Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
Centro / Porto Alegre / RS / Brasil / 90.010-080
Fone/fax: +55 (51) 3254-7500
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7th Mercosul Biennial
Artistas – profiles in alphabetical order
Abraham Cruzvillegas was born in Mexico City in 1968. He lives and works in Paris and Mexico
City. He studied at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma in Mexico, where he was a student of
Gabriel Orozco. Solo exhibitions include: Abraham Cruzvillegas, Thomas Dane, London (2009);
Abraham Cruzvillegas, Redcat, Los Angeles (2009); Autoconstrucción: The Soundtrack, The Centre
for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow (2008); Autoconstrucción, Jack Tilton Gallery, New York (2007).
He was awarded an Artist Research Fellowship from the Smithsonian Institution (2008). His most
recent group exhibitions include: Modern Ruins, Kate MacGarry, London (2009); 2da Trienal
Poli/Gráfica de San Juan, Puerto Rico (2009); 10ª Bienal de la Habana, Havana, (2009); Strike a
Pose, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London (2009). Additional exhibitions include the XXV Bienal
Internacional de São Paulo.
Adrià Juliá was born in Spain in 1974. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles. Solo
exhibitions include: Indícios para outro lugar, (Indications for Another Place) Centro Cultural
Montehermoso Kulturunea, Vitória-Gasteiz, Spain (2008); A means of passing the time, LAXART,
Los Angeles (2008); Adrià Juliá, Galeria Soledad Lorenzo, Madrid (2007); Truc Trang Walls, The
University Art Gallery, Irvine, California (2006); and Adrià Juliá, Orange County Museum of Art,
Newport Beach, California (2006). He has participated in the following selected group
exhibitions: Exil des Imaginären, Generali Foundation, Vienna (2007); Surrounding Marta Clark,
Galeria Carlos Carvalho, Lisbon (2006); Screen Spirit, Städtische Galerie im Butentor, Bremen
(2005); and Rituale, Akademie der Künste, Berlin (2003).
Alejandra Seeber was born in Buenos Aires in 1969, and currently lives and works between
New York and Buenos Aires. In 1997 - 1999 she participated in the Guillermo Kuitca Program for
Young Artists, Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires. Her solo exhibitions include: Pinturalia,
Galeria, Fernando Pradilla, Madrid (2008); The Pregnant Painter, Virgil de Voldère Gallery, New
York (2007); Duos, Sperone Westwater, New York (2003); Living Rum, Dabbah Torrejón Arte
Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires (2002); This Room: Painting as a Second Language, Parlour
Projects, Brooklyn (2001); and Serendipia, Galerie de L’Alliance Française, Buenos Aires (1999).
Selected group exhibitions include: Temperament auf papier, Hausler Contemporary, Zurich
(2008); An Archeology, Zabludowicz Collection, London (2007); Argentine pour toujours, Knokke,
Belgium (2006); 24/7, Center for Contemporary Art, Vilnius (2003); and The [S]-Files: The Selected
Files, El Museo del Barrio, New York (2002). She has participated in residency programs at the
Center for the Arts Residency Program, Joan Mitchell Foundation (2006); at Les Ateliers de la Ville
de Marseille, for which she developed a project for Le Corbusier’s La Cité Radieuse (2003); and
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, Maine (2000).
Ana Gallardo was born in Rosario, Argentina in 1958. She currently lives and works in Buenos
Aires. Recent solo exhibitions include: El Pedimento, Galería Alberto Sendrós, Buenos Aires
(2009); Fragmentos para una Niña Triste, Le 19, CRAC, Montbéliard, France (2008); Acapella, Casa
Vecina, Fundación Centro Histórico de la Ciudad de México, Mexico F.D. (2008); Casa Rodante,
Appetite Galería de Arte, Buenos Aires (2007); and La Hiedra, Galería Alberto Sendrós, Buenos
Aires (2006). Group exhibitions include: Lo Permanente y lo Transitorio, Centro Cultural de la
Embajada de Brasil, Buenos Aires (2009); El Diario Personal, Centro Cultural Parque España,
Rosario (2008); Artistas Argentinos, Galería Fernando Pradilla, Madrid (2008); Beginning with a
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
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Bang! From Confrontation to Intimacy. An Exhibition of Argentine Contemporary Artists 1960-2007,
Americas Society, New York (2007); Ana Gallardo, Graciela Hasper, Guille Olieaziukc, Art-Cade,
Marseilles, (2007); and Off/Fóra: Movimientos imaginarios entre Galicia y el Cono Sur. 29º Bienal de
Arte de Pontevedra, Pontevedra, Spain (2006).She has received awards, grants and participated
in residency programs including: RIAA (Residencia Internacional de Artistas en Argentina),
Ostende, Argentina (2009); Casa Vecina Residency, Mexico F.D. (2008); Primer Premio a las Artes,
Fundación Federico Klemm, Buenos Aires (2007); Subsidio del Fondo Metropolitano, Gobierno de
la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (2007); as well as a grant from the American Center Foundation, New
York (2006).
André Severo was born in 1974 in Porto Alegre, Brasil, where he lives and works. He has a
Masters in Visual Poetry from the Instituto de Artes of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do
Sul. His most recent solo exhibitions include: Causalidade, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria,
Santa Maria, Brasil (2003); Paisagem Inscrita, Torreão, Porto Alegre (2001); Centro Cultural São
Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil (1999); Centro Municipal de Cultura, Porto Alegre (1999); Ainda, Paço das
Artes, São Paulo, and Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre (1998);
Por Enquanto, Instituto Estadual de Artes Visuais, Galeria João Fahrion, Porto Alegre, Brasil
(1997). Among his exposições coletivas are: Um Território da Fotografia, Usina do Gasômetro,
Porto Alegre (2003); Um Trabalho Feito de Trabalhos, Galeria Obra Aberta, Porto Alegre (2003); O
Artista Pesquisador, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói (2001); A R E A L, intervenções no
Rio Grande do Sul (2001); Deslocamentos, Centro Dragão do Mar de Arte e Cultura, Ceará, Brasil
(2001), and many others.
Anna Maria Maiolino was born in Scalea, Italy in 1942. She currently lives and works in São
Paulo. In 1954 she moved to Caracas where she studied at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas
Cristóbal Rojas. In 1960 she moved to Rio de Janeiro where she took Brazilian national identity
and in 1961, began a course in printmaking at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes. In 1964 she
had her first solo exhibition at Galería G, Caracas and in 1967 participated in the exhibition Nova
Objetividade Brasileira at the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro. In 1971 New York’s Pratt
University awarded her a study grant to attend the studios of the International Graphic Center
Workshop. During the 1970s and 1980s she participated in numerous solo and group
exhibitions, cinema festivals and actions in public spaces, among which the XII Bienal
Internacional de São Paulo and the X Biennale de Paris (both in 1973) were of particular
significance. Her most recent solo exhibitions include: Pharos Centre for Contemporari Art,
Cyprus (2007); Anna Maria Maiolino: Territories of Immanence, retrospective exhibition, Miami Art
Central, Miami (2006); Muitos, retrospective exhibition at Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo
(2005); and A Life Line / Vida Afora, an anthological exhibition of drawings at The Drawing
Center, New York (2002), among many others. She has been included in group exhibitions
such as New Perspectives in Latin American Art, 1930–2006, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA),
New York (2007); Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution, MOCA, Los Angeles, and The National
Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. (2007); A Batalla dos Xéneros, Centro Galego de
Arte Contemporánea, Galicia (2007); Tropicália: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture, Museum of
Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Barbican Art Gallery, London (2005-2006); and Inside the
Visible, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (traveling exhibition) (1996). She also
undertook a residency at Art in General, New York to install an exhibition of her Super 8 films
and video projections (2001-2002). She has received numerous distinctions, the highlights of
which include: Os Melhores de 1993, Premio APCA (Associação Paulista de Críticos de Artes);
Melhor Mostra, Prêmio Mário Pedrosa, granted by ABCA, 1990 (Associação Brasileira de Críticos
de Arte), Rio de Janeiro (1989); Prêmio de Aquisição, III Salão Nacional de Artes Plásticas, Rio de
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
Centro / Porto Alegre / RS / Brasil / 90.010-080
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Janeiro (1980); IN-OUT Antropofagia, Film awarded at the Ist Festival de Filme Super-8, Curitiba,
Paraná, Brazil (1974).
Arnaldo Antunes was born in São Paulo in 1960, where he lives and works. A musician, poet,
video-maker and performer, he works with the written and spoken language to suggest
different means of interpretation, such as paths of encryption, of reading, and correspondence.
His solo exhibitions include: Galeria de Arte Laura Marsiaj, Rio de Janeiro (2008); Caligrafias,
Bolsa de Arte de Porto Alegre, RS (2006) and Performance Poética, Piemonte Share Festival,
Palazzo Cavour, Turin (2006); Escrita à mão, Centro Universitário Maria Antonia, São Paulo and
Galeria Laura Marsiaj, Rio de Janeiro (2005) and Cérebro Sexo, Fundación Centro de Estudos
Brasileiros, Buenos Aires (2003). His group exhibitions include: Entre la Palavra y la Imagen,
Fundación Luis Seoane, La Corunha, Spain (2006); Múltiplos, Galeria Laura Marsiaj, Rio de Janeiro
(2004); Brazilian Visual Poetry, Mexic-Art Museum, Austin (2002); II Bienal de Artes Visuais do
Mercosul, Porto Alegre (1999); 28a Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (1998); and VI Bienal de La
Habana (1997), among others. He has also made poetic performances such as Reading With the
Ears, Centro Brasileiro Britânico, São Paulo (2006); Entre a Palavra e a Imagem, Universidad
Internacional Menéndez Pelayo and Fundación Luis Seoane, La Corunha, Spain (2006); Xadrez de
Estrelas - Absolute Poetry - October Poetry Festival, Galleria d'Arte Contemporanea, Monfalcone,
Rome (2005); Arnaldo Antunes In Concerto - Absolute Poetry - October Poetry Festival, Teatro
Comunale, Monfalcone, Italy (2005); and Performance Poética, Piemonte Share Festival, Turin
(2005); Horizontes Literários (a reading with Augusto de Campos and Cid Campos), Sesc Carmo,
São Paulo (2002); Poemix Brasil (performance with Lenora de Barros, João Bandeira and Cid
Campos), Romapoesia Internacional Festival, Rome (2002). Other performances include NOME,
with Guilherme Kastrup and Chico Neves, at Fundação de Serralves, Museu de Arte
Contemporânea, Porto (2001) and participation in the Festival de Poesia Sonora Correntes de Ar
(performance with Guilherme Kastrup), Guarda, Portugal (2001). Further poetic performances
were held at Festa Literária Internacional de Parati (FLIP), Parati (2004) and at the 4ª Feira do Livro
do Zócalo, Museo de la Ciudad de México (2004), among others.
Arturo Herrera was born in Caracas in 1959. He currently lives and works in Berlin. He has
studied at the University of Tulsa (1982) and the University of Illinois in Chicago (1992). Herrera’s
most important solo exhibitions include: Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2007); The Aldrich
Museum of Contemporary Art, Connecticut (2007); Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea,
Santiago de Compostela (2005); UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Ángeles and the Whitney Museum
of American Art, New York (2001); The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2002); Centre d’Art
Contemporain, Geneva (2000); and The Renaissance Society, Chicago (1998). Group exhibitions
include: the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublín; The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New
York; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, and Castello di Rivoli, Turin. He has also participated in
Prospect 1. New Orleans (2008); and the 4th Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre (2004); the Whitney
Biennial 2002, New York (2002); and the Instanbul Biennial (1999), among many others.
Augusto de Campos was born in São Paulo in 1931, where he currently lives and works. Poet,
translator, essayist, literary critic and musician, he published his first book of poems, O REI
MENOS O REINO, in 1951. In 1952, together with his brother Haroldo de Campos and Décio
Pignatari, he founded the literary magazine Noigandres, the origin of the Noigandres Group
which initiated the international movement of Concrete Poetry in Brazil. In the magazine’s
second issue (1955) he published his series of coloured poems entitled POETAMENOS, originally
written in 1953 and considered the first consistent example of concrete poetry in Brazil. In these
poems, conventional verse and syntax were abandoned and the words rearranged in graphic-
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
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spatial structures, sometime printed in up to six different colors as inspired by Webern’s
Klangfarbenmelodie (tone color melody). In 1956 he participated in the organization of the
Premiere Exposição Nacional de Arte Concreta (Fine Arts and Poetry) at the Museu de Arte
Moderna de São Paulo. His work was later included in many exhibitions, as well as in
international anthologies including the historic publication Concrete Poetry: an International
Anthology, organized by Stephen Bann (London,1967); Concrete Poetry: A World View, by Mary
Ellen Solt (University of Bloomington, Indiana, 1968) and the Anthology of Concrete Poetry, by
Emmet Williams (NY, 1968). Most of his poems are found in VIVA VAIA, 1979, DESPOESIA (1994)
and NÃO (with a CDR of his Clip-Poems) (2003). Other important works include POEMÓBILES
(1974) and CAIXA PRETA (1975), collections of poem-objects made in collaboration with artist
and designer Julio Plaza. From 1980, he began experimenting with new media, presenting his
poems as light installations, videotexts, neon, holograms and laser, computerized animation as
well as multimedia events. He embraced sound and music, with the plurivocal reading of
CIDADECITYCITÉ (with Cid Campos) in 1987/1991. His holographic poems (made in collaboration
with Moyses Baumstein) were included in exhibitions such as TRILUZ (1986) and IDEHOLOGIA
(1987). A video clip of the poem PULSAR, with music by Caetano Veloso, was produced in 1984,
in an Intergraph station, with the collaboration of the group Olhar Eletrônico. POEMA BOMBA
and SOS, with music by his son, Cid Campos, were animated in a Silicon Graphics computerized
station at the Universidade de São Paulo (1992-3). His partnership with his son, which began in
1987, was recorded in POESIA É RISCO (a CD released in 1995 by PolyGram), and developed into
a show under the same name, a “verbivocovisual” performance of poetry/music/imagery with
video editing by Walter Silveira, presented in a number of cities in Brazil and abroad. His digital
animations - the CLIP-POEMAS - were exhibited in 1997 in the exhibition Arte Suporte
Computador, at Casa das Rosas, São Paulo. Among the Concrete Poetry commemorative
exhibitions in which he has participated, the following are significant: Concreta '56. A raiz da
forma, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (2006), curated by Lorenzo Mammi, João Bandeira
(poetry) and André Stolarski (design), in celebration of the 50 years of Exposição Nacional de
Arte Concreta; Poesia Concreta, O Projeto Verbivocovisual, an exhibition, website, cd and series of
debates at the Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo (2007), curated by Cid Campos (Music), João
Bandeira and Lenora de Barros (poetry) and Walter Silveira (video), São Paulo (2007); and Arte
Concreta Paulista - Grupo Noigandres, Centro Universitário Maria Antonia (2002), curated by João
Bandeira and Lenora de Barros are of particular significance. His most recent publications
include: Poesía é Risco (CD book), a poetical-musical anthology in collaboration with Cid
Campos, Rio de Janeiro, Polygram (1995); Clip-Poemas, 16 digital animation poems shown in the
exhibition Arte Suporte Computador, Casa das Rosas, São Paulo, (1997); Anthologie - Despoesia,
preface and translation of Jacques Donguy, Romaville, France, Al Dante (2002); and NÃO, with
CD-Rom, CLIP-POEMAS, São Paulo, Perspectiva (2003). Among his numerous translations and
critical works, A Year from Monday, by John Cage (Ed. Hucitec, 1985), with an introduction and
revision of the translation by Rogério Duprat, São Paulo, and Quase-Borges + 10 transpoemas,
São Paulo, Memorial da América Latina (Coleção Memo), (2006) are of particular significance.
Cabelo was born in Cachoeira de Itapemirim, Espírito Santo, Brazil, in 1967 and currently lives
and work in Rio de Janeiro. The artist´s work gained recognition in 1996, after he participated in
a group show entitled Antarctica Artes com a Folha, responsible for establishing the reputation
of a new generation of artists. Solo exhibitions include: Nas Asas do Escaravelho Verde Ouro,
Marília Razuk Galeria de Arte, São Paulo (2008); Mianmar Miroir, The Corridor, Art Positions, Art
Basel Miami (2006); and Imediações de Monte Basura, Centre D’art Santa Monica, Barcelona
(2005), among others. Group exhibitions include: De Perto, De Longe, Liceu de Artes e Ofícios,
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
Centro / Porto Alegre / RS / Brasil / 90.010-080
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São Paulo (2008); 26ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (2004); Violência e Paixão, Museu de Arte
Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (2003); Cote à Cote, Art Contemporain Du Brésil, CAPC Musée d’Art
Contemporain, Bordeaux (2001); Cefalópode Heptópode, Documenta X, Museum Fridericianum,
Kassel, Germany (1997).
Cadu Costa was born in São Paulo in 1977 and currently lives in Rio de Janeiro. He graduated in
Painting, from the Escola de Belas Artes of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (2002). He
also has a Masters and Doctorate from the same institution. Solo exhibitions include: Galeria
Vermelho, São Paulo (2009); Laura Marsiaj Arte Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro (2008); Ália,
Galeria Zouk, Rio Grande do Sul (2006); and Laura Marsiaj Arte Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro
(2005). Group Exhibitions include: Nova Arte Nova, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de
Janeiro and São Paulo (2008/09); Cícera, Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo (2008); Fo[t]o, Centro
Cultural Municipal Laurinda Santos Lobo, Rio de Janeiro (2008); Desenho em Todos os Sentidos,
Festival de Inverno da Região Serrana (2008); Sesc Nova Frigurgo, Petrópolis and Teresópolis,
Rio de Janeiro (2008); Verbo, Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo (2008); Champs D’expériences, L’art
comme expérience, L19, Centre Régional D’arte Contemporain, Montbéliard, France (2008); Paper
Trail, Allsopp Contemporary, London (2008); and Estratégia, Plymouth Art Centre, Plymouth,
United Kingdom (2008). Awards include: International Artist Fellowship , a residency at the
Institute of Digital Art and Technology (i-DAT), in partnership with Plymouth Arts Centre and
The Centre for Robotics and Intelligent Systems (CRIS), UK, in 2007/08.
Camila Sposati was born in São Paulo in 1972, where she currently lives and works. She has a
Bachelor’s degree in History from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (1996), a
Graduate degree in Photography from the Centro di Ricerca de la Fotografia in Pordenone, Italy
(1998) as well as a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from Goldsmiths College, London (2003). She
currently lectures at the Instituto Europeo di Design, São Paulo. In 2009 she undertook research
for the exhibition Crescimento Urbano e Processo de Crescimento de Cristal, Tokyo Wonder Site,
Tokyo. For the program Artist Links/British Council, she developed the project Entropy: Smoke
and Crystals mediated by The Arts Catalyst, a science-art agency based at University College
London (2007). Also in 2007 she was resident artist at Gasworks, London. Following the reciept
of an Aschenberg-UNESCO Grant she was resident at HIAP/Cable Factory in Helsinki, Finland
(2003). She coordinated the project Fluxo de Arte Belém Contemporâneo (2004) and has been
included in exhibitions at Paço das Artes, São Paulo (2007); Vídeo Links, Tate Modern, London
(2007); Instituto dos Arquitetos do Brasil, São Paulo (2008); Eleven Rivington Gallery, New York
(2008) and 798 Gallery, Beijing, China (2009).
Cildo Meireles was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1948 where he lives and works. He began his
studies in art at the Fundação Cultural de Brasília in 1963. In 1965 he first participated in an
exhibition at the II Salão Nacional de Arte Moderna de Brasília. Later, in 1967, he held his first solo
exhibition at the Museu de Arte Moderna de Salvador, Bahia. Among his most prominent recent
solo exhibitions are: Cildo Meireles, Tate Modern, London (2008-2009); Babel, Museu Vale do Rio
Doce, Vila Velha, Brazil, and Estação Pinacoteca, São Paulo (2006); Algum Desenho 1963-2005,
Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro (2005); Occasion, Portikus im Leinwandhaus,
Frankfurt (2004); Cildo Meireles, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (1999-2000);
and Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM), Valencia (1995), among others. His work has
also been included in many group exhibitions; some of the most recent include Arte No Es Vida:
Actions by Artists of the Americas, 1960-2000, El Museo del Barrio, New York (2008); New
Perspectives in Latin American Art, 1930-2006: Prints, Photographs, and Media Works, The Museum
of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (2007); Transactions, Blanton Museum of Art, University of
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
Centro / Porto Alegre / RS / Brasil / 90.010-080
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Texas, Austin (2007); Time Present Time Past: Highlights from 20 Years of the International Istanbul
Biennial, Istanbul Modern, Istanbul (2007); Open Systems: Rethinking Art c.1970, Tate Modern,
London (2005). He has also participated in the Biennale Internazionale di Venezia (1976, 2003,
2005 and 2009); Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (1981, 1989, 1994 e 1998); Documenta, Kassel,
Germany (1992 e 2002 ); Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre (1997, 2007); Gwangju Biennale 2000:
Man + Space, Gwangju, Korea (2000); 2nd Johannesburg Biennale - Trade Routes, Johannesburg
(1997); V Biennale of Sydney (1984); and the Biennale de Paris (1977). Among other important
distinctions, he has also received the Prêmio Velázquez, Ministerio de Cultura, Spain (2008); The
Ordway Prize from the Creative Link for the Arts and The New Museum for Contemporary Art,
New York (2008); Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture,
Skowhegan, Maine (2006); Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, San Francisco Art Institute, San
Francisco (2005); and the Prince Claus Award, The Prince Claus Fund, The Hague (1999).
Chelpa Ferro is a collective founded in Rio de Janeiro by artists Luiz Zerbini, Sergio Mekler and
Barrão in 1995. Their work focuses on objects, performance and sound installations, that at
times include painting and image editing. Chelpa Ferro´s solo exhibitions include, among
others: Jungle Jam, Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia, Salvador (2008); Jardim Elétrico, Galeria
Vermelho, São Paulo (2008); and HUM, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro
(2003). Group exhibitions include: Laços do Olhar, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo (2008); 30°
Panorama de Arte Brasileira, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (2007); Geração da Virada - 10
+ 1: os anos recentes da arte brasileira, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo (2006); 51ª Biennale
Internazionale di Venezia (2005); 25ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (2002).
Claudia Del Río was born inRosario, Argentina where she currently lives and works. She studied
theater, painting and received a teaching degree in Visual Arts from the Escuela de Bellas Artes
de la Universidad National de Rosario, where she has taught since 1982. During the 1980s she
worked in the fields of mail art, performances and publications. Between 1994 and 1995 she was
selected for the Clinica de Obra program, organized by Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires. In 2000
she was invited by Proyecto Trama (Network of Artistic Initiatives) to coordinate an experiment
with scholarship stundents in Rosario. Since 2001, she has participated as an invited artist in the
Encontros Regionais de Produção e Análise para Artistas Visuais program, organized through the
Fundación Antorchas. She is also a co-founder of the Club Del Dibujo. In June 2004 she
participated as a resident artist in Artekelu (San Sebastián, Spain).
Courtney Smith was born in Paris in 1966. A graduate in Art and Comparative Literature from
Yale University, she took a graduate course at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage, Rio de
Janeiro, having lived in Brazil from 1989 to 2000. Solo exhibitions include Igloo, Next Door,
Rome (2008); and Build Up, Roebling Hall, New York (2007). Group exhibitions: Remake.
Courtney Smith and Iván Navarro, G Fine Art, Washington, D.C. (2008); Interiors, Hales Gallery,
London (2008); 2nd Lives, Museum of Arts and Design, New York (2008); Waste Not, Want Not,
Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, New York (2008); and Informed by Function, Lehman
College Art Gallery, Bronx, New York (2008). She has also exhibited at the Fórum Cultural de
Esmerinde, Portugal (2007); Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (2007).
Cristiano Lenhardt was born in Itaara, Rio Grande do Sul in 1975. He has lived in Santa Maria,
Porto Alegre and in Rio de Janeiro, and currently lives and works in Recife. He graduated in Fine
Arts from the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (2000) and provided artistic supervision at
Torreão in Porto Alegre, from 2001 to 2003. He also became a member of Grupo Laranjas. He
has held solo exhibitions at Galeria Marcantonio Vilaça, Instituto Cultural Banco Real, Recife
(2008) and has been accredited with the following awards: Prêmio Aquisição (2008); Abre Alas,
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
Centro / Porto Alegre / RS / Brasil / 90.010-080
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Galeria A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro (2008); Prêmio Projéteis da Arte Contemporânea,
FUNARTE, Rio de Janeiro (2008); Prêmio Concurso videoarte, Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, Recife
(2007); SPA das artes, Recife (2007 e 2004); and the grant Prêmio 26º Salão de Artes Plásticas de
Pernambuco, Pernambuco (2006); among others.
Cristóbal León was born in Santiago, Chile, in 1980. He currently lives and works in Berlin.
Between 1999 and 2005 he studied Design and Art at Universidad Católica, Santiago. His work
includes short animated films and video installations. He also works as part of an artistic
collective with collaborators Niles Atallah and Joaquín Cociña.. Video installations include:
Nocturno de Chile, Vídeo Art Show, Museum of Visual Arts, Santiago, Chile (2007); Birth, Vídeo Art
Show, Museum of Visual Arts, Santiago, Chile (2007); and Lucia, arteBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
(2007).
Cristóbal Leyht was born in Santiago, Chile, in 1973. He currently lives and works in New York.
His solo exhibitions include: El Penúltimo Paisaje, Sala de Arte Fundación Telefónica Chile,
Santiago (2009); Dramaprojektion, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart (2008); Reduced to Insults, Room
Gallery at University of California, Irvine, United States (2007); El mar de bolivia, Die Ecke,
Santiago, Chile (2006).Group exhibitions include: E-flux Video Rental, Centro de Arte Moderna
José de Azeredo Perdigão, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon (2008); Be Marginal Be Hero,
Thrust Projects, New York (2008); Linea de Hormigas, A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro (2007); The
(S) Files, El Museo del Barrio, New York (2007); Daniel Lopez Show, Roebling Hall, Brooklyn, New
York (2007); E-flux Video Rental, Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris (2007); New Ghost
Entertainment, Kunsthaus Dresden (2006); When Artists Say We, Artists Space, New York (2006).
Daniel Acosta was born in Rio Grande, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil in 1965. He lives and works in
Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul. He teaches Sculpture and Drawing at the Instituto de Arte e Design
of the Universidade Federal de Pelotas. In 1987 he graduated in Drawing and Fine Art, majoring
in Sculpture, from the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria. He has Doctorate in Fine Arts from
the Escola de Comunicações e Artes at the Universidade de São Paulo (2005). Solo exhibitions
include: Casa Triângulo, São Paulo (2008); Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Goiás, Goiânia
(2004); A Deriva, Capela do Morumbi, São Paulo (2000); and Transfigurações, Pinacoteca Barão de
Santo Ângelo, Instituto de Artes of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre
(1999). Group exhibitions include: Quase Líquido, Itaú Cultural, São Paulo (2008); Arte no Porto,
Pelotas (2007); Primeira Pessoa, Itaú Cultural, São Paulo (2006); MAM (na) OCA, Parque do
Ibirapuera, São Paulo (2006); Geração da Virada: 10 anos + 1, Os Anos Recentes na Arte Brasileira,
Instituto Tomie Othake, São Paulo (2006).
Daniela Thomas was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1959. A filmmaker, cinema and theater director,
and script writer, she is based in São Paulo, while working in other cities in Latin America,
Europe and the United States. As a filmmaker, she wrote and co-directed Linha de Passe (Best
Actress, Cannes, 2008; Best Directior, Set and Actress, Havana, 2008), Terra Estrangeira, O
Primeiro Dia and one of the episodes in Paris Je T’Aime, all with Walter Salles. She began her
career in filmmaking and costume design in the 1980s, as resident artist at La MaMa
Experimental Theater Company in New York, where, among other projects, she designed the set
and costumes of the premier of All Strange Away by Samuel Beckett (the first of seven texts by
Samuel Beckett that she adapted for the stage). Since then she has created sets for numerous
theater and opera shows in a number of countries. Among her numerous filmmaking awards,
highlights include the Golden Triga, at the Prague Quadrennial of Scenography.
Daniele Buetti was born in Fribourg, Switzerland in 1956. He currently lives and works in Zurich.
He has been a professor at the University of Fine Art, in Münster, Germany, since 2004. He
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
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gained international recognition for his works Good Fellows and Looking for Love (1994-1998),
which were presented in a number of international exhibitions. He has held solo exhibitions in
several museums and galleries, such as Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg; Galerie arsFutura, Zurich;
B&D Studio di Arte Contemporanea, Milan; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid.
His most recent group exhibitions include: Radical Advertising, NRW-Forum, Düsseldorf,
Germany; Dressing the Message, Sprengel Museum Hannover, Germany; Replay, Haus für Kunst
Uri, Switzerland; Balls & Brains, Helmhaus Zurich; Mythologies, Haunch of Venison, London;
PRINTED MATTER, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; Chinetik, Tinguely Museum, Basel;
Bildschön. Schönheitskult in der aktuellen Kunst, Städtische Galerie Karlsruhe, Germany.
Débora Bolsoni was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1975. She currently lives and works in São Paulo.
After concluding her studies in Visual Art at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage and
receiving a teaching degree in Arts from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, she studied
Drawing at Central Saint Martins College of Art, London. In 2004, she was selected for a
residency program at the Remisen-Brande Cultural Center in Denmark. Solo exhibitions
include: Temporada de Projetos, Paço das Artes, São Paulo (2008); Mudança de Lugar, Galeria
Marília Razuk, São Paulo (2007); Fazer Crer, MAMAM no Pátio, Recife (2007); and Porta com
Medalha, Centro Universitário Maria Antônia, São Paulo (2006). Her group exhibitions include:
De Perto, De Longe, Liceu de Artes e Ofícios, São Paulo (2008); Contraditório 30° Panorama da Arte
Brasileira, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo and Alcalá 31, Madrid (2008); and Investigações,
Itaú Cultural, São Paulo (1999).
Décio Pignatari was born in Jundiaí, São Paulo in 1927. Theorist, advertiser and writer, he was
one of the founders, alongside brothers Haroldo and Augusto de Campos, of concrete literature
in Brazil in the 1950s. His theoretical texts can be found in books such as Panteros (1992); O
Rosto da Memória (1986); Semiótica e Literatura (1974); Contracomunicação (1972) and
Informação, Linguagem, Comunicação (1968). His poems were first published in the Revista
Brasileira de Poesia, in 1949. The following year, he successfully released a book of poetry,
Carrossel, and, in 1952, founded the group and published the magazine-book Noigandres. In
1953 he graduated in Law from the Universidade de São Paulo (USP), soon after which he
traveled to Europe where he spent two years establishing contact with a number of artists and
intellectuals. In 1956 the Noigandres group officially launched the concrete poetry movement,
during the Exposição Nacional de Arte Concreta at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo
(MAM/SP), which was also shown the following year in the lobby of the Ministry of Education
and Culture, Rio de Janeiro. In 1956 the group released Plano-piloto para Poesia Concreta, a
theoretical summary of their poetic work, which was translated into several languages. In 1965,
still with Haroldo and Augusto de Campos, he released the book Teoria da Poesia Concreta.
Besides writing, he carried out research in the area of semiotics: in 1969, he helped establish the
Association Internationale de Sémiotique in France, and, in 1975, he participated in the launch
of the Associação Brasileira de Semiótica. He has recently published Bili com Limão Verde na Mão
(Cosac Naify), a book classified as children’s literature and his first widely acclaimed fictional
narrative publication since Panteros (1992).
Delcy Morelos was born in Tierra Alta, Colombia in 1967, and currently lives and works in
Bogotá, Colombia. She studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de Cartagena. Among her solo
exhibitions are: La doble negación, Alonso Garcés Galería, Bogotá (2008); Delcy Morelos, Gt
Gallery, Belfast (2006); Obstaculo, Museo de Arte Moderno de Barranquilla, Barranquilla,
Colombia (2005); En la Trama Personal, Galería Alonso Garcés, Bogotá (2004); and Color que Soy,
Museo de Arte Universidad Nacional, Bogotá (2002). She has participated in several group
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
Centro / Porto Alegre / RS / Brasil / 90.010-080
Fone/fax: +55 (51) 3254-7500
[email protected]
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exhibitions, including: Urgente! 41 Salón Nacional de Artistas, Cali, Colombia (2008); Sem título,
Mde07 Espacios de Hospitalidad, Medellín, Colombia (2007); Corporal, Contemporary Women
Artist from Latin America, Schmidt Center Gallery, Atlantic University, Florida (2004); VIII Bienal
de Arte de Bogotá, Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (2002); Bienal Internacional de Cuenca,
Ecuador (2001); and VI Bienal de La Habana, Havana (1996). She has obtained distinctions such as
the PrimerPremio at the Salão de Arte Joven from Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano in Cartagena
and the Primer Premio at the Salón de Arte Joven de Bogotá, Colombia (1994). She was selected
to participate in the Flaxarts Studios Residency Program, Belfast (2006) and Metal Space for
Artists, Residency Program, Liverpool, UK (2003). Furthermore, she obtained the award Bienal
Internacional de Arte ES2002, Centro Cultural Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.
Diana Aisenberg lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her work is primarily based in
drawing and painting but extends to pedagogical and publication projects, including her
experimental dictionary of art. Since 1982 she has been dedicated to teaching artists. She
gained recognition in the Asociación Argentina de Críticos de Arte for her teaching work in 2000
and received the “J.A Martínez” award in 2003 from the same association. She was Coordinator
for Visual Arts, Courses and Special Events at the Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas of the
Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA). She was the Professor of Morphology at the Facultad de
Diseño Gráfico at the UBA and Fundación Antorchas, among others. She was also curator of the
ArteBA youth center in 2006. Since 2006, she has been organizing RIAA Artist Residencies.
Among her most important solo exhibitions are: Escuela/Salta, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo,
Salta (2009); Escuela, Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires (2008); Arquitectura del Cielo, Galeria
Daniel Abate, Buenos Aires (2006); Maestro, Fundacion Arteviva and Project Room, feira arteBA,
Buenos Aires (2005); Combo, Proyecto Sala 2, Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires (2003);
arteBA, project room, Buenos Aires (2002); Sobremesa, Espacio VOX, Bahía Blanca (2001);
Capricho Solar, Teatro Auditórium, Mar del Plata (2000); Jardín, La Casona de los Olivera (1999);
Centro Villa Victoria Ocampo, Mar del Plata (1998); La Pequeña Galería, Asunción (1994); and the
Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas, Universidad de Buenos Aires, (1992). Group exhibitions she has
participated in include: Vé, Vete y Vuelve, Alianza Francesa, Buenos Aires (2008); 150 mts Poéticos,
Centro Cultural España Córdoba (2007); and Boquitas Pintadas, Shangrilla (2007).
Diego Fernández was born in Santiago, Chile in 1973. He currently lives and works in New York.
He studied Fine Arts at the Universidad Católica de Chile and later founded Galeria Chilena,
organizing events, exhibitions and publications. His work involves collage, drawing, painting
and musical performances. He has had exhibitions at Orchard Gallery, New York; Galerie
Christian Nagel, Berlin and Cologne; Galeria Gabriela Mistral, Santiago, Chile; Galeria Chilena,
Santiago, Chile; Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Valdivia,
Chile; and other cultural centers.
Diego Melero was born in 1960 in San Justo, Santa Fé, Argentina, where he lives and works.
From 1980 to 1983 he studied with Guillermo Kuitca. In 1986 started his carreer in Sociology, at
the Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA). In 1999 presents his first
performance at the Galería Archimboldo de Buenos Aires, in which he connects art and the
social sciencies. In 2007 participated in the Documenta XII, Kassel, Germany, with the
performance Sobre el problema de acceso a la vivienda. Since then he presented a number of
times, with different performances, many of them involving gym classes, philosophy and
politics, among them the ones in Galería Arcimboldo, Buenos Aires (2008); Belleza y Felicidad,
Buenos Aires (2006 y 2007); las Jornadas de Sociología, Universidad de Buenos Aires (2007). He
was awarded the Bolsa de Comercio de Rosario, granted from El Museo de Arte Contempornáneo
de Rosario, and Marasca Trip, Rosario (2007); also received grants from Fundación Telefónica de
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
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Argentina, Buenos Aires (2007); la Torre de los Ingleses, Buenos Aires (2004). He also
participated in the last última Bienal Venus, coordinated by Roberto Jacoby, in Tandil, Argentina
(2003), among others.
Edgardo Antonio Vigo was born in La Plata, Argentina in 1928 and died in 1997. He was a
visual artist, poet and editor, and worked as a Professor of Drawing, at the Escuela Superior de
Bellas Artes of the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, as well as a law officer. He was the founder
of the magazine Diagonal Cero (1962-68), a publication with which to disseminate practices of
experimental language. As from 1968 he began his señalamientos, urban and private actions
and performances which aimed to activate a more attentive perception over the poetic
potential of daily objects/ signs. Vigo delved into different art practices, from performances, to
conceptual art, mail art, xylography, visual poetry, and the publication of magazines and
objects, among others. He worked with Horacio Zabala and Juan Carlos Romero; the Grupo de
los Trece (CAyC); Juan Bercetche, Eduardo Leonetti and, under the nickname G.E. Marx-Vigo,
with Graciela Gutiérrez Marx, for seven years. He maintained active correspondence with
Clemente Padín (Uruguay), Augusto and Haroldo de Campos (Brazil), Paulo Bruscky (Brazil),
among other significant figures in the sphere of international mail art. He founded the Museo
de la Xilografía (1967), a Duchamp inspired mobile museum which travelled in boxes and
suitcases. He also published his Poemas Matemáticos Barrocos in France (1967), and organized
the Expo/Internacional de Novísima Poesía at the Centro de Artes Visuales del Instituto Torcuato
Di Tella (1969), which was then presented at the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes de La Plata. He
took part in numerous international exhibitions and engaged in the exchange of works and
publications with other international visual poets. In 1994 he was part of the official
Argentinean representation at the XXII Bienal Internacional de São Paulo together with Líbero
Badii and Pablo Suárez, and in 1997 he participated in the 1ª Bienal do Mercosul. His work is
currently the subject of renewed interest and has been included in recent exhibitions proposing
a critical review of his legacy on the map of Latin American conceptualism. These exhibitions
include: MAQUINAciones, Centro Cultural de España en Buenos Aires (2008), traveling to
MACRO-Castagnino, Rosario and Museo Caraffa, Córdoba (2009); No-Arte-Si. Itinerarios de la
vanguardia platense La Plata. Buenos Aires 1960-1970, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo
Latinoamericano (MACLA), La Plata (2007); and Arte Nuevo en La Plata 1960-1976, Centro Cultural
Recoleta, Buenos Aires (2007), among others.
Eduardo Barrera Arambarri was born in Mexico City in 1974, where he currently lives and
works. He studied graphic design at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas at the Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México. He attended workshops by Uwe Loesch, Takashi Akiyama, Marna Bunnell,
Peter Pocs and Manuel Marin, among others. He created designs for several cultural projects
including Trama Visual AC; Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes; and Conaculta and Instituto de
Cultura de Yucután, Mexico F.D., In advertising he worked with Leo Burnett México, Magic
Moments Austria and Eveun Boutique Criativa. Working as a freelance designer since 2001, he
has developed corporate and institutional images, typographic fonts, posters, editorial designs,
packages, web pages, motion graphics and multimedia presentations for a number of clients
including fine artists, museums, companies, independently authored projects and advertising
agencies. His poster work has represented Mexico in official selections for contests, biennales
and collective exhibitions in eighteen countries. He has received awards at the Bienal
Internacional del Cartel, Mexico (2000) and the 4th Block Triennial of Eco-Posters, in Kharkov,
Ukraine (2006). The publication Ergo Sum, developed with artist Erick Beltrán for the Fundação
Tápies in Barcelona, won the first prize at the Bro Biennale of Graphic Design in 2008, in the
Czech Republic.
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
Centro / Porto Alegre / RS / Brasil / 90.010-080
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Eduardo Basualdo was born in 1977 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he currently lives and
works. He studied at the Instituto Universitario Nacional de Arte (IUNA). Since 2003 he has been
a member of the collective Provisorio/Permanente along with Victoriano Alonso, Manuel
Heredia, Hernán Soriano and Pedro Wainer. He attended the workshops Intercampos, Fundación
Telefónica, Buenos Aires (2005), the Clínica de Artes Visuales at the Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas,
Buenos Aires (2006) and Lipac at the same institution (2008). In 2007, he participated in the
workshop analysis of the work El Levante in Rosario, Argentina. His most recent exhibitions
include: Southern Exposure, Dumbo Art Center, New York (2008); Off/Fóra. Movimientos
imaginarios entre Galicia y el Cono Sur. 29º Bienal de Pontevedra, Pontevedra, Spain and Centro
Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires (2006-2007); Azotado por el viento, Galería Isidro Miranda,
Buenos Aires (2007); and Cabeza Rodante, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín (2006).
Eduardo Costa was born in 1940 in Buenos Aires, where he currently lives and works. Artist and
writer, he studied Languages, Literature, and the History of Art at the Universidad de Buenos
Aires. He co-authored, with Roberto Jacoby and Raúl Escari, the manifesto Un arte de los medios
de comunicación (1966) and arte de los medios, which, among other works, included the mass
media broadcast of a textual and photographic report of a fictitious happening – o Happening
para un jabalí difunto – with the intention of demonstrating the fusion between moments of
production and reception of an art work. With Jacoby, he presented Poema Ilustrado (1966) at
the gallery of the Radio Municipal, a work in which fragments of spoken language were
presented as poems. In turn, Costa, Jacoby and Juan Risuleo created the Primera audición de
obras creadas para lenguaje oral at the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella. At the end of the 1960s, he
traveled to New York, where he made contact and worked with artists and poets such as John
Perreault, Vito Acconci, Scott Gordon, and Hannah Weiner, among others, creating collaborative
works such as Tape Poems (1968), with Perreault, and Names of friends. A poem for the Deaf-mute
(1969). These are works that demonstrate the confluence of multiple languages in an
atmosphere of experimentation and expansion in terms of artistic practice, like, for example, the
Fashion show poetry event (1969), a pageant-like work which combined fashion and poetry,
devised in collaboration with Perreault and Weiner. On returning to Buenos Aires, he
participated in a tribute to Duchamp, at the Galería Arte Nuevo in 1977, with his work
Duchamp/Costa Rueda de bicicleta. The following year he moved to Rio de Janeiro to participate
in the project Esquenta pro Carnaval, with Hélio Oiticica (1979-1980). Since 1994, he has been
developing his series Volumetric Painting, works which seek to transcend the theoretical
technique of traditional painting. In 2008 he presented his solo exhibition Mini retrospectiva at
the gallery Faría Fábrega in Caracas. His work has also been included in significant group
exhibitions: Early Conceptualism, Brussels (2008); Arte No Es Vida: Actions by Artists of the
Americas, 1960-2000, El Museo del Barrio, New York (2008); Beginning with a Bang! From
Confrontation to Intimacy. An Exhibition of Argentine Contemporary Artists 1960-2007, Americas
Society, New York (2007); Draw a straight line and follow it, Bard College, New York (2006);
Inverted Utopias, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2004); and Heterotopías. Medio siglo sin
lugar, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2000), among others.
Eduardo Navarro was born in 1979 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he currently lives and
works. He participated in the last edition of the Programa de Talleres para las Artes Visuales,
Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas - UBA, directed by Guillermo Kuitca (2003/2005) and the UBS Art
Scholarship Individual Grant Program for Young Emerging Artists 2006, Skowhegan School of
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
Centro / Porto Alegre / RS / Brasil / 90.010-080
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Painting, Maine (2006). His most recent solo exhibitions include, among others: Do not Feed,
Frederieke Taylor Gallery, New York (2008); Fabricantes Unidos, Daniel Abate Galería, Buenos
Aires (2008); and Children’s Jail, Balin House Projects, London (2007). His work has also recently
been included in the following group exhibitions: EV+A Exhibition of Visual Art, Limerick,
Ireland (2009); The Great Transformation, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt (2008); UBS "Young
Art", Zurich (2007); Beginning With a Bang! From Confrontation to Intimacy. An Exhibition of
Argentine Contemporary Artists 1960-2007, Americas Society, New York (2007); and Pod Show, The
Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin (2006), among others.
Fabio Kacero was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1961, where he lives and works. A
professor of Painting and Drawing, he graduated from the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes
Prilidiano Pueyrredón, and also studied at the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras at the Universidad
de Buenos Aires. His solo exhibitions include, among others: La muestra del año, Ruth Benzacar
Galería de Arte, Buenos Aires (2006); Museo Nemebiax, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bahía Blanca,
Argentina (2004); Nemebiax y cast/k, Proyecto Sala 2, Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires
(2003); Kravets-Wehby Gallery, New York (1998). He has recently participated in the following
group exhibitions: Archaeology of Longing, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris (2008); Urgente! 41°
Salón Nacional de Artistas, Cali, Colombia (2008); Beginning With A Bang! From Confrontation to
Intimacy. An Exhibition of Argentine Contemporary Artists 1960-2007, Americas Society, New York
(2007); Lo material no cuenta, Galería distrito4, Madrid (2006); and Heard Not Seen, Orchard
Gallery, New York, (2006). In 2003 he received a grant for art production from the Fondo
Nacional de las Artes, Buenos Aires. His awards and distinctions include: Video del año,
awarded by the Asociación Argentina de Críticos de Arte, Buenos Aires (2004); Diploma al mérito
quinquenio 1997-2001, Fundación Konex, Buenos Aires (2002); and the Premio Artista Iniciación,
Asociación Argentina de Críticos de Arte, Buenos Aires (1991).
Fabrice Gygi was born in Geneva in 1965, where he currently lives and works. He studied at the
École Supérieure d'Art Visuel (1984-90) and the École des Arts Décoratifs (1983-84), both in
Geneva. His solo exhibitions include: San Stae Chapel, Swiss Pavilion, 53a Biennale
Internazionale di Venezia, Venice (2009); Fabrice Gygi, Galerie Guy Bartschi, Geneva (2009); and
Cubes, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Marseilles, France (2007), among others. Group
exhibitions include: Regift, Swiss Institute, New York (2009); Bijoux de Famille, Galerie Chantal
Crousel, Paris (2009); Résidents / Vidéothèque Móbile, Le Plateau, Paris (2008); Dans ces eaux là...
Domaine du Château d’Avignon, France (2007), and XXV Bienal Internacional de Sao Paulo (2002),
among others.
Fermín Eguía was born in Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina in 1942. He currently lives and works
in Buenos Aires. He studied at the Escuela Municipal de Artes y Oficios and at the Escuela de
Bellas Artes Manuel Belgrano, both in Buenos Aires. He has had solo exhibitions at the Galería
Francisco Traba (2008); Centro Cultural Recoleta (2005) and Galería Sara García Uriburu (2002), in
Buenos Aires. In addition to participating in the 10th Biennale de Paris (1977), his work has been
included in numerous group exhibitions such as: Museo Salvaje, Centro Cultural de España en
Buenos Aires (2008); Pampa, ciudad y suburbio, Fundación Osde, Buenos Aires (2006); and
Cuerpo y materia, Fundación Osde, Buenos Aires (2005). His work has been recognized with
awards like the Primer Premio Marcelo De Ridder (1974); Primer Premio Banco del Acuerdo, Museo
Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires (1980); Premio Ad Aequo, Asociación Argentina de Críticos
de Arte (2006); and the Segundo Premio de Pintura, Salón Nacional de Artes Visuales, Buenos
Aires (2007).
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
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Flávio de Carvalho was born in Amparo da Barra Mansa, Rio de Janeiro in 1899 and died in
Valinhos São Paulo in 1973. During his life he developed activities within several artistic and
intellectual fields, frequently working in ways which were innovative and provocative. After
living in Paris for a few years, he studied philosophy at Stonyhurst College (UK) and engineering
at Armstrong College at the University of Durham (UK) before returning to Brazil in 1922 where
he began working as a surveying engineer on large architectural structures. He also worked as
an illustrator for the São Paulo based Diario da Noite from 1926, where he met Emiliano Di
Cavalcanti. He then opened his own architectural studio and in 1927 he presented his
controversial project Eficácia for the São Paulo State Government House competition. In 1928
he participated in the international competition for the construction of the Farol de Colombo
(Colombo Lighthouse), in the República de Santo Domingo, for which he received an honorable
mention. The following year he met the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier as well as
establishing a closer relationship with Grupo Antropofágic, and, as its "delegate", participated in
the IV Congresso Panamericano de Arquitetos, Rio de Janeiro (1930). In 1931 he carried out a
“psychological" experiment in the center of São Paulo, participating in a Corpus Cristi procession
with a particular hat on his head which caused widespread rejection amongst the faithful. He
also participated in the XXXVIII Exposição Geral de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro. He founded the
Clube dos Artistas Modernos (1933), along with Di Cavalcanti, Carlos Prado and Antonio
Gomide. The group also worked as a laboratory of experimental set design. He created the
Teatro de Experiência and the stage set for the play by Oswald de Andrade, O homen e o cavalo.
Later, he wrote and produced the work O bailando do deus morto (1933), a theater-dance show
with innovative aesthetics, for which he also designed the set and costumes, but which was
subsequently closed by the police for offending public opinion. He held his first solo exhibition
in the Alves Lima building (1934), in Itapetininga, also closed by the police for creating a public
scandal. He then traveled to Europe for six months where he met important artistic figures of
the time, among them André Breton, Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dalí. On his return, he took
part in the foundation of a new modernist group, with Oswald de Andrade, Paulo Emilio Sallers
Gomes, Décio de Almeida Prado, Afranio Zuccolotto and Vera Vicente de Azevedo (1935). He
produced the decoration for the official Carnaval of São Paulo (1936). The Royal Academy of Arts
in London included his work in the show Exhibition of Modern Brazilian Paintings (1944). In 1948
he had a solo exhibition at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo. He took part in the XXV Biennale
Internazionale di Venezia (1950) and produced the scenography for the Grupo Experimental de
Ballet. He also participated in the 1st and 2nd editions of the Bienal Internacional de São Paulo
(1953 and 1955). In 1956 he began publishing a series of articles entitled A moda e o Novo
Homen, in the newspaper Diário de S. Paulo. He designed the set, costumes and makeup for the
Ballet Yanka Rudska, Lia de Carvalho and Anita Landerset at the Teatro de Cultura Artística in
São Paulo. Together with Assis Chateaubriand he made a walk through the center of São Paulo
exhibiting his specially devised masculine tropical outfit, which consisted of a skirt and loose
short-sleeved blouse, and which caused much controversy. In 1975, he traveled to the USA and
received the Gold Medal at the I Bienal de Artes Plásticas do Teatro. He participated in an
expedition to the Amazon organized by the Serviço de Proteção ao Índio (Native Indian
Protection Service) in order to make a film (1958). A few years later, he received the gold medal
Teatro Nacional de Comédia granted by the Serviço Nacional de Teatro during the IV Bienal de
Teatro (1963) and the gold medal from the XIV Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna (1965). He
designed sets for the ballet Tempo (by Grupo Móbile) from the Teatro Ruth Escobar, in São
Paulo (1965). His work was also included in the exhibition Semana de 22: antecedentes e
conseqüências, MASP, São Paulo (1972), among many others.
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Francisca García was born in Santiago, Chile in 1969. His education includes a Teaching degree
in Art from the Pontificia Universidad Católica, and he graduated in Cinema from the Escuela de
Cine de Chile. Selected solo exhibitions include: Antarktikos, Galería Puntágeles, Valparaíso,
Chile (2008); Señales Lumininosas, Galería Afa, Santiago (2008); Rundum die Landschaft,
Kunstverein Ahlen, Germany (2006); Exterior, diorama, Centro Cultural Matucana 100, Santiago
(2006); and Interior, amanecer, Galería Gabriela Mistral, Santiago (2002). Group exhibitions
include: No Sabe /No Contesta, Galería Arte x Arte, Buenos Aires (2008); Táctica, Galería CCU,
Santiago (2008); Daniel López Show, Roebling Hall, New York (2007); Handle With Care, Museo de
Arte Contemporáneo, Santiago (2007); Circuits/Circuitos, TRANSFORMER, Centro Cultural
Matucana 100, Santiago (2005); Políticas de la Diferencia, Arte Iberoamericano fin de siglo, Sala de
Convenciones, Recife and the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires,
among other venues (2001-2002); I Bienal de Arte de Fortaleza, De ponta cabeça, Fortaleza
(2002); VII Bienal de Arte de La Habana, Cuba (2000) and II Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul,
Porto Alegre (1999). Awards and grants include: Beca Fundación Andes (2005) and Beca
FONDART (2005).
Francisco Tomsich, born in Nueva Helvecia, Uruguay in 1981, is an artist and writer. He studied
with Francisco Siniscalchi and at the Instituto Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in 2000, and is
currently studying for a teaching degree in Modern Languages (FHCE, Montevideo). He is part of
the collective Traspuesto de un Estudio para un Retrato Común. His significant solo exhibitions
include: Jania (2003, dedicated to Jano), Mudanza/Icaria (2006, dedicated to Ícaro), Fotos
encontradas (2007, anthropological show), Die Berliner Sphinx (2008, circumstantial show). In
2007, he obtained an award-grant at the 52º Salón Nacional de Artes Visuales. He has
participated in group exhibitions in Montevideo, Maldonado, La Coronilla, Conchillas and
Berlin.
Francisco de Almeida was born in Crateús, Ceará, Brazil. He lives and works in Recife,
Pernambuco. Group Exhibitions include: Panorama de Arte Brasileira, Museu de Arte Moderna
de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (2005); Ceará e Pernambuco: dragões e leões, Centro Dragão do
Mar de Arte e Cultura, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil (1998) and A Arte Contemporânea da Gravura,
Museu Metropolitano de Arte de Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil (1997).
François Bucher was born in Cali, Colombia and lives and works in Berlin. Bucher obtained a
Master’s degree in Cinema from the Art Institute of Chicago and received a grant to attend the
Whitney Independent Study Program, New York. His work and research encompass a wide
range of interests and theoretical foundations, focused specifically on problems related to
ethical and aesthetical questions posed by cinema and television media. Bucher is very active as
a writer for theoretical books and journals and works include Saving the Image, Art after Film, In
The Poem About Love you Don't Write The Word Love, The Journal of Visual Culture, Estudios
Visuales, Valdez Magazine (founding editor), among others. In addition he is frequently invited
to present lectures, seminars and symposiums reflecting on questions related to the image in
contemporary culture: LABoral, Gijón, CENDEAC, Murcia, University of East Anglia, Norwich,
United Nations Plaza, Berlin, and the Universidad Nacional, Bogotá. Bucher’s work has already
been exhibited internationally in locations such as Tate Britain, London; Oberhausen Film
Festival, Germany; Whitney Museum ISP, New York; New York Video Festival at the Lincoln
Center, Rotterdam Film Festival, The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, NY; Argos Arts,
Brussels; Film Museum, Brussels; Arsenal, Berlin; Kunsthalle, Budapest; Momentum, Nordic
Biennial; Prague Biennale (editions 2000, 2003, and 2005); Werkleitz Biennial (2006); Thessaloniki
Biennale 2007; Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin; Documenta XII, Magazine Project, Kassel,
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Germany; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Santa Monica Art Museum, LA;
Stanton Museum, Houston; and MUSAC, Museo Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Spain. His
work has also earned numerous awards: first prize at VideoEx (2003), Zurich; the jury’s award at
Videolisboa, Lisbon (2003); first prize at the Videocreación Iberoamericana, Museo de Arte
Contemporaneo de Castilla y León, MUSAC (2004); the Werkleitz Award (2004) in Transmediale,
Berlin; the Director's Citation at the Black Maria Film Festival (2004); and the second prize at Fair
Play, Berlin (2007). He was twice nominated for the New Media Fellowship of the Rockefeller
Foundation (2005 and 2007). He received the New York City Media Arts Grant of The Jerome
Foundation (2000), which allowed him to create the video White Balance (to think is to forget
differences). Bucher is an invited professor of the Academy of Fine Arts at Umeä University,
Sweden.
Gabriel Sierra was born in San Juan Nepomuceno, Colombia in 1975. He currently lives and
works in Bogotá. In 2009 he took part in the Gasworks Residencies, London and El Basilisco,
Buenos Aires (2007). His solo exhibitions include: Apéndice, Galería Casas Riegner, Bogotá
(2008); Compuesto Verde, Stepmothernature series, CAC Brétigny, France (2006); No diga si diga
oui, Sala de Proyectos Alianza Francesa, Bogotá (2004). He also participated in the Ciclo de
fotografía y nuevos medios, Alianza Francesa de Bogotá. His group exhibitions include, among
many others, the 2nd Trienal Poli/grafica de San Juan de Puerto Rico: Latino America y el Caribe,
Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, San Juan, Puerto Rico (2009); 28ª Bienal Internacional de São
Paulo (2008); ¡URGENTE!, 41 Salón Nacional de Artistas, Cali, Colombia (2008) and MD07 Casa del
Encuentro, Medellín, Colombia (2007).
Glenn Gould (Canada 1932-1982), is a Canadian pianist, composer and author, especially
known for his recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach.One of the most controversial pianists of the
20th Century, he was a child prodigy, playing his first public concert at the age of 13. Two years
later he was accompanied for the first time by his city’s symphony orchestra. His first recording,
the Goldberg Variations, by Johann Sebastian Bach (1955), made him internationally famous.
Gould performed the Variations for the last time in the year of his death. The recording studio
was his primary place of work, retiring from the concert hall indefinitely in 1964. Gould
interpreted all of Bach´s compositions for string instruments, Arnold Schönberg piano pieces, as
well as works by Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Scriabin and Richard Strauss. He wrote several
Radiophonic works, diverse material for Canadian radio and several compositions.
Gilberto Esparza was born in the city of Aguascalientes, Mexico in 1975. He currently lives and
works in Mexico City. He received his teaching degree in Arts at the Universidad de Guanajuato,
Mexico, as well as studying at the Facultad de Bellas Artes de San Carlos, Universidad Politécnica
de Valencia, Spain. Since 1998, Esparza has held several solo exhibitions, among them:
Escrituras, Cuarto de Proyectos, Casa Vecina, Centro Histórico, Mexico, F.D. (2008); Autótrofos
Inorgânicos, Casa del Lago Juan José Arreola (2007); Esculturas Dinámicas, Sala Irene Arias del
Instituto Municipal del Arte y la Cultura de Durango, Durango, Mexico (2006); and Intervenciones
en Espacio no Transitables, Casa de la Cultura, Guanajuato, Mexico. Significant group
exhibitions include: Islas de Resguardo Sonoro. Girotronic, Fonoteca Nacional, Mexico City
(2008); ID-ENTITY, Instituto Cultural Mexicano, Washington, D.C. (2008); Urban Play, Experimental
Design, Amsterdam, Holland (2008); and Fragmentos Sonoros, V Muestra de Arte Sonoro, Galería
Municipal Puebla, Mexico (2008).,
Gonzalo Pedraza was born in Santiago, Chile in 1982. He has a teaching degree in the Theory
and History of Art (2006) from the Universidad de Chile. He also received a Master’s degree in
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
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Latin American Studies from the same university. He is a sub-investigator in the project INCUBO
(www.incubo.cl) as well as Chair Professor for Historia del arte y Estudios Visuales, at UNIACC.
Guilherme Vaz was born in Araguari, Brazil in 1948. He currently lives and works in Brasília. A
pioneering artist in sound-art, he graduated from the Universidade Nacional de Brasilia together
with Rogério Duprat, Décio Pignatari, Nise Obino, Cláudio Santoro, Damiano Cozzela, Régis
Duprat, Hugo Mund Junior, among others (1960-1964); and from the Universidade Federal da
Bahia, where he studied alongside Walter Smetak and Enrst Wiedmer (1964-1966). He cofounded, in partnership with Frederico Morais, Cildo Meireles and Luiz Alphonsus, the
Experimental Unit of the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (1968-1970). In 1973 he
participated in Feedback Studio in Cologne, Germany. He presided over the Fundação Cultural
de Ji-Paraná, on the border with Bolivia, where he developed anthropology work, visual art and
pre-historic music with the indigenous Zoró-Panganjej, Gaviao-Ykolem and Araras people of
South America. He also produced musical instruments as well as paintings, using the
techniques of the indigenous people by transferring the corporal geometrical paintings onto
the large raw cotton canvases of the kind made by indigenous people. A multimedia and
experimental artist, he authored sound works like: Walk to Anywhere, Rio de Janeiro (1970);
Desapropriaçao de Manhattan, Rio de Janeiro (1970), Open your Door as Slow as you Can, Rio de
Janeiro (1970); Solos Ardentes, New York (1970); Crude, Paris (1973); Ensaio sobre a Dádiva,
d´apres Marcel Mauss, Oslo (2008). His work was included in important group exhibitions,
significant among which are: Equatorial Rhythms, The Sternesen Museum, Oslo (2008); Hélio
Oitica e seu Tempo, Centro de Arte Hélio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro (2006); VIII Biennale de Paris,
Museé d´Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1973); Agnus Dei, Petite Galerie, Rio de Janeiro (1970);
Information, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (1970); and Salão da Bússola, Sala
Experimental, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (1969), and many others. He also
released the following recordings through OM Records: O Vento sem Mestre (2007); Sinfonia dos
Ares (2007); La Virgen (2006); Deuses Desconhecidos (2006); Anjo sobre o Verde (2006); A
Tempestade, El Arte, Povos dos Ares, Der Heiligue Spruch (2005); A Noite Original - Die
SchopfungsNacht [Die Winde uber der Meer am Anfgang der Welt] (2004); Sinfonia do Fogo
(2004); O Homem Correndo na Savana (2003), all presented in the Museu de Arte
Contemporânea de Niterói (MAC). He published Sinfonia das Águas (2001), a book in which he
researched and collected some of the deepest, most archaic and meaningful sound
conjunctions from the heart of South America. Deeply rooted sound traditions were brought
from the indigenous population, some of which were only possible to obtain after extensive
travels. The artist brought these sound conjunctions to the context of contemporary art through
a series of more than 75 different sound sources – the contemporary symphonic orchestra
permeates his book with archaic and classical visualities from South America. It is an art book
formatted as a text-book, with images and techniques displayed in such a manner so that,
technically speaking, the works could be executed to perfection by any symphonic orchestra in
the world. He won the First Prize for Best Soundtrack at the Festival de Brasília do Cinema
Brasileiro for Fome de Amor directed by Nelson Pereira dos Santos, the first Brazilian film with
concrete and experimental music (1968). Other works include soundtracks for A Rainha Diaba by
Antonio Carlos Fontoura (1975), O Anjo Nasceu by Julio Bressane (1969), Filme de Amor by Julio
Bressane (2006), Cleopatra by Julio Bressane 2007 and in 2009 the release of the film Erva do
Rato by Julio Bressane at the Venice Festival, with the soundtrack receiving critical acclaim.
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Henri Michaux was born in Namur, Belgium in 1899, and died in Paris in 1984. A writer and
painter, he briefly studied medicine, giving it up in 1920 in order to embark as a sailor on a trip
that took him to Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. Michaux then returned to Europe and after a
short stay in Marseilles and Brussels, he settled in Paris in 1924. He began to publish his literary
work in 1923, for which he would receive worldwide recognition, and started his artistic
practices in 1925, creating his first “alphabet” in 1927. Throughout his life he made frequent trips
to South America and Asia. In 1936, he published Entre centre et abscence (Henri Matarasso), the
first book in which he included reproductions of his drawings. In the same year, during a trip to
Buenos Aires, he met Jorge Luis Borges, who translated his travelogue Un barbare en Asie
(Gallimard, 1933) into Spanish for Ediciones Sur in 1941. In 1937 he held his first solo exhibition
at the Galerie Pierre de París. This was succeeded by a number of shows in France and abroad.
His first retrospective exhibition, Pour mieux connaître Henri Michaux (1937-1951), was held in
1951 at the Galerie Rive Gauche, Paris. In 1954, he began his experiments with mescaline, which
made an important impact on his drawings, published in many of his books (Misérable Miracle,
Éditions du Rocher, 1956, among others) and presented for the first time in the exhibition
Description d´un trouble, Librairie-Galerie La Hune, Paris, in the same year. He also began to
exhibit abroad more frequently: between 1956 and 1957, his work was exhibited in New York,
London and Rome. In 1960 he participated in the Biennale di Venezia, where he was awarded
the Prêmio Einaudi. His first large retrospective was hosted at the Stedelijk Museum in
Amsterdam in 1964, followed by presentations at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris,
Paris (1965); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1978), and a traveling retrospective that showed
at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and the Musée d´Art Contemporain,
Montreal; and Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo (1983). After his death, his work was reviewed in a
number of exhibitions, among them Henri Michaux: Dibuixos mescalinics, Centre Cultural Tecla
Sala, Barcelona (1998) and Untitled Passages by Henri Michaux, The Drawing Center, New York
(2000), and was also included in important group exhibitions that such as the Biennale de Paris
(1985), Dream Machine, Hayward Gallery, London (1999); La Belgique Visionnaire, Palais des
Beaux-Arts, Brussels (2005); and Be-Bomb, MACBA, Barcelona (2007), among others.
Henrique Oliveira was born in Ourinhos, São Paulo in 1973. He currently lives and works in São
Paulo. He holds a Master’s degree in Visual Poetry from the Escola de Comunicações e Artes of
the Universidade de São Paulo (2007) and a Bachelor’s degree in painting, from the Escola de
Comunicações e Artes of the Universidade de São Paulo (2004). Solo Exhibitions include:
Tapumes, Rice University Art Gallery, Houston (2009); Temporada de Projetos, Paço das Artes and
Galeria Baró Cruz, São Paulo (2008); 11º Festival de Cultura Inglesa, British Council, São Paulo and
Programa de Exposições, FUNARTE, São Paulo (2007). Group Exhibitions include: Nova Arte
Nova, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo (2009); Nova Arte Nova, Centro Cultural Banco
do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro (2008); Seja marginal, Seja Herói, Galerie Vallois and Galerie Seroussi,
Paris (2008); Something from Nothing, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans (2008); and
Exposição de Verão, Galeria Silvia Cintra/ Box4, Rio de Janeiro (2008). Among grants,
residencies and awards he has received: Prêmio CNI SESI Marcantônio Vilaça for Fine Arts and
Artist Research Fellowship (research grant), Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C. (2009); Cité
Internationale des Arts, residency studio, Paris (2008); and the Prêmio Festival de Cultura Inglesa,
São Paulo.
Hoffmann’s House is a collective of two Chilean artists, Rodrigo Vergara (1974) and José Pablo
Díaz (1975). Both live and work in Valparaíso and Santiago, Chile. The collective’s work includes
exhibitions around the world, both solo and group. Solo exhibitions include: El Sueño
Bolivariano, Video Arte latinoamericano, (87 min DVD), (2006); and Catalogue presentation, EIEI.
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
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Primer Encuentro Internacional de Espacios de arte Independientes, Galería Metropolitana,
Santiago, Chile (2007). Significant group exhibitions include: Daniel Lopez Show - If I can make it
here, I can make it anywhere, Rohebling Hall, New York (2007); Chile International Kunstraum
Bethanien, Berlin (2007); and Santiago Gathering, Crossing Horizons: Context and Community in
the South, South Project, Melbourne, Australia; Santiago, Chile; and Valparaíso, Chile (2006).
Ingrid Wildi was born in Santiago, Chile in 1963. She graduated in Visual Arts from the
Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst, Zurich (1977). Solo exhibitions include: Historias breves,
Museo de Arte Contemporaneo and Galeria de Arte Gabriela Mistral, Santiago do Chile (2007);
Quelquepart II, Kunsthaus Glarus (2006); De palabra em palabra, Kunsthaus Aarau and Centre
d’Art Contemporain, Geneva (2004); Ouvrir et fermer lês yeux, Planet 22, Geneva (2001); and Altes
Schützenhaus, Zofingen, Aargau (1992). She has taken part in group exhibitions such as: Was
macht die Kunst, Ankäufe der Stadt Zürich (2001-2006); Helmhaus Zurich (2007); Une Question de
Génératiion, Moca – Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon (2007); 2 ou 3 choses que j’ignore d’elles,
FRAC-Lorraine, Metz, France (2007); and La politique des images, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts
de Laussase, Switzerland (2007).
Iran do Espírito Santo was born in Mococa, São Paulo in 1963. He lives and works in São Paulo.
He studied at the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (FAAP), from which he graduated in
Fine Arts (1986). His solo exhibitions include: Deposition, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York (2008);
En Passant, Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo (2008); Iran do Espírito Santo. Uma Visão Geral,
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (2007); Iran do Espírito Santo, MAXXI - Museo Nazionale delle
Arti del XXI Secolo, Rome (2006); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2006); and Museo de Arte
Carrillo Gil, Mexico F.D. (2004). He has also participated in a number of group exhibitions,
among which are: 28a Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (2008); Think with the Senses – Feel with
the Mind. Art in the Present Tense, 52ª Biennale Internacional di Venezia (2007); Transforming
Chronologies: An Atlas of Drawings, Part One, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
(2006); InSite ’05, Centro Cultural Tijuana, Tijuana and San Diego Museum of Modern Art, San
Diego (2005); 6th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul (2000); 48th Venice International Biennale / Envío
nacional, Venice (1999); and In Site’97, San Diego, Tijuana (1997); among many others.
Ivana Vollaro was born in Buenos Aires in 1971, and lives and works between Buenos Aires and
São Paulo. Artist and visual poet, she studied at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, in the College
of Arts (1993-1997) and Law (1989-1992). In 2003 she was awarded the Antorchas grant to study
abroad, living in São Paulo until 2005. Since then she has devided her time between both cities.
Her solo exhibitions include: Limites e deslizes, Galeria Laura Marsiaj, Rio de Janeiro (2009);
Vermello, Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo (2008); X-tudo, Centro Mariantonia, São Paulo (2007); and
Con A de Barraca, Barraca Vorticista, Buenos Aires (2000) among others. Notable group
exhibitions include Las comisuras de la boca, Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires (2009); Ready (not)
made, Barraca Vorticista, Buenos Aires (2008); 150 (poEticos) mts., Centro Cultural EspañaCórdoba, Córdoba, Argentina (2007); Poesía Visual Argentina, Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos
Aires; Poéticas, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Rosario (MACRO), Rosário (2006); and
Portuñol/portunhol, Fundación Centro de Estudios Brasileiros (Funceb), Buenos Aires (2005),
among others. Since 1997 she has annually coordinated the Encuentros de Poesía Visual,
Experimental y Sonora by Vórtice Argentina. She has participated in experimental poetry festivals
and biennales and publishes works in several magazines and books, both in Argentina and
abroad.
James Ensor was born in Ostend, Belgium, in 1860 where he spent most of his life until his
death in 1949. He studied at the College Notre-Dame and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of
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Ostend (1976), and then in Brussels, between 1877 and 1980, after which he returned to Ostend.
He later traveled to Brussels frequently. He presented his first show in 1881 in La Chrysalide and
in Brussels (Exposition Générale des Beux-Arts), participating regularly from then on in exhibitions
and art shows, even though his work was frequently rejected. In 1883, he broke away from the
L’Essor society and, together with other artists, founded the group Les XX, which was later
strongly criticized and censored. This experience, along with the hypocrisy and contradictions
Ensor felt both in and out of the group, fed the excess of his work. He often traveled to Paris,
and soon began the work for which he became known, with pieces such as les Masques
Scandalisées (1883), The Rising: Christ Shown to the People (1885), and notoriously The Entry of
Christ into Brussels in 1889, among many others. In 1892 the first monograph on his work was
published, written by Eugène Demolder (Paul Lacomblez, Brussels). In 1893, he participated in
the last exhibition by Les XX, after which the group disbanded. In an act of desperation, Ensor
placed all the works from his atelier up for sale, for 8,500 franks. There were no buyers until,
finally, the Brussels Cabinet des Estampes bought a large number of his prints. From 1894, he
participated in exhibitions from the artistic society La Libre Estéthique, which continued with the
group's efforts; and held his first solo exhibition in Brussels. His first solo show in Paris took
place in 1898, at the Salon des Cent. In 1903 he was knighted with the Belgian Order of Leopold.
In 1910 he held his first large retrospective exhibition in Rotterdamsche Kunnstkring and then in
Cercle Artistique Littéraire et Scientifique de Amberes. These were followed by exhibitions in
Belgium and abroad, catalogues and publications including his writings (Les écrits de James
Ensor de 1921 à 1926, La Flandre Littéraire, Ostend and Brussels). His greatest retrospective
during his life-time took place in 1929 at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, where he
exhibited The Entry of Christ into Brussels in 1889 for the first time. He received the title of Barron,
along with other titles and distinctions, among them the Légion d'honneur from the French
government. After his death, retrospectives and exhibitions of his work were held in the Palais
des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, along with other
important museums around the world.
Janine Antoni was born in Freeport, Bahamas in 1964. She lives and works in New York. She
graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York, in the United States (1986),
completing her graduate studies in 1989 at the Rhode Island School of Design. Among her solo
exhibitions, highlights include: Janine Antoni, Luhring Augustine (2009); To Draw A Line,
Luhring Augustine, New York (2003); The Girl Made of Butter, The Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, CT
(2001); Slip of the Tongue, IMMA/Glen Dimplex Award Exhibition, The Irish Museum of Modern
Art, Dublin (1996); and Gnaw, Sandra Gering Gallery, New York (1993). Her work has been
included in numerous group exhibitions, such as: Prospect.1, New Orleans International
Biennial (2008); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2006); Into Me/Out of Me, P.S.1
Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York (2006); Moving Pictures, Guggenheim
Museum, New York (2002); Open Ends: Minimalism and After, The Museum of Modern Art, New
York (2000); and Aperto, XLV Biennale Internazionale di Venezia (1993). She has received the
following distinctions: Artes Mundi, Wales International Visual Art Prize; The Larry Aldrich
Foundation Award (1999); MacArthur Fellowship, (1998); The Joan Mitchell Foundation Award
(1998) and the IMMA/Glen Dimplex Award (1996).
Jérôme Bel was born in France in 1964 and works and lives in Paris. After studying at the Centre
National de Danse Contemporaine de Angers, France (1984-5), he danced for a number of
choreographers in France and Italy (1985-91) and was an assistant choreographer and director
of the ceremonies for the XV Winter Olympic Games in Albertville and Savoy (1992). From 1994
he began to present his own work, both in France and abroad, in Paris, Lisbon, Tokyo, Hamburg,
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Brussels, Berlin, Singapore, Bangkok and Rio de Janeiro, among many other cities. His work was
requested by institutions such as L’Opera de Paris and the Centro Cultural de Belem, Lisbon,
and, among other exhibitions, he participated in the Biennale de Lyon, 2007. In 2005, Bel
received a Bessie Award for the performance The show must go on (2001) and, in 2008, he and
Pichet Klunchun received the Routes Princess Margriet Award for Cultural Diversity for the work
Pichet Klunchun & myself (2005).
João Modé was born in Resende, Rio de Janeiro in 1961. He currently lives and works in Rio de
Janeiro. His work expresses itself through a plural notion of languages and areas of action. Some
projects involve direct participation by the public. His solo exhibitions include: A Cabeça, A
Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro (2007); and Rede, Museu de Arte Modernado Rio de Janeiro (2003).
Group exhibitions include: 28ª Bienal de São Paulo (2008); Contraditório Panorama da Arte
Brasileira, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (2007); Stopover, Kunsthalle Fribourg,
Switzerland (2006); Abrigo Poético - Diálogos com Lygia Clark, MAC Niterói, RJ, (both2006) and
Prague Biennale, National Gallery, Prague,Czech Republic (2003).
Joaquín Cociña was born in Concepción, Chile in 1980. He lives and works in Santiago, Chile. He
received a teaching degree in Arts from the Universidad Católica de Chile, and a Graduate
degree in Literature from the Universidad de Chile. He forms part of an artists´ collective with
Niles Atallah and Cristóbal Leon. Video installations include: Nocturno de Chile, Video Art Show,
Museum of Visual Arts, Santiago, Chile (2007); and Lucia, Baires Contemporary Art Fair, Buenos
Aires, Argentina (2007).
Johanna Calle was born in Bogotá, Colombia in 1965, where she lives and works. After
studying at the Universidad de los Andes (1984-89) in Bogotá, Calle took a Masters course in
Fine Arts at Chelsea College of Art, London (1992-93). Significant solo exhibitions include:
Variaciones políticas del trazo dibujos de Johanna Calle, Fundación TEOR/éTica, San José de Costa
Rica (2008); Laconia, Galería Santa Fé, Planetario Distrital, Bogotá (2007); Zona Tórrida, Galería
Casas Riegner, Bogotá (2006); Pretérita, Fundación Gilberto Alzate Avendaño, Bogotá (2006); and
Tangencias, Sala ASAB, Academia Superior de Artes de Bogotá (2005). Group exhibitions
include: Artists and War, North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, North Dakota (2009); Other
flora, Galeria Nara Roesler, São Paulo (2008); Historia Natural y Política, Biblioteca Luis Ángel
Arango, Bogotá (2008); Cartas sobre la mesa, Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, Bogotá (2008);
DisPlaced, Contemporary Art from Colombia, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, Wales (2007);
Bordes del dibujo, Museo de la Universidad Nacional, Bogotá, Colombia (2006); Contradicciones y
convivencias, Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, Bogotá, Colombia (2005); Otras miradas, Museo Sofía
Imber de Caracas (2004); De la représentation à l’action, Le Plateau, Paris (2002); Políticas de la
diferencia. Arte iberoamericano de fin de siglo, a traveling exhibition organized by Generalitat
Valenciana, Spain (2001). Throughout her career, Calle has received a number of awards for her
work, significant among which are: Emerging Artists Grants Program, Cisneros Fontanals Art
Foundation CIFO, Miami (2008) and Mención de Honor IV Premio Luis Caballero (2007); Beca
Cité International des Arts, Paris, AFFA Asociación Française des Affaires Etrangeres (2001); and
Premio Salón Regional de Artistas, Ministerio de Cultura (2000), among others.
John Cage was born in Los Angeles in 1912 and died in New York in 1992. He was a highly
influential American composer, writer, philosopher and artist. From around 1950 and over his
subsequent career, he distanced himself from the pragmatism of precise musical notation and
circumscribed ways of performing. His main contribution to the history of music was a
systematic establishment of the principle of indetermination: by adapting Zen Buddhist
practices to composition and performance, Cage successfully brought both authentic spiritual
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ideas and an attitude of liberating playfulness to Western art practice. His aesthetics of chance
produced a unique body of work that might be called “one-time” works, where any two
performances of the same piece would never be exactly the same. In an effort to reduce
subjectivity in composition, he developed methods to select components for his works by
chance, initially by throwing coins or dice and later through the use of computerized random
number generators, and especially IC (1984), a software designed and written in the C language
by his assistant Andrew Culver, in order to simulate the I Ching divination coin. Cage's use of
computers was more constructive than creative and resulted in a system that can easily be seen
as total serialism, in which all elements related to pitch, noise, duration, relative sound quality,
time, and harmony could be determined by referring to pre-drawn correlated diagrams. In this
way, Cage’s mature works did not arise from psychology, motif, drama or literature; rather they
were merely sounds, free from judgments as to whether they were musical or not, free from set
relationships and free of memory and matters of taste. His most lasting, truly noteworthy
composition, influenced by Robert Rauschenberg's all-black and all-white paintings, is his
radically tacit 4’33” (1952). Encouraging maximum liberty in musical expression, the three
movements are signaled by the opening and closing of the piano’s keyboard lid and in the
meantime no sounds are produced intentionally. It was performed for the first time by pianist
and long-time collaborator David Tudor in Woodstock, N.Y. on August 29, 1952. Among his
many honors, Cage was elected a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters,
appointed the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard, was granted the title of
Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government, and was awarded the
the Kyoto award.
Jonathas de Andrade was born in Recife, Brasil, where he lives and works. He graduated in
Media Studies (Publicity and Advertising) from Universidade Federal de Pemambuco, Recife
(2007). Solo Exhibitions include: Ressaca Tropical, Instituto Cultural Banco Real, Recife (2009);
and Amor e Felicidade no Casamento, Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, Recife,
and Instituto Furnas Cultural, Rio de Janeiro (2007-2008). Other projects include: Amor e
Felicidade no Casamento, a book developed in partnership with the designer Yana Parente
(2008); Recenseamento moral da cidade do Recife, SPA das Artes, Recife; Projeto de intervenção
urbana com pesquisa e mapeamento moral da cidade, Recife (2007); Retrato do Inverno Anterior,
ação e exposição, Festival de Inverno de Garanhuns, Recife (2006). Desaparecimento da luz, Spa
das Artes, Recife (2006). Instalação no Ed. Western no bairro Recife Antigo, Recife (2006). He is
currently working on Condução a deriva; documento latinamerica, a project developed with the
aid of a visual arts grant from Funarte and the Salão de Artes Plásticas de Pernambuco (2009).
Jordi Colomer was born in Barcelona in 1962. He currently lives and works in Barcelona and
Paris. He graduated in Art from the School of Art and Design, Barcelona, and in the History of Art
from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and in Architecture from the Escola Tècnica
Superior de Barcelona. Solo exhibitions include: Fuegogratis, Jeu de Paume, Paris (2008);
Prototipos, Château de Roussillon, Roussillon, France (2007); and The Prodigious Builders, Galerie
Traversee, Munich (2006); among others. He has displayed his work in many group exhibitions,
such as Nuevas Historias - A New View of Spanish Photography, Stenersenmuseet, Oslo, Norway
(2009); Socially disorganized - Experimental art foundation, Adelaide, Australia (2009); and Éclats
de frontières, FRAC Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur, Marseilles, France (2008).
Jorge Caraballo was born in Montevideo in 1941, where he currently lives and works. He
graduated in Fine Arts from the atelier of artist Hugo Sartone, a student of Joaquín Torres
García. He divides his time between the traditional practice of painting and the discovery of
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new materials and techniques. In 1971 he obtained the Prêmio Lautréamont from the French
Government, allowing him to travel to Paris and study with Víctor Vasarely. During his stay in
Paris, he attended the Universidade de Vincennes, where he took the theoretical courses of
Frank Popper. Between 1976 and 1990 he worked in the field of visual poetry. He has had solo
exhibitions at Casa de Cultura Uruguay-Suécia, Montevideo (1987) and the Centro de Arte y
Comunicación (CAyC), Buenos Aires (1973). He has participated in group exhibitions and
publications of visual poetry in Germany, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cuba,
Spain, France, Holland, Hungary, England, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Switzerland,
Uruguay, the United States, Venezuela and Yugoslavia; among which the following are of
particular significance: Visuelle Poesie, Museum der Stadt, Ratingen, Germany (1990); 1ª, 2ª, and
3ª Bienal Internacional de Poesía Visual-Experimental, Mexico (1986, 1988 and 1990); 1º Festival
Internacional de Poesía Viva, Museu Municipal Dr. Santos Rocha, Lisbon (1987); and XVI Bienal
Internacional de São Paulo (1981). He also participated in the 7th Paris Youth Biennale (1971) and
the 36ª Biennale Internazionale di Venezia (1971). He has received distinctions such as the
Premio Adquisición, Ministerio de Obras Públicas, Montevideo, Uruguay (1973); and the Premio
Adquisición, XXXIV.
José Alejandro Restrepo was born in Bogotá, Colombia in 1959. He studied art at the
Faculdade de Artes at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia from 1981-1982. Later he attended
the l´École des Beaux-Arts, Paris (1982-1985). His more significant solo exhibitions include:
Cuerpos Gloriosos, Galería Valenzuela y Klenner, Bogotá (2008); Teofanías, Museo de Antioquia,
Medellín (2008); TransHistorias, Palácio de Bellas Artes de Toulouse, France (1998); and Musa
Paradisíaca, Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogotá (1997). His work has been included in important
group exhibitions, such as: 2º Bienal de Arte Contemporáneo de Thessaloniki, Greece (2009);
52ª Biennale Internazionale di Venezia, Italy (2007); Trienal Poligráfica de Puerto Rico, San Juan,
Porto Rico (2004); Transit, University Gallery, University of Essex, UK (2001); Tempo, The Museum
of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (2001); VII Bienal de la Habana, Cuba (1999); Define context,
Apex Art, New York (1999); Cuatro Artistas Colombianos, Ex-Teresa Centro de Arte Actual, Mexico
F.D. (1999); 23 Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (1996), among others. He has also received the
following distinctions and study grants: Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO) (2007);
Premio VIII Bienal de Cuenca, Ecuador (2004); Premio Johnny Walker en las Artes (1999); Beca de
Creación Colcultura, Colombia (1997); Premio, VII Salón Regional de Artistas, Bogotá (1996); and
the Primer Premio V Bienal
José Antonio Suárez was born in Medellín, Colombia in 1955. He studied Biology at the
Universidad de Antioquia (1974-77), and a graduate course at the École Supérieure d’Art Visuel,
Geneva, Switzerland. He was Professor of Drawing at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in
Medellín, between 1985 and 1990. Among his exhibitions, the most important are: Pattern vs
Decoration, Hospelt Gallery, San Francisco, USA (2007); MD07 Casa del Encuentro, Medellín,
Colombia (2007); Trienal de Grabado, San Juan, Porto Rico (2004); 26 Litografias sobre piedra,
Galeria Sextante, Bogotá (2003); Cacerías con J.J.A y A.M.R., Galeria de la Oficina, Medellín, (2002);
F(r)icciones, visiones del sur, Museo Nacional Reina Sofía, Madrid (2000); Nulla Dies Sine Linea, Sala
Suramericana, Medellín, (1999); XXIV Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (1998), among others. He
received honorable mentions at the II Salón Regional de Artes Visuales; Exposición de Ex-Libris
and the XXXIII Salón Nacional, among others.
José Carlos Martinat was born in Lima, Peru in 1974. His education included: Audio Generator
Design, Media LAB Fundación Telefónica, Lima (2005); MAX interactive software workshop,
Media LAB Fundación Telefónica, Lima (2004); Experimental art workshop with Daniel Canogar,
Centro Cultural de España, Lima (2001); New Trends in Contemporary Art Methodology with
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Pedro Ortuño Mengual, Centro Cultural de España, Lima (1999). His exhibitions include: Galeria
Revolver, Lima (2009); Restraint (New Media Art Practices from Brazil and Peru), Maison de la
culture Marie-Uguay and OBORO, Montreal (2009); 2ª Trienal Poli/Gráfica de San Juan: América
Latina y el Caribe, San Juan, Puerto Rico (2009); Misfeasance?, Museo de Arte Raúl Anguiano,
Guadalajara, Mexico (2009); Emergentes, curated by José Carlos Mariategui, Centro Fundación
Telefónica, Lima (2008); La Construcción de un Lugar Comun, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de
Lima (2008); Ambiente de Estereo Realidad 4, La Laboral, Madrid (2007); 10°00 S/76°00 W, Galeria
Leme, São Paulo (2007); Fotógrafos contemporáneos, Galería Lucia de la Puente, Lima (2007);
Doppelganger: El doble de la Realidad, MARCO Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Vigo, Vigo,
Spain (2007); Constelaciones, Muestra de Arte Contemporáneo Museo de Arte de Lima (2006); A
imagen y semejanza, Museo de arte Contemporáneo de Arequipa, Arequipa, Peru (2006);
Cambios Estructurales 1, Museo de la Universidad San Marcos, San Marcos, Peru (2006); Ambiente
de Estereo Realidad 2, Festival de Vídeo /Arte /Electrónico, Lima (2005); Vestigio Barroco, Centro
Cultural de España, Lima (2005); Cubo blanco – Flexi time, Galería Luís Miro Quesada Garland,
Lima (2004); Absolute Vodka Creation, Galería Lucia de la Puente, Lima (2004); Ambiente de
Estereo Realidad 1, World Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam (2004); Vía Satélite: fotografía y video
arte contemporáneo del Perú (travelling exhibition), Centro Cultural de España, Lima (2004); Olubrico, Punto G, Casa Tomada, Galería Lucia de la Puente, Lima (2003) and Impecable Soledad,
Centro Cultural de España, Lima (2002), among others.
Juan Downey was born in Santiago, Chile in 1940 and died prematurely in New York, in 1993. A
pioneer in video art practice, Downey studied Architecture at Universidad Católica de Chile in
1961. Later, he studied printmaking in Paris at Stanley William Hayter’s Atelier 17 and at the
Pratt Institute in New York beginning in 1966, when he moved to the United States. He soon
began teaching at that university and would continue to do so until his death. In 1973, he began
a series of trips across North and Central America, and would soon begin touring South America
as well. In a second stage, he travelled by boat along the Orinoco River in the Amazon
Rainforest, crossing the Venezuela-Brazil border, and took other trips to southern Chile. The
third stage of travels took place between 1976 and 1977, culminating in a trip to the Brazilian
state of Amazonia, where he spent time living among several indigenous communities: the
Guahibos, Piaroas and Maquiritari, and nine months with the Yanomami, the world’s largest
isolated indigenous community. These were the trips that would profoundly influence
Downey’s artwork from that time on, demonstrating an interest in identifying and portraying
Latin American cultural imagery. Among his solo exhibitions, the following are significant: The
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (1969); Center for Inter-American Relations, New York
(1975); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1976, 1978); The Institute of Contemporary
Art, Boston (1981, 1989); Schlessinger-Boissante Gallery, New York (1982); The Jewish Museum,
New York (1989); The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (1985); and The
International Center of Photography, New York (1987, 1990). Since his death, a great number of
retrospective exhibitions of his work have been organized, including one at IVAM, Valencia,
Spain (1998). Additionally, he received an Honorable Mention at the Biennale di Venezia for his
work About Cages, Venice (2001). Among his group exhibitions the most important include:
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1971) and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
(1984); as well as the 9ª Biennale de Paris (1975); Documenta 6, Kassel, Germany (1977); Whitney
Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1981, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1991); Biennale
Internazionale di Venezia, Venice (1980, 2001) and Primera Generación, el arte de la imagen en
movimiento, 1963-1986, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2006).
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Júlio Lira received his Bachelor's Degree in Social Sciences from the Universidade de Fortaleza,
Brazil (1982) and a Specialization Degree in Urban and Regional Development from the
Universidade Federal do Ceará (1983), and fulfilled the credit requirements for a Master’s
Degree in Urban and Regional Development from the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco
(1986). He is currently pursuing an Audiovisual Specialization Degree in Electronic Media at the
Universidade Federal do Ceará.
Laura Kuhn (1953) is a writer, performer and scholar, and is the Executive Director of the John
Cage Trust. She studied with Russian-born Nicolas Slonimsky at the UCLA Graduate Division,
eventually taking his place as the editor of the Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, and
of Music Since 1900. In 1986, after obtaining her Master’s Degree, she also began working with
American composer, artist and philosopher John Cage on a wide variety of large scale projects,
including his six Charles Edward Norton Lectures delivered at Harvard University, which he called
“mesostic” (published under the title I-VII by Harvard University Press in 1990), as well as on his
large scale operas, Europeras 1 & 2, for the Frankfurt Opera, which was the theme of her 1992
doctoral dissertation: John Cage’s “Europeras 1 & 2”: The Musical Means of Revolution. From 1991
to 1996 she taught at an innovative interdisciplinary arts and performance program at Arizona
State University West, in Phoenix. At the same time, after John Cage’s death in 1992, she worked
with Merce Cunningham, Anne d’Harnoncourt and David Vaughan, all long-time collaborators
and friends of the artist, founding the John Cage Trust, where she continues to hold the post of
executive director. In 2007, the John Cage Trust installed itself permanently at Bard College in
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, where she now holds the position of John Cage Professor of
Performance Arts. Among the many projects she has directed are a CD-ROM with excerpts of
the preparation of a piano for the Cage’s piece Sonatas & Interludes (1946-48, available from Big
Fish Audio), for musicians who play MIDI keyboards, in addition to the adaptation of James
Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Erik Satie: An Alphabet, a radio piece written in 1982 by Cage, which she
directed at seven locations around the world. Between 1999 and 2002 she also worked as a
vocalist for Mikel Rouse’s irreverent talk show/opera Dennis Cleveland, which was last performed
in May, 2002 at the Lincoln Center in New York. In the fall of 2007, she directed a production of
John Cage’s piece, Lecture on the Weather (1976) at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at
Bard College, with a cast that included performers such as Merce Cunningham, John Kelly, John
Ashbery and Jasper Johns.
León Ferrari was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1920. A self-taught artist, sculptor, painter
and printmaker, he studied Engineering at the Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales
of the Universidad de Buenos Aires (1938-47). Among the many awards he has received are the
Leão de Ouro, 52nd International Art Exhibition, Biennale di Venezia, Italy (2007); Grande Prêmio da
Crítica, Associação Paulista de Críticos de Arte, Brazil (2006); Show of the Year Award, Asociación
de Críticos de Arte (AACA), Argentina (2005); and a Guggenheim Fellowship (1995). Among his
most significant solo exhibitions are Tangled Alphabets: León Ferrari and Mira Schendel, The
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (2009); León Ferrari: Obras 1976-2008, Museo de Arte
Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (2008); León Ferrari: Antológica, Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Juan B.
Castagnino, Rosario, Argentina (2008); León Ferrari: Retrospectiva 1954-2006, Pinacoteca do
Estado de São Paulo (2006); Retrospectiva León Ferrari, obras 1954-2004, Centro Cultural Recoleta,
Buenos Aires (2004); and Infiernos e idolatrías, ICI, Buenos Aires (2000), among many others. His
work has been included in many group exhibitions, the most important of these being: De la
abstracción al cinetismo, Casa de las Américas, Havana, Cuba (2009); Documenta 12, Kassel,
Germany (2007); 52nd International Art Exhibition, Biennale di Venezia (2007); Cómo vivir juntos,
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27ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (2007); Inverted Utopias, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston
(2004); and Tucumán Arde, CGT de Rosario and CGT de Buenos Aires, Argentina (1968).
Lilian Zaremba was born in Rio de Janeiro where she still lives. A scriptwriter, radio producer,
and a doctoral researcher in media theory, she has been working on the different aspects of
language and radio broadcasting associated with sound art. She created, curated and
coordinated the I RÁDIO-FORUM, O rádio fora do Rádio at the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil
(1997), bringing representatives from public radio stations from France, Germany and the UK to
Rio de Janeiro, in addition to Brazilian artists. Her most recent work was shown in 2008 at the
Museu de Arte Contemporânea - MAC (Experimental Voice Poetics project), the Rádio-Forum
Escuta! (Londrina, Paraná), the Festival Radial LX (Lisbon), a special program on Sound and Radio
Art (MEC-FM, Rio de Janeiro), an article in the book Teorias do Rádio II (INTERCOM, Santa
Catarina) and she also created, wrote the script for and produced an audio report on the
musician Walter Smetak in 2008 for the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo. She has
published research articles about radiophonic language, organizing all three editions of the
collection Rádio Nova, Constelações da Radiofonia Contemporânea (ECO/Ed.Publique 1997-2000).
She took part in the Documenta X, Kassel, with the transmission of her fake radio station Crab
Nebula (2007). She curated and organized the I Rádio Forum: o rádio fora do rádio (1997-CCBB
Rio) and the exhibition O Que Eu Faço É Rádio! (MAC-2006) among other activities. More recently,
she inaugurated the website www.radioforum.com.br (2009) in cooperation with radio artists
and university researchers like Rodolfo Caesar, Janete El Haouli, Mauro Costa and Julio de Paula,
with the objective of advertising radio and sound/electro-acoustic arts; and during the same
year was invited to administer a series of lectures at the Escola de Comunicação’s Radio
Laboratory at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, where she is currently engaged in
post-doctoral studies related to the Center of Radiophonic Production Research which she is
implementing at Radio MEC in Rio de Janeiro. She is also organizing the publication
of Entreouvidos: sobre Rádio e Arte, bringing together articles by artists, critics and essay writers
such as Romano, Ricardo Aleixo, Luiz Camillo Osório, Cynthia Gusmão, Roberto D’Ugo and Vera
Terra, among others, for the opening of the 7ª Bienal do Mercosul.
Liliana Porter was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1941. She lives and works in New York.
She graduated from the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, and from the
Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City. In New York she has worked at the Pratt Graphic Art
Center and co-founded the New York Graphic Workshop (1964-1970) along with Uruguayan artist
Luis Camnitzer and Venezuelan artist José Guillermo Castillo, whose work was the subject of a
recent exhibition at the Blanton Museum of Art (2008-2009). In 1973, she had a solo exhibition
at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (Project Room). In 1977 she co-founded and taught
printmaking at the Studio Camnitzer-Porter in Lucca, Italy. In 1980 she received a Guggenheim
Fellowship. She would later receive seven research scholarships in photography, video and
multimedia practice from The City University of New York (PSC-CUNY). In 1991, the Bronx
Museum in New York dedicated a retrospective exhibition to her work. Since that year, she has
been a professor at Queens College at The City University of New York. Among her many
honors, she was named Academic Correspondent in the United States (2009) and became a full
member of the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes, Argentina (2003). She was also recognized
with a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship (artist in residence), Umbertide, Italy (1999); the
Leonardo Award (Printmaking), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires (1998) and the
Grand Prix, XI International Print Biennial of Krakow (1986). Her most significant solo
exhibitions include: Línea de Tiempo, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2009); Liliana Porter, Galería
Ruth Benzacar, Buenos Aires (2009); Liliana Porter, Hosfelt Gallery, New York (2008); Eventos
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Breves, Sala de Verónicas, Murcia, Spain and Palacio Aguirre, Cartagena, Spain (2005); and
Fotografía y Ficción, Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires and Museo Macro-Castagnino,
Rosario, Argentina (2003). Recently, she has also taken part in the following group exhibitions:
Pretty Tough: Contemporary Storytelling, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield,
Connecticut (2009-2010); For You/Para Usted, The Daros Latinoamerica, Zurich (2009); 9th Sharjah
Bienal, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (2009); The New York Graphic Workshop, 1964-1970, Blanton
Museum of Art, Austin (2008-2009); and Here is Every, Four Decades of Contemporary Art, Museum
of Modern Art, New York (2008-2009).
Linda Matalon was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1958, where she lives and works. In 1977, she
abandoned her formal education in order to travel to Colombia. In 1991 she received a
scholarship from the Cintas Foundation, an institution created by a Cuban diplomat to support
the work of artists of Cuban lineage living outside Cuba. Among her solo exhibitions, the most
important are: 1 6 7, Gray Kapernekas Gallery, New York (2005); Middle Falls, Wynn
Kramarsky/Fifth Floor Foundation, New York (2005); Open Gates: Recent Sculpture and Drawings,
Herter Art Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts (2003); Project Room
installation, Cohan Leslie and Browne, New York (2001); What Remains, Van Every Smith
Galleries, Davidson College Visual Arts Center, Davidson, North Carolina (1997). The following
group exhibitions are significant: 41st National Artists’ Salon, Cali, Colombia (2008);
Revolutionary! Romanticism! Contemporary Art from New York, 1 Lily Terrace, Dorset, England
(2005); In the Making: Contemporary Drawings from a Private Collection, University Gallery, Fine
Arts Center, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts (2003); Ethereal and Material,
Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, Delaware (2000); Art on Paper,
Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of North Carolina, Greensborough, North Carolina (1998);
and Material Girls…Gender, Process and Abstract Art Since 1970, Gallery 128, New York (1996). She
has received the following awards: New York Foundation for the Arts, New York (1999); Art
Matters, New York (1993); Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship, Provincetown,
Massachusetts (1992/3) and from the Cintas Foundation Inc, New York (1991).
Luisa Duarte was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1979 and currently lives and works in São Paulo. An
art critic and independent curator, she is a professor at Faculdade Santa Marcelina. She is
currently studying for her Master’s degree in philosophy at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica
(PUC-SP). She belongs to the group of critics of the Centro Cultural São Paulo. In 2008 she
coordinated the series of conferences A Bienal de São Paulo e o Meio Artístico Brasileiro – Memória
e Projeção, the debate platform for the 28ª Bienal Internacional de Sao Paulo. She was a curator
for Instituto Itaú Cultural’s Rumos Artes Visuais program (2005/2006). She curated the exhibitions
Entre o público e o privado, transições na arte contemporânea, at the Museu de Arte
Contemporânea Dragão do Mar, Fortaleza, Ceará (2006); Costumes, de Lourival Cuquinha, at the
Instituto de Arte Banco Real, Recife, Pernambuco (2007), and the visual art and urban
intervention agenda of the 7° Festival Rio Cena Contemporânea (2006), as well as participating as
a curator for the exhibition Arte e Música, atravessamentos poéticos, at Galeria D.Pedro II of the
Caixa Cultural da Sé, São Paulo (2008).
Luiz de Abreu was born in Araguarí in 1963 where he made his first contact with dance through
the Umbanda religion. He currently lives and works in both São Paulo and Salvador, Bahia. He
began his formal dance education in Uberlândia and established himself in the city of Belo
Horizonte, where he worked in several dance companies. In the mid-1990s he moved to São
Paulo where he began a solo career. He has presented his works in France, Germany, Portugal,
Croatia, Cuba and at contemporary dance festivals in Brazil. His current work is an investigation
onthe "black body". His work O Samba do Crioulo Doido was included in the Rencontres
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
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Chorégraphiques de l'Afrique, Culture France, Havana, Cuba (2008), and he has also participated
in the following festivals: Festival In-Presentable, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain (2008); Danse
D`ailleus, Centre Chorégraphique de Cain, France (2008); LiFE, Lieu International des Formes
Emergentes, Saint-Nazaire, France (2008); Brasil move Berlim, Germany (2007); Luxo de Cú em
Corpo Nú and A Máquina de Desgastar Gente (director-choreographer, 2007); Fierce Festival,
Birmingham, UK (2006); Live Art, Queen Mary, University of London (2006); Brasil move Berlim,
Germany (2005); QueerZagrab, Croatia (2005); Porto Alegre em Cena, Porto Alegre (2004);
Mostra Rumos Itaú Dança, São Paulo (2004); Travesti, Circuito 1, 2, 3 de Dança Contemporânea,
Petrobrás, Caxias do Sul, Brazil (2003); Sonhos Quebrados, Mostra Rumos Itaú Dança São Paulo
(2002); and Travesti, Mostra SESC de Dança São Paulo (2001).
Magdalena Jitrik was born in Buenos Aires in 1966, where she currently lives and works. She
received her Fine Arts education at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas at the Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México, between 1984 and 1987, and at the Facultad de Filosofía y
Letras of the Universidad de Buenos Aires (1989-1991). Her solo exhibitions include: Magdalena
Jitrik, Galería Luisa Strina, São Paulo (2008); Fondo de Huelga, Oficina Proyectista, Buenos Aires
(2007); Socialista, Galería Dabbah-Torrejón, Buenos Aires (2001); Ensayo de un Museo Libertario,
Federación Libertaria Argentina, Buenos Aires (2000); Desobeciencia, Centro Cultural Ricardo
Rojas, Buenos Aires (1999); and Revueltas, Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires (1997), among
others. Group exhibitions include: Praxis, art in times of uncertainty, Biennale 2, Thessaloniki,
Greece (2009); 2D, Centro Cultural de España de Rosario (2005); Individual-Collectif, Galerie du
Bain Douches de la Plaine, Art-Cade, Marseille, France (2004); Dechirures de l'histoire, Centre
Régional d'Art Contemporain, Le 19, Montbéliard, France (2003); Res - Trímboli - Jitrik,
Contemporáneo 4, Malba- Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (2003); Ansia y
Devoción, Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires (2003); and Filles Indignes de l'Art Concret, Espace de
L'Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux, France (2000), among others. In 1998 she carried out a residency
at the Centre Regional d'Art Contemporain Montbéliard, France, and in 2000 at the Espace de
l'Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux, France. She took part in the Encuentros de Confrontación de Obra,
Proyecto Trama, Buenos Aires (2000). In 2001 she obtained a Subsidio a la Creación Artística
grant, Fundación Antorchas, Buenos Aires. In collaboration with artists Diego Posadas and
Mariela Scafati, she created the Taller Popular de Serigrafía (TPS), with which they participated in
the 27º Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (2006) and in Urgente! 41° Salón Nacional de Artistas de
Colombia, Cali, Colombia (2009).
Marcela Armas was born in Mexico in 1976. She was a student at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas
of the Universidad de Guanajuato and also studied at the Facultad de Bellas Artes de San Carlos
at the U.P.V. in Valencia. While she was residing in Guanajuato, she was part of the artist’s
collective Los Ejecutistas, an interdisciplinary group formed by artists, musicians, poets and
architects. She recently carried out a series of works using the automobile as her point-ofdeparture, recreating sound landscapes modeled by urban shapes, installations and
performance art work. She lives and works in Mexico City. She receives a scholarship from the
Programa de Estímulos a Creación in the state of Durango. In 2007, she obtained the support of
Jóvenes Creadores through Mexico’s Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes and took part in
the residency program of the Centro Multimedia at CENART. In collaboration with Gilberto
Esparza, with whom she works, she received the first prize in sculpture from ARTFest 05 and first
prize at the Bienal de Vidrio de Monterrey 06. Currently, both artists are developing a studio of
urban interventions with new art mediums, the first edition of which was carried out at the
Centro Fundación Telefónica em Lima. Marcela Armas has exhibited her work in solo and group
shows in Mexico, Spain and Canada.
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
Centro / Porto Alegre / RS / Brasil / 90.010-080
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Marcellvs L. was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in 1980. He currently lives and works in Berlin. He
has shown his work both in Brazil and abroad. Solo exhibitions include: 52°30'50.13" N
13°22'42.05" E, Galerie Natalie Seroussi, Paris (2009); GASAG-Kunstpreis 2008, Berlinische Galerie,
Berlin (2008); Marcellvs L. 07, Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo (2007). Important group exhibitions
include: the 16th Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2008); 9e Biennale de Lyon, France (2007); 27ª
Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (2006); Cine y Casi Cine 2005, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte
Reina Sofía, Madrid (2005). Over the course of his career, Marcellvs L. has received many awards,
such as: Stipendium Akademie der Künste 2009, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, and Beca Velázquez,
Premio "Velázquez" de las Artes Plásticas 2008, Ministerio de Cultura de Espanã, Madrid.
Márcia X (Rio de Janeiro in 1959 - 2005). During the 1980s, she completed an education at the
Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage. Her first solo exhibition, Ícones do Gênero Humano, was
at the Centro Cultural Cândido Mendes - CCCM, in Rio de Janeiro (1988). Between 2001 and
2003, in collaboration with the sculptor Ricardo Ventura, she took part in the group exhibition
Orlândia, Nova Orlândia and Grande Orlândia - Artistas Abaixo da Linha Vermelha¸ in Rio de
Janeiro. She also participated in the 3ª Bienal do Mercosul, in Porto Alegre (2002). In April 2006,
Márcia X had her work Desenhando com Terços censored at an exhibition in Brasília. She
participated in the 3º Salão Nacional das Artes Plásticas (1988). In collaboration with Alex
Hamburger, she has carried out several interventions and performance art works
Maria Helena Bernardes was born in Porto Alegre (RS) in 1966 and received a degree in
Drawing and Printmaking from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). She has
had solo exhibitions at the Museu Metropolitano de Arte, Curitiba (1994); and at the Galeria
Iberê Camargo, Porto Alegre (1998). Through the use of fabric and glass collages on walls, her
art practice includes subtle interventions that discuss the limits between the work of art and the
space in which it is inserted. Among her group exhibitions, highlights include: VIII Mostra de
Gravura da Cidade de Curitiba, at the Solar do Barão (1988); and Plano B, Porto Alegre (1997). She
has received a scholarship/artist’s residency from Cité Internationale de Arts in France, and
currently works in Porto Alegre.
Maria Lúcia Cattani was born in Garibaldi, Brazil in 1958 and currently lives and works in Porto
Alegre. She received a Fine Arts degree from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
(1981), and her M.F.A. from the Pratt Institute, New York (1990). She has a Doctorate from the
University of Reading, Department of Fine Art, United Kingdom (1998), and a Post-doctoral
degree from the University of The Arts London (2008). She was an Artist in Residence at
Nagasawa Art Park, Tsuna Town, Japan (2001) and at Frans Masereel Centre, Kasterlee, Belgium
(1997). Among her most recent solo exhibitions highlights include: Quadrantes-Quadrants,
Camberwell College of Arts Library, Chelsea College of Art & Design, London (2008) and the
Biblioteca do Instituto de Artes da UFRGS, Porto Alegre (2008); Ao Quadrado, Galeria Gestual,
Porto Alegre (2007); 4 cantos do mundo, Studio Clio, Porto Alegre (2005); Sete dias - one week,
Pinacoteca da Feevale, Novo Hamburgo, Brazil (2000). Her recent group exhibitions include:
Brazilian Video Art, Lakeside Theatre, University of Essex Collection of Latin American Art,
Colchester, United Kingdom (2008); Video Links Brazil. An Anthology of Brazilian Video Art, Tate
Modern, London (2007); Copa da Cultura, St. Elisabeth Kirche, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
(2006); 7ª Triennale de Chamalièrs, Chamalièrs, France (2006); and the 5ª Bienal do Mercosul, Porto
Alegre (2005), among others.
Mariela Scafati was born in Olivos, Província de Buenos Aires in 1973, and currently lives and
works in Buenos Aires. Between 1992 and 1997 she studied at the Escuela Superior de Artes
Visuales “Lino Enea Spilimbergo” in Bahía Blanca, Argentina. In 1997, she attended the
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
Centro / Porto Alegre / RS / Brasil / 90.010-080
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workshop coordinated by Pablo Suárez and Tulio de Sagastizábal as part of the the cultural
extension course at the Universidad Nacional de Bellas Artes “Ernesto de la Cárcova”, Buenos
Aires. In 1997 she participated in the Guillermo Kuitca Young Artist Scholarship Program, Centro
Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires. Her most recent solo exhibitions include: Sos un sueño, Daniel
Abate Galería, Buenos Aires (2009); ¡Teléfono! En diálogo con Lidy Prati, Programa Concordia,
Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires (2009); Scafati, un cuadro, Belleza y felicidad, Buenos Aires
(2005); Pintura gustosa, Casona de los Olivera, Buenos Aires (2001). Her work has been included
in the group exhibitions: Ve, vete y vuelve. Diana Aisenberg, Mariela Scafati y Alejandra Seeber,
Alianza Francesa, Buenos Aires (2008); Oro sentimental, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de
Niterói, Brazil (2007); Eco, Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires (2005); 2D, Centro Cultural Parque
España, Rosário, Argentina (2005) and Et toutes réinventent le monde..., Ecóle d'Art Gerard Jacot,
Belfort , France (2003), among many others. In collaboration with artists Diego Posadas and
Magdalena Jitrik she created the Taller Popular de Serigrafía (TPS), with which they participated
in the following group exhibitions: Segunda Trienal Poli/gráfica, San Juan de Puerto Rico
(2009); 41° Salón Nacional de Artistas de Colombia, Cali, Colombia (2008); V Moscow Poetry
Biennale (2007); 27º Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (2006); Arte y confección, Fábrica Brukman,
Buenos Aires (2003); Belleza y Felicidad Gallery, Buenos Aires (2002). She received the Bolsa
Nacional de Artes Plásticas from the Fondo Nacional de las Artes (2006); and took part in a
residency at the Centre de Art Contemporain 19, Montbéliard, France (2003).
Mário Peixoto (1908-1992) was born in Belgium of Brazilian parents. He studied at Colégio
Santo Antônio Maria Zaccaria, Rio de Janeiro, from 1917 to 1926, when he interrupted his
education to move to England, where he attended Hopedene College, Sussex for one year.
Upon his return to Brazil, he was introduced to Brutus Pedreira, who brought him to the Teatro
de Brinquedo. The desire to learn more about film and see more films led Peixoto back to
Europe in 1929 and when he returned to Brazil, in October 1929, he maintianed contact with the
European art scene. He presented a film script, entitld Limite, to directors Luis Gonzaga and
Humberto Mauro, but both suggested that Peixoto should direct the film himself. In 1931, the
film Limite debued at the Capitólio Theater in Rio de Janeiro, but did not achieve commercial
distribution. At the same time, he began filming Onde A Terra Acaba, an ambitious project
financed by Carmen Santos, who was also the film's leading actress; but due to a falling out
between the two, the film was abandoned and Limite would remain his only complete
film. Among his other incomplete projects are titles like Constância (1936) or Maré Baixa, also
known as Mormaço, from the same period. In 1938, Peixoto attempted to realize Três Contra o
Mundo. In 1946, Peixoto planned to resume filming Onde A Terra Acaba as a sound film but the
project was also abandoned. In 1948, Rui Santos and Afonso Campiglia announced that they
would produce two films: Sargaço by Mário Peixoto and Muiraquitã by Muiraquitã de Jonald,
film critic for A Noite newspaper, but it soon became known that the two films would be
substituted for another: Estrela Da Manhã, directed by Jonald himself. Mário Peixoto
disappeared from the news, along with Sargaço, and in 1952 Peixoto reworked the script into a
new film titled A Alma Segundo Salustre, but which also remained incomplete. In 1964, together
with Saulo Pereira de Mello he wrote the script for Outuno/O Jardim Petrificado. In 1988 the film
was chosen by a national inquiry of the Cinemateca Brasileira as the best Brazilian film of all
time. In October of the same year, Peixoto won a special award from the state government of
Rio de Janeiro and in January 1989, a scholarship from the Fundação Vitae to complete the
remaining volumes of O Inútil de Cada Um. Mário Peixoto died in 1992. In 1995, the year of the
centenary of film, Limite was once again considered the best Brazilian film of all times by a
national poll organized by the newspaper Folha de São Paulo. In 1996 Walter Salles founded the
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
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Arquivo Mário Peixoto. In 2002 Onde a Terra Acaba, one of Peixoto´s unfinished films, became
the name of an award-winning documentary by Sérgio Machado.
Marta Minujín was born in Buenos Aires in 1941 where she currently lives and works. She
studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires. However, she abandoned her formal
education early and in 1961 moved to Paris after receiving a study scholarship, where she
encountered artists associated with the Nouveau Réalisme movement. She began to make
sculptures covered in mattresses, using material discarded from hospitals. In 1963, she carried
out La Destrucción (Destruction), an action at Impasse Ronsin, a vacant lot where she planned
the destruction of her work as the end of an exhibition. Upon her return to Buenos Aires, she
won the Premio Nacional del Instituto Torcuato Di Tella in 1964 for her Revuélquese y Viva (1964),
an inhabitable structure covered with multicolored mattresses which invited the public to
explore their own capacity to play. In 1965, with Rubén Santatonín she realized La Menesunda,
also at the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, with an installation incoporating sixteen different
sections, each to be activated by the spectator. In 1966, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship
and moved to New York, where she made contact with members of the North American avantgarde. She organized a re-edition of the happening El Batacazo, at Bianchini Gallery, New York,
which had first been presented at the Instituto Di Tella a year earlier. Her work worked on the
mass media channels and in 1966, she organized Simultaneidad en Simultaneidad, a space for
the project Three Countries Happening, planned with Allan Kaprow and Wolf Vostell, to be
carried out simultaneously in Buenos Aires, Berlin and New York. During the 1970s she lived in
both the United States and Argentina. In New York, she organized a series of happenings,
including Kidnappening, MoMA (1973). In 1975 she presented La Academia del Fracaso at the
Centro de Arte y Comunicación (CAyC) in Buenos Aires. At the end of the 1970s, she began
working on mass participation pieces like El Obelisco de Pan Dulce (1978), La Torre de James Joyce
de Pan (1980), shown in Dublin during the ROSC International Art Quadriennial, and El Partenón
de Libros (1983), a full-scale replica of the Parthenon installed in the middle of Avenida 9 de Julio
in Buenos Aires, whose structure was covered with books prohibited during the military
dictatorship, that which was inaugurated and shared with the public during the first Christmas
season under democracy. In recent years, her work has been included in the Festival de Arte
Subversivo, Stuttgart, Germany (2009); Artists Talk, 28ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (2008);
Arte No Es Vida: Actions by Artists of the Americas, 1960-2000, El Museo del Barrio, New York (2008);
Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, also
travelling to P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (2008), Urgente! 41º Salón Nacional de
Artistas de Colombia, Cali (2008); Beginning with a Bang! From Confrontation to Intimacy, Americas
Society, New York (2007); and Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object, 1949-1979, The
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1998), among many others. Her most recent
projects include: La pieza del amor at Galerie Lara Vincy, Paris (2008), Rayuelarte on Avenida 9 de
Julio, Buenos Aires (2009) and re-editions of Soft Gallery carried out for the first time in
collaboration with Richard Squires at Galeria Harold Rivkin, Washington D.C. (1973) and later
presented at the exhibition Vivencias, Generali Foundation de Vienna, Austria (2000) and at The
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2007).
Martín Barea Mattos was born in Montevideo in 1978 where she currently lives and works. She
is a cultural manager and poet. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the Facultad de
Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación at the Universidad de la República, Montevideo and a
degree in Cultural Management from the Fundación ITAÚ, Montevideo (2007). She was the
general coordinator of the third season of the Ronda de poetas, a weekly series of lectures,
recitals and performances by writers, actors and contemporary musicians at La Ronda Café,
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
Centro / Porto Alegre / RS / Brasil / 90.010-080
Fone/fax: +55 (51) 3254-7500
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Montevideo. She was coordinator of El tartamudo, a recital based on her book Por hora por día
por mes, at the Fundación Eduardo Mateo, Montevideo (2008) and the Biblioteca Nacional,
Montevideo (2008). She has been invited to carry out poetic works for: FLAP! Festival
Latinoamericano de Arte e Poesia, São Paulo (2008); the 4º Festival La ciudad de tu cabeza, Bella
Unión, Artigas, Uruguay (2007); Encuentro regional de arte (ERA), Fundación de Arte
Contemporáneo, Montevideo (2007); Autocracia, asalto poético urbano, Montevideo (2007); Las
dos caras de la luna, Ciclo de diálogos intergeneracionales, Centro Cultural de España, Montevideo
(2006); Problema/poema, Festival de performances, Expotrastienda, Asociación Argentina de
Galerías de Arte (AAGA, 2006); and Festival de danza Montevideo sitiada, Fundación Príncipe
Claus, Uruguay (2004). She has published the following books of poetry: Por hora por día por
mes, Estuario/Hum (2008); El amplio jardín, Antología joven, Embajada de Colombia (2005); Dos
mil novecientos noventa y cinco, Artefato (2003); Antología de poetas jóvenes uruguayos,
Embajada de España (2002); Fuga de ida y vuelta, La gotera (2000). She has also published in the
following poetry magazines: Punto de partida, Nº 153, Universidad Autónoma de México
(UNAM), Mexico (2009); Maldoror, Nro. 26, Montevideo (2008); and Plebella, 1994-2005
anniversary edition, Buenos Aires (2007); among others. She has received the following honors:
First Prize, 43º Feria Nacional de Libros, dibujos y artesanías, Montevideo (2003) and an
Honorable Mention, Concurso de poesía inédita, Intendencia Municipal de Montevidéu (2000).
Martín Verges Rilla – was born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1975. She is a fine artist who works
with drawing, painting and installation. She studied at Clever Lara’s atelier, at the Escuela
Nacional de Bellas Artes and at the Facultad de Arquitectura of the Universidad de la República,
in Montevideo. She took part in the group project Traspuesto de un Estudio para un Retrato
Común. Her solo exhibitions include: Plan Fénix 2: Los Medios, Plataforma M.E.C., Montevideo
(2009) and Cézzzanne, Salle Marcel Sandoz, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2007). Her main
group exhibitions include: Noces de Papier, Maison des Auteurs, Angoulême (2008); Settimana
a Venezia, A. C. Spiazzi, Venice (2007); 1a Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul, Porto Alegre
(1997); V Bienal Internacional de Pintura de Cuenca, Museo de Arte Moderno, Cuenca, Ecuador.
Residencies: Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2007); and Maison des Auteurs, Angoulême
(2008).
Mauricio Kagel was born in Buenos Aires in 1931 and died in Cologne, Germany in 2008. When
asked about him, John Cage stated: “The best European musician is an Argentinean: Mauricio
Kagel.” A composer, orchestra director and cenographer, an author of compositions for
orchestra, voice, piano and chamber orchestra, writer of a great number of works for stage,
seventeen films and eleven radiophonic works, Kagel was almost entirely self-taught, with only
some private lessons consitituting his education. In 1957, during a trip to South America, the
French composer Pierre Boulez, after examining Kagel´s musical scores, suggested he move to
Europe, which he did with the aid of an art scholarship from the Serviço Alemão de Intercâmbio
Acadêmico (DAAD). He moved to Cologne, which at that time was the mecca of avant-garde
music in Europe. Kagel is currently considered one of the most innovative and interesting postserialist and electronic music authors from the late twentieth century. He was well-known for his
rich imagination, strange sense of humor and ability to make music out of any idea or system,
which made it possible to assemble powerful and surprising dramas in theaters and concert
halls. His list of works is long: among his best known pieces are Torre de Babel (2003), for an
eighteen voice choir in eighteen different languages; and Pasión según San Bach, for soloists,
choir and orchestra (1985), about which Federico Monjeau, from Clarín newspaper, commented
in a 1998 review: “(...) Bach appears as both subject and character, similar to Jesus in Bach’s
Passions. Kagel maintained the general structure of the Baroque passions, with the distinct
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
Centro / Porto Alegre / RS / Brasil / 90.010-080
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narrative perspectives taken on by the soloists (the piece narrates Bach's life) alternating with
commentary by the choir. The texts are adaptations of period documents, cantatas and
chorales. Bach is the spiritual and emotional essence of the work: he is the true object of
devotion. Kagel's Passion is agnostic while still magnificent, sustained by orchestral and vocal
composing of extraordinary richness.” Kagel’s work has won numerous awards in Europe,
among which figure the Erasmus Award (1998), the Ernst von Siemens Music Award (2000) and
the Großer Rheinischer Kunstpreis (Rhineland Grand Prize, 2002). In 2007, the University of
Siegen in Germany awarded him an honorary doctoral degree.
Mauro Restiffe was born in São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo in 1970. He lives and works in São
Paulo. Solo exhibitions include: Mirante, PhotoEspaña09, Casa da América, Madrid (2009);
Vertigem, Galeria Mario Sequeira, Braga, Portugal (2008); Red Light Portraits, Galeria Casa
Triângulo, São Paulo (2007); Brasília/Brooklyn, Galeria Laura Marsiaj, Rio de Janeiro (2006);
Brasília/Istambul, Galeria Casa Triângulo, São Paulo (2005); In Process, Henry Urbach Architecture
Gallery, New York (2002). His group exhibitions include: À Procura de um Olhar. Fotógrafos
franceses e brasileiros revelam o Brasil, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (2009); Nus, Galeria
Fortes Vilaça and Galeria Bergamin, São Paulo (2009); Fotoencontro 08, Galeria Mercedes Viegas,
Rio de Janeiro (2008); Panorama dos Panoramas, Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo (2008);
Paralela, Liceu de Artes e Ofícios, São Paulo (2008); PARANGOLÉ: Fragmentos desde los 90 en
Brasil, Portugal y España, Museu Patio Herreriano de Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain (2008); Trópicos,
Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin (2008). He has won the Estímulo de Fotografia award from the
Secretaria de Estado da Cultura, São Paulo (1994); Bolsa ApARTES, Ministério da Cultura, Brasília
(2000); The Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award, New York, and a Rema Hort Mann Art Grant, New
York, in 2001.
Milton Machado was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1947. He studied Architecture and Urbanism at
the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (FAU/UFRJ). Between 1979 and 1994 he taught at
the Centro de Arquitetura e Artes at the Universidade Santa Úrsula, and at the Escola de Artes
Visuais do Parque Lage (EAV/Parque Lage) from 1983 to 1994. In 1994, he moved to London
where he began his doctoral studies in fine art at Goldsmiths College, University of London,
finishing in 2000. He returned to Brazil in 2001, and in 2002 began to teach art history and
theory at the Escola de Belas Artes of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (EBA/UFRJ). His
solo exhibitions include: Homem Muito Abrangente, Galeria do Lago, Museu da República, Rio
de Janeiro (2006); Sobre a Mobilidade, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo (2005); and Bits of
Plastic Art/Top-sider Information, Barbican Centre, London (2000). Group exhibitions include: 60
Anos do MAM-RJ, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (2008); Coleção Gilberto
Chateaubriand. Um Século de Arte Contemporânea, Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro and
Pinacoteca do Estado, São Paulo (2005); Continental Shift, Ludwig Forum für Internationale
Kunst, Aachen (2000); Continuum: Brazilian Art 1960-1990, University of Essex (1995); and 19ª
Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (1987).
Nicholas Floc’h was born in Rennes, France in 1970. He currently lives and works in Paris. Over
the course of his career, he has performed around the world, as well as taking part in solo and
group exhibitions. His most recent performance, La Feuille, was presented at the following
museums: Musée d’Art Comtemporain, Bolzano; FRAC des pays de la Loire, Carquefou, France;
Institut Français, Munich and Musée des Beaux-arts de Nantes, all in 2007. He has shown his
work in solo exhibitions, of which the following are significant: Matucana 100, Santiago, Chile
(2008); Véhicule, Transpalette, Bourges, France (2006); and Beer Kilometer, W139, Amsterdam
(2004). Among his group exhibitions, highlights include: Biennale de Rennes, Musée des beaux-
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
Centro / Porto Alegre / RS / Brasil / 90.010-080
Fone/fax: +55 (51) 3254-7500
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arts, Rennes (2008); Pleins phares, Musée de l’automobile, Mulhouse (2007); and Le point
éphémère, Paris (2007).
Nicolás París Vélez was born in Bogotá, Colombia in 1977. He is a teacher and visual artist. In
2007/2008, he obtained the MUSAC scholarship for artistic creation from the Museo de Arte
Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Spain. In 2006, he won the acquisition prize from the
Colección Banco BBVA Colombia, at the Salón de Arte BBVA. His project, Asociación Macarena was
chosen for the Fondo para la Acción Ambiental y la Niñez, 2005 to 2007, Macarena, Bogotá,
Colombia. He is the author of the artist’s book Doble Faz, Ediciones La Silueta. 2008. In addition,
he has also led the educational project: Sala Didactica (Classroom), Museo de Arte Moderno de
Medellín, Colombia (2009); as well as drawing laboratories and workshops to support the work
of the teaching departments and curriculum development for educational institutions during
the following exhibitions in 2008: 41º Salón Nacional de Artistas, Cali, Colombia; Estrategias de
Resistencia (drawing laboratory) and Especulación/Planeación (drawing workshop). He has
taught other laboratories and workshops for: MUSAC, Castilla y León, Spain; Casa del Encuentro,
Museo de Antioquia de Medellín, Colombia; Escuela Cuarta Brigada, sponsored by the Museo de
Arte Moderno de Medellín, Colombia; Colegio Distrital José Celestino Mutis and the Biblioteca
Pública ¨El Tintal¨ Manuel Zapata Olivilla, Bogotá, Colombia.
Niles Atallah was born in Santiago, Chile in 1978 where he currently lives and works. He
maintains an artist collective in collaboration with Joaquín Cociña and Cristóbal Leon. He
received a degree in Photography from the University of California in 2002. His videoinstallations include: Nocturno de Chile, Video Art Show, Museum of Visual Arts, Santiago (2007);
Birth, Video Art Show, Museum of Visual Arts, Santiago (2007) and Lucia, Baires Contemporary
Art Fair, Buenos Aires (2007).
Nina Lola Bachhuber was born in Munich, Germany in 1971 and currently lives and works in
New York. After graduating from the Kunstakademie in Hamburg, she received her M.F.A. at the
Hochschule für Bildende Künste in the same city. Among her solo exhibitions are Locust Plague,
Galerie Heinz-Martin Weigand, Ettlingen/Karlsruhe (2008); Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Gallery
Min Min, Tokyo (2007); Not Yet a Widow, Gallery Antje Wachs, Berlin (2006); and Yesterday I Ate a
Lizard, Space Other, Boston (2006). Her work has been included in numerous group
exhibitions, the most significant of which are: Bildschön: Schönheitskult in der aktuellen Kunst,
Städtische Galerie im ZKM, Karlsruhe (2009); Intransit, Moti Hassan Gallery, New York (2008);
Urban Jealousy, Tehran Biennial, Tehran (2008); Remember who you are, Mary Boone Gallery, New
York (2006); Greater New York 2005, P. S. 1/MoMA, New York (2005); and International Paper,
UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. She has received scholarships to participate in the
Printing Fellowship, Brodsky Center for Innovative Print and Paper (2006); a NJSCA Fellowship
for Sculpture (2005); the Yaddo Residency Program, Saratoga Springs (2002/2004); The PollockKrasner Foundation Grant (2001/2002); the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP),
New York City (1999/2000) and a DAAD Scholarship for New York City (1999/2000).
Pablo Rivera was born in Santiago, Chile in 1961, where he lives and works. Between 1981 and
1987, he received an Art Degree from the Escuela de Arte, Pontificia Universidad Católica de
Chile, Santiago. Later, after receiving a scholarship from the British Council, he studied sculpture
at the Royal College of Art, London (1994-1995). Since 1983, he has participated in many
exhibitions around the world, including solo exhibitions, the most recent of which are:
Intervención Paradero 14 Vicuña Mackenna (Public Art Competition) Proyecto de Intervención
Artística Américo Vespucio Sur, Santiago, Chile; Morande 80, a work dedicated to Salvador
Allende, Edificio de Cancillería, Caracas, Venezuela. Significant group exhibitions include: Sutil
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
Centro / Porto Alegre / RS / Brasil / 90.010-080
Fone/fax: +55 (51) 3254-7500
[email protected]
www.bienalmercosul.art.br
Violento, Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales de Montevideo, Uruguay (2008); Sur Scene/Artistes
Contemporains Chiliens, Chateau de Tours, Tours, France (2007); Glas Kultur: ¿Qué paso con la
transparencia? Koldo Mitxelena Kulturunea, San Sebastián and Centro de Arte La Panera, Lleida,
Spain (2006); IX Bienal de La Habana, Havana, Cuba (2006); and XXV Bienal Internacional de São
Paulo (2002).
Patricio Larrambebere was born in Merlo, Argentina, in1968; he currently lives and works in
Buenos Aires. Visual artist and teacher, studied in the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes “Prilidiano
Pueyrredón” (1986-1990). Since 2001, he teaches painting in the Instituto Universitario Nacional
de Arte (IUNA). In 1999 received a residency grant at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten,
Amsterdam, thanks to a jointed resource from Fundación Antorchas and the Ministry of External
Relations of Netherlands/ UNESCO. Among his latest solo exhibitions are: Boviander, Insight
Arte, Buenos Aires (2008); jpeg, Borges contemporáneo, Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires
(2007); Coghlan, Espacio de arte Juana de Arco, Buenos Aires (2006); the chosen instrument,
Zavaleta Lab, Buenos Aires (2005). He participated in the following group exhibitions: Paraíso
industrial, Fundación Apolo, Buenos Aires (2008); Off/Fóra. 29° Bienal de Pontevedra, Galícia,
Espanha e Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires (2006-2007); Vida Pública, Fondo Nacional de
las Artes, Buenos Aires (2007); Beginning with a Bang! From Confrontation to Intimacy. An
Exhibition of Argentine Contemporary Artists 1960-2007, Americas Society, Nova York (2007);
Ansia y devoción, Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires (2003).
Paul Ramírez Jonas was born in California in 1965. He currently lives and works in New York.
After receiving his education in Honduras, he returned to the United States in 1983. In 1987, he
received a degree in Studio Arts from Brown University, Rhode Island and in 1989 he completed
his M.F.A. in painting at Rhode Island School of Design, before moving to New York. In 1988, he
began to collaborate with artist Spencer Finch, with whom he organized an exhibition during
the same year at the Sol Koffler Gallery in Rhode Island. His first solo exhibition,
AMANAPLANACANALPANAMA, was shown in 1990 at Artists Space (Underground Project Room),
New York. From that time on, his work has been frequently shown both in the United States and
abroad, with exhibitions at the following galleries: Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam; Roger
Bjorkholmen Galleri, Stockholm; Postmasters Gallery and Jack Tilton Gallery, New York. Among
his most recent solo exhibitions the most significant are those at Alexander Gray Associates,
New York (2009); Abracadabra, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut
(2008); Abracadabra: I create as I Speak, The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas (2007);
Heavier than Air, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK touring to Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK (2004).
His work has appeared in numerous group exhibitions including: Fare Mondi/Hacer Mundos,
Pabellón de América Latina, 53º Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2009); The Quick and the Dead,
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2009); 28ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (2008); InSite_05, San
Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico (2005); Speed, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (1998). He
has received important honors and study scholarships including the Joan Mitchell Foundation
Grant (2009); Art Matters Grant (2009); Howard Foundation Fellowship (2009); International
Studio Program in Sweden (IASPIS), Artist in Residence, Summer /Fall (1999); and the National
Endowment for the Arts, Inter Arts exhibition grant for White Columns (1991), among others.
Paulo Brusckywas born in Recife, Brasil, in 1949, where he lives and work. He began to exhibit
drawings towards the end of the 1960s, which were then followed by performances,
happenings, copy, fax, and mail art, urban interventions, photography, films, visual poetry,
sound experiments and newspaper interventions, among many other works and actions.
Always testing and extending the limits of artistic practice, he has promoted the circulation of
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
Centro / Porto Alegre / RS / Brasil / 90.010-080
Fone/fax: +55 (51) 3254-7500
[email protected]
www.bienalmercosul.art.br
art outside institutional circuits and developing work which is frequently ephemeral. His first
exhibition was in 1970, at the Galeria da Empetur in Recife, and from that time he began to work
in collaboration with Daniel Santiago for the next two decades. His work developed, for the
most part, in public environments, where he proposed a variety of actions, most of which
required public involvement. In 1973 he began to participate in the International Mail Art
Movement and since then, in addition to being in contact with international Fluxus artists he
has taken part in numerous mail art exhibitions around the world. In 1974 he organized
Nadaísmo and in 1975, the Primeira Exposição Internacional de Arte Postal in Recife, which would
run to many subsequent editions. His Super 8, video and radio productions have also been
included in a number of international festivals and events, including those that Bruscky himself
organized, like International Video Art I and the Internacional Ra(u)dio Arte Show II, Recife (1979).
He has also published a number of books and is a strong proponent of artist book exhibitions, to
which he is a regular contributor and curator. Among others, he has participated in Libres
d'artiste/Artistas' Livros, at the Contemporary Art Documentation Center, Barcelona (1980) and
Bookworks 82, Foundation for Today’s Art, Philadelphia (1982). In 1981 he organized the
Exposição Internacional de Poemas em Out-Door Visuais - ART-porta, an event which relied on the
support of the city of Recife, consisting of the installation of a hundred and eighty artist poster
projects from twenty-eight countries, including the work of Christo and Regina Vater, among
others. In 1981 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship for one year during which he lived in New
York. In that same year, he was invited to participate in the XVI Bienal Internacional de São Paulo,
with a work he would repeat in 1989 and 2004, with a special room that recreated his studio. In
1984 and 2009, he was invited to the Bienal de Havana, in Cuba. Among his exhibitions, over the
past decade, are: the biennial Brasil Século XX, Fundação Bienal de São Paulo (1994); Arte
Conceitual e Conceitualismos: 70 anos não acervo MAC/USP, Galeria de Arte do Sesi, São Paulo
(2000), Anos 70: trajetória, Itaú Cultural, São Paulo (2001); and 27 Panorama Atual de Arte
Brasileira, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (2001). He organized the exhibition Paulo
Bruscky: Projetos e Propostas, Galeria Iberê Camargo, Porto Alegre (2005); and published the
book Paulo Bruscky: Arte Arquivo e Utopia, Cristina Freire, followed by the anthology exhibition
curated by Paulo Freire, with Bruscky: Ars brevis, Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade
de São Paulo (2007).
Paulo Nenflídio was born in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo in 1976. He lives and works in
São Paulo. Solo exhibitions include: Gambiarras, ASU Museum, Tempe, Arizona (2009); Aranhas,
Galpão Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo (2008); Monocórdio Infinito, Museu de Arte Contemporânea,
Niterói, Brazil (2008); Autômatos Monocromáticos, Galeria A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro (2007);
Protótipos, Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo (2006); Engenhocas sonoras, Galeria A Gentil Carioca,
Rio de Janeiro (2005); Lugares Sonoros (Teclado Decafônico Concreto), Centro Cultural São Paulo
(2005). Group exhibitions include: Coletiva, Galeria A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro (2008);
Contraditório - Panorama da Arte Brasileira, Alcalá 31, Madrid, Spain (2008); Arte e Música, Caixa
Cultural, Rio de Janeiro (2008); Faq2 - Sincretismo dos Sentidos, SESC Ipiranga, São Paulo (2008);
Poética da Percepção, Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, and Museu Oscar Niemeyer,
Curitiba (2008); Os Trópicos, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, and Martin Gropius
Bau, Berlin (2008).
Pedro Reyes was born in Mexico City in 1972, where he lives and works. His solo exhibitions
include: Center for Contemporary Art, CCA Kitakyushu, Japan (2009); Bass Museum of Art, Miami
(2008); Yvon Lambert, Paris (2008); Yvon Lambert, New York (2007); Aspen Art Museum, Aspen
(2006); Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington (2006); Carpenter Center, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts (2006); Arnolfini, Bristol, United Kingdom (2005); and Galería Enrique
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
Centro / Porto Alegre / RS / Brasil / 90.010-080
Fone/fax: +55 (51) 3254-7500
[email protected]
www.bienalmercosul.art.br
Guerrero, Mexico (2004). Among his group exhibitions the following are significant: Prospect 1.
New Orleans (2008); Yokohama Triennale (2008); Escultura Social: A New Generation of Art from
Mexico City, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2007); FarSites: Urban crisis and domestic
symptoms in recent contemporary art, InSite, San Diego (2005); Declaraciones, Museo Nacional
Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (2005); Come Closer, Künsthaus, Berlin (2005); Made in Mexico,
UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles and ICA Boston (2004); The Structure of Survival, Biennale
Internazionale di Venezia, Venice (2003); Independence, South London Gallery, London (2003); To
be political it has to look nice, Apex Art, New York (2003); Shanghai Biennial, Shanghai (2002);
Thisplay, La Colección Jumex, Mexico (2002); Mexico City: An exhibition about the Exchange Rates
of Bodies and Values, P.S.1/MoMA, New York and KW, Berlin (2002); and 20 million Mexicans can´t
be wrong, South London Gallery, London (2002), among many others.
Provisorio Permanente is an artist collective that includes Victoriano Alonso, Eduardo
Basualdo, Manuel Heredia, Hernán Soriano and Pedro Wainer, who all live and work in Buenos
Aires. The artists, who come from the fields of fine art, theater, film, animation and object
manipulation, have worked togethersince 2003. Their productions involve photography, digital
media, objects, performance, graphics and video, as well as public art projects and theater
works. In 2005, they won second prize in Curriculum 0, an annual competition for emerging
artists at Ruth Benzacar Galería de Arte, Buenos Aires. They also took part in the second edition
of the Clínica de Artes Visuales del Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas (2006). In 2007, they received a
subsidy from the Fondo de Cultura BA to develop the clandestine project Visitas a la Casa del
Coleccionista. Their most recent solo exhibitions are: Toponave (in collaboration with the
Oligatega Numeric artist collective), Centro Cultural de España en Buenos Aires (2008); Alguien
Llama, Ruth Benzacar Galería de Arte (2006); Visitas a la Casa del Coleccionista, an experiment in
theater and urban performance, Buenos Aires (2005- 2007); Invierno Imberbe, Espacio Callejón,
Buenos Aires (2004). Their most recent group exhibitions include: Humo del Noctámbulo,
performance, Volare project, Límite Sud, arteBa, Buenos Aires (2008); Museo Salvaje, Centro
Cultural de España en Buenos Aires (2008); Duchamp en Buenos Aires, Fondo Nacional de las
Artes, Buenos Aires (2007).
Raquel Garbelotti was born in Dracena, São Paulo in 1973. She is a multimedia artist and
teacher. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from Faculdade Santa Marcelina (FASM),
São Paulo in 1994. She received her M.F.A. from the Universidade Estadual Paulista in 2001. The
following year she began working as an invited professor at FASM, where she taught sculpture
until 2004. In 2004 she was hired as an assistant professor in art education at the Universidade
Federal do Espírito Santo. She has collaborated on projects with Jorge Menna Barreto and
Rubens Mano. With these artists, she produced the video Versão Composta, exhibited in 2004
during a solo exhibition by the artist. Between 2000 and 2005, she participated in a wide variety
of exhibitions in Brasil and abroad, such as the 26ª Bienal de Arte de Pontevedra, Spain (2000); and
the 25ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (2002). Her solo exhibitions include: Armários
Modulares (1996); Casas-caixa (1999) and Observações Sobre o Espaço e o Tempo (2003).
Ricardo Basbaum was born in São Paulo in 1961 and currently lives and works in Rio de Janeiro.
He is a multimedia artist, writer, critic, curator and professor at the Art Institute of the
Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. He started his career as an artist in the 1980s, creating
performances, actions, interventions, texts, manifestos, objects and installations. Among his
most important solo and group exhibitions are: 25ª Bienal de São Paulo (2002), urban tension
(museum in progress), in Vienna (2002) and the exhibition Entre Pindorama, at the Künstlerhaus,
Stuttgart (2004). His works are included in the collections of the Museu de Arte, Brasília; Museu
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
Centro / Porto Alegre / RS / Brasil / 90.010-080
Fone/fax: +55 (51) 3254-7500
[email protected]
www.bienalmercosul.art.br
de Arte Contemporânea of the Universidade de São Paulo; Coleção Gilberto Chateaubriand, Rio
de Janeiro; and The Tate Collection, London. He is the author of Além da pureza visual (Zouk,
2007) and the artist’s books G. x eu (1997) and NBP x eu-você (2000). He organized the anthology
Arte Contemporânea Brasileira – texturas, dicções, ficções, estratégias (Contra Capa, 2001). He has
also collaborated on the following publications: The next documenta should be curated by an
artist, ed. Jens Hoffmann, Frankfurt, Revolver (2004) and Interaction: artistic practice in the
network, org. Amy Scholder and Jordan Crandall, New York, Eyebeam Atelier and D.A.P. (2001)
among others. He is the co-editor of item, a magazine on contemporary art and culture. He
curated the exhibition Mistura + Confronto (Porto, 2001), and co-curated the Panorama da Arte
Brasileira 2001 (MAM-SP). Since 1990, he has worked on the NBP – Novas Bases para a
Personalidade project. Examples from this series, among others, are the projects: NBP x eu-você
at MAM-RJ (2000), shown at Galeria São Paulo in 2001, and acquired by the Tate Collection in
2003; passagens (NBP) at Galeria Artur Fidalgo, Rio de Janeiro (2001); transatravessamento at the
25ª Bienal de São Paulo (2002); você gostaria de participar de uma experiência artística? – a project
in progress since 1994 and included at Documenta 12, Kassel (2007); and me-you + systemcinema + passageway (NBP) shown at the 7th Shanghai Biennale (2008).
Ricardo Lanzarini was born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1963. He currently lives and works in
Montevideo and New York. He received a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts from the Escuela Nacional de
Bellas Artes of the Universidad de la República Oriental del Uruguay. His most recent solo
exhibitions include: The Gallery as Studio. Drawings on Delirium, Point of Contact Gallery,
University of Syracuse, New York (2009); Abstracto Nervioso, Taché- Levy Gallery, Brussels (2008);
Bahía, Josée Bienvenú Gallery, New York (2007); Projet pour homme qui illumine, Musée des
Beaux Arts de Nantes (1997); and Ensalada Rusa, Museo Juan Manuel Blanes, Montevideo (1995),
among others. Among his many group exhibitions, most significant are: Drawn to Detail,
DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Massachusetts (2008); Otras contemporaneidades,
Convivencias problemáticas, Bienal de Valencia, Valencia, Spain (2007); Off/Fora, Movimientos
Imaginarios entre Galicia y el Cono Sur, 29a, Bienal de Arte de Pontevedra, Buenos Aires (20062007); Talespinning, The Drawing Center, New York (2004) and the VI e VII Bienales de la Habana,
Cuba (1997 and 2000). Lanzarini was awarded the Primer premio en la III Bienal del Estandarte,
Centro Cultural Tijuana, Mexico (2004); as well as receiving scholarships granted by the PollockKrasner Foundation, Inc (2004) and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2001).
Ricardo Ventura was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1962 where he currently lives and works. He
graduated from the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro and the Museu de
Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro. Among his solo exhibitions, the most important include:
Cavalo de Tróia, RhysMendes Galeria, Belo Horizonte (2009) and at the Galeria Mercedes Viegas
Arte Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro (2008); Mudras, Dorjes e Jordões, Galeria Anna Maria
Niemeyer, Rio de Janeiro (2007); and Meio Menor Mínimo, Projeto Zona Instável, Cavalariças,
Escola de Artes Visuais, Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro (2002). He has also participated in many
group exhibitions, such as: Um Olhar Sobre A Paisagem Contemporânea-POP, Pólo de
Pensamento Contemporâneo, Rio de Janeiro (2009); Projeto 2 em 1- Cavalariças, Escola de Artes
Visuais, Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro (2009); Assossiados, Espaço Orlândia, Rio de Janeiro (2007);
Abrigo Poético - Diálogos com Lygia Clark, MAC de Niterói, Rio de Janeiro (2007); Arte Brasileira
Hoje, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (2006); O Corpo Na Arte Contemporânea
Brasileira, Itaú Cultural, São Paulo (2006). He founded, in collaboration with MárciaX and BobN,
an important and historic project for artists, Orlândia, located in Rio de Janeiro.
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
Centro / Porto Alegre / RS / Brasil / 90.010-080
Fone/fax: +55 (51) 3254-7500
[email protected]
www.bienalmercosul.art.br
Romano was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1969. He currently lives and works in Santa Teresa, Rio de
Janeiro. He has received many awards and scholarships, including the Bolsa de Estímulo as Artes
Visuais da Funarte for his project Lugares e Instantes (2008); Prêmio Projéteis de Arte
Contemporânea for the performance S.W.O.L, Sample Way of Life (2007); as well as the artist in
residency scholarship in 2000-2001 from the Câmara Municipal do Porto, as part of the
Programa dos Ateliers da Lada, Portugal. He had had a solo exhibition titled Do Deslocamento
at Galeria dos Ateliers da Lada, Porto, Portugal (2000) and his sound art pieces have been
broadcast on many different radio stations, including the program Live Constructions, Radio
WKCR, Columbia, New York; Inter-continental links of extra-ordinary radio, Radio Ressonance FM,
London (2008); Exposição Conversations, Skuc Gallery, Student Radio, Ljubljana, Slovenia (2006);
Rádio Escuta, Rádio Mec FM, Rio de Janeiro (2005-2007) and Programa O Inusitado, Rádio
Madame Satã FM, Rio de Janeiro (2002-2004). Additionally, he has exhibited his work in group
exhibitions including: Nova Arte Nova, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro (2009);
Arte e Música, Galeria da Caixa Cultural, Rio de Janeiro (2008); Futuro do Presente, Itaú Cultural
(2007); Outros Lugares, Rumos Itaú Cultural, Casa das Onze Janelas, Belém, Brazil (2006); and
Abre Alas, Galeria A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro (2005).
Rosângela Rennó was born in Belo Horizonte in 1962. She currently lives and works in Rio de
Janeiro. She received a degree in architecture from the Escola de Arquitetura at the
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (1986) and in Fine Arts from the Escola Guignard (1987).
She has a Doctorate in Fine Arts from the Escola de Comunicações e Artes at the Universidade
de São Paulo (1997). Her significant solo exhibitions include: The last photo, Prefix Institute of
Contemporary Art, Toronto (2008); Brèd ek[t] chocolat, Galerie La Chapelle, Festival Vidéoformes,
Clermont-Ferrand, France (2007); Corpo da Alma/Apagamentos, Cristina Guerra Contemporary
Art, Lisbon (2005); Espelho Diário, Casa da Ribeira, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil (2005); and O
Arquivo Universal e outros Arquivos, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (2003). Of special note
among her group exhibitions are: 0 Phantasmagoria: Specters of absence, Museo de Arte
Contemporáneo, Bogotá (2007); Tempo ao tempo, MARCO, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de
Vigo, Spain (2007); Jogo da Memória, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (2005);
Aperto'93: Emergenza, XLV Biennale Internazionale di Venezia (2005); and the 22ª Bienal
Internacional de São Paulo (1994), among others.
Rosario Bléfari is a vocalist, composer, actor and writer. She was born in Mar Del Plata,
Argentina. She began her career as a vocalist and composer for the rock band Suárez, with
which she recorded five albums. Her most recent album, her fourth solo project, is entitled
Calendario (Fan Discos, 2008). On screen, her most important role has been as the main
character of the film Silvia Prieto, directed by Martín Rejtman, for which she won Best Actress at
the Nantes Film Festival, France (1999). She writes for the Las 12 and Soy sections in the
Argentinean newspaper Página 12. She has written and directed plays: Somos nuestro cerebro
and ¿Somos nuestros genes? (ed. Eudeba); and poetry: Poemas en prosa (ed. Belleza y Felicidad).
As a professor, she has taught lyric writing workshops at Colégio Ricardo Rojas (2004-2008), at
Estudio Urbano (2007-2008) and for the program Arte Rodante, for docent training for the
Argentinean Ministry of Education, in the Jujuy, Mendoza, Tierra del Fuego, Córdoba and
Posadas regions (2007-2008). She has organized literary conferences in Buenos Aires and in
2008 she coordinated a conference on the poet Olga Orozco in Santa Rosa, La Pampa. Also in
2008, she was invited to participate in Worldtronics, Berlin’s International Electronic Music
Festival.
Rua Bento Martins, 24 / sala 1201
Centro / Porto Alegre / RS / Brasil / 90.010-080
Fone/fax: +55 (51) 3254-7500
[email protected]
www.bienalmercosul.art.br
Ryan Gander was born in Chester, UK in 1976. He lives and works in London. He studied at
Manchester Metropolitan University (1996-1999), attended the van Eyck Akademie in
Maastricht, The Netherlands (1999-2000) and Rijksakedemie van beeldende kunsten de
Amsterdam (2001-2002). He has exhibited both in the UK and internationally. Among his most
important solo exhibitions, highlights include: Ryan Gander: Heralded as the New Black, Ikon
Gallery, Birmingham, UK, South London Gallery, London (2008) and Boijmans Museum,
Rotterdam (2009); Passengers: 1.3 Ryan Gander, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San
Francisco (2007); Ryan Gander, The Last Work, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam (2007);
and Ryan Gander, But it was all green, Artists Space, New York (2005). Additionally, his work has
been included in the following selected group exhibitions: 16th Biennial of Sydney, Sydney
(2008); Life on Mars, the 55th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2008);
Performa 07, The Second Biennial of New Visual Art Performance, New York (2007); 9e Biennale de
Lyon, Lyon (2007); Tate Triennial 2006 – New British Art, Tate, London (2006); and T1 The
Pantagruel Syndrome, Torino Triennale Tremusei, Turin (2005). His work has been recognized by
the Prix de Rome for sculpture in 2003, and with the 2005 Baloise Art Statements Prize from Art
Basel.
Samuel Beckett was born in Dublin in 1906 and died in Paris in 1989. A highly influential Irish
novelist, playwright, critic and poet, Beckett was one of the most noteworthy writers of the 20th
century. He effected a rupture in this field through radical experimentalism. In his youth, he
studied at Earlsfort House in Dublin and at the Portorosa Royal School in Enniskillen, where he
began learning French. His university education was at Trinity College, Dublin between 1923
and 1927. After graduating, he traveled to Paris where he met James Joyce, became his
apprentice, and helped him create his Work in Progress (later to be called Finnegans Wake). In
1930, he published his first poem, Whoroscope and not long after, his study on Proust (1931).
Upon his return to Dublin to teach at Trinity College, Beckett wrote stories that would later be
included in the book More Pricks Than Kicks (1934). In 1932, back in Paris, he wrote his first novel,
Dream of Fair to Middling Women. He then traveled to Dublin and London, returning to Paris,
where he established himself in 1937, to work on the novel Murphy (finally published in 1938).
At that time, he met Suzanne Deschevaux-Dusmesnil, his companion, who he would later marry
in 1961. Faced with the invasion of Paris, the couple took part in the Resistance and shortly after
were forced to seek refuge in Rousillion, in the south of France, where Beckett continued to
work on his novella, Watt. From that time on, he would write mainly in French, during what
would be his most prolific period (c. 1946-1950) although his first novel in French, Cami et
Mercier, would not be published for several years to come. During this time, Beckett also wrote
his famous trilogy (Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamed). In 1947, he created the play Eleutheria,
which would not be published until after his death. In 1948-49, he wrote Waiting for Godot,
which debuted in Paris in 1953, bringing him public recognition both in France and
internationally. Over the course of the 1950s and 60s, other masterpieces would follow,
including Endgame, Krapp's Last Tape and Happy Days. He then dedicated himself to staging his
plays in Europe and the United States and wrote his first radio pieces followed by the works in
prose How It Is (1961) and The Lost Ones (1970). In 1959, he received an Honorary Doctorate from
Trinity College, and two years later, the Prix International des Éditeurs (or Prix Formentor),
concurrently with Jorge Luis Borges and in 1969, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. From the
1970s, he entered a less prolific period, though still marked by new projects: works for television
on the BBC and theater productions. In 1977, he began work on his autobiography, Company,
and at the beginning of the 1980s, his prose works included Ill Seen Ill Said and Worstward Ho, as
well as his extreme theater pieces Rockaby and Ohio Impromptu. He wrote his last great work,
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Stirrings Still in 1986. The same year, he fell seriously ill and died at the end of 1989, a few
months after his wife.
Sergio De Loof was born in Lanús in 1962. He currently lives and works between Berazategui
and Buenos Aires. A multifaceted artist who quickly abandoned his formal education, was
strongly influenced, at a young age, by Brazilian modernism as well as by the poetry of
Rimbaud, Verlaine and Apollinaire. The euphoric feelings upon the return of democracy of
Argentina in 1983 triggered an immediate expansion in forms of social interaction. Bars and
parties became new spaces for social encounters, where practitioners from different disciplines
crossed paths, and laughter as a strategy for liberation took shape in the most experimental
proposals of the time. De Loof was one of the protagonists of this scene which started in the
1980s. He began to test the meeting place between art, friendship and food as a point of
departure for his multidisciplinary experiments. To this end, the bar and the fashion show
became a favourite format, and among them the now mythical bars, Bolivia (1989) and El
Dorado (1990), were conceived as fictional spaces of heightened artistic experimentation. These
spaces provided the stage for his delirious fashion shows, which would mix performance, art
and fashion in collections such as Latina Winter by Cotolengo Fashion (1989), Pieles Maravillosas
(1990), Haute Trash (1992), Los Harapos de la Realité de la Machine de la Couture (1993), the latter
being an open-air fashion show at the Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires and Winter 2001 at
Galería Ruth Benzacar, Buenos Aires (2001); all imbued with biting humor, satire, and warm
refinement. His purpose, among others, was to replace “dark humor” with “bubblegum pink”
and “apple green”, the colors he discovered on a trip to Chile. His aesthetic approach is ‘trash
rococó’, the bricollage mix of a certain pretentious refinement with a local “everything for 2
pesos” sales call. De Loof can be thought of a character who joins the frivolity of advertising and
the density of the underground; without forgetting to cultivate dandyism and intellectualism.
De Loof is a key figure for the understanding of the later development of projects like Belleza y
felicidad (1999-2008), among others.
Tomás Espina was born in Buenos Aires in 1975, where he lives and works. Between 1975 and
1991, he lived in Mexico, Mozambique and Santiago do Chile. He is Professor of Painting at the
Instituto Universitario Nacional de Arte (IUNA), Buenos Aires. His solo exhibitions include: Bum,
Centro Cultural de España en Córdoba, Argentina (2005); Maure, Galería Artis, Argentina (2005);
and Entre líneas, Galería Alberto Sendrós, Buenos Aires (2003). His work has been included in
numerous group exhibitions: Argentina hoy, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (2009);
Urbanidades, Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires (2008); Visions, Centre Regional d`Art,
Montbéliard, France (2008); Ignitions, Panamerican Art Project, Miami (2008); Pintura sin pintura,
Centro Cultural de España en Buenos Aires (2005); and Instinctive, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New
York (2004). He has received scholarships from the Secretaria de Cultura de la Nación (ACA) and
Atlantic Center of Art Foundation, United States (2004), and the following awards: First Prize,
Petrobras/arteBA 6ª Edición, Buenos Aires (2009); Tercer Premio Cultural Chandon, San Miguel
de Tucumán, Argentina (2005); Segundo Premio, Fundación Banco Ciudad, Buenos Aires (2002);
and Premio Elena Poggi al artista iniciación del año, Asociación Argentina de Críticos de Arte
(2002).
Walmor Corrêa was born in Florianópolis, Brazil in 1962. He lives and works in Porto Alegre. He
graduated from the Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Unisinos) in Marketing and
Advertising, and in Architecture and Urbanism. His most significant solo exhibitions include:
Memento Mori, Laura Marsiaj Arte Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro (2008); Memento Mori,
Instituto Goethe de Porto Alegre (2007); Apêndice/Mostruário Entomológico, Centro Universitário
Mariantônia, Universidade São Paulo (2004); and Natureza Perversa, Museu de Arte do Rio
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Grande do Sul Ado Malagoli, Salas Negras, Porto Alegre (2003). His main group exhibitions are:
Die Tropen, Museum Martin Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2008); Os Trópicos - Visões a partir do centro do
globo, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil – CCBB, Rio de Janeiro (2008); Cryptozoology, Bates
College Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine (2006); Panorama da Arte Brasileira 2005, Museu de Arte
Moderna, São Paulo (2005); XXVI Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (2004). In 2008, he was artist in
residency at the Fundación Can Xalant and in 2007, at the Fundação Sacatar, Bahia. Corrêa has
received the following prizes for his work: Açorianos de Artes Plásticas (2008); Destaque em
Escultura and Artista Destaque Especial (2007) for his exhibition Memento Mori at Instituto
Goethe, Porto Alegre.
Walter Smetak was born in Zurich in 1913 and died in Salvador, Bahia in 1984. He was a Swiss
musician who lived in Brazil from 1937. A cellist, composer, writer, sculptor and builder of
musical instruments, Smetak taught at the Universidade Federal da Bahia’s School of Music and
influenced an entire generation of Brazilian musicians, including Tom Zé, Gilberto Gil, Caetano
Veloso and Marco Antônio Guimarães. The son of Czech parents who had moved to Switzerland,
his music education began with his father, a teacher and proficient player of the sitar. He first
dreamed of being a pianist, but an accident which took away some of the movement in his right
hand led the young Smetak to choose the cello instead. He studied for four years at the
Mozarteum in Salzburg, receiving his diploma as a concert musician with Pablo Casals at
Konservatorium Wien in 1934. Financial difficulties led him to try his luck in the New World.
Upon his arrival in Brazil in 1937, he was stunned to discover that the symphony orchestra
which had hired him, in Porto Alegre, was defunct. He began to earn money by playing at
parties, casinos and radio orchestras in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, in accompaniment with
foreign female vocalists and even Carmen Miranda. Decades later, he would say: "I concluded
that it was preferable to surround myself with the disorder and liberality of the tropics than
submit myself to the European misery sown by Adolf Hitler." In 1957, H.J. Koellreuter asked him
to come to the Universidade Federal da Bahia in Salvador. There, he began his research on
sound and became intensely interested in theosophy. In the basement of the School of Music,
he put together his workshop/laboratory, where he would come to invent and build, using nonconventional materials like gourds, plastic, Styrofoam and bobbins, approximately 150 musical
instruments, the plásticas sonoras. An untiring and radical researcher, composer, music theorist
and esoteric mystic, Smetak greatly influenced an entire generation of Brazilian musicians, in
the fields of both classical and popular music. Moreover, it was the young people of the
Tropicalist movement and later generations who paid attention to the eccentric professor who
used to drive the streets of Salvador in an old BMW which he called the "prostitute of Babylon".
Gilberto Gil, Rogério Duarte, Gereba, Tuzé de Abreu, Djalma Correia and Marco Antônio
Guimarães (from Uakti) were just a few of his students. He recorded two albums: one for Philips
and another, Interregno, with Marcus Pereira. He wrote three plays and approximately thirty
unpublished books. His instruments have been brought together at the Biblioteca Reitor
Macedo Costa, on UFBA’s Ondina Campus in Salvador.
Yun-Fei Ji was born in Beijing, China in 1963. He currently lives and works in New York. He
graduated in 1982 from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. He received his graduate
degree at the University of Arkansas (1989) with the help of a Fulbright Fellowship. His solo
exhibitions include: James Cohan Gallery, New York (2009); Frieze Art Fair, Zeno X Gallery,
London (2007); ZenoX, Antwerp (2003 and 2005); Yun-Fei Ji: The Water that Floats the Boat Can
Also Sink It, James Cohan Gallery, New York (2006); The Empty City, Contemporary Art Museum
St. Louis (2005), travelling; and Yun-Fei Ji: The East Wind, Institute of Contemporary Art,
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; and Pierogui, New York (2001). Among his group
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exhibitions, are Displacement: The Three Gorges Dam and Contemporary Chinese Art, Smart
Museum of Art, Chicago (2008); Darger-ism: Contemporary Artists and Henry Darger, American
Folk Art Museum, New York (2008); Two Chinas: Chen Qiulin and Yun-Fei Ji, Worcester Art
Museum, Worcester (2008); An Atlas of Events, Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal (2007);
Breaking Away, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (2003); and Whitney Biennial 2002,
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2002), among others. Among his most recent
awards and artist residencies, the following are significant: Parasol Unit Artist-In-Residence,
London (2006-07); Rome Prize, American Academy in Rome, Italy (2005-6); Sharp Foundation
Fellowship, New York (2004); PS1 Contemporary Arts National Studio Program Fellowship, Long
Island City, New York (2003); Headland Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California (2002); and
the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, Rhode Island (2001-02), among others.