” (1973) was the one of the first books written about performance and body art.
The gallery that holds this fantastic exhibition, Galeria Jaqueline Martins, is located in São Paulo, and have the commitment on a series of historical exhibits on contemporary art since its inauguration in 2011. The gallery owner Jaqueline Martins believes that it could change the view that collectors and the general public have about the art market. Collecting performance photos or videos are not common options in Brazil, even if the country have a gigantic number of internationally recognized performance artists.
The show will also feature a weekly schedule of performances on Saturdays at 4 p.m., curated by Lucio Agra. Lucio Agra, performer himself, is one of the creators of BrPerformance (brazilian group of investigation, mapping and promoting performance art) and also one of the most important researchers in the field.
O Corpo Expandido : The Expanded Body
until september 30th 2013
Galeria Jaqueline Martins
R. Dr. Virgilio de Carvalho Pinto, 74, São Paulo, Brazil
www.galeriajaquelinemartins.com.br
Words: Priscilla Davanzo
Photos: Top – oppenheim, Dennis Oppenheim. Rocked Circle, 1971
article: dali .Salvador Dalì & Georges Mathieu. Un Pain de 15 mètre, 1958 | pic: Robert Cohen pisani, Vettor Pisani. L’eroe da Camara, 1973