FARSA. LANGUAGE, FRACTURE AND FICTION: BRAZIL - PORTUGAL
Sesc Pompeia presents FARSA, curated by Marta Mestre and with adjunct curatorship by Pollyana Quintella. Referring to the universe of language, works produced in Brazil and Portugal by contemporary visual artists are exposed. The institution, when carrying out such activity, reaffirms the importance of knowing the influences of different ethnicities and communities in the historical and cultural formation of a country, understanding the plurality of references in the constitution of identities.
Between the physical space of the Sesc Pompeia warehouse and the virtual platform, in which the usual exhibition formats are challenged by new forms of communication, FARSA reiterates a double presence and its inevitable paradoxes. Interestingly, previous meanings have been transformed by the radical experience of the present, and many works brought together by the curatorial scope have gained new layers of meaning. If before we talked about certain limits of language and communication, the discussion now runs through other prisms.
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Carla Filipe - [Tomorrow there’s no Art], 2019. - Installation of screen printed fabrics. - Courtesy of the artist and Francisco Fino Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal José Carlos Santana Pinto - Collection, Paulo Caetano Collection
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Portuguese Vowels, 2008. - Modelled sugar. - Courtesy of the artist, Los Angeles, United States of America, and Luisa Strina Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil.
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Gretta Sarfaty & Elvio Becheroni – Change and Appropriation of an Autonomous Identity, 1980 – Courtesy of Central Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil
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Helena Almeida - Tela rosa para vestir, 1969 - Photography by Filipe Braga, © Serralves Foundation Collection, Porto.
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Helena Almeida - Chouriço branco [White Chorizo], 1970
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E. M. de Melo e Castro - Light Machine, 1967–2005 - Acrylic, iron and vinyl sticker. - Serralves Foundation Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, Portuga
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Neide Sá - Structures, 1970. - Políptico em acrílico. - Cortesia Galeria Superfície, São Paulo, Brasil
Presenting works by more than 50 artists, the show investigates the supposed linguistic unity of the two countries, counterposing various strategies for the deconstruction of art in both, through experimental works from the 1960s and ’70s, as well as proposals by contemporary artists. As an interplay of questions and answers, the exhibition tensions the idea of an open history and interrogates the “colonial unconscious” of that which is culturally divided and fragmented.
The exhibition is anchored in three curatorial sections. The first, titled “Glu, Glu, Glu” features works that approach the idea of langue and language as a deconstruction machine. Thus, as a voracious mechanism for the swallowing and excretion of meanings, it does not bring discourse into the fore, but rather fragments and slices of reality, expressive in words and bodies.
The second section, “Outras galáxias” [Other Galaxies] evokes the dystopian turning point in the 1960s and 1970s, in literature and in the visual arts, which exposed the destructive power of humanity and the planet in order to emphasize the urgent need to plan faraway futures through science fiction and ecology.
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Lygia Pape – Eat Me, 1975. 9’, digital file edition converted from 16 mm film. - Projeto Lygia Pape Collection, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Regina Vater – Mars landing, from the series Yauti in Heavens ,1988–89. - Photograph printed on wheat-paste poster. - Jaqueline Martins Gallery Collection, São Paulo, Brazi
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Regina Vater – Saturn, from the series Yauti in Heavens ,1988–89. - Photograph printed on wheat-paste poster. - Jaqueline Martins Gallery Collection, São Paulo, Brazi
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Túlia Saldanha – Untitled, 1985–86. - Acrylic paint on paper pasted on canvas. - Private Collection, Portugal
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Lúcia Prancha – Hilstian terms for private parts - 2020. - Livro-objeto de artista em acrílico, tinta d’água, cola de tecido, tecido impresso, poliestireno e caneta de feltro. - Cortesia da artista, Lisboa, Portugal
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Renata Lucas – Farsa, 2019. Installation with fabric and metal. - Courtesy of the artist and neugerriemschneider Gallery, Berlin, Germany; Luisa Strina Gallery, São Paulo, and A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Renata Lucas – Farsa, 2019. Installation with fabric and metal. - Courtesy of the artist and neugerriemschneider Gallery, Berlin, Germany; Luisa Strina Gallery, São Paulo, and A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
For its part, the third curatorial section, “Palavras mil” [A Thousand Words], presents works that deal with poetry and revolution, many of them having to do with the transition between dictatorship and democracy in Portugal and Brazil. They approach the political, intimate and collective gesture through the written or performed manifesto, through the visuality of the social struggles, or through the desirous sounds of the streets.
