AN EXHIBITION IN TRIBUTE TO WHAT THE FIRE TOOK OFF
Curated by Rodolfo de Athayde and Ania Rodriguez, Construções Sensíveis: The Latin-American Geometric Experience in the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection brings to Brazil an exploration of Latin American abstraction. In addition, the exhibition that takes place at the Banco do Brasil Cultural Center in Rio de Janeiro until September 27th, emphasizes the important legacy of Brazilian concretism and the movements of the new concretism.
On the one hand, in relation to these aspects of the Latin American and, above all, Brazilian plastic arts, Construções Sensíves exhibits the abstract poetry that flourished as a consequence in the country from the 1930s onwards. This dialogue between the different artistic tendencies puts in perspective the specific details and the contributions that Brazil has made to the geometric experiences as part of a regional context and not as an isolated case.
On the other hand, the exhibition offers a space for dialogue between artists and collectives from Latin American countries such as Argentina, Uruguay, Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico - besides Brazil, obviously. Beyond the historical links that may exist between the regions, the links are established from the tendencies derived from constructivism as an aesthetic paradigm. The "constructive desire" that inspires these artists provides the basis for the unique discourses that each group defends. From the core that was formed in Uruguay around the figure of Joaquín Torres-García, focused on his intense exchange of ideas with the Argentines of the Madi group, and going through the visual studies of the optical art and the kinetics, to the different facets of the concretism, the works offer a view of the plurality of the routes that the artists traveled.
Last but not least, the exhibition emerges as a tribute - if you want subtle - to the exhibition Arte Agora III, América Latina: Geometrica sensível, presented at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro in 1978. Many of the Artists presented at that historic event that was a victim of fire are present in this new exhibition as a representation of the pioneering trends in the region.
