calendario eventi  :: 

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21/6/2013

Four exhibitions

Casa da Imagem, Sao Paulo

Marcelo Moscheta
Powers of Ten, the objectivity of images

Based on the documentary-film Powers of Ten (1977), by Ray and Charles Eames, in which we can make a visual journey through the dimensions of the limits of our known universe down to a proton which is part of a molecule of the human body, the project Powers of Ten seeks to illustrate in a poetic way a shift of magnitude, making use of photographic techniques like altered scale, inverted images of objects and the introduction of charts and numbers influencing the way images are perceived, and subordinating perceptible knowledge to the objectivity contained in the scale presented.

This show, which was awarded the 12th Funarte Marc Ferrez photography prize, is formed by a 32-page publication in tabloid format in which are presented images of an essay on the relativity of scales of the universe in fractions of 10. Set up in the form of scientific illustration boards, the images are arranged in the print so as to go get us on a graphic journey though our visual repertoire, forcing us to adjust certain situations to what we know, or not, but which seems to us strangely familiar.

Powers of Ten raises some fundamental questions for understanding our reactions in the face of the numerous images and data flooding us very incisively, real knowledge experienced through the contact with these visual offerings, the relation between time-space and the body and the establishment of a repertoire of images guided by technological devices as navigation tools and virtual maps.

Certainly, contemporary photography faces such situations in an attempt to reinvent itself and to fit a reality which moves fast and is one of the great protagonists of current social and cultural changes. The exhibition is able to historically point out modern man's eagerness to know his own limits, as well as the scope of the universe we inhabit.
Marcelo Moscheta

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Juca Martins
Eyewitness, photographs by Juca Martins

Hailed as one of the most important photojournalists in Brazil, Juca Martins occupies a prominent place in the coverage of the return of democracy in São Paulo during the military dictatorship, and the social crisis which emerged in the country from that moment on, such as the issue of children, minorities, religion, housing, environmental collapse in Cubatão and in the slope of Serra do Mar, and trips to collect images of the Serra Pelada mine.

His production from this period is known for its agility, his choice of situations and precise angles giving prominence to human beings in the journalistic fact, abilities in tune with one type of photojournalism which explores the power of a theme, emphasizing the expression of emotional, social and historic elements. This ability presupposes the interpretation of a specific agenda, of the place where a scene happens and a planning of what the author wants to extract from and highlight in an image.

Juca Martins was one of the founders of Agência F4, a notorious photographers cooperative which, in the late 1970s, in line with similar movements in other countries, started to develop autonomous agendas and to claim authorship credits in print media. Currently, Martins works for the agency Olhar Imagens and coordinates the group Fotograsilis, both focused on the production of images about Brazilian themes.

The photographs on view here describe a country in great turmoil, forming a mosaic of remarkable events in São Paulo between 1970 and 1980. These are records which were widely reported by newspapers and magazines at the time and which, after two decades, were brought together by Casa da Imagem in its mission to promote different aspects of photography in São Paulo.

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João Loureiro

The pieces of João Loureiro not only resemble a three-dimensional projection of graphical representations – his work also wants to “bidimensionalise” the space where it is displayed; to make it virtually flat, to function there as image; to override the context and animate it with volumes that are constantly in activity; in a “resting-while-carrying-stones” manner; or even “while-stones-are-carried,-the-economy-ticks”?; perhaps both, but with no signs of any progression; what the reluctance, the silent restlessness of the exhibition does is distrust currency values – in practice, to bite them; stealthily displace things, from one side to the other, again; never abolishing chance, keeping fate and destiny standing, heads and tails simultaneously; until they generate, together, a third and a fourth images: figure and background,never simultaneous, however, only reversible, one or the other, with no possibility of a result, without any chance of a totalising element; as happens, moreover, between the works and the place, a relation to which integration is not given; on the contrary, the works are neither disguised nor change the physical characteristics of the place; more than that, they resist to adhere to their surroundings, maintained as such, surroundings; they move away from the alley, from the living room, to discretely claim evidence, visibility, as well as independence; it is the same as saying that, in addition to being present, they take sides; although they are conceived based on architectural, urban and socio-cultural specificities, after all, in the history of the region – including the ways in which the past appears in the current configuration of the place –, the works insist in affirming their own specificities; internal laws that governed the work for over 20 years and which are based on figuration procedures, on the choice of mundane references for schematic representation originated from drawing – technical, comic books or animated films; for example, from that ambiguous, seemingly rigid materiality which proves at times soft –, often like a toy, or at least with a visuality of child-like attraction, in rigorous constructions – from ideation to a seemingly industrial finish – oscillating between two and three dimensions; this production has and makes it clear that, on the one hand, the interventions it carries out and, on the other, the autonomy of its objects, are not mutually exclusive; the works are so artful that they operate to denaturalise the apprehension of the real, in which, in turn, fiction participates; more than moving images, here moving images act. Images of moving stones, of a coin spinning with no pause; but, of course, these are not stones or a coin; nor are they representations of stones and a coin; they are rather the three-dimensional projection of graphic representations of stones and a coin which take over the functioning of machines, engines driven by and for an exercise in imagination; in spins, circuits, back and forth, with no beginning or end.

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Because a city always contains another within.
Mário Quintana

Marcelo Zocchio
On Hearing a Place

As I write this, my neighbour's apartment is undergoing a process of “modernization,” a term used currently by estate brokers as a more glamorous synonym for “renovation.” The impact of hammers against the walls and the traffic in Avenida Angélica are the soundtrack of this text, turning the sound of my fingers on the computer keyboard into another instrument of this great symphony of cars and concrete.

The spirit of renewal, together with the erasure of the past, is not something new in the metropolis. Like great part of São Paulo's cityscape, the localization of Casa da Imagem has already undergone several changes. The current building was built in 1880. Before that, there was a rammed-earth mansion which housed, among other things, a hotel called Boa Vista, from where the guests could “enjoy the beautiful view over the floodplain,” referring to the banks of the Tamanduateí river. Since then, the river has been straightened and silenced. The floodplain was turned into concrete. The beautiful view was shortened and became a curtain of trees in the courtyard, protecting the eye and softening the brutality with which the landscape was modified.

Marcelo Zocchio does not pay attention to the incessant and voracious rumble. What he hears is the silence of absence, the void left by an invisible past which makes him pierce through the present. By researching old images, Zocchio reflects about the sculptural effect of time on certain place of the city. He uses archival photographs as if they were maps, looking for the exact point where those pictures were taken and reenacting the original shoot. This view is the only fixed point in this whole process. It is where the artist sticks the dry tip of the compass and starts the meticulous drawing of spatial and temporal superposition shown in Repaisagem.

In the image of Avenida 9 de de Julho, seen from the Martinho Prado viaduct, some of the artist's choices can be perceived in the editing of merged images. The left side of the photograph prioritizes the location in 1940, shot by Benedito Junqueira Duarte. There one can see the vegetation of a vacant lot, where a group of children play football. However, one can already discern, in the background, the city under construction, which resulted in the tightly packed plot on the right, in 2012, with a wall of buildings. On this wall can be seen the shadows of the buildings across the street when the present-day photograph was taken. By fusing these two images, the shadow remains, but the body that produced it is no longer here. Thus, the past of that photograph, and not of that place, is revealed.

Such temporal and spatial short-circuits undermine our sense of direction and – in a deeper way – activate a strange feeling of belonging. Which is strange, because the archeology that Zocchio proposes digs up a city whose traces cannot be found in the present, so it is not familiar. Thus, the idea of belonging does not happen in relation to a stable, historically built identity, as the term usually evokes. Familiarity lies in the constant flow, in the eternal replacement of the present with a chain of transformations. Our peaceful notion of place is destroyed, a movement mapped in detail by the artist's attentive ear. Everything we see is transitory.
Jorge Menna Barreto

The ‘Casa da Imagem de São Paulo’

Created to act as home to the 'Acervo Iconográfico’ (‘Iconographic Collection’), support its preservation and research, and also spread word about its content, this institution also develops activities focused on recalling the images which document our city.

This initiative, taken by the Municipal Department of Culture and the Department of Historical Heritage, reflects the desire to both value its collections and make them more accessible. In this case, the implementation of a wide-reaching program developed over the last four years has enabled the plans for this new museum to take concrete shape.

Casa da Imagem
Rua Roberto Simonsen, 136-B São Paulo, Brazil

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