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35 são paulo biennial highlights [pages 28 and 29] Wifredo Lam’s room at the 35th São Paulo a human being at the height of his
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Biennial is one of the positive landmarks humanity requires the destruction of
ANA PI of this edition. The Cuban artist was barriers, be they racial, economic, social
Visual artist from Minas Gerais signs recognized by Picasso, Breton and the or national.
installation with Taata Kwa Nkisi Mutá Surrealists as soon as he arrived in Paris This is the work he does in his paintings,
Imê in which she proposes a dialogue on in 1938. Before that, still very young, he in which he portrays and overcomes
displacement and between generations went to Spain where he studied art. Only the violence that characterizes human
by maria hirsznan later, like most artists of his generation, relationships. Just like wars and
did he settle in Paris. Even with Picasso’s undemocratic powers, colonization
“A dialogue in displacement and between close friendship, Lam managed to develop a exploited all this violence. It must be
generations”: this is how Ana Pi defines the personalistic work, recognized throughout combated, as well as its subsequent
work she developed in partnership with the world and which aroused the desire to effects, through acceptance and
Taata Kwa Nkisi Mutá Imê, a Candomblé possess it on the part of important museums openness, and not through new violence.
priest whose daughter she has been for 18 and collectors. Of the eight works now on The Biennale has done very well, I
years, and who can be seen at the entrance display in a special room at the 35th Biennale, think, to include his work in this highly
to the Biennale. It is a metallic structure two are from Malba (Buenos Aires), two from topical debate, as it can be said that
made up of four moving antennas, more the Center Georges Pompidou (Paris), and many of his main paintings, such as
than seven meters high, which connects the rest belong to private collectors. The third world (1956) The Abalochas
with a series of references of great symbolic Jacques Leenhardt, a French critic, with dance for Dhambala, god of unity (1970),
strength such as cowrie shells, coastal fluid movement through universities in Latin are calls to heal the wounds of history.
straws, baobab seeds, monitors that America, gave a lecture at this Biennale His work objective is to make possible
require images and photographs collected about the artist and, among his many the reunification of what was brutally
throughout the research and Taata›s voice commitments in Brazil, gives a succinct separated. The ubiquity of blades and
talking about the inquices, sovereign interview to arte!brasileiros. scissors in his paintings speaks of the
entities in Candomblé. To develop this state of the world, not its future. In 1943
project, the duo traveled thousands of – Today decolonialism is on the he painted The jungle, a metaphor for
kilometers, capturing traces and poetic academic agenda, in political speeches, the tragic historical conditions created
elements in a series of countries and in student street demonstrations. In the by the sugar industry and its slave-
institutions (such as the Fundamental book My paint, Wifredo Lam wrote “My based mode of production. From then
Institute of Black Africa, in Dakar, the Quai painting was an act of decolonization.” on, during the 1950s and 1970s, Lam
Branly Museum, or Museum of African Could you comment? constructed a choreography of figures
Arts and Civilizations , Asia, Oceania and jacques leenhardt – I think it is and symbols in his paintings, drawn
the Americas, in Paris, or the Door of No very dangerous to want to include an from the different cultures that nurtured
Return, in Ouidá-Benin), now amalgamated artist of Wifredo Lam’s importance him, in particular Cuban Santeria and
into a very complex set of references, as and complexity immediately in the Haitian Voodoo. If his figures seem
a living commentary on crossroads and “decolonial” debate, which took a to dance on the canvas, it is because
potentialities. direction very far from the search for the artist is transmitting to them a
“When we talk about time, we are synthesis that characterizes his pictorial movement of transcendence that tends
competing for something about the future, work. The important thing, which comes towards a lost unity. I believe this is his
about the continuity of life and not just first, must be: seeing and meditating anti-colonial fight.
human life”, she says, emphasizing the on the works.
importance of valuing new paths. Ana Pi – Of course Lam was an anti-colonialist. – Wifredo Lam’s apprenticeship
who also collaborated, as a choreographer, Anticolonial through a constant concern in pre-revolutionary Spain, at a time of
with the work that Julien Creuzet exhibits with constructing the possibility of a many discussions about the future of
in the exhibition – celebrates that the different way of being. This sheds light that country, had what type of influence
Biennale is fraternizing “with some ideas on debates that are of en too simplistic. on the artist’s work?
of a world that is not this hegemonic one, Lam worked from various backgrounds Jacques Leenhardt – Lam’s Spanish
that pollutes, that leaves people starving”. and cultural heritages that, in their own learning led him to Dürer’s drawing
She recalls that this is the first edition of contradictions, constituted his identity. and Goya’s painting, which he later
the post-pandemic event. And she adds: He speaks of his “old desire to integrate revisited, following Picasso, through
“We cannot forget that more than 700 into painting all the transculturation the multifocal representation of
thousand people have died and have not that had occurred in Cuba between Cubism. Matisse brought him an anti-
yet been prayed for. Our worldviews come aborigines, Spaniards, Africans, perspectivist conception of pictorial
to address this.” Chinese, French immigrants, pirates space that helped him distance himself
and all the elements that make up the from his own European heritage. None
35 são paulo biennial interview [pages 30 to 32] Caribbean. And I claim,” he said, “all of these traditions have been lost since
th
this past for myself. I believe that these then, and they have all fueled his work
JACQUES LEENHARDT transculturations transformed these with this multiplicity.
ANALYZES THE WORK people into a new entity of indisputable
OF WIFREDO LAM human value.” – Wifredo Lam’s room at this
In these few words, I can see the 35th São Paulo Biennial displays some
The French philosopher and critic is contours of his ideological position. fundamental works made in the context
president of the Association of Friends Through the notion of transculturation, of political exile and his transatlantic
of Wifredo Lam in Paris, a scholar of the which he borrows from his friend, the journeys through the seas of slave ships.
Cuban artist’s production Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz, What would you highlight?
by leonor amarante he makes it clear that the advent of Leenhardt – The eight paintings
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