GALERIA MILLAN OPENS ITS 2013 SCHEDULE WITH THE GROUP SHOW BOLETIM
Curated by Paulo Miyada, the exhibition is comprised of works by Berna Reale, Pedro
França, Vijai Patchineelam and Vitor Cesar. Its opening will be held on February 2 and visitation runs
until March 9
Berna Reale, Pedro França, Vijai Patchineelam and Vitor Cesar are four artists from different parts
of Brazil who are paying constant attention to the political dilemmas of our times. The ways in
which this commitment is manifested in their work are radically diverse, ranging from allegorical
allusion in elaborate photographic compositions, in Berna Reale's case, to the set of graphic and
conceptual overlappings between the public and private fields seen in the work of Vitor Cesar.
With the meeting of these artists and the production of new works, curator Paulo Miyada
addresses the way that art participates in the production of understanding about the occurrences
that surround it, offering itself as a parcel of a possible public forum for debate. Photos, videos,
books, posters, drawings, installations and objects occupy the entire space inside Galeria Millan,
constituting a reflection on the possibilities of contemporary art to take the space left by the
decline of the "public use of reason" in a world saturated with underhanded images.
The artists were chosen for the precision of their creative processes and for their interest in
participating in curatorial discussions and meetings with all the exhibition's participants. In composing
the group, priority was given to the diversity of tactics which they employ to connect their works
with their discourses regarding reality, and each of the artists received support from Galeria Millan
to develop works and projects not yet presented to the public, attempting to respond to the
exhibition's proposal.
Hailing from Belém, Berna Reale experiences the obstacles of a contradictory metropolis
characterized by social differences on a daily basis, at the same time in which she accompanies
news of violence reported from all over the globe. Her work proposes a sort of allegory of the
present day, through the construction of scenes with characters who, at times, respresent those
who are victims of violence and, at others, those who impose violence in various conflict zones.
These scenes are performed by the artist herself, who chooses costumes, props and locations that
symbolize the conflicts in question. For the exhibition Boletim, Berna developed a series of photos
that discuss critical moments in the contemporary world which are common knowledge and, still,
present themselves as challenges to comprehension: American soldiers' abuse of power in the Middle
East; the invisible nature of political prisoners at Guantánamo; the constant presence of death in
Muslim territories; and the repression of civil rights in Chinese factories.
A native of Fortaleza (now residing in São Paulo), Vitor Cesar studies the constitution of art's
discursive space, appropriating from it the graphic and discursive qualities of its elements of signals
and denominations. His propositions question the specialization of artists, the public and institutions
as isolated arenas, emphasizing their points of contact and the relationships of reciprocity that
mutually define them. Therefore, his proposals often go beyond the supports usually associated
with works of art, like frames and pedestals, and get confused with street signs, urban furniture
and advertisements. For Boletim, Vitor organized a synthesis from his new series, "Romance Policial,"
an installation that imitates an exhibit of poster designs, all of them created according to a fictional
enterprise whereby a design office is hired to establish an indentity for recent initiatives taken by
the Federal Police.
Vijai Patchineelam, from Niterói, constructs his approach to the contemporary world starting
from his own travels through cities and the daily routine of interacting with his work space and
spending time with other artists. In the drawn-out time of places which at first sight are immersed
in inertia, Vijai registers moments of physical tension and impermanence, mainly through photos and
videos in which fragments of ruins and aged objects appear to be imminently placed into motion,
even if said movement is a sort of collapse. For Boletim, the artist brought together a book, photos
and a video which address everything from urban space – from the outside - to the interior of a
studio – from the inside -, always in search of signs of an uprising which impedes the continuity of
the status quo. Though characteristically introspective in the scale of his vision of the world, Vijai
does not abandon an interest in more general transformations of society, he simply seeks more
subtle movements than those discussed in newspaper headlines, electoral promises and assemblies
of class.
Originally from Rio de Janeiro (now residing in São Paulo), Pedro França develops models in which
aspects of the concrete world are reflected and recreated in the realm of the exhibition space. In
these reconstructions, there is an attempt (which is known to be frustrated from the beginning) to
appropriate from the totality of a phenomenon which is, by definition, broader than any means of
representation, whether it be the extension of a road trip, a large-scale object of urban
infrastructure or a fragment of nature. As such, his videos, drawings and installations seek
impossible equivalents, consolidating themselves as models of study and evocation of a determined
experience. In the case of the set of works proposed for Boletim, Pedro pursues images that
attempt to represent suicide, a peculiar case of death in which the subject contradicts the
fundamental instinct of preserving his or her own life. As a synthesis of the limits confronted by
any representation that discusses this category of events, the artist develops a large-scale
charcoal drawing (more than six meters in length) based on the image of a whale that appeared
dead on a beach over a century ago with no apparent natural cause, interpreted by people at the
time as a case of an animal's suicide.
SERVICE INFO - B O L E T I M
Opening: Saturday, Feb. 02, 2013, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Galeria Millan.
Visitation: Feb. 04 – March 09, 2013, Mon – Fri 10 a.m. - 7 p.m; Sat, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
PRESS CONTACT
Caroline Carrion: [email protected] / 55 11 3031 6007
ABOUT THE CURATOR AND THE ARTISTS
Paulo Miyada (São Paulo, 1985) With a degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from FAUUSP, where he is studying for his master's under Prof. Dr. Agnaldo Farias in the area of History
and Fundamentals of Architecture and Urban Planning. He has worked as curatorial assistant at
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the 29 São Paulo Biennial, as curator for the collective exhibitions "Em Direto" [“In Direct”]
(November, 2011) and "É Preciso Confrontar as Imagens Vagas com os Gestos Claros" [“It's
Necessary to Confront Empty Images with Clear Gestures”] (September, 2012), both at Oficina
Cultural Oswald de Andrade, as well as other exhibitions including the Brazilian section of "Beuys
e bem além – Ensinar como Arte" [“Beuys and Beyond – Instruction as Art”] (with Agnaldo
Farias at Instituto Tomie Ohtake, 2011), "Exposição" by Theo Craveiro (Galeria Mendes Wood,
2012) and "Outras coisas visíveis sobre papel" [“Other things visible on paper”] (Galeria Leme,
2012). He was a member of the jury for the residency selection committees at JA.CA. (Jardim
Canadá Center of Art and Technology, 2012) and Casa Tomada (2011), as well as the preselection process for the 2012 Projects Season at Paço das Artes, salão UNAMA pequenos
formatos (Belém, 2012), among others. He contributed to the book "Logo depois da vírgula -
Livro de Geo-Grafia," by Mattia Denisse (Portugal, 2011) and published a critical essay in the
magazine Elástica n.2 (2012). He currently coordinates the Nucleus for Research and
Curatorship at Tomie Ohtake Institute and is part of the curatorial staff for the program
Rumos do Itaú Cultural 2011-13.
Berna Reale (Belém, PA, 1965) creates installations and performance art. She studied art at the
Federal University of Pará and participated in various individual and collective exhibitions in Brazil and
in Europe, including the Cerveira Biennial (Portugal, 2005) and the Liège Photography Biennial (Belgium,
2006), as well as the exhibition Amazônia – Ciclos da Modernidade [“Amazônia – Cycles of
Modernity”], at Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 2012). She received the grand
prize at Pará Art Salon in Belém (Brasil, 2009), was selected for the program Rumos Visuais – Itaú
Cultural (2011) and Prêmio PIPA (2012) and participated in the exhibit “from the margin to the edge”
at the Somerset House in London (2012).
Pedro França (Rio de Janeiro, 1984) Pedro França (Rio de Janeiro, 1984) is an artist and professor
of art history at MAM-SP, Instituto Tomie Ohtake (SP) and Parque Lage (RJ), where he also studied.
After years of academic and curatorial incursions, which included events schedule planning, films,
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plays, debates and performances for Terreiros at the 29 São Paulo Biennial, he returned to
producing works as an artist in 2011. In 2012, he presented individual exhibitions at Centro Cultural
São Paulo (Program of Exhibitions 2012, having been one of the winners of the acquisition prize) and
at the space Intermeios. He also participated in the collective, É preciso confrontar as imagens vagas
com os gestos claros [“It's necessary to confront empy images with clear gestures”], curated by
Paulo Miyada.
Vijai Patchineelam (1983, Niterói) earned a degree in industrial design from the UFRJ School of
Fine Arts in 2008 and a master's degree in visual arts from Konstfack University College in
Stockholm, Sweden in 2011. He was selected for the program Itaú Rumos Artes Visuais 2011-13,
participating in the exhibition Convite a Viagem at Itaú Cultural, São Paulo in February of this year. In
November of 2010, he presented his second solo show, A Pair of Lungs, A Lack of Faith at the
Seven Art Limited gallery in New Deli, India. He was selected for the Iberê Camargo Grant (2008
edition), which led him to a residence at the Blantom Museum of Arts in Austin, U.S.A. In 2007, lhe
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won the Latin Unity prize at the 5 Siart International Art Biennial in La Paz, Bolivia. He participated
in the collective exhibits Sarai Reader 09:The Exhibition Episode 1&2, Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi;
Unfinished Analogies, 2011, at the Konsthall C, Stockholm; Convivências, Iberê Camargo Foundation,
Porto Alegre; Back, Forth and Round, 2009, Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, among others. He
recently concluded a residence at JA.CA –Jardim Canadá Center of Art and Technology in Belo
Horizonte, in June and July of this year.
Vitor Cesar (Fortaleza, 1978) has been developing proposals that seek to constitute notions of
the public through dynamics of daily life via exhibitions, graphic works, debates and other projects.
He studied Architecture and Urban Planning at UFC (Fortaleza, 2003), participated in a study group
at Alpendre (Fortaleza, 2002) and developed a master's dissertation in Visual Poetics at ECA/USP
(São Paulo, 2009). He helped organized the project Art and the public sphere, for the open
announcement Connection Visual Arts - Minc/Funarte (2008). Since 2005, he has worked for the
project Basemóvel in collaboration with different artists; the latest edition was held at the
Experimental Nucleus of Education and Art of MAM (Rio de Janeiro, 2011). Highlights of his recent
exhibits include: Da próxima vez eu fazia tudo diferente [“Next time, I'd do it all differently”], Pivô (São
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Paulo, 2012); 8 Mercosul Biennial (Porto Alegre, 2011); Os dez primeiros anos [“The first ten years”],
Instituto Tomie Ohtake (São Paulo, 2011); Caos e efeito [“Chaos and effect”], Instituto Itaú Cultural
(São Paulo, 2011). In 2009, he participated in the program Rumos Itaú Cultural. He was artist in
residence at Capacete (Rio de Janeiro, 2010) and the MuseumsQuartier (Vienna, 2006).