Coisa Pública

Despina presents “Coisa Pública“, a group show curated by Bernardo Mosqueira and Bernardo José de Souza, with the collaboration of Alexandre Ponzi, Caetano Vidal, Fernanda Sarkis, Isabella Lescure, Ludimilla Fonseca, Marina Marchesan and Monica Klemz. This project is a curatorial reflection on the relationships that constitute the public sphere, and aims to address the political and cultural aspects that characterize the collective experience.

The street – a politically oriented field, a territory for power and creation – is where we propose a path of experiences which will allow us to go through and reframe public affairs.As someone who – when faced with a dead end – , climb the wall to see what is on the other side, the gallery is seen as a gateway – we trespass it to achieve what’s out there. And to overcome the walls erected, we rethink and induce human activities in the city through artistic processes.

Hence, the exhibition and the urban spaces expand and merge, allowing us to explore the mapping of the public sphere for the (de) construction of a place for discussion and dialogue.
In the gnarled and noisy urban environment non-places and silence multiply . For something to happen, it is necessary to use communication, suggest meetings and think artistic practice as a symbolic production area and as a platform to investigate and plan the plots of the social mesh.

“Coisa Pública“, then, demonstrates the political and social implications and disruptive force of artistic projects that call upon the approach and rapport, reflecting transience and spatial reorganization. A show built to reveal unprecedented touchpoints and map new ways to move and transpose, to drift and divert.
“Coisa Pública” was conceived during the course “Contemporary Curatorial Practices”, led by curators Bernardo Mosqueira and Bernardo José de Souza at Despina | Largo das Artes, during the months of June and September 2016.