Felipe Chaimovich
dal 27/1/2014 al 15/3/2014
Segnalato da
27/1/2014
Felipe Chaimovich
MAM Modern Art Museum, Sao Paulo
140 caracteres. A total of 140 artworks from the MAM collection were selected to address the theme of political mobilization. The pieces are organized as if in an urban landscape, with the mask at the center.
What happened in June 2013? The public demonstrations that shook Brazil last year remain unexplained. The political force of the tens of thousands of citizens occupying public spaces with multiple complaints evaded traditional forms of collective representation. Day after day, the actions were repeated in new cities, and whether large, medium, or small, they were always unpredictable.
But what all the actions had in common was a new form of mobilization: social networks. This virtual communication tool is decentralized, and evades control, using anonymity and redirection as information multipliers. Thus, the demonstrations that began in June also approximated Brazil to similar political phenomena in other parts of the world, such as the Arab Spring. Political mobilization through virtual media is, in fact, shaking up the powers that be.
Also new is the language used for mobilization on social networks: short phrases, locations of demonstrations, and concisely interlinked topics. Watchwords are adapted to social network formats, making use of existing virtual communication platforms. The most concise social network is Twitter, which allows a maximum of 140 characters per message. Hence, the scale of the language used on Twitter was adopted as the central thread for this exhibition.
A total of 140 artworks from the MAM collection were selected to address the theme of political mobilization. In the museum’s Great Room, the pieces are organized as if in an urban landscape, with the mask—the recurring factor in the demonstrations—at the center. Taking the mask as a starting point, the theme of personal identity being dissipated in the crowd is also present in the other works. The pieces showing urban landscapes depict the circumstances of the demonstrations, putting recent events into context. On the other hand, at the Paulo Figueiredo Room, a sharp contrast is created by representations of previous forms of political protest in Brazil, at the time of the Military Dictatorship, initiated by the 1964 Coup, whose 50th anniversary will take place during the exhibition.
140 caracteres [140 Characters] is the result of the first Workshop Course on Curatorship run by MAM’s educational department. The curatorship of the exhibition is shared amongst the twenty students of the workshop course, who also shared the writing of captions for the 140 works on display. The exhibition is the result of a year of debates among people from diverse backgrounds, with a common interest in new forms of political action. Therefore, the authorship of the exhibition is also diffused collectively, assuming the strength of mobilization without leaders.
Contacts with the press
Ana Livia Lima 55 11 5056-9812 analivia.lima@conteudonet.com
Paula Vianna 55 11 5056-9838 55 11 96766-1548 paula.vianna@conteudonet.com
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