Page 104 - ARTE!Brasileiros #38

ART AS RESISTANCE ENGLISH VERSION

the museum partners with social workers; I always say that art “The history of São Paulo places bandeirantes as heroes, but
should foster people, and I felt it there.” to us they represent the opposite, having persecuted and killed
The artist spent two weeks in Medellín in the late 2016, working our ancestors. It is a regrettable heritage that continues to date
with the group on a daily basis. “One of them lost her mother inside the Congress’ rural bench. With our intervention, we
at two and the father at eight years old and grew up alone in wanted to draw attention to this unchanging situation,” claims
the streets. So they fall in love with whoever shows care and Tupã.
attention for them,” she explains. This year, another group conducted an action in front of the
In a open interpretation of art history, Nador sees great familiarity monument. Invited by São Paulo’s Bureau of Culture, the
between a project such as Museum and Territories and what is collective SP Safari promoted a meeting to reflect on the city’s
considered a site-specific, that is, a work designed for a specific history from Brecheret’s work. One the action’s creators, Renato
place, “After all, site-specific is when the artist sets foot on the Cymbalista, professor at the School of Architecture and
ground and starts to worry with their surroundings.” Urbanism of the University of São Paulo, comments on the
topic’s complexity.
“During talks we addressed the several possible interpretations
HERITAGE INTERVENTION | PAGES 26 TO 28 of the work. We talked about Brecheret’s career, the monument’s
history, whose construction was halted during the Estado Novo
MONUMENT WITH period and only inaugurated in 1953, the figure of the bandeirantes
and the protests of natives.” The urbanist defends the need to
NO DIALOGUE discuss the meaning of the monument with society: “It has been
built to praise the figure of the bandeirante in a way that can no
longer be done today,” he says.
INTERVENTIONS WITH PAINT ON THE MONUMENTO ÀS BANDEIRAS, The artist Guto Lacaz, in turn, is a self-declared fan of the work,
BY BRECHERET, CREATES A CONFLICT BETWEEN GROUPS FOR THE which has inspired his book called O Roubo do Monumento às
WORK PRESERVATION AND THOSE WHO SEE IN IT A CELEBRATION Bandeiras (The Theft of the Monumento às Bandeiras). In the
fiction, the sculpture decided to take a walk around the world to
OF THE MEN WHO DECIMATED NATIVES DURING COLONIZATION know humanity’s landmarks. “The book is a joke. I wanted to discuss
how monuments are underestimated, so much so that, in the end,
BY MARIANA TESSITORE the work comes back and nowhere to stand because they built a
shopping mall in its place,” he observes.
DURING THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE ELECTIONS for mayor of Lacaz doesn’t think the monument must be demolished. “Honestly,
São Paulo, the then candidate João Doria (PSDB) shot a video I think these people just don’t get it. Of course the bandeiras have
in front of the Monumento às Bandeiras. He condemned the a cruel side, as do all winning sides in history. This way, there’s not
“graffiti ravaging” of the work, which on the night of September a single monument that will be left standing, everything is part of
29 was painted red by a couple, as caught by the city hall’s the game of power. From this perspective, the saints, the Coliseum
security camera. On the same night, the sculpture of Borba and even the Christ the Redeemer itself would be demolished, there
Gato, another bandeirante (colonial explorers) was also painted would be nothing left,” he claims.
with the same colors. Tupã believes that, for everything that the work represents for
In January, Doria took office as mayor of São Paulo, kickstarting native communities, it could indeed be destroyed. “This would be
with a contentious action of wall-cleaning, erasing graffitis and the best solution. But, since this is a complex matter, I believe there
sprayed words. But what was left from the episode, whose main should be, at least, an explanatory plate telling the natives’ history.”
character was the Monumento às Bandeiras, a city landmark, The possibility of conciliation is also mentioned by Cymbalista: “We
was another debate, beyond the issue that split those in favor of don’t have to say that the bandeirantes were the best people in the
graffiti or the measures carried out by the public authorities. The world and don’t have to advocate for the sculpture’s destruction as
graffiting of Brecheret’s work bore a second political intention, well. As a society, we should come up with better responses than
even more specific, since Victor Brecheret’s work pays tribute this polarization. I can experience the sculpture with the entire
to the colonial pioneers. complexity it triggers.”
Conceived in the 1920s, the sculpture was inaugurated over Even acknowledging the legitimacy of the interventions, the
30 years later, in 1953, on the city’s 400th anniversary. The urbanist argues that the role of the public authorities is to ensure
monument is composed of 240 blocks of granite, each the monument’s preservation. “The State must safeguard the work.
weighing 50 tonnes. It depicts the bandeirantes, controversial Only, it cannot pretend there is nothing going on. It must come
characters of the history of São Paulo, at times linked to up with solutions. For instance, creating a managing counsel and
the country’s progress, at others to the decimation of native allow the natives to conduct an intervention and tell their version
groups. of history. The government must set the monument in motion,
As a result of this controversy, Brecheret’s work has its otherwise it will indeed be destroyed.”
champions and its critics. The coordinator of the Guarani Yvyrupá Tupã points out the discomfort of not seeing himself represented in
Commission, Marcos Tupã, comments on the work’s significance a city landmark: “I believe this monument should not be considered
to native communities. “To us, this monument represents a public heritage, since it is an offense to a portion of society. It is
an offense, just as highways named after bandeirantes, like very unpleasant to know that something considered public demeans
Anhanguera and Raposo Tavares”, he points out. us. To us, the monument evokes a painful and sad memory.”
In 2013, the group mustered by Tupã held a demonstration
against the Constitutional Amendment 215, which proposed the 1 | CITY HALL EMPLOYEES REMOVE PAINT FROM INTERVENTION CONDUCTED ON THE
withdrawal of the autonomy of protection of native land from MONUMENTO ÀS BANDEIRAS
the executive government and transfer it to the Congress. The
act also led demonstrators to paint, also in red, the Monumento 2 | IMAGES FROM THE BOOK O ROUBO DO MONUMENTO ÀS BANDEIRAS (THE THEFT OF THE
às Bandeiras, similar to last year’s action. MONUMENTO ÀS BANDEIRAS), BY ARTIST GUTO LACAZ

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