Júlio Plaza: sem prazo de validade

“The truly revolutionary artist cannot be categorized by any ideology.”
So writes the artist in white chalk on a blackboard, in one of his experimental films. Júlio Plaza’s (1938- 2003) positioning can be seen as a pioneering artistic practice with a clear intent to provoke. Plaza’s definition perfectly reflects his work, one of the most controversial in Brazil’s post-1950s landscape. As affirmed by curator Inês Rahaelian, the artist links the past-icon, present-index and future symbol plot to elaborate forms and strategies of operating the past to roject the present over the future. “O velho tanque” [“The Old Tank”], “Depois de Lichtenstein e Vasarely” [“After Lichtenstein and Vasarely”] and “brasilpaísdofuturoboros” are some of the works in the Júlio Plaza: sem prazo de validade [Júlio Plaza: no expiry date] exhibition opening at the Galeria Marília Razuk on Saturday, Setmeber 3rd.

Of special note is the installation ‘La diferencia’ [The Difference], originally presented by the artist at the 16th São Paulo Biennial, in 1981. A critique-synthesis, this work is one of the highlights of Plaza’s creative trajectory, through which he questions the means, process, production, market, authorship, critics, institution and everything that involves art and culture within the context in + which they take place. 

The works selected seek to synthesize Plaza’s search by embracing a field of multiple senses, establishing this interlocking relationship between the past, present and future: the coming to be of what was and the will be of what used to be.