CONTORNO

AH, QUE ESSA BAHIA TEM ME CONSUMIDO OH, BAHIA HAS BEEN CONSUMING ME

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LINA BO GALERIA ESTEIO BIENAIS BAIANAS MARCEL BROODTHAERS HEROSMO CONCEITUAL STANLEY BROUWN
LINA BO ESTEIO GALLERY BAHIAN BIENNALES MARCEL BROODTHAERS CONCEPTUAL HEROISM STANLEY BROUWN
v.1,.n.1 2013

MUSEU DE ARTE MODERNA DA BAHIA

Bem-vindo Bahia, monsieur Broodthaers! o8

A direo

Museu de Arte Popular e Moderna do Unho

Carla Zollinger

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O esteio da galeria de Maxim

Entrevista com Maxim Malhado

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A arte conceitual e a Bahia das tradies

Almandrade

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CONTORNO. V. 01, n. 01 - 2013 - Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia, Av. Contorno, s/n, Solar do Unho. Salvador - Bahia Periodicidade Mensal. ISSN 1. Bienal-Bahia-Peridicos. 2. Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia. 3. Solar do Unho. 4. Arte Contempornea. 5. Arte Latino-Americana. 6. Arte Conceitual. 7. Artes Visuais. 8. Arte Brasileira. I. Ttulo. II. Bardi, Lina Bo. III. Rezende, Marcelo. IV. Broodthaers, Marcel. V. Zollinger, Carla. VI. Malhado, Maxim. VII. Almandrade. VIII. Brouwn, Stanley.IX. Liberato, Chico. X. Srie. CDD 700.05

Stanley Brouwn Bienais da Bahia com a face brasileira 46

Entrevista com Chico Liberato

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Crditos e legendas das imagens

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Director's Board

Welcome to Bahia, monsieur Broodthaers!

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Carla Zollinger

Museum of Popular and Modern Art of Unho

CONTORNO. V. 01, #01 - 2013 - Museum of Modern Art of Bahia, Av. Contorno, s/n, Solar Unho. Salvador - Bahia Monthly. ISSN

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Interview with Maxim Malhado

The pillar of Maxims gallery

70 Conceptual art and the Bahia of traditions

Almandrade

1. Biennale-Bahia-Periodical. 2. Museum of Modern Art of Bahia. 3.Solar do Unho. 4. Contemporry Art. 5. Latin-American Art. 6. Conceptual Art. 7. Visual Art. 8. Brazilian Art. I. Title. II. Bardi, Lina Bo. III. Rezende, Marcelo. IV. Broodthaers, Marcel. V. Zollinger, Carla. VI. Malhado, Maxim. VII. Almandrade. VIII. Brouwn, Stanley. IX. Liberato, Chico. X. Series. CDD 700.05

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Stanley Brouwn

Interview with Chico Liberato

Bahian Biennales with a Brazilian twist

87 Credits and subtitles

BEM-VINDO BAHIA, MONSIEUR BROODTHAERS!

Em uma carta aberta, no dia 7 de setembro de 1968, o poeta belga que havia se tornado artista quatro anos antes, Marcel Broodthaers, anuncia a criao de um museu: nosso prazer informar clientela e aos curiosos a inaugurao do Departamento das guias do Museu de Arte Moderna. Os trabalhos esto em progresso, sua finalizao determinar a data na qual esperamos expor em todo seu esplendor, lado a lado, a poesia e as artes visuais. Temos confiana de que nosso slogan desinteresse mais admirao atrair todos vocs. Nos anos seguintes, at sua morte em 1976 (na mesma data de nascimento, 28 de janeiro, aos 52 anos), seu museu ficcional se materializaria de diferentes formas e em variados espaos e condies. Mas esse breve resumo no explica todo o caso. Se o Museu de Arte Moderna de Broodthaers, um poderoso projeto artstico, foi durante toda sua existncia uma inveno, um ato da imaginao, qual museu, na verdade, no seria?
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Em sua obra total e inacabada, Das Passagen -Werk, o filsofo alemo Walter Benjamin exibe a refinada leitura da histria e da cultura ao pensar sobre a origem e as formas do museu como projeto e inveno. Seu campo o sculo 19, a Europa, Paris, a herana (ou os resduos) do projeto iluminista do sculo 18 e o modo como se projetavam no incio do sculo 20. Benjamin vai direto ao ponto: Os museus fazem parte, do modo mais lmpido, das casas de sonho do coletivo. Os sonhos foram e continuam sendo muitos, embora, neste momento do sculo 21, as noes de coletivo e, por extenso, comunitrio, participativo e colaborativo se tenham tornado uma espcie de fetiche, problema, desvio e, em alguns casos, at mesmo, soluo para instituies, artistas, curadores e aes polticas de toda ordem. Nessas situaes, na maior parte das vezes, esquece-se de que esses processos envolvem descontrole. Esse elemento faz parte tambm de sua natureza e no se trata apenas da utpica imagem do coletivo como acordo, pacificao, silncio das operaes sem tenso.
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Todo museu uma fico, no apenas o de Broodthaers. E isso no o faz menos real, decisivo ou relevante. O museu uma fico porque encerra, nas palavras de Michel Foucault, a ideia de um espao no qual se apresenta uma iluso de ordem e de controle daquilo que apenas construo e escolhas incoerentes, determinadas pelos movimentos da cultura, da sociedade e do poder. O museu , ento, uma licena da imaginao, uma pardia poltica. Broodthaers: O Muse dArt Moderne, Dpartement des Aigles simplesmente uma mentira, um engano. Mas ele sobrevive h j quatro anos no seio de manifestaes mais diversas: em publicaes, em entrevistas, em postais dos correios, em verdadeiros objetos de arte, em quadros, em esculturas e em objetos de publicidade. Falar do meu museu equivale a falar da arte e, desse modo, a analisar o engano. O museu normal e os seus representantes colocam simplesmente em cena uma forma de verdade. Falar deste museu equivale a discorrer sobre as condies dessa verdade. H uma verdade da mentira. [] Quando uma obra de arte encontra a sua condio na mentira ou no engano, ainda uma obra de arte? No tenho a resposta. [] O museu fictcio tenta pilhar o museu autntico, oficial, para assim atribuir fora e verossimilhana sua mentira. igualmente importante descobrir se o museu fictcio lana um novo dia sobre os mecanismos da arte, do mundo e da vida da arte. Com o meu museu coloco a questo. por isso que no tenho necessidade de dar a resposta.

Reinveno, tropicalidades e esquizofrenias

O Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia foi inventado pela arquiteta Lina Bo Bardi em 1960, em uma circunstncia hoje mtica: sobre os escombros do Teatro Castro Alves, o TCA, destrudo em um incndio um dia aps a inaugurao, Lina toma o foyer da construo, que havia sobrevivido ao fogo, e determina ser aquele lugar o MAM-BA. Seu projeto se desenvolve a partir da e de aes que, nos anos seguintes, envolveriam a recuperao do Solar do Unho, onde o museu se encontra hoje e da tentativa de um Museu de Arte Popular, que no estaria formalmente ou hierarquicamente submetido ao moderno, mas seria uma de suas faces, um de seus elementos, entendendo que nesse cruzamento que residia (e reside) a potncia e a inteligncia da cultura da Bahia. Toda tentativa de dissoluo e ruptura dessa relao nada mais do que a imposio autoritria de um cnone que no pertence aos baianos. Desde o primeiro semestre de 2013, o MAM-BA passa pelo processo de reforma de seu stio. Seu novo projeto arquitetnico visa no apenas restaurao de elementos histricos (uma construo do sculo 18), mas criar condies para que o museu possa operar em seu potencial mximo, com capacidade de trabalhar de forma abrangente as mais diversas linguagens propostas pelas pesquisas artsticas contemporneas, e, assim, executar uma poltica clara com seu acervo, permitindo maior interao entre o MAM-BA e o Estado da Bahia. Enquanto o futuro no chega, ele exige ainda estratgias, aes e um claro programa que possa dar conta da situao presente. Reforma e Reinveno foi o primeiro projeto expositivo dentro do programa criado pelo MAM-BA em sua atual realidade: A Sala do Diretor. Nesse projeto, o espao administrativo do museu passou a ser tambm locus para exposies, sem, claro, necessidade de a direo abandonar o lugar. Pblico, artistas, corpo administrativo, nessa nova circunstncia todos tm a chance de um encontro. Reforma e Reinveno exibiu obras do perodo do conceitualismo histrico (Joseph Beuys, Robert Barry, Daniel Buren, Andr Cadere) e parte da nova gerao de artistas baianos (Ana Verana, Pedro Marighella, Arthur Scovino, Lia Cunha). E ainda Oswaldo Goeldi, artista seminal para o desenvolvimento da arte brasileira no sculo passado, o libans Charbel-Joseph, o americano Frederick Barthelme e os brasileiros Ben Fonteles, Brgida Baltar e Camila Sposati.
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Os processos de reinveno do MAM-BA prosseguiram com aes executadas para alm de seu stio histrico, deslocaram-se pela cidade procura de uma maior e mais livre conversao com Salvador, o Estado e seu pblico. Assim foi com a exposio Lunar, em torno das imagens da e pela Bahia feitas por uma nova gerao de fotgrafos e artistas, realizada no Solar Ferro, no Pelourinho. Do mesmo modo, ocorreram as aes educativas, os encontros, as conversas e Esquizpolis , que procurou perceber na produo de artistas locais

Muito pode ser entendido e desenvolvido a partir do programa A Sala do Diretor: crtica institucional, redefinio dos espaos de poder da instituio, projees utpicas de colaborao e, sobretudo, a necessidade da (re)inveno do museu como espao vivo, pronto no somente para propor, mas para viver seu prprio debate. Reforma e Reinveno pretendeu observar tematicamente a capacidade de recriao de um museu a partir de uma urgncia e necessidade dada (a reforma), que de fator limitante se torna chance para outros modos de atuao. O museu uma fico. Logo, pode a todo instante ser, de todas as maneiras, recriado, afinal, a fico significa tambm um outro existir no mundo. A segunda proposta expositiva para o mesmo ncleo foi Tupy Todos os Dias, na qual artistas de diferentes geraes se aproximaram das ideias do baiano Juarez Paraso. No mesmo ano em que Broodthaers cria seu museu imaginrio, em 1968, encerra-se violentamente o sonho da Bienal da Bahia e o artista apresenta na sala de espera de um cinema, na zona central da cidade de Salvador, um projeto de arte ambiental, destrudo trs anos depois. Paraso desejava promover um apelo para a maior comunicao entre os homens. Os artistas Almandrade, Filipe Bezerra, Gaio, Marcondes Dourado, Sante Scaldaferri, Tarsila do Amaral, grupo Gruna e Tuti Minervino integraram a exibio. Gruna estabeleceu contato direto com o projeto de Marcel Broodthaers de 1974, seu Un Jardin dHiver (Um Jardim de Inverno), no qual o artista belga propunha o uso das palmeiras, do tropical, como comentrio sobre a ausncia do deserto. Em Tupy Todos os Dias, houve a procura de uma resposta ao chamado feito por Paraso dcadas atrs.
CONTORNO 01

a experincia do crescimento baiana e a frico criada pelo desejo de fuga para um suposto Parte desse projeto aconteceu no Barra.

desordenado da capital peso do passado diante do moderno ou contemporneo. Museu Nutico, no Farol da

O museu como fico. A inveno de si (do MAM-BA) como soluo para um museu. O museu como pretexto. Eu poderia ter vendido meu museu. Mas isso no possvel para mim nesse momento. Enquanto eu encontrar nele refgio e me identificar com ele, no poderei fazer isso. Ao menos isso que penso, por enquanto. No vou me permitir ser apanhado. Estou me retirando, indo para dentro do museu, como um refgio. Nesse sentido, o museu um pretexto. Seo de Arte Moderna (Propriedade Privada), 1972. Bem-vindo Bahia, monsieur Broodthaers!
A direo

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MUSEU DE ARTE POPULAR E MODERNA DO UNHO

Carla Zollinger

O Museu de Arte Popular, concebido por Lina Bo Bardi em 1960, funcionaria em conjunto com o Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia (MAMB, hoje MAM-BA), ambos instalados em 1963 no Conjunto do Unho, restaurado por Lina. O Unho abrigaria tambm a Universidade Popular, que contaria com oficinas para formao de mestres de ofcio e desenhistas industriais. O trinmio formado pelos dois museus e pela universidade expressa trs princpios centrais do pensamento de Lina Bo Bardi: 1 No existe arte com A maisculo, nem oposio entre arte erudita e arte popular 1. O nome Museu de Arte Moderna no d conta da necessidade de superar e mesmo inverter essa dicotomia, em uma fuso que a prpria arte moderna supe, ao preconizar uma liberdade de meios, linguagens e aes, desfazendo os limites entre as artes. O Museu de Arte Popular nasceu junto com o MAM-BA. A concepo do museu existia, ao menos, desde outubro de 1960, isto , trs anos antes da sua instalao no Unho, quando sua operao foi divulgada por Lina no convite da exposio Formas como Escultura: O Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia anuncia o MUSEU DE ARTE POPULAR que funcionar paralelamente ao M.A.M.B. com a funo especial de documentao histrica e como base de estudo para a futura Escola de Artesanato e Desenho Industrial 2. 2 O fazer popular, expressado no que se costuma chamar de cultura ou arte popular, encontra-se na fundamentao da raiz cultural de um lugar. Porm, a expresso popular no se alinha com a corrente romntica que busca imobilizar no folklore toda a experincia excluda das categorias estabelecidas da alta cultura. O recurso do folklore uma viso totalitria lanada sobre a produo do homem comum, que cria objetos para seu uso cotidiano, para estar no mundo. por uma necessidade vital, por uma urgncia em comunicar que constri com suas prprias mos seus engenhos, utenslios e objetos.

1 Olivia de Oliveira analisa como Lina Bo Bardi constantemente subverte os aparentes antagonismos entre conceitos tomados como opostos: natural e artificial, antigo e moderno, popular e erudito, real e imaginrio, entre outros. OLIVEIRA, Olivia de. Lina Bo Bardi. Sutis Substncias da Arquitetura. So Paulo: Romano Guerra, 2006, p. 11. 2 BO BARDI, Lina. Formas como Escultura [convite da exposio]. Salvador, [Outubro, 1960].

CONTORNO 01

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A arte possui uma ligao direta com essa necessidade. , portanto, tarefa de um museu de arte reunir os objetos e os elementos de formao da raiz da cultura histrico-popular de um lugar. 3 O museu tambm escola. A Universidade Popular parte indissocivel dos museus concebidos por Lina na Bahia, para quem estes no podem ser separados da sua funo didtica de escola: O museu uma necessidade vital em um pas: do Museu-Escola partir a ateno para as coisas, o respeito por tudo que o homem representa3. A ideia do museu-escola estava presente na Escola Infanto-Juvenil de Msica e na Escola da Criana do MAM-BA, assim como fazia parte do Instituto de Artes Contemporneas (IAC) do Museu de Arte de So Paulo (MASP), no qual Lina colaborava ativamente desde sua fundao, junto a Pietro Maria Bardi. Cada vez que concebia um museu, Lina concebia tambm uma escola: o Museu de Arte Industrial e a Escola de Arte Industrial; o Museu de Arte Popular e a Universidade Popular, para citar alguns.

Observando as atividades de Lina na Bahia, a partir de 1958, antes mesmo de assumir a direo do ento MAMB, percebemos como todas as suas aes confluam na consolidao desses trs princpios estruturais, que uniam os museus e a universidade popular. A Exposio Bahia, montada por Lina Bo Bardi e Martin Gonalves em 1959, no Parque Ibirapuera de So Paulo, reunia as mais variadas expresses do homem comum, do Recncavo ao Serto baiano, buscando alcanar trs aspectos: 1 Superar o limite entre Arte e arte, ou entre as expresses consideradas eruditas e aquelas chamadas populares, primitivas, ingnuas. Como refletiam no livreto da exposio, onde comea e acaba a arte? Quais suas fronteiras? Esta terra de ningum, que limita o homem na expresso de sua humanidade total, privando-o de uma das manifestaes mais necessrias e profundas, como seja a esttica, este limite entre Arte e arte, que sugeriu esta Exposio 4. 2 Apresentar uma arte que de todos sentido oposto quele de arte para iniciados era um dos objetivos da exposio 5, convidando a uma poesia feita por todos, e no por apenas um, nas palavras do poeta surrealista Lautramont 6. Nenhuma nostalgia folclrica, mas o sentido libertrio e revolucionrio prprio dos movimentos da arte moderna, como o surrealismo, cuja prerrogativa de liberdade de expresso se aproximava do fazer popular, com sua inventividade que transformava tudo aquilo que estivesse mo: os objetos feitos de materiais descartados e efmeros, reunidos por Lina Bo Bardi e Martim Gonalves, como papis recortados, esculturas de restos, arquiteturas precrias realizadas com materiais anti-eternos como a matria plstica ou as folhas de metal prensado nada mais querem ser do que a consciente renncia imortalidade, ao privilgio da arte 7.
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4 BO BARDI, Lina; GONALVES, Martim. Bahia: Exposio no Parque Ibirapuera. Apresentao [livreto da exposio]. So Paulo, 1959. 5 BO BARDI, Lina. Conversas sobre a continuidade histrica da expresso esttica do homem. Escola de Teatro, Salvador, 16 abr. 1959. Manuscrito. 6 BO BARDI, Lina; GONALVES, Martim. 1959, doc. cit. nota n. 5. 7 BO BARDI, Lina; GONALVES, Martim. 1959, doc. cit. nota n. 5.

3 BO BARDI, Lina. O Museu de Arte Moderna, Dirio de Notcias, Salvador, 18 out. 1959.

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3 Construir, por meio de uma exposio didtica, o sentido do museu-escola. A tarefa didtica estava de braos dados com o trabalho da documentao da cultura popular. A Universidade da Bahia participava na organizao da exposio. A Escola de Teatro e seu diretor Martim Gonalves eram corresponsveis pela montagem. A sntese das artes, posta em prtica nas atividades do museu, dava sentido mostra, sendo precursor das Exposies Didticas do MAMB. Como afirmou Glauber Rocha, na Exposio Bahia existia o Museu de Arte Moderna em potencial 8, com Lina consolidando suas aes no primeiro ano de atividades do museu. Mestres que influenciaram a arte do sculo 20, como Van Gogh, Renoir e Degas eram, expostos junto a pintores locais, abstracionistas e concretos, figurativos e os chamados pompiers. No havia uma separao ou classificao. Era tarefa do museu refletir sobre o que Ver a Pintura, nome de uma das Exposies Didticas. Estas, junto a outras tais como Desenho Concreto, Formas Naturais ou Formas como Escultura, traziam ao museu o mundo dos objetos tcnicos, da natureza, das coisas do cotidiano, da chamada arte popular, ampliando o sentido do que arte. Ex-votos e piles antigos, colchas de retalhos e tbuas de tiro ao alvo eram exibidos no museu. Para Lina, no havia nenhuma contradio em exibir peas de arte popular em um museu chamado de Arte Moderna. A arte no entende de classificaes. A premissa do museu era a de no separar as manufaturas populares das obras consideradas arte, confrontar artistas primitivos com pintores profissionais9. O museu era dual. Museu de Arte Moderna e Museu de Arte Popular eram um s museu.

8 ROCHA, Glauber. MAMB no museu: escola em movimento por uma arte que no seja desligada do homem, Jornal da Bahia, 21 set. 1960. 9 BO BARDI, Lina [atribudo]. MAMB: um ano dedicado cultura da Bahia, Dirio de Notcias, Salvador, 06 jan. 1961

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A obra de recuperao do Conjunto do Unho para abrigar os museus e a Universidade Popular comeou em agosto de 1962. Em novembro de 1963, o Museu de Arte Popular foi aberto ao pblico com a Exposio Nordeste, ou, como Lina costumava mencionar, Exposio Civilizao do Nordeste . A mostra reunia a coleo de arte popular recolhida por Lina Bo Bardi na Bahia, do Recncavo ao Serto, e contava com a colaborao de Lvio Xavier, diretor do Museu da Universidade do Cear, assim como do pintor e ceramista Francisco Brennand, co-fundador do Movimento de Cultura Popular em Recife. Desses trs estados provinham as obras dos cinquenta e sete artistas pintores, gravadores e desenhistas expostas no Conjunto do Unho paralelamente Exposio Civilizao do Nordeste. Lina Bo Bardi pretendia fundar um tringulo de colaborao com Lvio Xavier e Francisco Brennand para documentar a chamada arte popular nordestina. O tringulo entre Bahia, Pernambuco e Cear exprime o sentido dinmico da sua concepo para o Museu de Arte Popular. O papel deste era fundar uma espcie de movimento, ao mesmo tempo, de procura no passado e ao sobre o presente, histrico e atual, um movimento de reconhecimento e valorizao da memria viva da arte popular nordestina. Para Lina, a tarefa da documentao da arte popular contribuiria para a oportunidade histrica de construir uma indstria genuinamente brasileira, com produo prpria e comum desenho industrial ancorado no saber popular, embasado em uma pesquisa d e o b j e t o s , i n s trumentos e utenslios que o povo elaborou ao longo de anos para responder s suas necessidades. Aquele era um momento propcio para unir o pas, especialmente o Nordeste, maior prejudicado pelas polticas desenvolvimentistas nacionais, em um esforo comum
CONTORNO 01

de tomada de deciso entre dois caminhos: um caminho pobre e mais difcil, mas por isso mesmo rico em possibilidades, atrelado s necessidades locais e calcado no cotidiano do homem comum; e o caminho da finesse, o caminho dos gadgets e do suprfluo. Oficina Lina Bo Bardi 2012 Em 2012, cinquenta anos aps a restaurao do Conjunto do Unho, o Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia acolheu a Oficina Lina Bo Bardi 10, reunindo mais de trinta participantes para estudar, atravs da construo de maquetes, a restaurao do Unho realizada por Lina Bo Bardi em 1962 e concluda em 1963.

10 Oficina Lina Bo Bardi, coordenada pela arquiteta Carla Zollinger, foi realizada por meio do programa Fundo de Cultura, do Governo do Estado da Bahia, com apoio do Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia.

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A oficina, dedicada a Lina Bo Bardi no MAM -BA, permitiu uma compreenso do Conjunto do Unho e da restaurao realizada. Para compreender o projeto da arquiteta, buscou -se estudar a concepo de Lina para o museu, superando a separao entre arte erudita e arte popular. Foi a partir desta ideia que Lina implantou o Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia, promovendo reformas no Teatro Castro Alves, em 1960, e a recuperao do Conjunto do Unho, a p a r t i r d e 1962. A execuo deste projeto foi interrompida em 1964, quando Lina Bo Bardi se demitiu da direo do museu, ao constatar que a perseguio instaurada no pas impediria sua tarefa, a qual permaneceu inacabada. Lina conseguiu, porm, recuperar o Conjunto do Unho da sua situao de runa e ameaa de destruio e iniciar, ainda que de maneira incipiente, o Museu de Arte Popular. A realizao da oficina implicou em uma busca das possibilidades de uma obra inacabada. Essa pesquisa ajuda a compreender, hoje, as possibilidades do prprio Museu de Arte Moderna e os desdobramentos que possam dar conta da concepo de um museu-escola, ao mesmo tempo de arte moderna e de arte popular. Finalmente, mas como um novo comeo de trabalho, a Oficina Lina Bo Bardi traz a importncia de abordar a recuperao e a conservao dos documentos de Lina Bo Bardi, que fazem parte do acervo do Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia. Entre eles, os desenhos da restaurao do Conjunto do Unho.

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Contorno Como podemos resumir a histria da Esteio Galeria de Arte? Maxim Malhado A Esteio [Galeria de Arte] comea em 1994. Eu estava meio assim: O que eu vou fazer agora? E a tive a ideia de fazer um trabalho l em Stio Novo. Meu pai estava construindo uma casa, e essa casa era pra receber pessoas, visitantes, amigos, parentes da famlia mesmo. A eu pedi a meu pai essa casa para eu fazer uma exposio de arte. E ele no pensou duas vezes, cedeu o espao, me deu a casa, e a correu para dar iluminao e tudo, a parte hidrulica toda da casa, pra fazer a exposio. Foi quando eu fiz a exposio chamada So Joo sem Joo? Ai de mim sem Joo, sem Pedro, sem Jos. So Joo sem vocs? Seu Flaviano, eu quero uma bomba de 50 e, de quebra, um bolinho pra velar meu esprito . Esse foi o ttulo da exposio. De l para c, tenho adotado uns ttulos bem grandes [risos]. Alm da parte visual, eu gosto dessa coisa da palavra, de ser mais uma oportunidade para expor uma ideia, um pensamento. Mas, naquele momento, ela ainda no era Esteio, no tinha nome ainda. Contorno E as dimenses da casa? Maxim Malhado Eu no lembro a dimenso. Eu tenho fotografia dela, da arquitetura em L, com vrias janelas que at complicavam um pouquinho na montagem das obras, mas tinha um paredo legal. Aqui em casa deve ter 45 a 50m, a casa da exposio deveria ser em torno disso. Contorno O que se encontrava naquela primeira exposio? Malhado Eu expus s trabalhos em pastel, uma mdia de 18 para 20. No incio, trabalhei muito com pastel seco. E eu trabalhei, basicamente, com as fachadas das casas da vila de Stio Novo. Ento, fui observar aqueles detalhes geomtricos que a gente
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O ESTEIO DA GALERIA DE MAXIM

Ctia Milena Albuquerque

Nascido em Ibicara, o educador fsico por formao Maxim Malhado passou toda sua adolescncia em Stio Novo, onde convenceu seu pai a transformar uma de suas casas em uma galeria de arte. Na sua atual casa/ateli, o artista recebeu a equipe da Contor no para conversar sobre a sua trajetria artstica, a extinta Esteio Galeria de Arte e a sua influncia em Stio Novo. A entrevista aconteceu em Massarandupi, um verdadeiro paraso natural na Bahia, onde Maxim vive e trabalha.
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chama de platibandas. Naquele perodo, eu entrei em contato com a matria da Ana Mariani. Ela veio aqui pelo interior da Bahia e de Sergipe tambm fotografar as fachadas das casas. Fez um livro! Eu fiquei encantado com aquele livro porque era uma coisa que eu observava muito l da vila. Era uma coisa que desde pequeno maluquice! eu observava muito as sombras que as casas projetavam no cho. Ento, a ideia foi essa: pegar esse elemento das fachadas das casas. Contorno E quem esteve na exposio? Malhado Nossa! H poucos dias, eu achei a lista de presena. Quase 200 pessoas! Isso em 1994, num lugar que nunca tinha tido uma exposio de arte. Saiu em dois jornais em circuito aqui, em Salvador, e tambm no interior, em Feira de Santana. E o que mais legal: a moldura, eu que fiz a moldura. Eu peguei essas varinhas, essa varinha a [aponta], eu prensava uma na outra e fazia [explica gestualmente] duas aqui, duas aqui... E o pastel, que um papel, ficava sob presso. Ficou perfeita a moldura! E eu fiz isso muito com meu irmo mais velho, que tem Sndrome de Down. Teve uma hora que eu tambm cortei meu dedo, a ele ficou l comigo, segurando a onda, e eu fiz esse trabalho. E, no dia da abertura, a ideia era que as pessoas vissem a exposio sem luz. No tinha luz! Ento, confeccionei umas 22 lanternas de lata com vela dentro. A ficavam trs ou quatro pessoas segurando uma s lanterna. Por a voc tem ideia da quantidade de gente que foi pra exposio. Contorno No tinha realmente nada de arte na cidade? Malhado Nada! Na poca, deveria ter uns dois mil habitantes. Minha me trabalhava no cartrio e me disse, na poca eu perguntei. uma vila. Mas dez por cento [dos habitantes da cidade] foi pra exposio. Num lugar que nunca tinha tido nada. Foi uma experincia, para mim, maravilhosa.
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Contorno Voc pensava em criar uma galeria ou expor apenas aquele trabalho? Malhado Eu me incomodava muito com o estado que as coisas se encontravam l na vila. O tempo tinha passado, e isso chegava pra mim com muita fora. Eu comecei meu trabalho em 1991. Eu achava ainda acho at hoje, um pouco que falta espao. Eu tinha as ideias e tudo mais, tinha vontade de expor, mas no tinha onde. Ento, tinha isso tambm. Pensei em colocar aqui onde eu moro e em movimentar esse negcio. Contorno Quantas exposies foram feitas at ser Esteio? Malhado Em 1995, eu fiz outra exposio, chamada Nas Canes do Rdio. Foi no perodo do So Joo tambm, porque vai muita gente para l. O cartaz dessa exposio foi um lenol de casal com dois travesseiros, eu estendi na porta, na abertura da Esteio. E choveu naquele dia, So Joo geralmente chove muito. A tinta era essa de bisnaga, derreteu tudo! A, nessa exposio, eu j abri o espao da galeria, que ainda no era Esteio. Eu me apropriei do espao de um antigo armazm da cidade, onde expus s fotografias de pessoas que tinham passado pelo lugar. De armazns antigos, de coisa antiga, de pessoas. Tinham muitas fotos. Na parte interna da galeria, eu fechei a galeria inteira de cerca.

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Contorno At a abertura da Esteio, voc vendeu muitas obras? Malhado Na minha primeira exposio, em 1994, s vendi um trabalho, mas foi pro meu pai, porque ele ficou muito chateado [risos]. Ele correu muito para dar a parte hidrulica e a parte eltrica, e, no dia da exposio, eu apaguei todas as luzes. Ele ficou muito zangado comigo e no foi pra abertura. S no outro dia, de manh cedo, todo mundo da famlia l. Tinha um quadro, uma pintura que eu fiz da fachada de um armazm da vila. Ele viu e disse que ia comprar aquele trabalho. Adquiriu na frente da famlia e tudo mais. Contorno O que aconteceu com os trabalhos dessas duas primeiras exposies? Malhado Eu no tenho mais nenhum deles. S um que est aqui, uma figura amarela que eu chamo de So Joo. Lembra um pouco aquelas figuras meio Picasso, meio Modigliani, mas um pouco de Maxim tambm. Meu pai era louco pra comprar esse trabalho. Todos os outros eu vendi no decorrer da minha histria. Depois das duas exposies seguidas, em 1996, estrategicamente, eu decidi no fazer nada. Contorno Quando voc voltou a expor, retornou com alguma mudana? Malhado Eu voltei em 1997, j com a Esteio, a Esteio Galeria de Arte. E quando eu coloquei esse nome, imaginava que no existia. Eu achava que estava criando um nome meio francs, e ele soava to lindo, Esteio. A, depois de muito tempo, eu fui atrs, e vi no dicionrio que tem Esteio. Mas, ao invs de ficar chateado com minha frustrao de no ter criado o nome, eu gostei mais ainda, porque era um nome perfeito. Afinal, esteio o que sustenta e ampara uma casa. Mas eu quis ampliar o projeto, o Arte na Vila. Em 1997, inauguro a Feira de Arte e Artesanato, que acontecia todo quarto
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domingo de cada ms, tambm de maneira estratgica, porque coincidia com a missa l na capela. E minha me era quem mandava na igreja. Ento, eu pedia pra ela falar pra todos irem para a Feira depois da missa. Contorno Durante esse tempo, havia alguma forma de financiamento? Malhado Eu era financiado por amigos. Na Feira, eu confeccionei dez barracas de ferro. No dia da abertura, no primeiro dia, as dez no deram conta. Todo mundo queria montar, vender coisas! Eu tenho tudo registrado porque eu fiz o samba de roda no largo. E foi uma farra! Nas barracas, tinha de comida a obra de arte. Contorno E voc tinha papel timbrado, no ? Malhado Era papel timbrado da Esteio! Tenho tudo ainda. A Esteio uma casinha, mas s com as linhas, numa madeira boa, como se fosse um logotipo, mas na frente tinha essa casinha. E tinha esculpido na madeira: Esteio Galeria de Arte. Meu pai tinha um acervo fabuloso meu. Coisas que ele comprava, que eu dava pra minha me e tudo mais, mas meus irmos mesmos levaram tudo. Ento, tem tudo l. O que era meu, eu trouxe, mas a casinha da Esteio eu j tive l pra pegar, mas sempre me falta coragem. Eu acho que faz parte da casa e da cidade. No vou mexer nisso, mas j tive muita vontade de trazer. Contorno Os convites da exposio, voc ainda possui? Malhado Tenho o convite da exposio de 1994, a de So Joo sem Joo. Foram 94 convites que eu fiz mo. Na poca, eu estudava na Escola de Belas Artes, e uma colega achou o maior absurdo. Ela achou que estvamos avanados tecnologicamente, achou bizarro eu confeccionar tantos convites a punho e pintar tambm, porque na frente era pintado,
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era uma coisa bem geomtrica, uma mistura das bandeirolas. E, no outro lado, era escrito mo todo o ttulo da exposio. Contorno E essa primeira exposio na Esteio? Malhado Foi uma exposio coletiva, de abertura, no tinha ttulo. Tinha um monte de coisa, escultura, pintura, desenho. No final do ano, fiz uma exposio sobre querer ser artista, chamada: A Primeira Exposio de Produtores de Coisas da Vila. Foi muito legal essa exposio porque eu chamei um vassoureiro, Seu Davi, e eu tenho registro das vassouras, eu fui l pesquisar mesmo, fotografei toda a confeco das vassouras. Tinha outro senhor chamado Seu Gregrio. Ele era deficiente visual e tambm tocava acordeom nas aberturas, junto com Seu Davi. As pessoas ficavam encantadas com aquele som do acordeom, principalmente no So Joo. Tinha tambm Dona Cec, que era uma pintora de Stio Novo. Foi o primeiro contato que eu tive, quando era menino, com pintura. Ela tinha um desenho terrvel, mas me impressionava muito, a desproporo me encantava. Ah! E Seu Davi fazia vinho, as aberturas tinham o vinho confeccionado por ele. Seu Zezinho tambm participou, era um gaioleiro, eu tenho registro dele e do ateli, ele fazendo as gaiolas. Tinha Dona Chica, que era a costureira de minha me. Ela fez uma colcha de retalho, tambm expus. Teco um escultor. Eu tenho duas obras dele, usei em duas exposies na Esteio. Em 2005, fiz um Leilo de Artes s com a obra de Teco, virou mesmo artista. Contorno Quando colocava esses objetos na Esteio, voc expunha como arte? Malhado Como arte! Eu expus como minhas obras, com toda a importncia que tinham. Todos iam e gostavam, ficavam encantados e felizes. Ficavam felizes porque eu abri tambm para a comunidade. Dona Chica trazia
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gente que nunca tinha ido. Dona Cec tambm. Seu Zezinho tambm trazia a famlia. Assim aumentou o pblico da Esteio. Isso foi no final do ano. Eu pendurei essas gaiolas de um jeito, do teto at a altura do olho. Ficou belssimo! As gaiolas de Seu Zezinho foram um sucesso. Tinha alapo, que depois virou meu objeto de pesquisa. As vassouras de Seu Davi, foram cinco ou quatro, eu montei de um jeito que parecia uma instalao. Contorno Eram feitas duas exposies por ano, ento? Malhado Olhando agora, eu acho que deve ter umas quatro por ano. De junho at o final do ano, devo ter feito umas quatro exposies. Tudo com convite e livro de presena. Tinha tudo, at convite feito em grfica era necessrio. A gente ia bolando outros convites sob o registro oficial da Esteio. Eu fiz em 1997, fui Prefeitura, pedi Licena, Alvar de Funcionamento. Contorno Havia alguma relao com a Escola de Belas Artes da UFBA? Malhado No tinha, praticamente, participao de algum de fora, de algum da arte em Salvador. Ningum nunca se deslocou para ir at a Esteio. Desde 1994 sai no jornal, e nem com isso as pessoas visitavam. Eu tenho um
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texto da Sofia [Olszewski]. Ela j faleceu, mas eu fui aluno dela naquela poca. Ela escreveu um texto do meu trabalho em 1994. Aldo Tripodi, que escrevia na Tribuna da Bahia, tambm. Tem um texto de Roberval Marinho, que era o Diretor da Escola de Belas Artes. Ele tambm desenhou para mim. Ento, no foi falta de conhecimento. Luis Freire escreve para mim at hoje e j doutor. Eduardo Evangelista, que escrevia no jornal, era conhecido como crtico de arte em Salvador. Ento, no sei por que e como, mas terminei tendo acesso a essas pessoas. Contorno Essas pessoas que escreviam, entendiam o que estava acontecendo? Malhado Essas pessoas no foram at l. Eles escreveram mediante o que eu dizia, o que eu contava e o material que eu mostrava. A eles escreviam sobre o meu trabalho. As pessoas e a Escola de Belas Artes tinham conhecimento, alguns amigos tambm, mas no iam. Contorno Eles compreendiam a galeria como um projeto artstico? Malhado Olhe, no estava to claro, nem para mim. No que aquilo ia dar, eu no sabia e no me preocupava muito. Eu queria era fazer, e da melhor forma. Eu queria que tivesse coquetel, a fazia com todas as comidas tpicas do So Joo. Licor e msica tambm. Uma msica do lugar, com Seu Davi, Seu Gregrio. Ento, sempre foi desse jeito. Essa preocupao com o outro. Mas o que ia dar no futuro, no sabia. Depois eu pensei e disse: No, isso aqui muito mais do que uma galeria. Depois, eu falo assim: No, isso aqui muito mais do que um espao, uma obra mesmo, um trabalho. Contorno Esse trabalho possui quantos anos? Malhado A Esteio mesmo foi inaugurada em 1997, mas em 1994 eu fiz a primeira exposio, a ltima foi em 2006. Quase dez anos de Esteio. Em 2006, a exposio chamava-se Guarita, eu trabalhei novamente com a questo da ausncia. Mas eu falava de ausncia do lugar, essa ausncia foi minha, eu j
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estava morando aqui [em Massarandupi]. Eu fiz todo o projeto. Tinha uma turma l que eu gosto muito, e a gente tinha um dilogo legal. A chamei essa turma, e eles construram todo o trabalho comigo. No dia da abertura, eu no estaria l. Quem estaria eram os meninos que fizeram tudo. Daqui eu escrevi um poema, que um udio, porque guarita uma casinha. Ento, eles confeccionam, perto da linha de trem, uma guarita de taipa, e dentro dessa guarita, no dia da abertura, tem um udio, que sou eu falando. Eu chamo de Meus Pequenos Deuses , me referindo ao lugar. emocionante demais esse udio. Mas eu no aguentei minha ansiedade. No outro dia, fui pra l de manh cedo. Fui pra l pra ver tudo, como que tinha sido o resultado e tudo mais. Os meninos me falaram que, no dia da abertura, se formou fila pra escutar o udio. O udio era um pouco longo, tinha cinco minutos. Eu escrevo tambm, mas no tenho esse hbito de ficar enxugando, tem que ser na ntegra mesmo. Contorno Nesses quase dez anos, foram quantas exposies? Malhado Nunca contei. S minha, eu fiz essa de 1994, em 1995, fiz outra que esse trabalho [aponta] fez parte. Chamava-se Uma mostra s pra se amostrar [risos]. Deixa eu ver [olha ao redor]. Daqui, acho que foi esse. Tem um alfabeto que eu fao homenagem a Luiz Gonzaga, um alfabeto que tem ali dentro de casa. Teve uma exposio chamada Dizidrio. Outra, muito legal, chamada Gambiarra, teve a Guarita. Uma chamada Enguio Misturado com Feitio, que era muito interessante. Uma coisa nossa aqui, para as pessoas no perguntarem. Contorno Como voc avalia o efeito da Esteio na comunidade? Malhado Eu no consigo lhe dizer isso, no. O que eu posso dizer que sempre ia muita gente da vila e os meninos chegavam junto.

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A ARTE CONCEITUAL E A BAHIA DAS TRADIES

Almandrade

A histria da arte no Brasil relata o que acontece nos grandes centros. Alis, a arte sempre dependeu dos centros culturais de informao e divulgao, com algumas raras excees. Em um pas como o Brasil, com uma extenso territorial e uma diversidade cultural contraditria, no se tem informao mais depurada e uma leitura crtica do que ocorreu nas outras regies. Era sempre um olhar distncia, que via apenas o repertrio visual regional e o extico. A arte contempornea, que despontava nos anos de 1970, passou quase despercebida, como uma brincadeira de algum engraadinho, no cenrio cultural da cidade do Salvador. A partir dessa dcada, com a arte conceitual, a obra passa a ser de ordem mental e reflexiva, constituindo uma das inmeras formas de expresso artstica possveis para o desenvolvimento do trabalho de um artista plstico contemporneo. O pblico deixou de ser um observador passivo, foi obrigado a refletir sobre a obra de arte. O discutvel entendimento da obra de arte no era mais direto. A Bahia, com sua produo defasada, era provinciana e hostil a qualquer manifestao que no correspondesse s linguagens bem comportadas das belas artes. No Manifesto: Arte-Bahia-Estagnao, publicado no jornal A Tarde em 12 de fevereiro de 1979, procuramos registrar o nosso atraso: Para haver uma arte de vanguarda (crtica) preciso haver instituies artsticas, sales, escolas de artes aparelhadas e mercado mnimo de operacionalidade que permitam em seu interior a produo, circulao e consumo de novas informaes que ampliem o repertrio de signos artsticos. Na Bahia, podemos constatar a ausncia desses fatores, e tambm, como fator negativo ao desenvolvimento de novos repertrios, podemos citar a preservao de um falso patrimnio que a elite econmica se utiliza para demonstrar status e ao mesmo tempo deter a cultura, controlando a produo ideolgica. A divulgao da arte na Bahia s possvel quando os artistas aceitam as regras do mercado e dos grupos que controlam as instituies. Um fato que vem comprovar esta situao o Salo de Vero, que inicialmente tinha como estratgia uma exposio aberta a todo e qualquer trabalho,

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mas de ltima hora os organizadores mudaram de estratgia, impondo uma seleo. Somos contra, no ao fato de haver seleo, pois o situar-se s possvel quando se toma partido, mas somos contra a esse tipo de seleo, no objetiva, determinada por critrios de poltica pessoal, burocrtica etc. Mesmo o salo alternativo que surgiu em decorrncia desses fatos reproduz os mesmos defeitos do salo oficial em relao produo artstica. A situao da arte na Bahia se estagnou na dcada de 1960, no havendo vnculo com a produo e as discusses dos anos 70, com a arte conceitual, arte ecolgica, arte corpo, entre outras. Este desvinculamento da arte baiana em relao s novas estratgias, contra o circuito artstico, leva os artistas a uma prtica cultural alienada. Abrir um espao para a arte no como a Fundao Cultural props, com o Salo de Vero, mas abrir um espao para a discusso aberta que venha criar novos hbitos de produo e de leitura. O que se pretende, neste texto, contribuir para a discusso da prtica alienante que ainda reina nas artes na Bahia, sincronizar o fazer artstico na Bahia com os principais centros produtores e pensar formas de minar o mercado baiano. No podemos deixar de citar a falta de um posicionamento ideolgico dos artistas. Enfim, necessrio envenenar toda uma tradio cultural medocre e suas tticas. Para revitalizar a estagnada produo artstica baiana, fundamental frisar que o fazer artstico essencialmente um fazer sobre a linguagem no interior da estrutura social, e o questionamento deve ser neste nvel. Politizar a arte, a semntica e as formas de circulao.
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A mquina que no v Monumento mquina fotogrfica: caixa preta sobre trip. Um sutil strip-tease do cdigo fotogrfico. Um riso e uma dvida diante da existncia do real fotografado. (Almandrade, 1977)

Almandrade e Haroldo Cajazeira Alves

No territrio das artes plsticas brasileiras, a Bahia passou por um processo de amadurecimento lento para absorver as linguagens modernas e promover uma renovao capaz de competir com a arte produzida nos grandes centros. O que marcava a produo baiana era uma tendncia associada regionalizao e a uma recusa universalidade, uma busca de um moderno regional, local. A arte girava em torno dos limites das primeiras manifestaes modernistas, dentro de um esquema pictrico que reivindicava um retorno s chamadas razes culturais, alheia s transformaes que estavam acontecendo com a passagem da vanguarda para a contemporaneidade. A adaptao s novidades modernas
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no aconteceu de forma sistematizada, dentro de um pacto com a temtica local, nordestina. A contemporaneidade custou a chegar e acabou sendo diluda sem se assimilarem direito suas questes, como uma fcil sada para o impasse arte/novidade. Uma arte contempornea sem histria, instantnea e descartvel. A arte conceitual exigia muito para se produzir alguma coisa, no foi digerida. Na segunda metade da dcada de 1960, houve na Bahia uma fora de vontade de acompanhar as diversidades da vanguarda brasileira. No havia um procedimento de vanguarda, nem um pensamento, era mais um inconformismo com a situao em que se encontrava o estado diante das inquietaes dos anos 1960: contracultura, tropiclia, experimentalismo e as rupturas dos suportes tradicionais. A vontade de intercmbio com a vanguarda resultou nas Bienais da Bahia, que contaram com a participao das manifestaes mais importantes da poca: concretismo, neoconcretismo, tropiclia etc., fazendo de Salvador o centro das artes plsticas brasileiras. Chegou-se a provocar o cenrio cultural local, contrrio a uma atualizao do meio de arte baiano. Como o regime poltico do final dos anos 60 era pouco favorvel liberdade cultural, surgiu o AI-5, e a 2 Bienal foi fechada. Foi o fim de uma iniciativa que deixou a arte brasileira de luto. Sem um trnsito de informaes, sem um centro de apoio e sem uma poltica cultural que viabilizasse possveis linguagens experimentais, entramos na dcada de 1970 sem acompanhar as mudanas significativas que estavam acontecendo na produo artstica e a sua leitura. Entre 1972 e 74, o grupo de estudos de linguagem da Bahia (Haroldo Cajazeira, Jlio Csar Lobo, Orlando Pinho e Almandrade), distante dos problemas do circuito local, iniciou um estudo pioneiro no Estado sobre semitica, teoria da informao, filosofia da arte, poesia concreta, concretismo, neoconcretismo e arte conceitual, que levou publicao da revista Semitica, em julho de 1974. A iniciativa foi isolada e sem maiores atritos com o meio local.
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Os artistas surgidos no incio da dcada de 1970, gerao ps-AI-5, tinham poucas oportunidades de circular seu trabalho e acompanhar o que estava acontecendo nos grandes centros: as discusses em torno da arte conceitual e o sistema da arte. Contavam apenas com os sales universitrios, que no traziam nenhuma perspectiva de troca de informaes, pois eram sales domsticos que mostravam somente a produo local e defasada, sem abrir intercmbio com outras regies. O Instituto Goethe foi o principal centro cultural da cidade, na poca, principalmente para as manifestaes artsticas experimentais, at o incio da dcada de 1980. As iniciativas eram individuais e improvisadas, como a exposio Paralelo 78, organizada por Glei Melo e com a participao dos artistas Humberto Velame, Mrio Cravo Neto, Almandrade, Juarez Paraso e o prprio Glei Melo, no foyer do Teatro Castro Alves, em 1978. A mostra estava entre o moderno e o contemporneo, com pinturas, fotografias, objetos e instalaes. O principal agente do circuito, do ponto de vista de investimentos econmicos, ainda era o mercado estatal, mas direcionado gerao surgida antes da dcada de 1960, alguns com reverberao no mercado nacional. Sem uma poltica de ao cultural necessria preservao e renovao do patrimnio cultural, a cidade de Salvador ficou aqum de uma cultura urbana, alheia s transformaes da arte. Somente no final dos anos 1970, o Museu de Arte Moderna reabre as portas para reassumir o seu papel no circuito da arte, com uma grande exposio e sem nenhuma seleo, a Exposio Cadastro. Um equvoco, mas um equvoco necessrio, era uma vitrine da arte baia40 41

na. Desde as Bienais, no havia acontecido uma mostra desse porte, do ponto de vista de quantidade, no de qualidade, incomparvel com as Bienais. Participaram das Bienais as principais tendncias da arte de vanguarda brasileira, que estava em outro contexto, que diz respeito aos agitados anos de 1960. Essa reabertura do circuito de arte estava inserida dentro de outro momento poltico pelo qual passava o pas: abertura, anistia, liberdades democrticas. Iniciava uma nova perspectiva cultural: o AI-5 fechou a Bienal, a chamada abertura poltica reabre o museu e devolve a liberdade de expresso. Era o incio de uma nova etapa, a redemocratizao do Brasil. Mas a Exposio Cadastro, nas suas melhores intenes, revelou que a Bahia estava distante da contemporaneidade. Salvo exemplos isolados, no tinha nem entendido direito a modernidade, s voltas com um moderno regional, a arte conceitual, que no era mais o centro das atenes, era um escndalo. A exposio O Sacrifcio do Sentido inaugurou a primeira exposio individual de arte contempornea de um artista baiano no MAM-BA. A mostra compreendia trabalhos realizados entre 1975 e 1980, marcados, principalmente, pela arte conceitual que dominou a dcada de 1970, e uma herana construtiva. Desenhos, objetos e instalao, sem cor, preto e branco. Siln cio e raciocnio. Objetos tensos. Na dcada de 1970 as dificuldades eram maiores, fui recusado em quase todos os sales por fazer uma opo pelo contemporneo. A exposio no MAM-BA, O Sacrifcio do Sentido, no foi bem vista pela crtica provinciana e pelo pblico. Paguei caro. Hoje a coisa est inversa, a arte contempornea est em todos os lugares, exige-se pouco do artista. Depois desses anos, no contexto nacional e internacional, ocorreu o retorno da pintura, o reencontro do artista com a emoo e o prazer de pintar. Um prazer e uma emoo solicitados pelo mercado em
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reao a um suposto hermetismo das linguagens conceituais que marcaram a dcada de 1970. A arte contempornea passou a ser um fazer subjetivo, como se arte fosse um acessrio psicolgico ou sociolgico. Troca-se de suporte, nos anos 90, com o predomnio da tridimensionalidade: escultura, objeto, instalao, performance, entre outros, mas a arte no retomou a razo. Para uma condio ps-moderna, o suporte no o essencial, mas o significado. Somente na segunda metade dessa dcada, depois de instaurada a supremacia do contemporneo pelo mercado, o circuito de arte baiano absorveu as novas linguagens e o conceitual tardio, que passaram a conviver, sem conflito, com as tradies locais.

No mundo dos signos, o artista um operrio ou guerrilheiro da linguagem, armado com a teoria da informao e a semitica. A todo o momento ele est preparado para lutar contra as linguagens acadmicas, propondo novas codificaes e envolvendo o pblico no processo criativo.
(Almandrade, 1976)

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Stanley Brouwn

3 BIENAL DA BAHIA / PROCESSOS

BIENAIS DA BAHIA COM A FACE BRASILEIRA

Ctia Milena Albuquerque

O soteropolitano Chico Liberato dirigiu o Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia por mais de uma dcada e um dos mais expressivos artistas visuais e cineastas baianos, pioneiro no cinema de animao no Estado. Chico e sua esposa, a poetisa Alba Liberato, vivem atualmente em uma casa/chcara com uma ambincia artstica e natural, preservando um clima atpico dos arredores de Salvador. Nesse espao, os artistas receberam a equipe da Contorno para registrar o resgate histrico feito por Chico das Bienais da Bahia, que aconteceram em 1966 e 1968. Contorno Em que contexto surgiu a 1 Bienal da Bahia? Chico Liberato Na poca, eu morava no Rio de Janeiro e estava integrado ao moviCONTORNO 01

mento que existia l. Muitos artistas do Brasil estavam sempre expondo no Rio e falavam de uma possibilidade de fazer uma Bienal no Nordeste, para que as pessoas que atuavam no Rio atuassem aqui tambm, para que houvesse uma interao brasileira mesmo. Como eu vinha sempre Bahia e estava sempre no Rio, em uma dessas vindas eu trouxe uma exposio de Ivan Serpa, um dos grandes artistas brasileiros que estava em evidncia, para expor numa galeria aqui na Bahia que Juarez [Paraso] dirigia. Era da famlia Bloise, e Juarez cuidava. Como muita gente vinha, aconteceu o seguinte: Juarez comeou a se identificar com a organizao e produo de exposies. Na poca, eu estava no Rio de Janeiro numa exposio na Galeria Relevo com grandes artistas brasileiros: Hlio Oiticica, Ivan Serpa, Mrio Schenberg grande crtico, era o melhor do Brasil , Frans Krajcberg, vrios outros, como o dono e diretor da Galeria Relevo. Contorno Quem fez o primeiro contato, o convite? Chico Um dia o telefone tocou, e era Juarez. Ele vinha falando da Bienal e que estava com uma galeria na Bahia. Ele ligou e falou: A Bienal da Bahia vai acontecer. Vai acontecer, e eu queria que voc, que est no Rio, convidasse os artistas. A eu fiquei contentssimo [sorri] e disse: Grande coisa, Juarez! Eu
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estou aqui na galeria agora e com uma turma grande. Vou falar com o pessoal. E falei logo para o dono da Galeria Relevo: Olha, acabei de ter uma notcia que vai acontecer a Bienal na Bahia. E a todo mundo: Ah, que maravilha!. Fomos para o fundo da galeria ver quem topava fazer uma sala especial. Todo mundo queria: [Frans] Krajcberg, Ivan Serpa, Hlio Oiticica, Rubens Gerchman. Ento, nessa primeira Bienal, os primeiros convidados foram da Galeria Relevo, numa exposio que reunia todos os artistas. Na poca, o artista que estava expondo por l tinha vindo da Frana, Ivan Freitas, e tambm quis participar da Bienal da Bahia. Contorno Depois dessa conversa, quais foram os prximos passos? Chico Eu vim Bahia e conversei mais com J u a r e z . Eles estavam j com os planos todos prontos: reformar o Convento do Carmo, j tinham os recursos todos porque Juarez era muito amigo de Riolan Coutinho, que era irmo do Secretrio de Educao [no existia Secretaria de Cultura na poca]. Ento, a primeira grande contribuio da Bienal da Bahia foi a reforma do Convento do Carmo. Fizeram uma reforma maravilhosa! E a oficializamos convites para todo mundo e viemos montar a Bienal na Bahia.

Eu estava morando no Rio, mas viemos, Alba [ L i b e r a to, sua esposa] e eu, e montamos a primeira Bienal da Bahia. Essa Bienal reuniu um grupo maravilhoso: Frans Krajcberg, Hlio Oiticica, Rubens Gerchman, Mrio Cravo, [Anton] Walter Smetak, Didi Deoscredes [Mestre Didi], Joo Cmara, Nicolas Vlavianos. Foi uma turma maravilhosa que ns conseguimos colocar na Bienal. E Lygia Clark! E os membros de jri eram Clarival do Prado Valadares e Mrio Schenberg, e ti nha tambm Riolan Coutinho. Contorno E como eram a atmosfera e o clima dessa primeira Bienal da Bahia? Chico Ento, muito movimento, muita gente mesmo. Entrava gente e saa, no se conseguia estacionar. Alguns foram premiados naquele perodo, mas eu no me lembro de todos os premiados [risos]. Lygia Clark foi premiada, a o Frans Krajcberg se aborreceu porque no foi premiado e retirou os trabalhos dele. Foi uma polmica! Essas polmicas so importantes porque comeou todo mundo a aparecer e foi at jornal. Foi um sucesso absoluto! Contorno A segunda Bienal da Bahia teve um processo semelhante ao da primeira? Chico O Governo do Estado resolveu montar a segun-

da Bienal, e foi escolhido o Convento da Lapa. Fizeram uma reforma maravilhosa tambm. Eu me lembro de ir pra reforma, me mudei para a Bahia naquele perodo. E tinham as freiras. As freiras andavam com o rosto coberto at aqui [aponta para a altura dos olhos], e eu falava com elas, elas levantavam o capuz, falavam comigo, mas as pessoas no viam o rosto delas. As vozes eram bonitas, eu queria ver os rostos e no conseguia [risos]. Antes de a Bienal ser inaugurada, elas foram liberadas para tirar o vu. Foi uma coisa maravilhosa, incrvel. Aquelas com quem eu falava mais eram senhoras; as com quem eu falava menos e que no tinham a voz to bonita eram lindas! Foi aquela surpresa! E e l a s f i c a ram contentssimas com a reforma do Convento. E a Bienal aqui da Bahia inaugurou, eu fui premiado, ganhei o prmio de objetos. Muitos outros ganharam premiao. Eu viajei para So Paulo, at para gastar o dinheiro da premiao [risos]. Alba e eu viajamos contentes. A Bienal foi um sucesso! Contorno A repercusso foi boa como a da primeira Bienal? Chico A mdia do Brasil inteiro estava aqui, Pernambuco em peso, porque trouxemos os grandes artistas de l para c. E foi aquela coisa de o Brasil na
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Bahia. Foi muito importante. Quando eu estava em So Paulo, soube da notcia [de que foi fechada]. A inaugurao foi na poca da ditadura. Um carro passando pela rua [com as obras] e um cara da polcia viu e seguiu. Quando chegaram Bienal, fecharam a Bienal. Fecharam! Juarez foi at a delegacia, porque era o diretor da Bienal, a disseram: Olha, voc tem que tirar os quadros da parede. A Juarez disse: Eu sou contra a censura. E os policiais responderam: Voc contra a censura, mas a censura est aqui!. E a ele saiu da direo e no podia fazer nada. Quem tinha quadro l no viu os quadros mais, levaram no sei pra onde. Essa foi a segunda Bienal. Ento, o fato que aconteceu nas duas Bienais mudou o panorama de Artes Plsticas na Bahia. As pessoas viram o que estava acontecendo no Brasil, que tinha uma atualidade muito grande, que era o que se estava fazendo fora do Brasil. A galeria de Juarez j expunha a coisa de maior vanguarda na poca, era uma nova figurao. Ento, trouxe esses grandes artistas para a Bahia com propostas revolucionrias, e houve a oportunidade de fazer as Bienais. Contorno E o que aconteceu depois da segunda Bienal? Chico Na segunda, por causa desse fato [censura do regime militar], ningum quis mais fazer, mas
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era uma coisa para acontecer constantemente, permanentemente. Cada ano que acontece, mais interesse existe, e ela se torna como a Bienal de So Paulo, de dois em dois anos. Eu sinto agora a Bienal do Recncavo, em que, desde a primeira, eu estou presente como membro de jri, e sei da grande importncia dessa Bienal. Eu no sabia que os artistas que existiam no estado da Bahia eram to bons, e vi nas exposies. Eles comearam a se destacar, com o jornalismo l presente e os artistas premiados. O Pedro Arcanjo [curador da Bienal do Recncavo, que realizada no Centro Cultural Dannemann, em So Flix] tem um trabalho maravilhoso l. Ele se dedica, e o patrocinador Suerdieck, que segura tudo, que a fbrica de charuto. O espao maravilhoso, ele preparou a antiga fbrica de charuto Suerdieck para a Bienal. Isso foi uma reviravolta nos trabalhos dos artistas plsticos da Bahia, porque foi um choque quando eles viram todos aqueles trabalhos. Na primeira Bienal, os premiados, como Lygia Clark, Rubens Gerchman, esse menino Walter Smetak. Ningum conhecia Walter Smetak! E depois ele foi convidado para expor no Brasil inteiro porque apresentou um trabalho maravilhoso. Foi a grande apario. Ento, as duas Bienais foram isso, mas a Bahia toda ficou influenciada a visitar uma exposio de Artes
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Plsticas de grande importncia, e o Brasil inteiro estava presente aqui. Os grandes crticos tambm. Contorno Como foi o apoio dos outros artistas e do Governo do Estado da Bahia a Juarez Paraso? Chico Juarez tinha essa Galeria Convvio, que ele fez uma exposio importantssima, a Nova Figurao, que na Bahia ningum conhecia. Ento, com essa ponte, ele aqui [em Salvador] e eu no Rio, eu trouxe o pessoal todo para essa exposio na Galeria Convvio. Naquela poca, a dona da galeria era Eliana Bloise, uma pessoa que investia na galeria, trouxe artistas, outros vinham por conta prpria, porque queriam vir pra Bahia. A Bahia uma atrao muito grande! Agora, acabei de falar com Paulo Srgio Duarte, que um cara de destaque no panorama das artes plsticas no Brasil, e ele disse: Chico, eu quero um motivo para ir Bahia! [risos]. Ento, eu acho que est no momento de fazer um acontecimento na Bahia, em Salvador. A Bienal do Recncavo j tem contribudo muito para isso, traz bons artistas do Nordeste e tambm do Sul. Contorno Como ocorreu o processo de seleo e os trmites internos p a r a a s Bienais? Chico Houve o convite, a abertura das inscries com uma enorme quantidade de inscritos e vieram os membros
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de jri, que tm que ser bons membros de j r i p a r a assumir a responsabilidade. Na primeira Bien a l , o Krajcberg retirou os trabalhos dele, porque ele queria ser o premiado e achou que o Mrio Schenberg premiou Lygia Clark porque era protegida dele. E, na segunda, tudo em paz, no teve nenhum problema. Mas a segunda foi fechada porque um carro passou e a polcia viu um quadro que nem tinha sido exposto e estava sendo devolvido, ia voltar para Pernambuco. Mas o que aconteceu foi o seguinte: a gente expunha na Galeria Convvio e em outras galerias do Rio os artistas que eu conheci aqui na Bahia. Depois da Bienal, tudo mudou. Todos se atualizaram e se tornaram artistas contemporneos, capazes de mandar seus trabalhos para a Bienal de So Paulo e participar. Eles viram grandes exposies com os quadros dos maiores artistas brasileiros, e aquilo teve repercusso. Ento, para a cidade de Salvador, o estado da Bahia e o Nordeste, as Bienais foram importantssimas, porque o Brasil estava aqui. E a gente viu grandes artistas. A Bienal do Recncavo est tra zendo grandes artistas de toda a Bahia e de outros estados tambm. Estamos tentando chegar l. Ver grandes artistas expostos deixa a cidade efervescente mesmo. Ns temos que despertar nossa populao e a humanidade para a percepo da arte.

Contorno Existe essa movimentao artstica na Bahia e no Nordeste para que acontea a Bienal de 2014? Chico Com certeza! Na Bienal do Recncavo, vem gente de So Paulo e no tem grande divulgao. Mas Salvador um grande atrativo. As pessoas ficam querendo um motivo pra vir pra c [risos]. Com a Bienal da Bahia, se pode vir Bahia e at prestar uma assessoria antes da Bienal, indicar artistas para se fazer convite. Quando vocs tiverem decidido, importante trazer pessoas que indiquem nomes, pessoas que esto surgindo. Ns estamos com uma nova figurao, mais avanada ainda, e tm artistas surgindo a cada dia. preciso pegar um cara que seja de boa atuao no Sul para fazer a seleo de artistas convidados. Eu acho que, alm dos artistas que vo concorrer e se inscrevem para serem selecionados e participar da premiao, devem ser feitas salas especiais. Selecionar um artista, seja de onde for em Pernambuco tem grandes artistas , e fazer uma exposio desse artista aqui ser excelente. uma obra pronta, com grande repercusso, com artistas que tm um trabalho j maduro e consagrado. Trazer para que as pessoas vejam, independente dos que esto concorrendo e sero premiados. Mas a premiao a grande atrao. Todo mundo fica naquela expectativa de jri.

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Contorno Nas duas primeiras Bienais, houve um interesse em realizar um dilogo com a produo nacional. A prxima Bienal, em 2014, deve interagir com a produo internacional. Como voc enxerga essa relao? Chico O meu ponto de vista que o Brasil tem tudo. Deve ser uma Bienal brasileira, e ns temos que consolidar a nossa cultura, nossa expresso das artes plsticas, que muito forte. Depois, tem o seguinte: os EUA tm uma linguagem prpria, identificao com uma maneira de ser. Eles tm uma cultura de l dos EUA. A Europa tem uma cultura. Eles esto sempre trazendo dados significativos para se atualizar, mas a Bienal tem que ter a face brasileira. A cultura brasileira tem que estar presente. Isso muito importante! Eu vejo a Bienal nacional, o Salo Nacional de Artes Plsticas, fazendo uma boa divulgao do Oiapoque ao Chu. Isso sim. Tem de botar todo mundo aqui, encher, fazer uma boa seleo e trazer bons convidados e obras, convidar pessoas que esto a par dos acontecimentos presentes para indicar alguns nomes. Naturalmente, com fotografias, com dados, para ter esses artistas que vo trazer uma arte j consagrada, porque tm os seus valores no tempo e no espao e que devem ser expostos. Contorno O que mais gostaria de esclarecer sobre as Bienais da Bahia?

Chico Tinham as salas especiais, onde os artistas mais consagrados colocavam um volume de obras muito significativo. Por isso, eu enfatizo o fato de se trazerem convidados que tenham uma representao significativa para o Brasil e, principalmente, para o lugar onde est sendo editada a Bie nal. Isso um fato importante. E a repercusso que teve nos jornais. Os jornais todos deram primeira pgina. E a a po pulao se movimenta pela alterao que a expresso da arte traz e o significado que a arte tem na humanidade. A sociedade tem que conviver com arte, tem que perceber a arte. A gente diz assim: Eu sou ligado s pessoas, sou um amigo. Qual o motivo dessa amizade? Futebol? Futebol, quando est no cam po, fica uma torcida de um lado, e outra, do outro. A arte une porque ela universal, transcendental. Est no momento de o homem se identificar com a sua transcendncia, a arte, a msica, a literatura, o cinema. Esse festival de que vou participar agora em Lisboa a Europa inteira presente, mas tem um brasileiro que vai participar, e outros vo estar tambm. uma troca de informao de algo que todos comungam. a unio atravs de uma coisa superior, que a identificao com a expresso da arte. A expresso da arte o termo mximo da inteligncia humana!

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WELCOME TO BAHIA, MONSIEUR BROODTHAERS! In an open letter, dated September 7th, 1968, the Belgian poet turned artist, Marcel Broodthaers, announced the creation of a museum: It is our pleasure to inform our customers and other interested people the opening of the Department of Eagles, within the Museum of Modern Art. Work is in progress, and its completion will determine the opening date in which we hope to show, in all of its splendour, side by side, poetry and visual arts. We are confident that our slogan indifference and admiration will congregate all of you. In the coming years, and up until his death in 1976 [which happened on the same date as his birthday, January 28th, at the age of 52], his fictional museum materialized in different spaces and conditions, as well as in different shapes. But this short story doesnt explain everything. If Broodthaers Modern Art Museum, a powerful artistic project, was an invention all along, an act of imagination, which museum, in reality, isnt? In its seminal and unfinished work, Das Passagen-Werk, German philosopher Walter Benjamin offers us his refined reading of history and culture examining the origins of museums as projects and inventions. He analyzed 19th century Europe, Paris, and the impact [or the remnants] of the 18th century Enlightenment project and the ways in which they were still present at the early 20th century. Benjamin goes directly to the point: Museums are part, in the clearest way, dream houses of the collective.

Dreams were, and still are, manifold, although at this point in the 21st century, the notions of the collective and, by extension, notions of what is communal, participatory and collaborative have turned into some sort of fetish, a problem or a deviation, and, in some cases, even a solution for institutions, artists, curators and political programmes of all sorts. In these situations, it is mostly forgotten that these processes also involve lack of control. This element is an integral part of its nature, challenging utopian images of the collective in which there is only agreement, appeasement and the silence provided by stress-free actions. Every museum is also a fiction, not just Broodthaers. This doesnt make them less real, important or relevant. A museum is a fiction because it houses, in the words of Michel Foucault, the idea of a space in which is presented the illusion of order and control over things, when in fact what is on show are merely incoherent choices, determined by cultural, social and power shifts. The museum is, therefore, a licence of the imagination, a political parody. Broodthaers: Muse dArt Moderne, Dpartement des Aigles is quite simply a lie, a deception. But it has survived for four years now in its most diverse manifestations: in publications, interviews and postcards, in real artworks, pictures, sculptures and publicity items. Talking about the museum is equal to talking about art, and, in that sense, equal to analytically engaging with the deception. The normal museum and their
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representatives are creating a scene with the shape of a kind of truth. Talking about this museum is equal to talking about the conditions of this truth. There is truth in that lie. [] When a work of art is based on a lie or deception, is it still art? I have no answer for that. [] The fictitious museum attempts to pillage on the authentic and official, to strengthen the lie and make it seem true. It is equally important to discover whether the fictitious museum sheds a new light on arts mechanisms, on how the world functions, on life within art. With my museum I ask that question. And thats why I have no need to provide an answer.

ern being one of its faces, one of its constituting elements, and with the underlying understanding that it is precisely in that crossing that resided (and resides) the potential and intelligence of Bahian culture. Every attempt at dissolving and breaking that relation is nothing other than the authoritarian imposition of a cannon that doesnt belong to Bahians. Since the first semester of 2013, the MAM-BA has been in a process of renovation of its grounds. The museums new architectural project aims not only to restore some historical elements (an 18th century building), but also to enable the conditions necessary for the museum to work at its full potential, managing to deal in the most embracing way with the diverse languages proposed by contemporary art research, implementing a clear policy for its collection and allowing a more intense interaction between MAM-BA and the State Government of Bahia. In the meanwhile, until that future situation is reached, there is a need for strategies, actions, and a straightforward programme that can be applied to the present situation. Reform and Reinvention (Reforma e Reinveno) was the first project for an exhibition under its current state: The Directors Room (A Sala do Diretor). In that project, the administrative area of the museum also hosted exhibitions, without the director and his staff having to leave the place, of course. Audience, artists, administrative staff, this new situation has given them all a chance of meeting each other. Reform and Reinvention exhibited artworks from the historical conceptualist period
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(Joseph Beuys, Robert Barry, Daniel Buren, Andr Cadere) and part of the new generation of Bahian artists (Ana Verana, Pedro Marighella, Arthur Scovino, Lia Cunha). There were also Oswaldo Goeldi, a seminal artist for the development of Brazilian art in the last century, Lebanese Charbel-Joseph, American Frederick Barthelme and Brazilian artists Ben Fonteles, Brgida Baltar and Camila Sposati. A lot of things can be understood and developed out of the Directors Room programme: institutional critique, redefinition of spaces of power within the institution, utopian plans for collaboration and, above all, the need for the museum to reinvent itself as a living space, always ready not only to propose, but also live the questions it poses. Reform and Reinvention also aimed to observe thematically the capacity of the museum to recreate itself, out of the urgent issue (the renovation process), that from restraining factor turned into a chance for enacting other ways of being. The museum is fiction. Therefore, at any time it can be recreated, after all, fiction also implies another way of being in the world. The second exhibition proposed for the same project was Tupy Every Day (Tupy Todos os Dias), in which artists from different generations engaged with the ideas of Bahian artist Juarez Paraso. The same year that Broodthaers created his imaginary museum, 1968, the year in which dream of the Biennale of Bahia was violently shut down, Juarez Paraso was exhibiting his work in the waiting room of a cinema, in the central part of Salvador, as part of an environmental project that would be

destroyed three years later. Paraso wanted to send out a call to more effective communication between humans. Artists Almandrade, Filipe Bezerra, Gaio, Marcondes Dourado, Sante Scaldaferri, Tarsila do Amaral, Gruna group and Tuti Minervino were part of the exhibition. Gruna established direct contact with Marcel Broodthaers 1974 project, Un Jardin dHiver (A Winter Garden), in which the Belgian artist proposed the use of palm trees, of the notion of tropical, as a commentary on the absence of the desert. Tupy Every Day tried to look for an answer for the proposal made by Paraso decades ago. The reinvention process of MAM-BA expanded the museums actions beyond the historical grounds on which it is set, moving through the city to establish a fluid conversation with Salvador, with the Estate and with its audience. This influenced the Lunar exhibition, that showed the images of and for Bahia authored by a new generation of photographers and artists, housed in the Solar Ferro, at the Pelourinho old district. In a similar vein, the educational activities, the meetings and dialogues of Schizopolis (Esquizpolis), that searched within the work of local artists the experience of chaotic growth of the Bahian capital and the friction created between the past and the desire to flee to an alleged modernity or contemporaneousness. Part of this project was housed at the Nautical Museum, at Barras lighthouse. The museum as a fiction. Its self-reinvention (of MAM-BA) as a solution for a museum. The museum as an excuse. I could have sold my museum. But I
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Reinvention, tropicalities and schizophrenias The Museum of Modern Art of Bahia was projected by architect Lina Bo Bardi under circumstances now considered mythical: over the wreckage of the Castro Alves Theatre, burnt down during a fire one day after it was inaugurated, Lina takes over the foyer of the building, which had escaped unscathed, and announces that that place would shelter MAM-BA. Her project originates at that moment and out of actions that, in the coming years, would involve the restoration of the Solar do Unho grounds, where the museum is currently set and of early attempts at establishing a Museum of Popular Art that would not be, at least formally or hierarchically, submitted to the modern, with the modCONTORNO 01

cant do that right now. While I can find refuge within it, I wont be able to do that. At least thats what I think, for the time being. I will not get caught. Im withdrawing, towards the museum, towards its refuge. In that sense, the museum is an excuse Modern Art Section (Private Property), 1972. Welcome to Bahia, monsieur Broodthaers!
Directors Board

MUSEUM OF POPULAR AND MODERN ART OF UNHO Carla Zollinger The Museum of Popular Art, conceived by Lina Bo Bardi in 1960, was planned to work alongside the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia (MAMB, currently known as MAM-BA). Both of them opened their doors in 1963, set within the Solar do Unho monumental grounds, restored by Lina. The Unho was also supposed to host the Popular University, with workshops that aimed to train craftmasters and industrial designers. The three-point project of the two museums and the university expressed three central lines of Lina Bo Bardis line of thinking: 1 There is no such thing as art with a capital A, or an opposition between high art and popular art1. The name Modern Art Museum cannot express the need to overcome that dichotomy, in a fusion that modern art in itself implies, when it professes the freedom of media, languages and actions, blurring the limits between the different arts. The Museum of Popular Art was born alongside MAM-BA. The project for
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this museum goes back to October 1960, three years before it was finally opened in the Unho grounds. At that time, Lina announced the project in the invitation cards of the exhibition Shapes as Sculpture (Formas como Escultura): The Museum of Modern Art of Bahia announces the MUSEUM OF POPULAR ART, that will function parallel to the M.A.M.B., with the special role of serving as a historical repository and study base for the future School of Crafts and Industrial Design2. 2 The cultural roots of a place are located in the foundation of what is commonly known as popular art or popular culture. However, the term popular isnt used in the sense given by romantic visions that aim to freeze within folklore all the experience left out of the established realm of high culture. This notion of folklore is a totalitarian vision of whats created by common people, who create objects for everyday use, to be in the world. It is due to a vital need, to an urgency to communicate, that he builds with his own hands machinery, utensils, and objects. Art has a direct link to that need. It is, therefore, the role of a museum of art to gather those objects that are part of the popular cultural and historical root of a place. 3 The museum is also a school. The Popular University initiative is an inseparable part of the museums projected by Lina in Bahia, for whom there could not be a separation between museum and school: A museum is a vital component in a country: the Museum-school will help to focus on the attention given to things, on respecting everything that hu60

mankind represents3. The idea of the museum-school was also present in the Child and Youth Music School and in the Childrens School of MAM-BA. It was also present in the Institute of Contemporary Arts (IAC) of the Museum of Art of So Paulo (MASP), an institution with which Lina collaborated from its early beginnings, alongside Pietro Maria Bardi. Every time she created a project for a museum, Lina included in the project a school: the Museum of Industrial Art and the School of Industrial Art; the Museum of Popular Art and the Popular University, to mention some of them. Looking through the activities developed by Lina in Bahia, since 1958, even before she was in charge of the at the time MAMB, we can see how all of her actions converged on the consolidation of the already mentioned three structuring principles, linking museums to popular universities. The Bahian Exhibition, organized by Lina Bo Bardi and Martin Gonalves in 1959, at the Ibirapuera Park in So Paulo, gathered the most diverse expression of the common man, from the Recncavo to the Serto region, in the quest for three main issues: 1 Overcoming the distinction between Art and art, or between the expressions considered of high art and those deemed to be popular, primitive, nave. As the exhibition booklet questioned where is the point at which art starts and ends? What are the boundaries of art? This no-mans land that confines humans in the expression of their complete humanity, robbing them of one of the most profound and necessary aes-

thetic experiences, this boundary between Art and art, is what inspired this Exhibition 4 . 2 Showing a kind of art that belongs to everyone the opposite of art for the initiated was one of the intentions of the exhibition5, inviting people in to a poetry made by everyone, not just a single person, in the words of surrealist poet Lautramont6. No nostalgic longings present, but instead the libertarian and revolutionary principles intrinsic to modern art movements, such as surrealism, whose prerogative of freedom of expression was in close contact with the popular, the creativity that transformed everything that was close at hand: objects made by discarded and ephemeral materials, brought together by Lina Bo Bardi and Martim Gonalves, such as paper cutouts, sculptures made out of discarded material, unsteady architectural creations made out of anti-eternal materials, such as plastic or pressed tin panels they intend to be nothing more than the conscious giving up of immortality, of the privilege of art7. 3 Creating, through an educational exhibition, the main guidelines for the museum-school. The educational actions were developed alongside the work of documenting popular culture. The University of Bahia was involved in the organization of the exhibition. The Theatre School, in the person of its director Martim Gonalves, was in charge of the mounting of the exhibition. The synthesis of arts, put into practice in the various museum activities, gave meaning to the exhibition, being the forerunner of the Pedagogic Exhibitions at the MAMB.
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As Glauber Rocha said, within the Bahian Exhibition was the Museum of Modern Art in its potential form8, with Lina consolidating its actions in the first year the museum functioned. Masters that influenced 20th century art, such as Van Gogh, Renoir and Degas were shown next to local painters, abstract alongside concrete, figurative and the so-called pompiers. There was no separation or classification at place. The museums task was to reflect on what is To See a Painting (Ver a Pintura), name given to one of the educational exhibitions. These exhibitions, alongside others such as Concrete Drawings (Desenho Concreto), Natural Shapes (Formas Naturais) or Shapes as Sculpture (Formas como Escultura), brought to the museum the world of technical objects, of nature, of everyday things, of so-called popular art, widening the definition of art. Ex-votos and old pillars, quilts and shooting boards were exhibited at the museum. For Lina, there was no contradiction in showing some pieces of popular art in a museum for Modern Art. Art was not supposed to be about such distinctions. The premise for the museum was not to separate the popular objects from other artworks, confronting primitive artists with professional painters9. The museum was dual. The Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Popular Art were a single museum. The restoration works for the Unho monumental grounds to house the museums and the Popular University started in August 1962. In November 1963, the Museum of Popular Art was open to the public with the Northeastern Exhibition (Exposio
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Nordeste), or, as Lina used to call it, Northeastern Civilization Exhibition (Exposio Civilizao do Nordeste). The exhibition showed the popular art collection gathered by Lina Bo Bardi in Bahia, from the Recncavo to the Serto regions of the state, and had as collaborators Lvio Xavier, director of the Museum of the University of Cear, and Francisco Brennand, painter and ceramist and co-founder of the Popular Culture Movement in Recife. From those three states hailed the pieces of the fifty-seven artists painters, carvers and drawers shown at the Unho grounds parallel to the Northeastern Civilization Exhibition. Lina Bo Bardi intended to create a collaborative three-side project alongside Lvio Xavier and Francisco Brennad, so as to document the so-called Northeastern popular culture. The triangle between Bahia, Pernambuco and Cear summed up the purpose of the Museum of Popular Art. The role of the museum was creating a movement that would search for its roots in the past while at the same time developing actions in the present, being historical and current, a movement of recognizing and valuing the living memory of the popular art of the Northeast. For Lina, documenting popular art would contribute to the one-off chance of creating a truly Brazilian industry, with its own production and an industrial design anchored on popular knowledge, based on research on objects undertaken by people throughout the years while trying to meet their needs. The moment was ideal for getting the country united, particularly the Northeast, the region most
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harmed by national developmentist policies. A choice had to be made between two paths: a poorer, more difficult one, but for that very reason richer in opportunities, linked to local needs and guided by the everyday needs of the common man; and the path of finesse, of gadgets and superfluous things.

this, Lina managed to get the Unho grounds out of its situation of being in ruins, under threat, and started, even if only in a very incipient way, the Museum of Popular Art. Undertaking the Lina Bo Bardi workshop implied searching for possibilities for an unfinished project. The research undertaken helps us understand, today, the potentialities of the Museum of Modern Art itself, as well as the spin off projects that could materialize out of running a museum-school, a museum of modern and popular art at the same time. Lastly, as the beginning of a new project, the Lina Bo Bardi Workshop reminds us of the urgent need for preserving and reconditioning Lina Bo Bardis documental archives, housed at the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia. Amongst these documents, we can find the sketches of Linas renovation project for the Unho grounds.
1 Olivia de Oliveira points at how Lina Bo Bardi constantly subverts the seemingly antagonistic nature of concepts taken as opposites: natural and artificial, old and modern, popular and highbrow, real and imaginary, amongst others. OLIVEIRA, Olivia de. Lina Bo Bardi. Sutis Substncias da Arquitetura. So Paulo: Romano Guerra, 2006, p. 11. 2 BO BARDI, Lina. Shapes as Sculture (Formas como Escultura) [exhibition invitation card]. Salvador, [Outubro, 1960]. 3 BO BARDI, Lina. O Museu de Arte Moderna, Dirio de Notcias, Salvador, 18 out. 1959. 4 BO BARDI, Lina; GONALVES, Martim. Bahia: Exposio no Parque Ibirapuera. Apresentao [exhibition booklet]. So Paulo, 1959.
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Lina Bo Bardi Workshop 2012 In 2012, fifty years after the restoration process of the Unho grounds, the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia hosted the Lina Bo Bardi Workshop10, bringing together more than thirty participants to study, through designing and constructing models, the process of renovation of the Unho grounds planned by Lina Bo Bardi in 1962 and completed in 1963. The workshop dedicated to Lina Bo Bardi in MAM-BA, allowed an understanding of the Unho grounds and the restoration process undertaken. In order to understand the architects project we studied the model Lina had in mind for the museum, of bringing together popular and high art. This was the main idea not only behind Linas project for the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia, but also behind the project for renovating the Castro Alves Theatre, in 1960, and the restoration of the Unho grounds from 1962 onwards. The implementation of that project came to a halt in 1964, when Lina Bo Bardi resigned as director of the museum, after realizing that the political situation of the country would get on the way of her overall project for the museum, left in an unfinished state. In spite of

5 BO BARDI, Lina. Conversas sobre a continuidade histrica da expresso esttica do homem. Escola de Teatro, Salvador, 16 abr. 1959. Manuscrito. 6 BO BARDI, Lina; GONALVES, Martim. 1959, doc. cit. nota n. 5. 7 As above. 8 ROCHA, Glauber. MAMB no museu: escola em movimento por uma arte que no seja desligada do homem, Jornal da Bahia, 21 set. 1960. 9 BO BARDI, Lina [attributed]. MAMB: um ano dedicado cultura da Bahia, Dirio de Notcias, Salvador, 06 jan. 1961. 10 The Lina Bo Bardi Workshop, coordinated by architect Carla Zollinger, received support from the State Culture Funds, of the Bahian State Government, and from the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia.

THE PILLAR OF MAXIMS GALLERY

Ctia Milena Albuquerque

Born in Ibicara, physical education graduate Maxim Malhado spent his teenage years in Stio Novo, where he convinced his father to transform one of their houses into an art gallery. The artist received the Contorno team at his house/atelier, o talk about his trajectory within the arts, the now extinct Esteio Art Gallery and his influence in Stio Novo. The interview took place in Massarandupi, a true natural paradise in Bahia, where Maxim works and lives. Contorno How can you sum up the history of the Esteio Art Gallery? Maxim Malhado The Esteio [Art Gallery] starts its activities in 1994. I was stuck with question What am I going to do
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now? I had the idea of starting some work in Stio Novo. My father was building a house there, with the idea of hosting friends, visitors, relatives. I asked him if I could use the house to host an art exhibition. He didnt think twice, and let me use the space. He rushed to get the house together (the plumbing, electricity and so on) to be able to host the exhibition. We were able to hold the exhibition Saint Johns (festivities) without John? What would I do without John, without Peter, without Joseph. Saint Johns without you? Mr. Flaviano, I want a firework bomb of 50, and a cake for my spirits wake (So Joo sem Joo? Ai de mim sem Joo, sem Pedro, sem Jos. So Joo sem vocs? Seu Flaviano, eu quero uma bomba de 50 e, de quebra, um bolinho pra velar meu esprito). That was the title of the exhibition. From them on, I have always given huge names to the exhibitions [laughter]. Apart from the visual component, I like that aspect of words being an opportunity to expose an idea, a thought. However, at that point in time, the projects name wasnt Esteio (literally, pillar), it didnt have a name yet. Contorno house? How big was the

Contorno What did that first exhibition show? Malhado That first exhibition showed works in pastels, around 18 to 20 artworks. At the beginning I used dry pastels a lot, portraying the faades and houses of the vila of Stio Novo. Later on, I went on to observe the geometric details that people call platbands. Around the same time, I got to know the work of Ana Mariani. She visited the inlands of Bahia and Sergipe, also photographing houses and their faades, putting it all together in a book. I found that book fascinating, partly because faades were something that always caught my attention at the village. Ever since I was a child - craziness! I was mesmerized by the shadows that the houses projected onto the ground. So, the idea was to focus exactly on that element, the front of the houses. Contorno Who was at that first exhibition? Malhado Oh my! A few days ago I actually found a guest book with the names of those present that night, nearly 200 people! That was back in 1994, in a place where never before an art exhibition had been held. Two newspapers from the state capital of Bahia, Salvador, covered the exhibition, as well as one from the inland city of Feira de Santana. What is even cooler: the frame, I made that frame myself. I took several sticks, that stick over there [pointing at it], I would press one against the other [explains through gestures], two of them here, two of them there And the pastels paper was pressed between the sticks. The frame was perfect! I made them alongside my older brother,
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who has Downs Syndrome. At a certain point, I cut my finger, and he was there, alongside me, helping me with the work. On the opening day, the idea was for the exhibition to be shown with no lights on. No lights at all! So, for the opening day, I made around 22 lanterns out of cans with a candle inside. Three or four people would hold onto a single lantern, so that gives you an idea of how many people came to the opening. Contorno There were no art events at the village? Malhado Nothing at all! At that time, there must have been around two thousand inhabitants at the village. My mother used to work at the local notary office, so I asked her about the exact number of the villages population. Its a village. However, around ten per cent [of the village inhabitants] went to the exhibition. Nothing of the kind had ever happened before in the village. For me, it was an amazing experience. Contorno Were you already thinking about opening an art gallery or were you thinking only about hosting that exhibition? Malhado I was really bothered by some of the things that were happening at the village. Time was passing by, and the idea to open a gallery became stronger. I started my work in 1991. At the time I thought - and I still do to some extent - that there was a need for that sort of endeavor. I had the ideas, the will, but there was no place to host them. So, I thought, why not host them where I live and get that project going. Contorno How many exhibitions were held before the Esteio project became a reality?
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Maxim Malhado I dont remember the exact size. I have a photograph, in which it is possible to see its L-shape, with several windows that complicated the mounting of the pieces, but it also had a decent-sized wall. The house we are in right now, its about 45 to 50 square meters, and the house used for the exhibition must have been around that size too.

Malhado In 1995, I organized another art exhibition, On the Radio Songs (Nas Canes do Rdio). It coincided with the Saint Johns festivities, when a lot of people visit the region. For the exhibitions poster, I used a double sheet, with two pillows, which I hanged at the door in the opening night of what would later become Esteio. Well, it rained that day, as it normally happens at that time of the year. The ink I used on the sheet and pillowcases melted completely! The gallery space was used for the first time for that art, although, strictly speaking, it still wasnt the Esteio project. I took over an old warehouse in the village, where I exhibited photographs of people that had gone through the place. Old warehouses, old stuff, people. There were a lot of photographs. In the inside of the gallery, I circled the whole space with a fence. Contorno Up until you started the Esteio project, did you manage to sell a lot of pieces? Malhado In my first exhibition, in 1994, I managed to sell a single piece, to my father, because he got really upset [laughter]. He had rushed to get the plumbing and electrical wiring of the house ready for the exhibition, and on the day of the opening I decided to turn all the lights off. He was really angry and didnt go to the opening night. The day after the opening, my whole family was there. There was this picture, of the front of one of the villages warehouses. My father saw it and bought it there and then, in front of the rest of the family. Contorno What happened with the rest of the pieces of these early exhibitions?
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Malhado I only kept one, a yellow figure that I call Saint John. It reminds me a bit of those figures that are half Picasso, half Modigliani, and a bit of Maxim. My father was crazy about this piece, he really wanted to buy it. I eventually sold the rest of the pieces. After two exhibitions in a row, in 1996 I decided to take a break for strategic purposes. Contorno When you went back to exhibiting, did you do so under any new paradigm? Malhado I went back in 1997, this time with the Esteio project, the Esteio Art Gallery. When I chose that name, I thought I was inventing it, I didnt think it existed. To me, it sounded somehow French, a beautiful sounding word: Esteio. After a while, I looked up the term in the dictionary, and I saw there was an entry for it. However, instead of being crossed and frustrated for not having created the term, I came to like it even more, it was somehow the perfect name. After all, esteio (pillar) is what sustains and structures a house. I also wanted to widen the project, the Art in the Village idea. In 1997 I opened the Handcraft and Arts Fair, which took place on the last Sunday of every month, a day that was chosen strategically, as it coincided with the mass at the local chapel. The person who was effectively in charge of the chapel was my mother. So, I asked her to mention the Fair after mass, so that everyone who went to mass would also go to the fair. Contorno Did you receive any sponsorship at the time?
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Malhado Friends sponsored me. I built ten iron stalls for the fair. On the opening day, the first day, those ten stalls werent enough to cover the demand. Everyone wanted to show, to sell something. I kept records of the whole process, even the samba dance that took place at the village square, that I coordinated. It was quite a party! At the fair, things from food to artworks were on offered. Contorno You even official letterhead printed, right? had an paper

thought it was ridiculous. She thought technological advances made handcrafting invitations obsolete, the whole idea of painting them, because the front of the card was painted with a geometric motif, a mixture of several flags. On the back of the card, I handwrote on each card the title of the exhibition. Contorno Was that the first exhibition under the Esteio project? Malhado It was a group art exhibition, an opening event, without a title. There were a lot of artworks, paintings, sculptures, drawings. At the end of the year, I organized an exhibition on the topic of the desire to be an artist, named The First Exhibition of Producers of Things from the Village (A Primeira Exposio de Produtores de Coisas da Vila). It was a really special exhibition, I called a broommaker, Mr. Davi, and registered all the different brooms, I researched and photographed his collection of brooms. There was also Mr. Gregrio, who was visually handicapped and played the accordion at the openings, alongside Mr. Davi. People were enthralled by the sound of the accordion, particularly during Saint Johns festivities. There was also Mrs. Cec, a painter from Stio Novo. It was the first contact I had, as a child, with painting. She was a terrible drawer, but it fascinated me, the whole issue of figures out of scale. Ah! Mr. Davi was a winemaker, so the openings had wine brewed by him. Mr. Zezinho, a birdcage-maker, also participated. I have records of his studio, of him making cages. Then there was Mrs. Chica, my mothers seamstress. She made a patchwork throw, she also
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Malhado Indeed, Esteios own letterhead! I still have some left. The logo for Esteio is a small house, but only the outline of it, made out of wood, with a small house at the front. In the wooden structure, the name Esteio Art Gallery was carved. My father kept a lot of these original things, so he kept a remarkable archive on the project: things he bought, things I gave to my mother, things my brothers took. So, there is a record of everything. What was mine, I brought here, but the small house of Esteio I tried several times to get it for my own use, but every time I ran out of courage and gave up on doing so. I think in a sense it belongs in the house, it belongs to the village. I am not touching that, but I used to have the desire to bring it over here. Contorno Do you still have the original invitations for the exhibition? Malhado I have the 1994 exhibition invitations, the Saint Johns without John. I handcrafted 94 invitation cards. At the time, I was a student at the Fine Arts school, and a colleague of mine

took part in the exhibitions. Teco is a sculptor, I have two of his pieces, I used them in two exhibitions at Esteio. In 2005, I held an auction that only sold Tecos work, He really became an artist. Contorno When you exposed those objects at Esteio, did you mean to show them as art? Malhado Indeed! I showed them the same way I did with my work, with all due respect they deserved. All the local artists went to the exhibition and liked it, they were satisfied and happy. They were happy because I opened up the gallery for the community. Mrs. Chica would bring in people who had never been to a gallery before, and so did Mrs. Cec. Mr. Zezinho used to bring his family. That way, Esteios public kept growing. That was at the end of the year. I hung some cages from the ceiling, until eye level, it was beautiful! Mr. Zezinhos cages were a success. There were also trapdoors on show, which later on became the focus of my research. Mr. Davis brooms, four or five of them, I displayed them in such a way that it looked like an installation. Contorno You used to organize two exhibitions a year, right? Malhado Looking back, I think it must have organized around four exhibitions every year. From June until the end of the year, I must have organised around four exhibitions. Each and one of them had invitations printed and a guest book available. Everything, even printed invitation cards. We then fitted in other projects under the name Esteio. In 1997, I went to the local administration to get all the bureaucracy for functioning as an art gallery sorted.
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Contorno Did you have any links with the Fine Arts School of the Federal University of Bahia? Malhado Basically, no one from Salvador was involved in the project. No one travelled to visit Esteio. Ever since 1994 I appeared in several newspaper articles, and not even after that people came to visit us. I have a written text from Sofia [Olszewski]. She has already passed away, but I was her student at the time. She wrote about some of my work in 1994. Aldo Tripodi, who used to write for the Tribuna da Bahia newspaper, also wrote something, and so did Roberval Marinho, who at the time was the Director of the Fine Arts School. He also did some drawings for me. So, it wasnt a matter of lack of familiarity with my work. Luis Freire wrote about my work, and holds a PhD now. Eduardo Evangelista, who used to write for the newspaper, was a wellknown art critic in Salvador. I cannot explain how and why, but I ended up having access to these people. Contorno Do you think that those who wrote about your work actually understood what was going on? Malhado They didnt actually visit the place. They would write their texts based on what I said, how I described the pieces that I was showing. Then, they would write about my work. People at the Fine Arts School knew about my work, but they never actually went there themselves. Contorno Did they actually consider the gallery as an arts project?

Malhado I dont think it was that clear, not even to me. I didnt know what it would become of the project, I didnt really know and, in fact, I didnt care. I wanted to actually do things, in the best possible way. If I wanted to offer a cocktail at an opening night, I offered typical foodstuffs from the festivities of Saint Johns, liqueur and music. Local music, with Mr. Davi, Mr. Gregrio. It was always that way, of taking other people on-board. However, I had no idea about the future of the project. Then, I thought: What we have here is more than just a space, it is a work of art itself. Contorno How long have you been doing this project? Malhado Esteio itself was inaugurated in 1997, although I held the first exhibition in that space in 1994, with the last one being in 2006. Nearly ten years of Esteio. The 2006 exhibit was called Cabin (Guarita), in which I dealt once again with the issue of absence, of not being there. Indeed, it was my own absence, given that I was already living here [in Massarandupi]. I was in charge of the whole project. I am very fond of a group of locals, we had a nice connection. So I called them all on-board and they helped me with the project. On the opening day, I wasnt going to be there myself, it would be the rest of the team that was in charge of the project. Then I wrote a poem, and recorded it as an audio clip, given a cabin is in a way a house. So, we made a house out of mud, a mud cabin, close to the railtracks, and, inside that cabin, on the opening day, there was an audio playing, of me speaking. I called that piece My Little Gods (Meus Pequenos Deuses),
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referring to the place. That audio is very moving. I couldnt keep my anxiety at bay, and, the day after the opening, I travelled there. I went to see everything, how it was at the end, everything. The kids told me that on the opening day, there was a line to listen to the audio piece. The audio clip was a bit long, it lasted five minutes. I write too, but I dont have the habit of editing, it has to be the entire thing. Contorno How many exhibitions were shown during those years? Malhado I never counted them. Authored by myself, I held exhibitions in 1994, 1995, and this other one of which that work [points at it] was part of. It was called A show just to show off (Uma mostra s pra se amostrar) [laughter]. Let me see [looks around]. Here, I think it was this one. There is an alphabet I dedicate to Luiz Gonzaga, an alphabet that is inside the house. There was also an exhibition called Didizrio. There was another one, really cool, called Improvised workaround (Gambiarra), then there was Cabin (Guarita). There was also one called Ill omen mixed with Sorcery (Enguio Misturado com Feitio), which was really interesting. It was a local thing, for everyone else it wasnt very interesting. A local thing that outsiders were not supposed to ask about. Contorno What do you think is the overall impact of Esteio on the local community? Malhado I cant really tell you about that, no. What I can tell you is that we always had a lot of locals going to the exhibitions, a lot of locals came.
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CONCEPTUAL ART AND THE BAHIA OF TRADITIONS

Almandrade

Brazils history of art narrates the events that happen at the big centres. In fact, with few exceptions, art always depended on those cultural centres for information and promotion. In a country like Brazil, with a vast territorial extension and a contradictory cultural diversity, it is difficult to have sufficiently accurate information and a critical reading of what is going on in all of its regions. What was common was a distanced outlook, managing to only notice the visually regional and exotic repertoire. In the cultural scenario of the city of Salvador, the incipient contemporary art scene of the 1970s went pretty much unnoticed, like a joke. From that decade onwards, with conceptual art, the work of contemporary visual artists started to encompass the mental and reflexive order, articulated through a wide array of different media for artistic expression. The audience stopped being a passive observer, and was forced to reflect on the artwork, its interpretation no longer being a straightforward one. Bahia, lagging behind these changes, was hostile, in a very provincial way, to any artistic manifestation that didnt fit into the well-behaved established idioms of the Fine Arts. In the manifest Art-Bahia-Stagnation, published in A Tarde newspaper on 12th February 1979, we attempted to register this lag: In order for a critical avant-garde to exist, adequate artistic institutions, gallerCONTORNO 01

ies, well equipped art schools and a market must exist in order to allow the production, circulation and consumption of new information that will help widen the repertoire of artistic signs. In Bahia, we can witness the absence of all these factors, while the process of developing new repertoires is hindered by a false patrimony used by the economic elite to show off their status and thwart culture, controlling its ideological production. The promotion of art in Bahia is only possible when artists accept the rules imposed by the market and by those groups that control the established institutions. An example that confirms this situation is the Summer Exhibition, initially conceived as an exhibition open to any kind of artwork, but, at the last minute, the organizers changed the rules imposing a selection procedure. We are not against implementing some sort of selection procedure, but we are against this selection being based not on objective criteria, but on private, political and bureaucratic principles. Even the alternative exhibition show that came out of this situation manages to reproduce the very same defects of the official exhibition when it comes to establishing criteria for selecting artistic production. The art scene in Bahia got stuck in the 1960s, cut off from all discussions and creative processes of the 1970s, such as conceptual art, ecological art, and body-art, amongst others. This detachment between Bahian art and new artistic currents, left Bahian artists out of the main artistic scene, leading to an alienated cultural practice.

Opening up a space for the arts should not be done the way the Cultural Foundation proposed, with its Summer Exhibition. Instead, a space for open discussion should be created, encouraging new routines of production and interpretation. With this text, we aim to contribute to the discussion of the alienating practices that still reign in Bahia, discussing the need for the artistic production in Bahia to dialogue with and be included within the main production centres as well as searching for ways to improve the Bahian market. We cannot help but mention the lack of an ideological stance adopted by artists themselves. All in all, it is necessary to poison an existing mediocre cultural tradition and its tactics. In order to revitalize the now stagnated Bahian cultural production, it is fundamental to take into account that the artistic endeavour is a practice that deals with the established languages that exist within social structures; our questioning should be directed at this level, politicizing the arts, its meanings, and the ways in which the arts move.

lity in its search for a local, regional modern style. Art was set within the limits of the early modernist expressions and within an imagery scheme that aspired to return to its cultural roots, ignoring the ongoing transformations at play in the passage from the avant-garde to the contemporary scene. Adapting to the new paradigms didnt happen in a systematized way, establishing links with local, regional issues. The contemporary turn in arts took a while to reach Bahia and, once it did, it was incorporated without a real assimilation of the main questions it raised, as an easy way out of the impasse between art and novelty. A contemporary art without history became instant and disposable. Conceptual art demanded a lot in order to produce anything and, as such, could not be digested. During the second half of the 1960s one could find in Bahia a strong willingness to join in the diversity of the Brazilian avant-garde. There wasnt an established avant-garde practice, and neither an avantgarde way of thinking, it was a rather critical unconformity of the state of affairs in which the state of Bahia was in and a dialogue with some of the manifestations of unrest of the time: counterculture, tropicalia, experimentalism and breaking off with traditional bases of support. The attempt to establish a dialogue with the avant-garde resulted in the Bahia Biennales, in which most of the more relevant artistic currents of the time were present: concretism, neoconcretism, tropicalia, and so on, turning Salvador into the main centre for Brazilian visual arts. Even the local
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Almandrade and zeira Alves

Haroldo

Caja-

In the field of Brazilian visual arts, Bahia went through a slow consolidation process before incorporating modern idioms, promoting the renewal of its artistic field and enabling it to compete with the artistic production coming from big centres. The main characteristic of Bahian artistic production was a tendency towards regionalization, refusing universa70

cultural scene was shaken, a scene that was quite reluctant to enacting any kind of change. However, in the context of the opposition to cultural openness of the ruling political regime at the end of the 1960s, the Second Biennale was closed down after the passing of the institutional act AI-5, interrupting an important initiative and leaving the Brazilian art scene mourning. The 1970s witnessed the absence of channels for exchanging information, the lack of a strong support centre and a cultural policy that enabled the experimentation with new languages, thus not accompanying the significant changes that cultural and artistic production were undergoing. Between the years of 1972 and 1974, the Bahian language study group (Haroldo Cajazeira, Jlio Csar Lobo, Orlando Pinho and Almandrade), far from the problems of the local arts circuit, started a pioneer study group on semiotics, information theory, philosophy of art, concrete poetry, concretism, neoconcretism and conceptual art, leading to the publication of the magazine Semiotics (Semitica), in July 1974. It was a onetime initiative, and didnt cause much conflict with the local scene. Artists that started their work in the early 1970s, the post AI-5 generation, didnt have many opportunities to publicize their work and follow what was going on in the main centres: discussions on conceptual art and arts structure. They could only count on the university organized exhibitions, which didnt bring in many opportunities for exchanging information with artists from other regions, given that they were local events that only showed work from local arCONTORNO 01

tists lagging behind the latest up to date movements. The Goethe Institute was, at the time, the citys main cultural centre, particularly with regards to experimental, up until the early 1980s. Initiatives were isolated and improvised, such as the Parallel 78 (Paralelo 78) exhibition, organized in 1978 by Glei Melo that involved artists such as Humberto Velame, Mrio Cravo Neto, Almandrade, Juarez Paraso and Glei Melo himself, who exposed their works at the foyer of the Castro Alves Theatre. The exhibition was a mixture between modern and contemporary pieces, with photographed paintings, objects and several installations. The main broker at the circuit, from the economic point of view, was still the State, although it still gave more attention to the earlier generations of artists that had emerged before the 1960s, some of which had a certain presence in national circles. Without an effective cultural policy for the preservation and renewal of its cultural heritage, the city of Salvador was left with a lag in urban culture, isolated from the ongoing transformations in the arts. The Museum of Modern Art would only reopen its doors at the end of the 1970s, in order to claim back its role in the arts circuit, with a big exhibition that had no selection process, the Database Exhibition (Exposio Cadastro). A slip-up, although a necessary one, it was a showcase for Bahian art. Ever since the Biennales, an exhibition of that proportion had not been held in Bahia. The Biennales had brought together the main tendencies in avant-garde Brazilian art, and were set in a different context
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when compared to the turmoiled 1960s. The reopening of this venue and the ensuing opening of the art circuits was itself situated in the political overture the country was experiencing, returning to a state of democracy. A new cultural perspective was started: while the AI-5 closed off the Biennale, the political overture reopened the museum, within the process of reinstating freedom of expression. It was the beginning of a new era, the redemocratization of Brazil. However, the Database Exhibition, in spite of its best intentions, revealed that Bahia was still lagging behind existing contemporary art. With some exceptions, the concepts of modernity had not even been truly understood, still focusing on a regional modern. Conceptual art, which was not at the forefront, was still seen as scandalous. The exhibition The Sacrifice of Meaning (O Sacrifcio do Sentido) was the first individual contemporary exhibition of a Bahian artist to be shown at MAM-BA. It showed pieces authored between the years of 1975 and 1980 influenced, mainly, by conceptual trends popular in the 1970s and a constructivist legacy. Colorless drawings, objects and installations, everything in black and white. Silence and reasoning. Strained objects. The machine that doesnt see (A mquina que no v) Monument to the photographic camera: a black box on a tripod. A subtle striptease of the photographic code. A laugh and a doubt questioning the existence of the photographed reality.
(Almandrade, 1977)

In the 1970s, things were more difficult, I was rejected from most of the exhibitions for making an option for contemporary art. The exhibition at the MAM-BA The Sacrifice of Meaning (O Sacrifcio do Sentido), wasnt well received by local provincial critics or by the audience. I paid a high price. Today its the opposite, contemporary art is everywhere, the demands artists face are not high at all. After all those years, in the national and international scene, there was a return of painting, a reunion between artist and emotion, with the pleasure of painting. A pleasure and an emotion solicited by the market in relation to an alleged inscrutability of the conceptual idioms that dominated the 1970s. Contemporary art became a subjective activity, as if art was a psychological or sociological accessory. The 1990s saw a change in media, with the predominance of three-dimensionality: sculpture, objects, installations, performances, amongst others, but art didnt go back to reason. For a post-modern condition, the supporting media for artistic expression isnt a key issue, the main concern being the meaning conveyed. It was only in the second half of the 1990s, after contemporary art reigned supreme in the art market, that Bahian art circuits, in a delayed way, took in the new idioms and concepts and started mixing them, in a relaxed way, with local traditions. In the world of signs, the artist is a language worker or a language guerrilla warrior, armed with the theory
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of information and semiotics. He is always ready to struggle against academic language, proposing new sets of codes and involving the audience in the creative process.
(Almandrade, 1976)

Contorno What was the context of the first Biennale? Chico Liberato At the time, I was living in Rio de Janeiro, and was part of the art scene there. A lot of Brazilian artists were always exhibiting something in Rio and talked about the possibility of organizing a Biennale in the Northeast, so that artists who were active in Rio would also be present there, to promote dialogue and exchanges. As I was always coming and going from Bahia to Rio, in one of those trips I brought an exhibition from Ivan Serpa, a leading Brazilian artist at the time, to be shown at a local gallery in Bahia directed by Juarez [Paraso]. The Bloise family owned the gallery, and Juarez was in charge of it. After receiving a lot of visitors, Juarez started to get more involved in producing and coordinating art shows. I was showing in Rio at the Relevo Gallery alongside other wellknown Brazilian artists: Hlio Oiticica, Ivan Serpa, Mrio Schenberg great critic, he was the best in Brazil , Frans Krajcberg, several others such as the Director and owner of the Relevo Gallery. Contorno Who invited you? Chico One day, the telephone rang, it was Juarez. He had been talking about the Biennale, and that he was in charge of a gallery in Bahia. He called me and said: The Bahian Biennale is going to happen. Its going to happen and I want you to be in charge of getting artists on board. I was really happy [smiles] and replied: Thats
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STANLEY BROUWN Total number of my steps in Algeria 136774 Total number of my steps in Spain 143419 Total number of my steps in Morocco 187558

BAHIAN BIENNALES WITH A BRAZILIAN TWIST

Ctia Milena Albuquerque

great, Juarez! I am here at the gallery with a huge group of artists. Ill talk to everyone. I talked to the owner of the Relevo Gallery: Listen, I have some news from Bahia, they are organizing a Biennale there. And from then on, everything changed for the better: Thats wonderful!. We went to the back of the gallery to see who was interested in putting together a group exhibition for the Biennale. Everyone was interested: [Frans] Krajcberg, Ivan Serpa, Hlio Oiticica, Rubens Gerchman. So, during that first Biennale, the first guest artists were from the Relevo Gallery, from a show that brought together all these artists. At the time, one of the artists that was showing at Relevo was coming from France, Ivan Freitas, and he was also interested in participating in the Biennale. Contorno What followed from that first conversation with Juarez? Chico I came to Bahia to talk more with Juarez. He had already planned everything: renovating the Carmos Convent, for which he already had the funding, because he was really close to Riolan Coutinho, whose brother was the States Education Secretary [there was no Secretary of State for Culture]. So, one of the early contributions of the Biennale was the renovation of the Carmo Convent. We made all the invitations official and came to set up the Biennale in Bahia. I was living in Rio at the

time, but I came to Bahia with Alba [Liberato, his wife] and we set up the first Biennale of Bahia. It was a wonderful group we managed to put together: Frans Krajcberg, Hlio Oiticica, Rubens Gerchman, Mrio Cravo, [Anton] Walter Smetak, Didi Deoscredes [Mestre Didi], Joo Cmara, Nicolas Vlavianos. It was a wonderful group of artists that we managed to host at the Biennale. And Lygia Clark! And the jury members were Clarival do Prado Valadares and Mrio Schenberg, and also Riolan Coutinho. Contorno How was the atmosphere at that first Biennale of Bahia? Chico So, there were a lot of people, a lot of movement. People came in and out, you couldnt even park. Some artists got prizes in that period, but I cant remember them all. Lygia Clark received a prize, and then Frans Krajcberg got upset because he didnt, and decided to withdraw from the Biennale. A huge controversy! These controversies were very important, because we were in the limelight, even the newspapers sent some journalists to cover the events. A complete success! Contorno And the second Biennale, was the organization process similar to the first one? Chico The State Government decided to organize the second Biennale, and the place chosen to host the Biennale was the Lapa convent. They also did
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Salvador-born Chico Liberato, who directed the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia for over a decade, is one of the most important Bahian visual artists and filmmakers, pioneer in producing animation cinema in the state. Chico and his wife, poet Alba Liberato, currently live in a country house that has an artistic and natural atmosphere, where they preserve a way of life that is getting less common to find in the outskirts of Salvador. In that space the artists received the Contorno team to register Chicos recounting the Biennales of Bahia that took place in 1966 and 1968.
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a wonderful job at renovating that convent. I remember going to the renovation works, I moved to Bahia during that time. And there were the nuns, who walked with the faces covered up to their eyes, I spoke to them and they would lift the hood so as to speak back, but people couldnt see their faces. They had beautiful voices, I wanted to see their faces, but I couldnt [laughs]. Before the opening night of the Biennale, they were allowed to take the veil off. It was a marvellous thing, incredible. Some of the nuns I used to talk with were actually middle-aged women; those with whom I talked less and who didnt have a particularly beautiful voice were nevertheless stunning! It was such a surprise! And they were really happy with the renovation of the convent. So, the Biennale was inaugurated, and I received two prizes, I got the award for objects. A lot of other artists were awarded prizes. I travelled to So Paulo, with Alba, really happy, so as to spend the money of the award! [laughs]. The Biennale was a success! Contorno Was the impact of that second Biennale as good as it had been the first one? Chico We had media from throughout Brazil, all of Pernambuco was there, because we had brought all this great artists from there to here. It was Brazil within Bahia. It was a really important event. While I was in So Paulo I heard the news [that the Biennale had been closed down]. The
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opening of the Biennale was under the military dictatorship. A car passing by the street [carrying some artworks] was spotted by a policeman, who saw them and decided to follow them. When they reached the Biennale, they closed down the Biennale. They shut it down! Juarez went to the police station, as he was the director of the Biennale, and they said to him: You have to take those pictures off the wall. Juarez replied: I am against censorship. So the policemen said: You might be against censorship, but censorship is right here! He had to give up being the director of the Biennale, he couldnt do anything about it. Those artists who had some work on show at the Biennale, they never saw those pieces again, I dont know where those pieces went. That was the second Biennale. So, what happened in these two Biennales changed the whole artistic scene in Bahia. People saw what was happening throughout Brazil, a lot of cutting-edge stuff, similar to what was being done outside Brazil. Juarezs gallery already showed some of the most avant-garde things possible, something new was being reconfigured. Bringing all these artists to Bahia, with their new, revolutionary visions, made the Biennales possible. Contorno What happened after the second Biennale? Chico No one was interested in participating in the second Biennale, because of what happened [military dictatorships
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censorship], but it should have taken place constantly, with a certain regularity, then more people would become involved, and after a while, it would have become a bi-yearly event, like the Biennale of So Paulo. In a sense, I think Biennale of the Recncavo came to fill in that gap. I am part of the jury of that Biennale ever since its first edition, so I know how relevant that event is. What I didnt know is that Bahia had so many good artists; I saw that in the exhibitions. They started to stand out, journalists took note, and so did artists from other parts of Brazil and the world. Pedro Arcanjo, the curator, is doing an amazing work there. He is really dedicated to the project, and managed to get the event sponsored by Suerdieck, the local cigar factory, that takes care of everything. The space in which the Biennale is hosted is in itself quite something, a reconditioned old cigar factory. So, a marvelous space, the Suerdieck factory, the oldest cigar factory in Brazil, in Cachoeira. The first Biennale of Bahia created quite a revolution amongst Bahian artists, all those artworks on show. Some of the artists awarded in that first Biennale, like Lygia Clark, Rubens Gerchman, that kid Walter Smetak. Nobody knew who Walter Smetak was! And after the Biennale, he was invited to show his amazing work throughout Brazil. So, in a nutshell, thats what the two Biennales were about, the whole Bahia was intrigued to go visit an art exhibition of such im-

portance, and the whole Brazil was here in a sense, even the most reputed art critics. Contorno What sort of support did Juarez Paraso receive from other artists and from the State Government of Bahia? Chico Juarez was in charge of the Convvio Gallery, in which he hosted the exhibition New Figuration (Nova Figurao), which had never been shown in Bahia. With that point of contact, I brought to Bahia everyone to exhibit at the Convvio Gallery. At the time, Eliana Bloise was the owner of the gallery, a person that invested in the gallery, she brought some artists herself, and others contacted her because they were interested in showing their work in Bahia. Bahia is very attractive! Right now, I was talking with Paulo Srgio Duarte, who is one of the most important persons in the Brazilian art scene, and he was saying to me: Chico, I want an excuse to go to Bahia! [laughs]. So, I really think it is about time that a big art event is hosted in Bahia, in Salvador, and in that sense, the Biennale of the Recncavo has contributed to that, bringing really good artists from the Northeast and other regions of Brazil, like the South, to Bahia. Contorno How was the selection process for the Biennale? Chico There was a call first, and a lot of people signed up. The selection committee stepped in at that point, they
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had to be highly acclaimed and responsible, because it was indeed a lot of responsibility. In the first Biennale Krajcberg withdrew his work, because he wanted to get a prize and thought that Mrio Schenberg had given the award to Lygia Clark because she was his protge. In the second Biennale there were no conflicts of that kind, but the second was shut down because a car went by carrying a picture that had been on show at the Biennale and that was being taken back to Pernambuco. What happened was this: we used to show our work at the Convvio Gallery, and other galleries in Rio, the artists that I met there at the Biennale of Bahia. After the Biennale, everything changed. Everyone restructured and updated their practice and they all became contemporary artists, they were confident enough to send their work to the Biennale of So Paulo, to go there. They saw the exhibitions with the work of some of the greatest Brazilian artists, and that had an impact on them. We saw some of the greatest artists here. In that sense, the Biennale of the Recncavo is doing similar work nowadays, bringing together great artists from all over Bahia, and from other regions of Brazil. We are trying to get there. Important artists coming to show their work certainly has an impact on the city, making it vibrant. We have to awaken our fellow citizens, and humankind in general, to get involved with art. Contorno Are there similar initiatives in Bahia and the Northeast with the 2014 Biennale in mind?
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Chico Certainly! At the Biennale of the Recncavo we get artists coming from So Paulo and in spite of that we dont get much publicity. But Salvador, the city itself, makes any event more attractive. People look for an excuse to come here [laughs]. With the Biennale of Bahia, it enables people to come to Bahia, during the event, even beforehand, to do some consultancy work, you can recommend artists that can be invited. Once youll have everything planned, it is important to get people to recommend names, new up and coming artists. We have new figurations, more advanced, and there are new artists emerging every day. You need to get those artists that have a good trajectory in the South to be in charge of selecting the artists that will be invited to show at the Biennale. I think that, apart from the spaces that will be showing the work of artists willing to go through the selection and awards procedure, there should also be special rooms, for example, it would be an excellent idea to pick an artist from somewhere Pernambuco has great artists , and do a show on his or her work. Its something to be done with artists already established within the arts scene, with a consolidated career. Bringing people so that people can see their work, parallel to the main exhibition, even though, of course, what attracts more people is the awards, because everyone has some expectation on what will be the jurys final decision.

Contorno At the two first Biennales, there was an attempt at establishing a dialogue with the national artscene. At the forthcoming Biennale, in 2014, that dialogue will be established at international level. Whats your opinion on that relationship? Chico My opinion is that Brazil has everything. It should be a Brazilian Biennale, what we need to do is to consolidate our cultural sector, our art scene, which is already quite strong. After that, heres the deal: the United States have their own language, their own affinity with a way of being. They have their own culture, there, US culture. Europe also has its own culture. They are always bringing relevant issues that should certainly be taken into account, but the Biennale should have a Brazilian character, Brazilian culture should be present. Thats very important! I see the National Biennale, the National Exhibition of Arts, spreading the arts throughout the country, from Oiapoque to Chu [northern and southern frontier cities, respectively]. Thats right. You have to get everyone here, fill up the spaces, craft a good selection of works, bring some guest artists to show their work, and get on board people who can suggest some names. You have to report all that process, of course, report the presence of those consolidated artists, through time and space, and who should have their works on show.

Contorno Is there anything else youd like to tell us about the Biennales of Bahia? Chico There were the special exhibition rooms, where consolidated artists showed a considerable amount of their work. Thats why I emphasize the need to bring some guest artists that are well known within Brazil, and particularly within the place hosting the Biennale. Thats important. Also, the way the media covered the event, it made the front-page of most newspapers. That attracted more people to the event, people got touched by art, by the place of art within humanity. Society needs to coexist with art, needs to get involved with art. People normally say: Im close to people, I consider myself a good friend. Whats behind that friendship? Football? At football matches, supporters from each team are separated from each other. Art manages to unite people because it is universal, transcendental. Its about time humankind identified with its clearness, that of art, music, literature, cinema. I am about to participate in a festival in Lisbon that congregates people from all over Europe, but there will be a Brazilian there, there will be others. And that creates the opportunities for exchanging information, in which everyone participates, people come together thanks to something important, the identification with art, with the expression of art, which is an example of humankinds utmost potential and intelligence!
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COORDENAO EDITORIAL / Editorial Coordination Marcelo Rezende PRODUO EXECUTIVA / Executive Production Marcela da Costa PRODUO EDITORIAL / Editorial Production Janaina Rocha IDENTIDADE VISUAL / Visual Identity Dinha Ferrero, Liane Heckert PROJETO GRFICO / Graphic Design Dinha Ferrero DESIGNER ASSISTENTE / Assistant Designer Ana Clara Arajo REPORTAGEM / Reporters Ctia Milena Albuquerque PRODUO DE CONTEDO / Content Production Blenda Tourinho, Ctia Milena Albuquerque, Lara Carvalho CONTEDO FOTOGRFICO / Photographic Content Lara Carvalho EDIO DE TEXTO / Text Editing Allysson Viana REVISO / Revision CristinaCardoso TRADUO / Translation Elena Calvo Gonzalez, Lara Carvalho ASSISTENTE DE PRODUO / Production Assistant Noemi Fonseca COPRODUO / Co-production Barra Livre AGRADECIMENTOS / Acknowledgments Alba Liberato, Juarez Paraso, Lia Robatto, Sante Scaldaferri, Vivian Lazzareschi (InstitutoLinaBoe P. M.Bardi)

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COLABORADORES / Contributors Lina Bo Bardi (1914-1992) Achillina Bo ouLina Bo Bardi foi uma inovadora arquiteta nascida em Roma. Em 1946 casou-se com o crtico de arte Pietro Maria Bardi, convidado para fundar e dirigir o Museu de Arte de So Paulo (MASP) aps o casal chegar ao Brasil. O museu abrigou o principal projeto arquitetnico de Lina, reconhecida tambm pela recuperao do Solar do Unho, onde se localiza o Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia. A Casa de Vidro (SP), onde a artista faleceu, hoje um museu. Achillina Bo orLina Bo Bardi was a visionary architect born in Rome. In 1946 she married art critic Pietro Maria Bardi, who, after the couples arrival in Brazil, was invited to plan and direct the Museum of Art of So Paulo (MASP). The museum housed Linas main architectural project, who is also revered for the renovation of the Solar do Unho grounds, where the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia is located. The Glass House (A Casa de Vidro) SP, where the artist died, is currently a museum. Marcel Broodthaers (1924-1976) Natural de Bruxelas, Marcel Broodthaers foi um artista europeu que trabalhou com diversas expresses: pintura, desenho, escultura, cinema, livros, instalaes, objetos cotidianos, fotografia e escrita. Iniciou no campo artstico sob a influncia surrealista atravs da poesia e das artes visuais. Nos anos de 1960, transformou em gesso a sua coletnea de textos e trabalhou com filmes e curtas-metragens, alm de comidas tpicas da Blgica e objetos. Born in Brussels, Marcel Broodthaers was an European artist that worked with several artistic media: painting, books, sculpture, cinema, installation, everyday objects, photography and writing. He started his work in the arts field under the influence of surrealism, with works in visual arts and poetry. In the 1960s he turned his texts into plaster, and worked with feature films and short films, as well as producing pieces with typical foodstuffs from Belgium and other objects. Carla Zollinger (1975) Soteropolitana, Carla Zollinger doutora em Arquitetura pela Universidade Politcnica da Catalua e j colaborou com diversos escritrios na Espanha e no Brasil. Atualmente, a arquiteta dirige seu prprio escritrio em Salvador, ps-doutoranda em Arquitetura e Urbanismo (PPGAU-FAUFBA) pelo programa PNPD-CAPES e integra o grupo de pesquisa Lugar Comum. Born in Salvador, Carla Zollinger holds a PhD in Architecture by the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, and has worked with several architectural studios in Spain and Brazil. She currently directs her own studio in Salvador, is a PNPD-CAPES postdoctoral research fellow in the Postgraduate Programme of Architecture and Urbanism of the Federal University of Bahia and is part of the research group Lugar Comum (Common Place). Maxim Malhado (1967) Educador fsico por formao, o baiano Maxim Malhado um artista visual que vive e trabalha em Massarandupi, interior da Bahia. Criador da Galeria de Arte Esteio, as suas obras so o reflexo, sobretudo, da curiosidade exploratria da infncia e do pulsar cotidiano da vida no interior.
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A graduate in Physical Education, bahian Maxim Malhado is a visual artist that lives and works in Massarandupi, inland Bahia. Creator of the Esteio Art Gallery, his work reflects his childhoods exploratory curiosity, as well as the everyday vibrating life of inland Bahia. Almandrade (1953) O artista plstico, arquiteto e poeta Antnio Luiz M. Andrade, ou apenas Almandrade, nasceu em Salvador, onde editou a revista Semitica e trabalhou como professor nas Oficinas do MAM. Almandrade, que realizou cerca de 30 exposies individuais, j participou de quatro bienais internacionais e de exposies no exterior. Artist, architect and poet Antnio Luiz M. Andrade, or simply Almandrade, was born in Salvador, where he edited the magazine Semitica (Semiotics) and worked as a teacher at MAMs Workshops. Almandrade, who has had work shown at over 30 individual exhibitions, has already participated in four international biennales and other exhibitions outside of Brazil. Stanley Brouwn (1935) Paramaribo, capital do Suriname, o local de nascimento do artista Stanley Brouwn, que, ainda jovem, se mudou para Amsterd. O artista ensinou na Academia de Artes de Hamburgo e se tornou reconhecido no contexto da influncia do movimento artstico Fluxus. As distncias, as medidas e os espaos so enfatizados em suas obras. Para escrever seu livro This Way Brouwn, parava transeuntes na rua e pedia esboos sobre sua rota. O trabalho publicado nesta edio da revista Contorno foi originalmente apresentado na exposio Konzept Kunst (KunstMuseum Basel, 1972). Paramaribo, capital of Suriname, is the place of birth of artist Stanley Brouwn, although he moved to Amsterdam when he was still young. He taught at Hamburgs Academy of Arts, and became widely known as part of the artistic movement Fluxus. Distances, measurements and spaces are emphasized on his works. In order to write his book This Way Brouwn, he stopped passersby and asked them to sketch their routes. The work published in this edition of the Contorno magazine was originally presented at the exhibition Konzept-Kunst (KunstMuseum Basel, 1972). Chico Liberato (1936) Pintor, escultor, desenhista, artista multimdia e cineasta. Estas so algumas das atividades exercidas pelo soteropolitano Francisco Liberato de Mattos, mais conhecido como Chico Liberato, que dirigiu o Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia entre 1979 e 1991. O serto, a arte popular regional e as figuras msticas do candombl esto presentes em seus trabalhos uma reflexo da natureza, da religio e da etnia do povo brasileiro. Painter, sculptor, drawer, multimedia artist and cinema director: these are some of the activities developed by Salvador-born Franciso Liberato de Mattos, more commonly known as Chico Liberato. He directed the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia between the years of 1979 and 1991. His work finds inspiration in the Bahian backlands (Serto), popular regional art, and mythical figures of Afro-brazilian religion Candombl, reflecting on Nature, religion and the ethnic composition of Brazilian population.

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GOVERNO DO ESTADO DA BAHIA / Government of the State Bahia Jaques Wagner SECRETARIA DE CULTURA DO ESTADO DA BAHIA / Bahia Culture Secretariat Antnio Albino Canelas Rubim INSTITUTO DO PATRIMNIO ARTSTICO E CULTURAL DA BAHIA / Institute For Artistic and Cultural Heritage Bahia Frederico A. R. C. Mendona

CURADORIA EDUCATIVA / Educational Curator Priscila Lolata PRODUO / Production Felipe Dias Rgo ASSISTENTES ADMINISTRATIVOS / Clerical Assistants Ana Cludia Muniz / Denise Fernandes / Jamile Souza / Keila Silva / Mirela Correia SUPERVISO TCNICA DE MEDIAO CULTURAL / Mediation Supervisor Luis Augusto Gonalves Silva MEDIADORES CULTURAIS / Cultural Mediators Ana Rachel Schimiti / Amanda Santana / Daniel Almeida Costa / Dayane Rodrigues / Ednaldo Gonalves Junior / Eliane Silveira Garcia / Etiennette Bosetto / tala Herta / Naason Oliveira / Roseli Costa Rocha PROFESSORES / Teachers Evandro Sybine / Florival Oliveira / Hilda Salomo / Ieda Oliveira / Maria Betnia Vargas / Marlice Almeida / Olga Gmez / Rafael Martins / Renato Fonseca / Rener Rama ASSISTENTE DAS OFICINAS/ Workshop Assistant Carmen Mayan APOIO DAS OFICINAS / Workshop Support Antonio Bento / Jos da Hora / Raimundo Bento / Sebastio Ferreira / Valter Lopes Costa PROJETOS E RELAES INSTITUCIONAIS Projects and Institutional Relations COORDENAO / Coordinator Carol Almeida GESTO DE PROJETOS / Project Management Nara Pino / Paulo Victor Machado PRODUO / Production COORDENAO / Coordinator Carmen Palumbo PRODUO / Production Noemi Fonseca / Paulo Tosta / Thiago Pilloni / Rana Biriba COMUNICAO / Communication COORDENAO / Coordinator Thiago Felix ASSESSORIA DE COMUNICAO / Press Advisors Ctia Milena Albuquerque / Thas Seixas CONTEDO AUDIOVISUAL / Audiovisual Content Lara Carvalho DESIGNER ASSISTENTE / Assistant Designer Ana Clara Arajo PRODUO DE CONTEDO / Content Production Blenda Tourinho MONTAGEM / Assembly COORDENAO / Coordinator Daiane Oliveira PRODUO / Production Lia Cunha / Marina Alfaya TCNICOS DE MONTAGEM / Assembly Technicians Agnaldo Santos / Jairo Morais

MUSEU DE ARTE MODERNA DA BAHIA Museum of Modern Art Bahia

DIREO / Director Marcelo Rezende DIREO EXECUTIVA / Executive Director Luciana Moniz PESQUISA E PROJETOS CURATORIAIS / Research and Curatorial Projects Liane Heckert ASSISTENTE DA DIREO / Directorial Assistant Bianca Gis Barbosa

MUSEOLOGIA / Museology COORDENAO / Coordinator Sandra Regina Jesus MUSELOGOS / Museologists Janana Ilara / Michele Pontes / Rogrio Sousa ESTAGIRIA / Intern Renata Cardoso RESTAURO / Restoration Maria Lcia Lyrio TCNICOS DE RESTAURO / Restoration Technicians Alberto Ribeiro / Walfredo Neto SUPERVISO DOS MONITORES DE ACERVO / Collection Storage Supervisors Emile Ribeiro / Jackson Queiroz / Jos Mrio de Jesus / Slvio Srgio Silva MONITORES DE ACERVO / Collection Warehousing Alda Sousa / urea Santiago / Derilene Pinho / Diogo Vasconcelos / Eduardo Moleiro / Erasto Lopes / Fbio Messias / Ricardo Lus Santos / Robson Jos de Jesus / Sandro de Mattos / Tamires Carvalho / Tiago Chaves ARTE E EDUCAO / Art and Education COORDENAO / Coordinator Eliane Moniz de Arago Simes
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BIBLIOTECA / Library BIBLIOTECRIA / Librarian Vera Rodrigues ASSISTENTES / Assistants Aldemiro Rodrigues Brando / Fbio Vasquez / Maria Esmeralda Santos / Nadiene Lopes / Raimundo Figueiredo ADMINISTRATIVO / Administration COORDENAO / Coordinator Drcio Santana Moreira SECRETRIAS / Secretaries Cristiane Moreira / Sandra Cristina Moura / Valdete Moreira Silva RECEPTIVO / Reception Antonieta Pontes ASSISTENTES ADMINISTRATIVOS / Clerical Assistants Carlos Luis Costa / Edmundo Galdino / Fernando Nascimento Lopes / Luiz Henrique da Cruz ALMOXARIFADO / Warehouse Antnio Mascarenhas SUPERVISO DE MANUTENO E LIMPEZA / Maintenance and Cleaning Supervisor Alexsandro Muniz / Jlio Csar Santos CABOS DE TURMA / Maintenance and Cleaning Managers Antonio Moreira / Sergio Sena Pereira MARCENEIROS / Woodworkers Elias Garcia Borges / Marcos Antnio da Silva / Reinaldo Pereira da Silva PINTORES / Painters Ademir Ferreira dos Santos / Antonio Jorge Ferreira / Cid Eduardo Ferreira PINTOR AUXILIAR / Assistant Painter Valtenor Conceio ELETRICISTAS / Electricians Jorge Bispo dos Santos / Jos de Assis Alecrim JARDINEIROS / Gardeners Claudio Pinheiro de Almeida / Ramon Maciel ASSISTENTE DE JARDINAGEM / Assistant Gardener Antonio Loureno de Jesus PEDREIROS / Mason Francisco Vitrio / Jos Incio Santos / Marcos Paulo Maciel COPA / Pantry ngela Maria Pereira TCNICOS DE LIMPEZA / Cleaning Technicians Emanuel Rubens Oliveira / Estela Maria / Jorge Luiz Mendes / Jussara Reis de Souza / Luan Conceio Viana / Raimundo Jos / Sidnei do Desterro / Sueli Conceio dos Santos / Vera Lcia Ferreira / Wesley Nascimento MOTORISTA / Driver Waldrio Conceio

CRDITOS E LEGENDAS DAS IMAGENS / Credits and Subtitles

CAPA / cover Imagem do Jardim Baiano de frente para o estdio da Fonte Nova/Salvador, 2013. Fotografia: Ana Clara Arajo Photo of the Bahian Garden, located in front of the Fonte Nova Stadium/ Salvador, 2013. Photograph: Ana Clara Arajo p.1 Autorretrato, por Marcel Broodthaers. A foto faz parte de uma srie de fotografias tiradas por Broodthaers entre 1957 e 1983. Reproduo/Kewenig Galerie Cologne Self-portrait, by Marcel Broodthaers. The photo is a part of a series taken by Broodthaers between 1957 and 1983. Reproduction/Kewenig Galerie Cologne p.4 Lina Bo Bardi e Roberto Burle Marx na exposio Roberto Burle Marx, em 1960, no Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia instalado inicialmente no Foyer do TCA/Salvador. Acervo do MAM-BA Lina Bo Bardi and Roberto Burle Marx at the exhibition Roberto Burle Marx, in 1960, at the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia initially located at TCAs [Castro Alves Theathre] Foyer/Salvador. MAM-BAs Collection p.5 Operrios na rampa provisria para o Casaro durante a reforma do MAMBA (Solar do Unho); processo teve incio em abril deste ano/Salvador 16.04.2013. Fotografia: Lara Carvalho Workers at the temporary ramp to the Casaro during MAM-BAs renovation, at Solar do Unho; the process began in April this year/Salvador 04.16.2013. Photograph: Lara Carvalho p.6 talo Parras e Luzia Suarez na primeira edio do projeto Pequenas Conversas, durante a programao da exposio Esquizpolis/Salvador 26.07.2013. Fotografia: Lara Carvalho talo Parras and Luzia Suarez at the first edition of the project Small Talk, during the exhibition Schizopolis/Salvador 07.26.2013. Photograph: Lara Carvalho p.7 Sinalizaes das exposies Esquizpolis Os premiados dos Sales da Bahia 2012 e o acervo do MAM e Tupy Todos os Dias/Salvador 09.07.2013. Fotografia: Luma Magalhes Neon signs of the exhibitions Schizopolis Awarded works from Sales da Bahia 2012 and MAMs Collection and Tupy Every Day/Salvador 07.09.2013. Photograph: Luma Magalhes

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p.8 Marcel Broodthaers junto ao projeto Um Jardim de Inverno [Un Jardin dHiver], instalao realizada em 1974. Reproduo Marcel Broodthaers with his project A Winter Garden [Un Jardin dHiver], installation conducted in 1974. Reproduction p.9 Plano geral da instalao Um Jardim de Inverno, em um dos cmodos do Palcio de Belas Artes de Bruxelas [Palais des Beaux-Arts] 1974. Reproduo Master plano of the installation A Winter Garden, in one of the Brussels Fine Arts Palace [Palais des Beaux-Arts] rooms 1974. Reproduction p.10 Espelho com moldura de ouro produzido por Marcel Broodthaers em 1968. Reproduo/HubbyCo Mirror framed with ingot, made by Marcel Broodthaers in 1968. Reproduction/ HubbyCo p.12 Encontro no MAM-BA com os artistas Sante Scaldaferri, Arthur Scovino e Ana Verana; os dois ltimos participaram do projeto A Sala do Diretor, em abril deste ano/Salvador. Fotografia: Lara Carvalho Encounter at MAM-BA with the artists Sante Scaldaferri, Arthur Scovino and Ana Verana; the last two of whom were a part of the project The Directors Room, which began in April this year/Salvador. Photograph: Lara Carvalho p.13 Primeira ocupao do projeto Cmbio Exchange Change, do Gruna, na Galeria 1 do MAM-BA/Salvador. Fotografia: Gruna First occupation of the project Cmbio Exchange Change, from Gruna, at MAM-BAs Gallery 1/Salvador. Photograph: Gruna p.14 Exposio de longa durao do Museu de Arte Popular, no Casaro do Solar do Unho, incio da dcada de 60. Acervo de Sante Scaldaferri Long term exhibition of the Museum of Popular Art, at the Casaro of Solar do Unho, in the beginning of the 1960s. Sante Scaldaferris Personal Collection p.16 Esquema do museu-escola, no Conjunto do Unho/Salvador. A reproduo desta imagem foi autorizada pelo Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi, So Paulo, Brasil Scheme for the museum-school, at the Solar do Unho/Salvador. The reproduction of this image was authorized by the Lina Bo and P.M. Bardi Institute, So Paulo, Brazil

p.19 Exposio de longa durao do Museu de Arte Popular, no Casaro do Solar do Unho, incio da dcada de 60. Acervo de Sante Scaldaferri Long term exhibition of the Museum of Popular Art, at the Casaro of Solar do Unho, in the beginning of the 1960s. Sante Scaldaferris Personal Collection p.20/21 Casaro em reforma em 1962, durante o projeto de recuperao do Solar do Unho por Lina Bo Bardi. Acervo do MAM-BA Casaro under renovation in 1962, during the project of recovery of the Solar do Unho grounds by Lina Bo Bardi. MAM-BAs Collection p.23 Oficina de Maquetes Lina Bo Bardi, ministrada pela arquiteta Carla Zollinger, no Galpo das Oficinas, em 2012/Salvador. Acervo do MAM-BA Lina Bo Bardi Model Workshop, conducted by the architect Carla Zollinger, at the Galpo das Oficinas, in 2012/Salvador. MAM-BAs Collection p.24 Planta da reforma de 1962 do Solar do Unho/Salvador. Acervo do MAM-BA Renovation plant from 1962 of the Solar do Unho grounds/Salvador. MAMBAs Collection p.26 Maxim Malhado em entrevista revista Contorno em sua casa/ateli em Massarandupi/Bahia 10.07.2013. Fotografia: Lara Carvalho Maxim Malhado in interview to Contorno magazine in his home/Studio in Massarandupi/Bahia 07.10.2013. Photograph: Lara Carvalho p.29 Convite da exposio Procuro um Texto Azul, de Maxim Malhado, na Esteio Galeria de Arte, em Stio Novo (BA) 10.07.2013. Crdito: Acervo de Maxim Malhado/Fotografia: Lara Carvalho Invitation for the exhibition Im Looking for a Blue Text, by Maxim Malhado, at Esteio Art Gallery in Stio Novo (BA) 07.10.2013. Credit: Maxim Malhados Personal Archive/ Photograph: Lara Carvalho p.33 Fachada da casa que abrigou, por quase 10 anos, a Esteio Galeria de Arte, em Stio Novo (BA). Acervo de Maxim Malhado Front of the house that sheltered, for nearly 10 years, Esteio Art Gallery, in Stio Novo (BA). Maxim Malhados Personal Archive p.36 Ilustrao da obra Sente-se, por favor, de Almandrade, construda com uma cadeira de praia e elstico em 1986. Acervo de Almandrade Illustration of the work Sit down, please, by Almandrade, built with a beach chair and elastic in 1986. Almandrades Personal Collection

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p.41 Objeto, 1977. Obra produzida por Almandrade. Reproduo/GeiFC Object, 1977. Work produced by Almandrade. Reproduction/GeiFC p.43 Hlio Oiticica, Almandrade e Paulo Bruscky em Recife em 1979. Acervo de Almandrade Hlio Oiticica, Almandrade and Almandrades Personal Collection p.47 Chico Liberato em entrevista ao MAM-BA em 05.03.2013; ao fundo escada projetada por Lina Bo Bardi no final de 1950/Salvador. Fotografia: Lara Carvalho Chico Liberato in interview to MAM-BA in 03.05.2013; in the back, the staircase projected by Lina Bo Bardi at the end of 1950/Salvador. Photograph: Lara Carvalho p.50/51 I Bienal da Bahia, 1966. Arquivo Pessoal de Lia Robatto First Bahian Biennale, 1966. Lia Robattos Personal Archives p.55 Ilustrao de Lina Bo Bardi para a pgina dominical do Dirio de Notcias de Salvador - BA, 1958, feito com nanquim e colagem sobre papel vegetal. A reproduo desta imagem foi autorizada pelo Instituto Lina Bo e P.M. Bardi, So Paulo, Brasil Lina Bo Bardis illustration for the dominical page of Salvadors News Diary, 1958, made with nankeen and collage over parchment paper. The reproduction of this image was authorized by Lina Bo and P.M. Bardis Institute, So Paulo, Brazil p. 92/93 Sem ttulo, obra de 1997 do artista Vauluzo Bezerra, exposta em Esquizpolis - Os premiados dos Sales da Bahia 2012 e o acervo do MAM, no Museu Nutico da Bahia/Salvador. Fotografia: Joo Milet Meirelles Untitled, work by artist Vauluzo Bezerra, from 1997, exhibited in exhibitions Schizopolis Awarded works from Sales da Bahia 2012 and MAMs Collection, at Bahias Nautic Museum/Salvador. Photograph: Joo Milet Meirelles CONTRACAPA / back cover Imagem do Jardim Baiano de frente para o estdio da Fonte Nova/Salvador, 2013. Fotografia: Ana Clara Arajo Photo of the Jardim Baiano [Bahian Garden], located in front of the Fonte Nova Stadium/Salvador, 2013. Photograph: Ana Clara Arajo Paulo Bruscky in Recife in 1979.

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Copyright MAM-BA, 2013 Todos os direitos reservados. Nenhum texto ou imagem desta publicao pode ser reproduzido, atravs de quaisquer meios, sem autorizao prvia por escrito do MAM-BA. All rights reserved. No text or image in this publication can be reproduced, in any media, without the express, prior, written permission of MAM-BA. A revista Contorno/01 foi impressa em Salvador/BA, em novembro de 2013, com tiragem de 500 exemplares. Capa em papel Supremo Alto Alvura 350g/m e miolo papel Plen Soft 90 e 70g/m. The magazine Contorno/01 was printed in Salvador/BA, in November 2013, with a circulation of 500 copies. The cover is in Supremo Alto Alvura paper, 350g/m, and the inside pages are in Plen Soft paper, 90 and 70g/m.

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MUSEU DE ARTE MODERNA DA BAHIA Av. Contorno s/n - Solar do Unho Salvador.Bahia.Brasil - 40060-060 / tel.55.71.3117.6139 bahiamam.org / bahiamam@gmail.com

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