Françoise Schein – A artista dos Direitos Humanos no MAB-FAAP

This retrospective presents photographic records of the most relevant works created by artist and architect Françoise Schein (b. 1953, Brussels) based on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen from 1789, which where installed in subway stations of metropolis like Paris, Berlin, Lisbon and São Paulo. The show also comprises eight new panels in ceramic tiles painted by Schein, with assistance of other artists and students, to be placed in the Luz Subway Station in São Paulo, thus completing the mural “Inscrever Direitos Humanos”, that discuss human rights and narrates the history of São Paulo.

Schein creates projects meant to be integrated to the urban network permanently, in locations of large circulation of people. Other than discussing issues related to human rights, her works also approach the history of the city where they are located. In 1989, the bicentennial of the French Revolution, she used for the first time the text of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, by painting its words on the tiles of the Concorde’s station boarding platform. Three years later, in Lisbon, she explored, along her central theme, the history of the great Portuguese navigations in 50 works that occupied all platforms of the Parque station. Since then, the historical relation of the country where the work is installed with the Human Rights Declaration became a striking feature of the artist’s production, which can be seen in subway stations in Brussels (Belgium), Haifa (Israel), Stockolm (Sweden), Berlin (Germany), and, in Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro (Copacabana station) and São Paulo (Luz Station).