Singularities/Notes: Rumos Artes Visuais 1998-2013

To celebrate having supported the production of over one thousand artists and researchers from all over Brazil with its program Rumos Itaú Cultural, the institute Itaú Cultural presents an exhibition in homage to all those who were selected from the first to the 16th edition of the program, when it was reformulated, originating a new format and selection guidelines.

Curated by Aracy Amaral, artist Regina Silveira and Paulo Miyada, Singularities/Notes: Rumos Artes Visuais 1998-2013 was originally presented in 2014 in São Paulo, and gathers around 50 works by 35 artists contemplated with the program from 1998 to 2013, coming from all five regions of the country, in the areas of Visual Arts, Art and Technology, Trans-media and New Media. The result is a plural exhibition that comprises works in several media, such as painting, engraving, photography, installation, video, performance and interactive projects.

The exhibition counts with artists that already have international established careers, such as Berna Reale (b. 1965, Belém), one of the Brazilian representatives in the Biennale de Venezia 2015, and one of five artists selected to participate in this year’s Panorama da Arte Brasileira. The artist presents the series “MMXIII”, produced during the 2013 manifestations in Brazil, where she appears dressed with the shock troops uniform, holding objects associated to clowns, like a plastic chicken.

Rodrigo Braga (b. 1976, Manaus), that has already exhibited in institutions like the Maison Européenne de La Photography, in Paris, exhibits photos taken in the shore of the states of Pernambuco and Rio de Janeiro. Laerte Ramos (b. 1978, São Paulo) presents the work “Acesso Negado & Acesso Negrado”, a series of 46 ceramics sculptures (23 white and 23 black).

Caio Reisewitz (b. 1967, São Paulo), who has had two solo shows in major European institutions in 2015 – at the Maison Européene de la Photographie and the Huis Marseille, Museum voor Fotografie (Amsterdam) – presents photos where the frontier between reality and subjectivity is mitigated.  Raquel Kogan (b. 1955, São Paulo) displays “O.lhar” (2012), an interactive installation with three cameras shaped as monocles, that, once looked at, capture the stare of the visitor, which becomes part of the installation.

For curator Aracy Amaral, the importance of the program and its endurance for so many years reside in the appropriation of the project by artists from locations far from Brazil’s great centres, as with Rumos they can attain visibility in other regions.