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CoBrA: transgresso e
voracidade
"Sur un coup d'humeur, contre le verbiage, I'hsitation, le centralisme, c'est Paris, le 8 de
novembre 1948, dans un caf formant coin du quai Saint-Michel avec I'axe de la rue SaintJacques, qu'est sign I'acte fondateur de CoBrA", relata Pierre Alechinsky1. Os artistas discutiam
o envolvimento da Internacional Surrealista com o Partido Comunista. Concluram que no. levava a coisa alguma e assinaram as seguintes resolues: "Consideramos que a nica sada para
uma atividade internacional contnua seja uma cooperao orgnica e experimental que evite
todas as teorias estreis e dogmticas. [... ] Vimos que temos um modo comum de vida, de trabalho e de sentimento, entendemos uns aos outros num nvel prtico e nos recusamos a aderir
a uma unidade terica que artificial. [... ] num esprito de reciprocidade que adicion~mos
experincia dialtica entre nossos grupos e nossas experincias nacionais".
O movimento CoBrA foi criado por Asger Jorn (Dinamarca), pelo poeta Charles Dotremont,
Joseph Noiret (Blgica), Karel Appel, Constant e Corneille (Holanda), que participavam de um
congresso de art d'auantgarde em Paris. A denominao-CoBrA-veio das iniciais das capitais-COpenhague, BRuxelas e Amsterd-de seus pases. O CoBrA no tinha praticamente
nenhum apoio do establishment do mundo da arte. Algumas excees vieram da parte de Michel
Ragon e Willem Sandberg, diretordo Stedelijk Museum de Amsterd. Outros crticos parisienses
consideraram o grupo conservador, porque no era "abstrato" como a "Escola de Paris". Alm
disso, o elemento expressionista do CoBrA no foi reconhecido pelo establishment de Paris, como
fora o caso de Munch e dos expressionistas alemes.
O CoBrA foi provavelmente o ltimo grupo de seu gnero, na tradio dos dadastas, futuristas, construtivistas e surrealistas, a se basear no trabalho cooperativo entre artistas. Asger Jorn
colaborou com Pierre Wemaere, de 1940 ao final dos anos 80. A colaborao entre os artistas do
grupo era condio essencial para seu trabalho; valiam-se do respeito ilimitado ao indivduo e
um "painouissement tout aussi illimit dans la communaut".2 O CoBrA cultivava tambm um intercmbio com cientistas, msicos e diretores de cinema.
Os artistas trabalhavam em grupos organizados com o intuito de promover novas idias
artsticas que no recebiam apoio do establishment da arte. Muitas vezes, to logo esse apoio surgia, os grupos se dissolviam ou se degeneravam em formas de poder pessoal. Esse foi o caso da
Internacional Surrealista, que depois da guerra se transformou em ferramenta pessoal de Andr
Breton. Na realidade, o CoBrA foi fundado como alternativa ditadura de Breton sobre a Internacional Surrealista. Durante a ocupao da Frana, Dotremont havia pessoalmente mantido
acesa a chama do surrealismo. Tornou-se um oponente poltico de Breton, que estreitara a
definio do "verdadeiro" surrealismo e excludo alguns artistas do grupo. Breton desempenhava o papel de pai autoritrio, tentando monopolizar os rumos do surrealismo. Em Bruxelas,
pouco antes da criao do CoBrA, Asger Jorn, Dotremont, Eljer Bille, Egill Jacobsen e CarlHenning Pedersen, entre outros, haviam fundado o Bureau International du Surralisme Revolutionnaire, com uma abertura experimental oposta ao carter cannico do surrealismo de
Breton. Havia uma clara inteno transgressiva nas organizaes do-grupo. O CoBrA assumiu
ento o papel dos filhos que desafiam a autoridade do pai (Breton), como se geraes de artistas
vivessem a situao de totem e tabu, discutida por Freud. Zero de conduite [Zero de conduta]
(1961), uma pintura de Alechinsky, expressa essa pulso transgressiva, enquanto Rage maitrise
[Raiva reprimida] (1952), de Jorn, aponta para a possibilidade de dar uma direo para a revolta,
que o CoBrA.
A fora de liderana no grupo era a trinca Jorn, Constant e Dotremont. Vrios encontros
foram feitos para discutir, festejare realizar projetos coletivos, publicar revistas, livros e psteres.
"En la evolucin dei arte moderno, el perodo problemtico toca a su fin para sucederle un perodo experimental. Lo que quiere decirque, de la experiencia de que adquiere en estado de desenfreada libertad, se desprendern las leyes a las que habr de obedecer la capacidad de creacin",
escreve Constant3 A primeira grande exposio CoBrA, em 1949, no Stedelijk Museum em Amsterd, denominou-se "Exposio Internacional de Arte Experimental".4
Em 1951, a revista CoBrA declarou o fim da organizao. A razo imediata parao colapso do
grupo foi o fato de tanto Jorn quanto Dotremont serem hospitalizados com tuberculose devido
subnutrio e exausto fsica. Durante os dez anos seguintes, pouco aconteceu. O CoBrA foi
esquecido. Os artista~ dinamarqueses e holandeses ficaram em casa, com exceo de Karel
Appel, que se estabeleceu em Nova York. Corneille e Alechinsky se estabeleceram em Paris, onde
foram bastante atuantes no meio artstico francs: Somente no incio dos anos 60 o CoBrA foi
"redescoberto". Jorn afirmou-se no cenrio internacional, Alechinsky alcanou a maturidade de
CoBrA n 4 capa interior [inside cover] novembro 1949 fotomontagem J0rgen Roos
seu estilo CoBrA, Appel demonstrou sua dramtica pintura gestual. Alguns artistas dinamarqueses, como Pedersen e Jacobsen, logo saram de seu "exlio" voluntrio. Para eles, foi uma
surpresa veros resultados obtidos trinta anos antes finalmente reconhecidos. O ressurgimento
da imagtica CoBrA deu-se num perodo dominado pela arte american-pop, minimalismo,
conceitualismo. O Cobra representou uma alternativa carregada de espontaneidade, ira (podemos nos referir, novamente, ao Rage maitrise de Alechinsky), fantasia violenta e potica, que
parecia deslocada de seu tempo. A voracidade do desejo est claramente presente em Moment
rotique [Momento ertico] (1949), de Constant.
Talvez esse renascimento do CoBrA indicasse com mais preciso um novo incio-a nova
onda de pintura que explodiu portoda a Europa (e pouco depois em muitos outros pases, inclusive no Brasil) no final dos anos setenta e incio dos anos oitenta. No entanto, diz Alechinsky,
"en 1973, un 1er mai, le grand Jorn disparat [.. .] Sans Jorn, sans Dotremont, I'quilibre est
rompu [... ] Aucun survivant, dsormais, ne peut prtendre assurer la continuit de CoBrA.
Raisonnablement".5 No trabalho de muitos dos pintores alemes dos anos 80, como Baselitz,
Penck e Kiefer, referncias aos artistas do grupo, especialmente Jorn e Appel, podem ser notadas.
Per Kirkeby, como outros artistas dos pases nrdicos, claramente constri suas pinturas tendo
Asger Jorn como referncia.
O movimento CoBrA teve vrias ambies. Nenhuma delas teve sucesso. O programa artstico dos fundadores dinamarqueses do grupo tinha o intuito de promover um aproximao
espontnea com a pintura e com uma linguagem pictrica caracterizada por figu raes que no
se referissem ao mundo "real", mas brotassem da fantasia do artista, reminescentes de formas
orgnicas, pssaros, animais, figuras mascaradas. Esse novo expressionismo abstrato foi alimentado por impulsos do cubismo, do surrealismo, de Munch e da arte primitiva, entre outras
fontes . .Em '935, Egill Jacobsen j desenvolvia uma linguagem de cruzamento de culturas tpica
do CoBrA: a "pintura de mscaras". Essa linguagem pictrica, que leva em conta o uso de referncias africanas de Picasso e o "desenho automatista" surrealista, evoca diferentes experincias e estados mentais. Durante a guerra, as pinturas deJacobsen e Pedersen refletem seu medo
e depresso, mas tambm seus lares, exaltando o otimismo, a luxria, a alegria de viver e os
encontros erticos. Os artistas dinamarqueses viam a arte "primitiva", africana e ocenica,
como meio de comunicar fronteiras geogrficas e culturais. No entanto, no se interessaram por
seus significados religiosos e ritualsticos. Ao contrrio, olharam para artistas como Picasso, Mir
e Klee, para ver como eles apropriaram linguagens visuais da arte africana e ocenica tradicional.
Os artistas dinamarqueses voltaram-se para a arte nrdica medieval e dos vikings. O colorismo nrdico e o uso da natureza e paisagem de Munch e especialmente seus auto-retratos,
Karel Appel
Cabea trgica [Tragic head] 1957 leo sobre tela [oil on canvas] 146 x113,7cm coleo Museu de Arte Contempornea da
Passion 01 two men [Paixo de dois homens] 1962 leo sobre tela [oil on canvas] 161 x131 cm coleo Cobra Museum voor Moderne
Kunst, Amstelveen, Holanda
mas tambm a proximidade de suas figuras (como em Ogrito) mascarando a figurao, tiveram
influncia decisiva. Na Blgica e na Holanda, os artistas demonstraram um forte interesse por
desenhos de crianas e de doentes mentais.
Pierre et ~eurs [Pedra e flores] (1955) e Paysage dramatique [Paisagem dramtica] (1958), de
Corneille, tm uma superflcie pictrica conturbada, em que a dura materialidade da pedra e a
suavidade das ptalas tornam-se carne ferida. A superfcie pictrica torna-se um espao unificado mediante impulsos de angstia. Paysage humaine [Paisagem humana], de Appel, transforma a pintura em uma superfcie tensa de nervos. O ato de pintar claramente um fluxo de
energias e tenses, angstias e desejos. "Un sang coule, cre, atroce, sanieux de pus thrs"6,
escreve Emmanuel Looten em A feu et sang [A fogo e sangue], desenvolvendo uma fenomenologia da pintura de Appel. A linguagem pictrica do CoBrA aproxima-se do expressionismo
abstrato norte-americano. A diferena maior que o artista europeu se vale da iconografia figurativa, enquanto os americanos desenvolvem uma imagtica abstrata. O CoBrA representou
para a nova gerao de artistas um elo de volta grande tradio da pintura, a Munch, Nolde,
Ensore Beckmann, que tiveram um grande impacto sobre os artistas do grupo.
O CoBrA trata da voracidade, como na representao de uma boca aberta com dentes ferozes de Composition with fabulous monster [Composio com monstro fabuloso] (1950), de Jorn, e
Red object [Objeto vermelho](1940), deJacobsen. Fragmentos de corpos, ao lado de um vocabulrio tratando de fome e devorao, aparecem em ttulos de obras e textos. A violncia do desejo
est presente na pintura Moment rotique [Momento ertico] (1949), de Constant. CoBrA um
grupo de artistas masculinos. A mulher idealizada em desejo, como no poema de Appel:
"[ ... ] C'est le drame/l'homme et son sexe avide/qui veut capturer/le papillon/l'oiseau/l'pingleur-Ie possder-/I'avoir-Ie tenir-/l'impossible [... ]"7
Jorn, com a energia voraz de seu processo de apropriao, o personagem mais radical do
CoBrA. Ele se apropria da histria, de mitos, imagens, e mesmo de outras pinturas. Jorn criou
uma verso aparentemente abstrata de le radeau de la Mduse [A jangada do Medusa] (1950),
baseada na pintura de Gricault, que tratava do canibalismo entre os sobreviventes de um navio
francs afundado. Na obra Nocturne "' [Noturno III] (1959), Jorn realmente devora pinturas de
artistas desconhecidos, conquistando-as e violando-as. O artista estabelece um nova pintura,
introduzindo tenses entre sua pintura e os restos da imagem anterior.
Na revista Helhesten [O cavalo do inferno], os textos eram assinados por artistas individuais
ou resultado de discusses coletivas. As condies de trabalho na Dinamarca eram mais liberais
do que em outros pases ocupados pelos alemes, e os artistas tinham liberdade para pintar e
expor da maneira que quisessem. Os dinamarqueses no consideravam seu resultado artstico
como final. Eles esperavam que artistas em outros pases trabalhassem elementos para uma
nova arte que daria frutos ao final da guerra. Esperavam que a arte alcanasse um lugar mais
importante na Europa do ps-guerra, desempenhando um papel atuante numa sociedade liberada de fronteiras e barreiras culturais e sociais. A maior parte dos artistas dinamarqueses
tomou parte no movimento de Resistncia e era membro do Partido Comunista.
Ao final da guerra, os artistas dinamarqueses estabeleceram contatos com artistas em outros pases. Primeiro foram a Paris, a capital artstica do pr-guerra. Pouqussimos artistas tiveram a oportunidade de trabalhar livremente durante a guerra. Primeiro, a base ideolgica de seu
trabalho entrou em colapso. Moscou aboliu a estratgia de "Front Popular" e imps novamente
o realismo socialista. A verdade sobre o autoritarismo de Moscou e o assassinato em massa
Pierre Alechinsky Autour de la terre Ao redor da terra [Around the earth] 1955 leo sobre tela [oil on canvas] 96,5 x 115,8cm coleo
Cobra Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Amstel veen , Holanda
CoBrA artists is a condition of their work, relying on the unlimited respect for the individual and
an "panoussement tout auss llmt dans la communaut."2 CoBrA also cultivated cooperation with
scientists, musicians, and film directors.
When artists cooperated in organized groups, it was to promote new artistic ideas, which
were not supported by the art establishment. As soon as such support was achieved, often
groups were dissolved or degenerated into a form of personal power. This was the case with the
Surrealist lnternational which after the war became Andr Breton's personal power tooI. ln fact,
CoBrA was founded as an alternative to Breton's dictatorship over the Surrealist lnternationaI.
Dotremont, during the occupation ofFrance, had personally kept the flame of surrealism burning.
He became a politicaI opponent ofBreton, who had narrowed the definition of"true" surrealism
and excluded some artists from the group. Breton played the role ofthe authoritarian father, trying to monopolize the direction of surrealismo ln Brussels, just before the creation of CoBrA,
Asger Jorn, Dotremont, Eljer Bille, Egill Jacobsen and Carl-Henning Pedersen, among others,
had founded the Bureau lnternational du Surralisme Revolutionnaire with an experimental
overture opposed to the canonic character of the surrealism by Breton. There is a clear intention
oftransgression in the organizations ofthe group. CoBrA's group fulfills the role ofthe hoard
of children that defy the authority ofthe father (Breton), as if artistic generations were experiencing the situation ofTotem and Taboo, as discussed by Freud. Zero de condute [Zero conduct]
(r96I), a painting by Alechinsky, expresses this transgressive drive, while Rage matrse [Repressed
rage] (r952) ofJorn opts for the possibility of giving a direction to revolt, which is CoBrA.
The leading force in the group was the troika Jorn, Constant and Dotremont. Several meetings took place to discuss, feast, and undertake collective projects, publish magazines, books, and
posters. "En la evolucin deI arte moderno, el perodo problemtico toca a su fin para sucederle un perodo experimental. Lo que quiere decir que, de la experiencia de que adquiere en estado
de desenfreada libertad, se desprendern las leyes a las que habr de obedecerIa capacidad de
creacin," writes Constant. 3 The first major CoBrA show, held in I949 at the Stedelijk Museum
in Amsterdam, was called "lnternational Exhibition ofExperimental Art."4
ln I95I the CoBrA magazine declares the end of the organization. The immediate reason
for the collapse of the group was the fact that both Jorn and Dotremont were hospitalized with
tuberculosis, caused by malnutrition and physical exhaustion. For the next ten years, very little
happened. CoBrA was forgotten. The Danish artists stayed at home, the Dutch likewise, except
for Karel Appel, who settled in New York. Corneille and Alechinsky established themselves in
Paris, andbecame active on the French art scene. Only in the early '60S was CoBrA "rediscovered."
Jorn had an international breakthrough, Alechinsky reached his mature CoBrA style, Appel
showed his dramatic gesture painting. Soon some of the Danish artists, like Pedersen and
Jacobsen, carne out of their self-imposed "exiles." For them, it was a surprise to see their results
from 30 years ago finally being appreciated. The resurfacing ofthe CoBrA imagery took place in
the midst of a period dominated by American art, like pop, minimalism, conceptualismo CoBrA
represented an alternative of spontaneity, rage (we can refer again to Alechinsky's Rage maitrise),
violent and poetic fantasy that seemed to be out of place with its time. This voracity of desire is
clearly present in the painting Moment rotique [Erotic moment] (1949) by Constant.
Maybe this renaissance of CoBrA more clearly indicates a new start-the wave of new
painting which burst all over Europe (and soon in many other countries, including Brazil) in the
late '70S and early '80S. Yet, Alechinsky says, "en 1973, un ler mai, le grand Jom disparait [... ] Sans
Jorn, sans Dotremont, l'quilibre est rompu [... ] Aucun survivant, dsormais, ne peut prtendre
Carl-Henn ing Pederson Det rode slot ved havet O castelo vermelho beira do mar [The red castle by the sea] 1952 leo sobre
tela [oil on canvas] 102 x 102cm coleo Carl-Henning Pederson og Else Alfelts Museum, Herning, Dinamarca
Constant Moment rotique Momento ertico [Erotic moment] 1949 tinta e aquarela sobre papel [paint and watercolor on paper]
59,5x61,5cm coleo Cob ra Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Amstelveen, Holanda
assurer la continuit de CoBrA. Raisonnablement". 5 ln the works by several of the '80S generation ofGerman painters, i.e., Baselitz, Penck and Kiefer, references can be seen to CoBrA artists,
especially Jorn and Appel. Per Kirkeby clearly builds on Asger Jorn, as do other artists in the
Nordic countries.
CoBrA had several ambitions. None ofthem were successful. The artistic program ofthe
Danish founders ofCoBrA was to promote a spontaneous approach to painting, and a pictorial
language characterized by figurations not referring to the "real" world, but coming out of the
artist's fantasy, reminiscent of organic forms, birds, animaIs, and mask figures. This new
abstract expressionism was fed on impulses from cubism, surrealism, Munch, and primitive art,
among other sources. As early as I935, Egill Jacobsen developed a typical CoBrA cross-cultural
language, the "mask painting." This pictoriallanguage ofthe mask, which relied on Picasso's
use of African references and surrealist "automatic drawing," conveys different experiences and
states of mind. During wartime, the paintings by Jacobsen and Pedersen reflect their fear and
depression, but also home, exalted optimism, lust, joy oflife and erotic encounters. The Danish
artists looked at "primitive" art, African and Oceanic, as a means to communicate geographic
and cultural boundaries. They did not take much interest in its religious or ritual meaning.
lnstead they looked to artists like Picasso, Mir and Klee-how they appropriated the visual
idioms of African and Oceanic traditional art.
Danish artists turned to Nordic art ofthe Viking and Medieval times. Elements ofthis were
incorporated into their pictoriallanguage, as were the influences ofMunch. Nordic colorism and
also Munch's use of nature and landscape, and, especially, his self-portraits, as well as the
closeness of some ofhis figures (like The scream) to mask figuration, were decisive influences.
ln Belgium and the Netherlands, the artists took a stronger interest in drawings by children and
mentally disturbed people.
Corneille's paintings Perres et.fleurs (I955) and Paysage dramatque (I958) present a restless
pictorial surface, in which the hard materiality of stone and the tender petals become wounded
flesh. The pictorial surface becomes a unified space through the impulses of anguish. Appel's
Paysage humane transforms the painting into a surface oftense nerves. Painting is clearly a flow
of energies and tensions, anguishes and desires. "Un sang coule, cre, atroce, sanieux de pus
thrs,"6 writes Emmanuel Looten in A Feu et sang, developing a phenomenology of Appel's
painting. CoBrA's pictoriallanguage is close to the abstract expressionism ofthe United States.
The major difference is that the European artist relied
on a figurative iconography, while the American developed a nonfigurative imagery. To the new generation of
artists, CoBrA represented a link back to the great tradition of painting, to Munch, Nolde, Ensor and Beckmann, who had an impact upon the artists ofthe group.
CoBrA is about voracity, like in the depictions of
that open mouth with fierce teeth ofJorn's Composton
wth fabulous monster (I950) and Jacobsen's Red object
(I940). Fragments ofthe body, adding to a vocabulary
about hunger and devoration, appear in titles of works
and texts. The violence of desire is present in the painting Moment rotque (I949) by Constant. CoBrA is a group
of male artists. Woman is idealized in desire, as in a
poem of Appel:
"[... ]C'est le drame/l'homme et son sexe avidel qui veut capturer/le papillon/l'oiseau/l'pingleur-Ie possder-/l'avoir-le tenir-/l' impossible [... ]"7
Jorn is the most radical character in CoBrA, fram the point of view of the voracious energy in his
pracess of apprapriation. He apprapriates history, myths, images, and even other paintings. He
created an apparently abstract version ofLe radeau de la Mduse [The raft of the Medusa] (1950),
based on the painting by Gricault, which dealt with cannibalism among the survivors of a
French shipwreck. ln the work Nocturne III (1959), Jorn actually devours paintings by unknown
artists and conquers and violates them. He establishes a new painting, intraducing tensions
between his painting and the remnants of the previous image.
ln the magazine Helhesten (Hell's horse), the texts either were signed by individual artists ,
or were a result of collective discussion. The working conditions in Denmark were more liberal
than in other countries occupied by the Germans, and the artists were free to paint as theywanted,
and to exhibit as they liked. The Danish artists did not consider their artistic result as final. They
expected artists in other countries to have worked out elements for a new art, which would blossom when the war was over. They expected that art would gain a more important place in postwar
Eurape, to play an active part in society which was liberated fram social and cultural borders and
barriers. Most of the Danish artists took part in the Resistance movement, and were members of
the Communist party.
Corneille Vision d' Afrique Viso da frica [Vision of Africa] 1949 leo sobre tela [oil on canvas] 60 x 50 cm coleo Cobra Museum
voor Moderne Kunst, Amstelveen , Holanda
When the war was over, the Danish artists established contacts with artists in other countries. First they went to Paris-the artistic capital in prewar years. Very few artists had been able
to work freely during the war. First, the ideological basis of their work collapsed. Moscow abolished the "Popular Front" strategy, and reimposed social realismo The truth about Moscow's
authoritarianism and Stalin's mass murdering carne to light, and the Soviet government started
to build its East Europe empire, Czechoslovakia being the first country to be invaded. This alI
happened before or in the sarne years as CoBrA was founded, and the ideological confusion
carne to cause endless disputes in the group. Mankind faces new terrors, such as weapons. Bombardement (1950), the painting by Alechinsky, speaks ofwar. CoBrA is in fact challenged by the
wounds of the war and the new balance of power on a world scale. lt would fit neither at the left
nor within the new North American policy.
The United States had strengthened its involvement in Europe. The Marshall plan brought
shiploads oftechnical equipment (and cash!) to European countries, soon accompanied by heavy
propaganda, which included even traveling exhibitions ofAmerican art of the Pollock generation.
CoBrA represented an alternative to Paris. There was no art market, and the traditional institutions were weak, recovering from wartime. ln Denmark and Belgium nobody took interest. So,
these artists turned to Paris, where a growing number of Americans visited to buy art. But the
CoBrA artists were efficiently blocked from the Paris market, by their French colleagues. They
exhibited only occasionally and were never collected by American museums or private patrons.
Soon the market moved to New York.
CoBrA artists did not restrict themselves to canvas and easel. Many of them were active in
many areas, insisting on the CoBrA ideas of art as an active partner of society. Pedersen and
Appel published poems. Jorn also published books and articles covering a wide range of subjects,
from art theory, archeology and philosophy, to Marxist theories of economics. These cross-border
activities clearly connect to CoBrA's philosophy, as formulated most pointedly by Constant and
Jorn. This activist attitude reflects CoBrA's basic idea of responsibility, founded on Kierkegaard's
existentialism. Jean-Paul Sartre, CoBrA's contemporary, said that man is doomed to freedom,
and that freedom means taking responsibility for one's actions. The responsibility ofthe artistwas
to contribute to alI aspects oflife-and still remain an artist-not a politician, scientist or historian. CoBrA's main effort was to promote the importance of the artistic way of experiencing life.
Per Hovdenakk
"ln a siege ofhumor, against verbosity, hesitation, centralism, that in Paris on 8 November 1948, in a corner caf of the
Saint Michel quai with rue Saint-Jacques, the founding act of
CoBrA was signed." Pierre Alechinsky, CoBrA et la bassn parsen,
Paris: L'Echope, 1997, P.7.
2. "[ ... ] and an unlimited praliferation in the community," Per
Hovdenakk, ]ornjWemaere, Silkeborg: Galerie Moderne, 1982.
3. Bert Schierbeek, Los expermentales, Amsterdam: J.M. Meulenhoff; s.d., p.II.
4. This idea of experimentation was so strong that the CoBrA
artists were also called experimentalists. See the tide ofBert
Schierbeek's monograph on CoBrA, op. cito .
L
"O amor quer expor a si mesmo, quer se fu nd ir com sua vti ma como o vencedor com o vencido,
sem abrir mo das prerrogativasdo vencedor."
- Charles Baudelaire
A busca de algo impossvel, de uma arte despersonalizada, que consiste em criar, como pessoa,
algo impessoal (ou suprapessoal), permeia os movimentos estticos e os manifestos do sculo XX,
do futurismo ao surrealismo, cujo modelo de criatividade continua a existir no informal. O surrealismo parte do pressuposto de um inconsciente natural no ser humano, em comunho com
uma natureza inconsciente, e que de forma anloga natureza d origem a algo: a arte.
A antropofagia, como parte destas estratgias estticas da vanguarda europia, significa,
por um lado, uma propagao ofensiva de formas de agir irracionalistas, como a aniquilao da
cultura dominante pelo ato de consumir. Paralelamente, ela compartilha da imagem profundamente romntica, que existe at hoje, do artista que se consome a si mesmo: o artista que "corri
o prprio corao", que tem de transformar a si mesmo e ao mundo em objeto, para produzir arte.
Em oposio a esta abordagem destrutiva, a teoria antropofgica desenvolvida nos anos 20
pela pintora brasileira Tarsila do Amaral e pelo filsofo e escritorOswald de Andrade, que remete
s razes da sua prpria civilizao, parece-me ter sua base num mpeto mais construtivo: a
reconstruo da prpria histria, a redefinio anticolonialista da agressividade antropofgica,
o fim da explorao predatria da natureza e a represso social.
Gerhard Richter e Sigmar Polke so dois artistas que, com sua forma de trabalhar, derrubaram o mito do gnio ou, como diria Foucault, do autor: sua arte se fecha a qualquer ideologia,
sua pintura figura como reflexo sobre as possibilidades da pintura ou da histria da arte, sua
arte est aberta ao acaso e ao banal.
Quero modificar um pouco o trecho citado de Baudelaire para os dois artistas, a fim de
caracterizar os diferentes vestgios de antropofagia que se encontram tanto na obra de Polke
como na de Richter. Para Gerhard Richter, poderia ser: a pi ntu ra quer sai r de si mesma, fu nd ir-se
com sua vtima, a fotografia, como o vencedor com o vencido, sem abrir mo das prerrogativas
do vencedor. Para Sigmar Polke, poderia ser: a vida quer se expor a si mesma, fundir-se com sua
vti ma, o artista, como o vencedor com o vencido, cedendo-I he as prerrogativas do vencedor.
Polke representa a passividade: o artista como meio, que se deixa tomar, dominar, devorar
pelo acaso. Servirde pasto vida, para que da surja arte. Em Richter, vejo o antropfago ativo,
deglutindo sua histria atravs do tema, devolvendo-o depois.
A obra 48 Portriits [48 retratos] de Richter, do ano de 1972, declaradamente uma busca
pelo pai. Ao mesmo tempo, a obra se distancia da histria patriarcal da cultura. Os diversos
passos da deglutio e devoluo do tema so conhecidos: comea com a aquisio do material
(retratos retirados de enciclopdias, do tamanho de selos postais); depois, Richtertransforma
este material em uma outra forma de arte visual, em pintura. Neste processo, h uma transposio para um formato maior, uma unificao formal e uma uniformiza o durante o processo
de pintura. O prximo passo a montagem no lugarescolhido, o pavilho alemo da Bienal de
Veneza. Para serem mostrados no Museum Ludwig, em Colnia, onde o trabalho est exposto
desde 1980, os 48 Portriits foram reforados por molduras de plexiglas e colocados, em um bloco,
em fileiras de quatro ou cinco. Ao mesmo tempo, Richter reconverteu as imagens em fotos,
fazendo das pinturas.fotografias em escala de 1 :1. Esta srie de fotos tambm esteve exposta por
algum tempo no museu. Recentemente, Richterchegou at a produzir uma edio fotogrfica.
Com o mesmo tamanho e as mesmas molduras dos quadros, as pinturas e suas imagens so
cada vez mais difceis de distinguir umas das outras.
O que comeou como pilhagem da representao da cultura burguesa e de seus cdigos,
termina como explorao da prpria obra artstica. apropriao em duplo sentido. Com este
ire virentre fotografia e pintura, Richterfaz, na rea da expresso artstica, o mesmo que fez em
Gerhard Richter 48 Portrats 48 retratos 1971-72 fotografias 70x55cm cada [each] coleo Museum Ludwig, Colnia
Veneza com a distribuio espacial no Salo da Vitria: apagar frontei ras, esvaziar o significado.
As idias perderam sua autoridade; as personalidades famosas, sua individualidade; a fotografia
e a pintura, seu respectivo carterespecfico. O que resta dos domini famosi so cascas de insetos
vazias e secas, espetadas numa base e protegidas porv.idro, esquecidas no museu, lugar onde
depositamos os bens da nossa cultura humanstica. Amostras sem valor.
Richter pertence gerao ps-guerra, que colocou em dvida os representantes da sua
herana cultural, e como representante desta gerao que Richter desenvolve seu questionamento distanciado e preciso dos antepassados. Em 1968, quando o movimento estudantil na
Alemanha Ocidental chamou a ateno para o passado nazista das universidades alems, com
o slogan "Sob o manto acadmico, o odor bolorento de mil anos", o que se queria no eram
somente outros mestres, eram tambm outros contedos. No incio dos anos 70, realizaram-se
mudanas na poltica alem ocidental, que fizeram histria em relao forma de encarar o
passado. O governo social-liberal acabou com o revanchismo na poltica externa e firmou um
contrato determinando as bases da convivncia com a DOR e o reconhecimento mtuo dos dois
pases. A reforma do ensino tornou-se um dos pontos principais da poltica interna.
Diante desse pano de fundo histrico, a instalao de 48 Portrats no pavilho alemo da
Bienal de Veneza certamente parecia ainda mais irnica e de duplo sentido. A encenao nostlgica como salo da vitria, onde os visitantes eram obrigados a passar por uma srie de quadros
pendurados um a um, altura dos olhos, obrigava ao distanciamento, porque as linhas e superfcies imprecisas das fotografias pintadas causavam uma impreciso tica das cabeas retratadas.
Ao mesmo tempo, era impossvel no perceber que os retratos tinham sua origem na fotografia
destinada a reduzir as caractersticas individuais ao formato 3X4. O esvaziamento da fotografia
tema tanto na obra de Richter quanto na de Polke, da mesma forma que a pintura a partir do
ponto zero. Ela s se torna visvel num cinza monocromtico, em pontos de um esquema.
Sigmar Polke, o alquimista, faz o material trabalhar para ele, nos seus trabalhos da dcada
de 70. Ele desencadeia um processo qumico e espera, para ver o que acontece: amalgamao,
fuso do objeto, da representao fotogrfica, o processo fotoqumico, dobras de papel e vestgios
da interferncia do artista. Todos estes ingredientes juntos criam o quadro. As substncias
qumicas agridem a imagem e a dissolvem parcialmente. Polke, que adora os pontos esquemSigmar Polke da srie So Paulo 1975 2 de 10 fotografias (prata/gelatina) [2 of 10 gelatin silver prints] 105x130cm cada [each]
coleo particul ar [private collection] cortesia Staatliche Kunsth all e, Baden-Baden
436 XXIV Bienal Ncleo Hi strico: Antropofagia e Hi strias de Can ibal ismos
ticos, a menor unidade formal da reproduo da imagem, e os insere nas suas pinturas como
fermento que dissolve, tambm no deixa a fotografia original intacta. A imagem tem de se dissolver. Estes vestgios de destruio e dissoluo so necessrios para que o contedo de realidade das fotografias volte a estar correto, j que Polke no confia na foto tradicional, esttica e
descritiva. Ela no diz nada. O fluxo caracterstico de tudo que vive documentado pelo interfluir dos produtos qumicos na fotografia. Esta a postura de Polke em relao ao processo fotogrfico: quebrar as regras leva a resultados mais interessantes. No seguir a cartilha, no domar
as substncias qumicas, no fazer uma reao "certa", com um objetivo, mas sim deix-Ias
desenvolverem-se sem objetivo especfico. Com o slogan "Reveladores e fixadores de todo o
mundo, uni-vos!" chega-se a uma revoluo na cmara escura.
O que este princpio anarquista faz com os temas das fotografias? Por exemplo, com
Barenkampf[Luta do urso], 1974, documentao fotogrfica de uma diverso popular campestre
no Afeganisto. O que se exp>e a luta animal ritualizada entre um urso e vrios ces. Reconhecemos homens que incitam seus ces a atacar o urso, espectadores vestidos com burnus, que
acompanham o que acontece, sentados ou em p, num morro baixo. Alguns tm sua bicicleta
largada no cho diante deles. A questo no como a luta vai terminar, s, no mximo, quanto
tempo vai demorar para que a figura macia e escura do urso seja morta pelas mordidas dos
ces velozes e de cor clara.
Polke dobra e enrola o papel fotogrfico, retarda a revelao e toma cuidado para que as
substncias se espalhem de forma irregular no papel. Como vai terminaresta luta das substncias qumicas? O que vai sobrar do tema fotografado? Polke fica com pena e salva o urso,
dispondo as dobras horizontais e verticais de tal maneira que o urso, que sempre se encontra no
centro da foto, rodeado pelos ces, seus agressores, no seja aniquilado tambm pelos produtos
qumicos da revelao.
Mudana de cenrio. So Paulo, 1975
fugindo de um temporal, descreveu Maria Moris Hamourg, Polke e alguns amigos acabam por
entrar num bar de terceira categoria. O ar l fora est pesado e carregado de eletricidade, a
atmosfera dentro do bar enfumaada, carregada de tenso de outro tipo, alcoolizada, erotizada,
brutalizada. Os homens que matam o tempo juntos ali e fazem uma gracinha extra para os
estranhos agem alm das normas sociais e sexuais, e provocam o jovem artista. Tudo se transforma em turbilho diante de seus olhos. Polke tenta ressuscitar este turbilho de elementos de
incerteza na cmara escura. O que seus sentidos, sua conscincia e sua cmera captaram neste
bar, ele tenta reencenar como fuso de tomada fotogrfica, luz e impresso. Um tipo de criture
automatique na cmara escura. L, ele tenta reter o fluir, misturar-se e dissipar-se das energias do
lugar, quer invocar mais uma vez um momento de vida. Para as fotos, Polke utiliza papel tcnico,
mais usado para plantas e menos para fotografias. muito fino e flexvel, fazendo com que a
imagem se materialize mais no e menos sobre o papel.
"No se v quem est no escuro", diz Brecht na pera dos trs vintns. Visto desta maneira, o
escurecimento das fotos a forma adequada de lanar luz sobre o fato de que os homens que
Polke observa com a cmera neste barvivem margem da sociedade. Como se fotos pudessem
"aclarar" alguma coisa! Polke, o pessimista, nega o contedo esclarecedor da fotografia de documentrio. Novamente aparece aqui sua desconfiana em relao s imagens impressas. O que
a fotografia documenta obscuro em si.
O tema dos grupos marginais e outcasts da metrpole aparece vrias vezes no trabalho de
Polke desse perodo. Ele simpatiza com alcolatras e sem-teto, no s devido sua prpria
experincia de estudante sem recursos, mas tambm porque ele aqui se defronta com a questo
existencial do sentido da vida. O que somos? A vida como risco, liuing on the edge. a que o perigo
se esconde, onde normas e instncias de controle, como a conscincia, por exemplo, so suspensas temporariamente: na embriaguez das drogas e do lcool, na existncia margem da
sociedade. Ou alm da cultura europia ocidental crist, como por exemplo no Afeganisto, por
onde ele viaja em '974. Ecomo no caso de muitos jovens de sua gerao, que esto em busca do
sentido das coisas, um romantismo social anarquista e bomio se mistura com o interesse por
rituais "arcaicos" e com o desejo de ter experincias transcendentes, para talvez encontrar em
algum lugar a resposta pergunta: que tipo estranho de animal o ser humano?
Parece que, no final do sculo XX, os mitos dos artistas esto sendo descarregados no
depsito de lixo da histria, para que um ou outro pensamento esparso torne a desenterr-los,
degl uti ndo-os, e, fortalecido por este ai imenta, gan he novos mitos, q ue esperam ser contados
e engolidos. De modo que, no final, a existncia inteligente s possa sercanibal e nada mais.
Annelle Ltgens.Traduzido do alemo por Helga Arajo.
Gerhard Richter Schrge Inclinado [Tilted] 1988 leo sobre tela [oil on canvas] 300x250cm coleo Sammlung Frieder Burda
Baden-Baden foto F. Rosenstiel
"Love wants to emerge from itself, merge with its victim like the conqueror with the conquered,
yet keep its conqueror's privileges."
- Charles Baudelaire
The quest for an egoless art, that squaring of the circle, which consists of creating, as a person,
something impersonal, or suprapersonal, permeates the aesthetic movements and manifestos
of the twentieth century, from futurism to surrealism, whose model of creativity survives in
abstract expressionismo Surrealism starts out by assuming there is a natural unconscious
in human beings, one that communes with an unconscious nature and produces something
analogous to Nature: Art.
Anthropophagy, as a part of these aesthetic strategies of the European avant-garde means,
on the one hand, the offensive proliferation of irrationalistic forms of action, as a demolition of
the dominant culture through consumption. At the sarne time, it partakes of the still-thriving,
utterly romantic notion ofthe artist's self-consumption, self-immolation: the artist "eating his
heart out," forced to turn the world and himselfinto an object in order to produce art.
ln contrast to this destructive notion, I admire the constructive energy in the theory of
anthropophagy that Brazilian painter Tarsila do Amaral and poet and philosopher Oswald de
Andrade advanced in the twenties by going back to the roots of their own civilization: a reconstruction of their own history, an anticolonialistic transvaluation of man-eating aggressivity, an
end to the piratical despoiling of nature and to social oppression.
Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke are two artists who by their very working methods put
behind them the myth of genius, or as Foucault would say, of the author: their art foregoes all
ideology, their painting takes the form of reflection on the possibilities of painting or art history,
their work is open to chance and the commonplace.
To characterize the altogether different traces of the Anthropophagite evident in the work
ofPolke and Richter, Iam tempted to recast my opening Baudelaire epigraph to suit each artist.
Richter's would read: Painting wants to emerge from itself, merge with its victim, photography,
like the conqueror with the conquered, yet keep its conqueror's privileges. And Polke's:
Life wants to emerge from itself, merge with its victim, the artist, like the conqueror with the
conquered, yet hand over to it the conqueror's privileges.
Polke represents a passive stance: the artist as medium, who lets himselfbe seized, ingested,
occupied by chance: he must feed himselfto Life, for Art to arise in the processo ln Richter I see
the active anthropophagite, the cannibal incorporating and in turn relinquishing his history
through subjects.
Richter's 48 Portrits [48 portraitsJ from I972, is avowedly a search for the father; yet the
work also takes its distance from patriarchal cultural history. The individual steps ofthis incorporation and expulsion of subjects are known: It starts with a gathering of material (stamp-size
photo-portraits from various reference books), which Richter then transforms into another pictorial medium, that of painting. This entails transfer to a larger format, formal adaptation and
unification within the painting processo Next comes the mounting ofthe work at a designated
site, the German Pavilion ofthe Venice Biennale. For presentation ofthe 48 Portrits in Cologne's
Ludwig Museum, where the work has been on exhibition since I980, the individual paintings
were framed in plexiglass and hung in the museum in one block, in rows of four or five . At the
sarne time Richter transferred the painted images back into photography, since he photographed
his paintings on a life-size scale. This photo series would aIs o occasionally hang in the museum.
Recently Richter even brought out an edition of the photographs. Being identical in size and in
their framing, the copy is increasingly hard to tell apart from the original image.
What started out as the pillaging ofbourgeois cultural representation and its visual code
ends up as exploitation or plagiarism of one's own art-work: appropriation in a dual sense.
Richter, confidently shunting between photography and painting, accomplishes on the leveI of
the art-medium what he has done with his distribution of space in the Hall ofFame in the Venice
setting: a blurring ofboundaries, an emptying-out of meaning. Ideas have lost their authority,
Sigmar Polke
da srie Barenkampf Luta do urso [Bear fight] 1974 2 de 14 fotografias (prata/gelatina) [2 of 14 gelatin silver prints] 65x84cm cada
[eac h] coleo coleo Froehlich, Stuttgart foto H. Seyl, Stuttgard
Vermessen der Kleider Medindo roupas [Measuring clothes] 1994 pedaos de vestimentas e tinta sobre tela [pieces of clothes
and paint on canvas] 230x300cm coleo Stadtische Galerie Karl sru he, Sammlung Garnatz, Karlsruhe, Alemanha
famous personalities their individuality, the mediums of photography and painting their specificity. What remains ofthe uominifamosi are nothing but empty, desiccated insect larvae, impaled
and put under glass, deposited in the museum, storage site for our humanist cultural wares.
Worthless specimens.
Richter carried on his distanced, precise quarrel with the fathers as a member of a postwar
generation whose representatives of their cultural heritage had grown, to say the least, questionable. ln I968, if a rhyming slogan of the West-German student movement that translates,
"Under the [academic] gowns the dank odor of a thousand years," brought attention the Nazi
past of Germany' s universities, it was not only to demand other teachers, but also other contents
for that teaching. The early I970S saw major changes in the West-German politics of"reckoning
with the past." The government, led by social liberaIs, put an end to revanchism in foreign policy
and worked out a basic agreement for mutual recognition with the German Democratic Republic.
Educational reform became a top priority in domestic policy.
ln such a historical context, Richter's installation ofthe 48 Portrits in the German Pavilion
of the Venice Biennale could only have seemed alI the more hollow and ironic. This false-bottomed nostalgic mounting of a Hall ofFame, in which the visitors had to file past a row of pictures hung above eye leveI, imposed a peremptory distance, as the blurred outlines and surfaces
of the painted photos created the optic fuzziness of a copy. Yet it was also impossible to ignore
that the provenance of the portraits was the sort of portrait photography geared to reducing a
person's individual traits to passport format. lnanition of photography is a favorite theme in
Richter as well as in Polke, just as painting from degree-zero is. It is objectified in the monochrome gray, in the Benday dot grid.
The alchemist Sigmar Polke, in his photo series from the seventies, allows the material to do
its own work. He sets up an alchemical process, waiting to see whatwill happen: amalgamation,
fusion of subject, photographic shot, photochemical process, folds of the paper backing and
traces ofthe artist's activity. Together, these ingredients make the image. The motifis attacked
by the chemicals, dissolving at different points. Polke, who loves the dot grid, that technically
smallest unit of picture reproduction, and who works the dots on this grid as a corrosive fermenting process into his paintings, is equally unsparing toward the original photo. The image
must be decomposed. These traces of destruction and dissolution are necessary so that the photo's
reality content may come through once more; for Polke doesn't trust the traditional, static, and
descriptive photo. It says nothing. The flow ofliving matter is documented in the confluence of
photo chemicals. Polke's attitude toward the photographic process is basically that breaking the
rules brings interesting results. He refuses to stick to the instruction manual, tame the chemical
substances, get them to react purposefully, "properly;" he'd rather have them spread purposelessly. With the slogan "Developers and fixers ofthe world, unite!" revolution hits the darkroom.
What does this anarchistic principIe mean for photographic motives? Let's take as an
example the 1974 Brenkampf[Bear fightJ, photographic records of popular rustic entertainment
in Afghanistan. It deals with the ritualized fight between a bear and several dogs. We recognize
men setting their dogs, one after another, on the bear, while burnous-clad spectators sit or stand
in casual rows on a gradual incline. Some have rested their bicycles down in front of them. It
doesn't really matter how the fight will ~nd, but if anything, how long it will take until the dark,
hulking bear is bitten to death by the sleek, light-colored dogs.
Polke creases and curls the exposed photo paper, retards developments and takes care to
distribute the fluids ove r the paper unevenly. How will this struggle of substances end? What will
remain ofthe photographed motif? Compassionate, Polke spares the bear, putting in vertical and
horizontal creases in such a way that Master Bear, who always appears in the middle of the photo
surrounded by his canine assailants, won't be exterminated a second time by photo chemicals.
Scene change. So Paulo, 1975
Escaping from a storm-so Maria Morris Hambourg recounts-Polke and a couple offriends of
his duck into a seedy bar. Outside, the air is heavy, charged with electricity; inside, the atmosphere is smoky, charged with other sorts oftensions: alcoholic, erotic, brutal. The men killing
time together here and having extra fun with the foreigners, behave with no regard for social and
sexual decorum, tease and taunt the young artist. Everything's suddenly spinning before his eyes. ln the darkroom,
Polke tries to resuscitate this dizzy air ofinsecurity. What his
senses, his consciousness, and his camera have recorded in
this bar, he tries to replicate as a fusion of the taking of the
photo, its exposure, and print. A sort of darkroom crture
automatique. He aims to bring the site's fluidity, its mingling,
its streaming of energies into the darkroom; to re-evoke the
moment in all its vitality. For exposures Polke uses technical
paper normally chosen more for drafting than for reprodu cing pictures. It's very thin and pliant, so that the image
materializes less on the paper than in the paper.
"Sons of dark are seen by none," concludes Brecht's
. Three penny opera. Viewed in this way, darkening photos is the
adequate form for illuminating the fact that the men Polke
observes with this camera in this bar are society's cast-offs.
442 XXIV Bienal Ncleo Histrico: Antropofagia e Histrias de Can ibali smos
As though photographs could "enlighten" anything, anyway! Polke the pessimist rejects the
notion of enlightening content for documentary photography. Here again we encounter his distrust of printed images. What photography documents is in and of itself obscure.
The motif of fringe graups and urban outcasts recurs in Polke's work of this period. Not
merely because of his own experience as an impoverished student does he sympathize with
drinkers and homeless people, but also because here he stumbles on the existential question:
What are we? Life as risk, "living on the edge." The edge exists where norms and standards of
contraI (that of consciousness, say) no longer apply: in drug and alcohol highs, in socially
marginal existence. Or beyond West-Eurapean, Christian culture, as in Afghanistan, which he
traveis thraugh in 1974. And like many young people ofhis generation questing after meaning, he
mingles anarcho-bohemian social ramanticism with an interest in "archaic" rites and a yearning
for transcendent experience, in arder perhaps somewhere to find an answer to the question:
What strange sort of creature is man?
It seems as if artist myths are dumped on history's rubbish heap at the end ofthe twentieth
century, if only for one ar another loose form ofthought to dig them out again, ingest them, and,
fortified by this nourishment, acquire new myths to be told and swallowed in turno So that ultimately intelligent existence can't help but be cannibalistic.
Annelle Ltgens. Translatedfrom the German by David ]acobson.
Sigmar Polke
esquerda [Ieft] So sitzen sie richtig, nach Goya assim que se senta corretamente, d'aprs Goya [This is how you sit correctly,
after Goya] 1982 acrlica sobre tecido [acrylic on cloth] 200x190cm coleo Sammlung Frieder 8urda, 8aden-8aden
acima [above] Verkndigund Anunciao [Annunciation] 1992 resina sinttica, verniz, tecido [synthetic resin, varnish, cloth]
225x300cm coleo Sammlung Frieder 8urda, 8aden-8aden
Paulo Herkenhoff
Para alm do mundo das fantasias monumentais-dos seres devoradores nos inquietantes e
catastrficos jardins de Bormazo s prises de Piranesi (quase parmetro para a arquitetura
fascista e a arquitetura sovitica neste sculo)-a arte de Guillermo I<uitca pertence a uma
ordem de arquiteturas canibais. Afastemos Bormazo. O canibalismo no uma dieta. ATropiclia
de Hlio Oiticica 1 ou uma casa serrada de Gordon Matta-Clark so arquiteturas que apontam para
a situao fundiria e a marginalidade social urbana-ndices de um certo canibalismo econmico. Na pintura de I<uitca, em seu vazio, algumas arquiteturas para as massas humanas so
como as tumbas egpcias, cujas pedras devoraram os corpos-cenotfio-e o coliseu romano.
Estdios, teatros, hospitais so plantas inabitadas, como se os seres humanos tivessem sido
consumidos pela lgica de regulao do lugardo corpo no espao social. uma estranha espcie de antecipao topolgica do panptico. Algumas pinturas revelam o interesse de Kuitca
pela arquitetura panptica 2 , que devora espaos e reverte a alma em priso dE> corp03. Outra
arquitetura agnica de Kuitca so os planos da casa desenhados com espinhos: o desejo, a casa
com aids, que est entre as epidemias que devoram a espcie. As casas de Kuitca no so antropomrficas como na pintura de Munch. Despregadas da idia de corpo construdo, a melancolia
pareceria contentar-se com uma existncia em representao grfica da planta arquitetnica. A
planta de uma casa com dois quartos seria a metfora da unidade familiar-e no ali o lugar
da cena freudiana de totem e tabu? O teatro devorador, no por sua crueldade, capaz de liberar
mesmo os impulsos de canibalismo, como props Antonin Artaud 4 Se o "teatro da crueldade"
de Artaud no seria representao, mas a vida num nvel em que esta seria irrepresentvel, como diz
Derrida s , ento, a planta da casa na obra de I<uitca j no poderia ser a mera projeo do edifcio, mas a presentificao antecipada da experincia a ser j ali vivida. Uma pintura de I<uitca
tambm pode ser a prpria cenografia de seu mtodo de apropriao das artes. Borges e Bacon.
Bausch ou Beatles. As escadarias do pavordo Encouraado Potemkin, de Eisenstein, parecem desaguar sobre EI mar du/ce, portal para a fa'mlia de imigrantes judeus. O nome da cidade deixado
para trs e traz na memria do terror, nesta cartografia de incertezas, o ndice do forno crematrio. impossvel esquecer, insisto. A arquitetura canibal , ento, monumento da barbrie.
Marienplatz. Seria realmente necessrio definir a metfora mais exata de guerra como canibalismo? Seriam as barricadas da pintura de Meissonier, enquanto figura emblemtica de todas as
represses: the very trope ofthe interdito?6 Ou seria o quarto solitrio onde uma me espera
pelo filho voltarda guerra, como numa pintura de I<uitca? Mapas-representaes do mundo e
instrumentos econmicos e blicos-dizendo o nome j no dizem o lugar. As fronteiras se
dissolvem, informaes da trajetria se dissipam. Os passos do tango at poderiam ser reapropriados de Warhol. O tango arma de seduo. Camas, onde o que fere e flui como fantasmtico, o
lugarem que o desejo se instaura como um canibalismo melanclico na entrega. Kuitca refere-se
ento a Bacon. O estmago a caverna da quimera do desejo: decifra-me ou te devoro. Porque, na
diferena, o Um sempre a grande e maior arquitetura do canibalismo e o canibalismo, mesmo
quando real, uma prtica simblica de incorporao do Outro.
Paulo Herkenhoff
Marienplatz 1991 acrlica sobre tela [acrylic on canvas] 203,2x284,48cm coleo particular [private collection], Paris
Beyond the world of monumental fantasies, of the devouring beings in the disquieting and
catastrophic gardens ofBormazo and the prisons ofPiranesi (which is almost a parameter to the
fascist and soviet architecture ofthis century), the art ofGuillermo Kuitca belongs to an order of
cannibal architectures. Let us draw Bormazo away. Cannibalism is not a diet. Hlio Oiticica's
Tropicalia1 or a split house by Gordon Matta-Clark are architectures that address the land ownership situation and social-urban marginality-indexes of a certain economic cannibalism. ln
Kuitca's painting, in its void, some architectures for the human masses are like the Egyptian
tombs, whose stones devoured bodies-cenotaph-and the Roman coliseum. Stadiums, theaters, hospitaIs are uninhabited architectural plants, as ifthe human beings had been consumed
by the reglation logic ofthe body's place in the social space. It is an uncanny type oftopological
anticipation ofthe panoptic. Some ofthe paintings reveal Kuitca's interest in panoptic architecture 2 , which devours spaces and reverts the soul into a prison ofthe body.3 Another agonic archi~
tecture ofKuitca are the plans ofhouses drawn with thorns: desire, the house with Aids, one of
the epidemics which devour the species. Kuitca's houses are not anthropomorphic as in Munch's
paintings. Detached from the idea of a constructed body, melancholy seemed to be satisfied with
the graphic representation ofthe architectural planto A plant ofthe house with two rooms would
constitute a metaphor ofthe familial unity-and is this not the Freudian scene where totemand
taboo take place? The theater devours, not because ofits cruelty, capable ofliberating even the
impulses of cannibalism, as proposed by Antonin Artaud. 4 IfArtaud's "theater of cruelty" is not
representation, but life in a leveI where it is unrepresentable, as Derrida states,5 then, the house
plant in the work ofKuitca could no longer be a mere projection ofthe edifice, but the anticipated actualization ofthe experience to be already lived there. A painting by Kuitca can also be
the actual stage design ofhis method of artistic appropriation. Borges and Bacon. The Beatles or
Bausch. The frightening stairways ofEisenstein's Battleship ofPotempkin, seem to discharge in El
mar dulce, the gates for immigrantJewish families. The name ofthe city is left behind and brings
in its terrifYing memory, in this cartography of uncertainties, the index of crematorium furnaces.
It is impossible to forget, I insisto Cannibal architecture is, therefore, a monument ofbarbarity.
Marienplatz. Would it really be necessary to define the most precise metaphor of war as cannibalism? Would they be the barricades ofMeissonier's painting, as an emblematic figure of all
repression: the very trope of the interdito?6 Or would it be the solitary room where a mother
waits for her son to return from the war, as in a Kuitca painting? Maps-representations ofthe
world and economic and military instruments-in calling the name they no longer call the place.
The borders are dissolved, informations ofthe trajectory are dissipated. Tango steps could even be
reappropriated from Warhol. Tango is the arms of seduction. Beds, where that which hurts and
flows as fantasmatics is the place where desire establishes itself as a melancholic cannibalism in
surrender. Kuitca then, refers to Bacon. The stomach is the cave of desire's chimera: decipher me
ar I will devour you. Because in difference, One is always the great and largest architecture of cannibalism and cannibalism, even the real one, is a symbolic practice ofincorporating the Other.
Paulo Herkenho.ff. Translated from the Portuguese by Adriano Pedrosa and Veronica Cordeiro.
Nadie olvida nada Ningum esquece nada [Nobody forgets nothing] 1983 nanquim sobre papel [ink on paper] 26 x 28cm coleo
Louise Bourgeois
Robert Storr
Destruio do pai
20,
Gallery em 1949-50 e faria mais tarde em outras instalaes. Em Destructian afthe father, empregou pela primeira vez os materiais suaves que seriam freqentes nos trabalhos feitos a partirdo
incio dos anos 60, mesmo enquanto os ndulos de ltex em forma de bulbo que preenchem a
cobertura do nicho citam o teto do qual pendem sacos de carvo de Duchamp na exposio do
Surrealismo Internacional na Gallery des Beaux Arts em 1938, ou lembram as paredes onduladas das cavernas de Lascaux que Bourgeois visitara durante os anos 60. Da mesma forma, as
sobras de animais obtidas em mercados locais, fundidas em gesso e espalhadas sobre o cho
cavernoso da pea, evocam tanto os restos horripilantes primitivos do caador quanto o mercado de carne crua de The quartered ane [O esquartejado] (1964-65).
No encontramos, porm, nenhum objeto afiado; tampouco o pai est presente seja no
todo, seja em parte. Embora claustrofbico, o local est virtualmente vazio, como se a carnificina
ritualstica fora completada com o convidado de honra inteira e apropriadamente consumido.
No entanto, sem quaisquer evidncias dos perpetradores, o sexo do responsvel primrio
aparente. Com sua boca bocejante e enormes "molares", com suas feies de tero, Destructian
de forma instrutiva com a de Bourgeois. "Papai, tive de matlo./Voc morreu antes q ue eu tivesse tem po", escreveu Plath
com uma inimizade frustrada.
Desprovida da arrogante e malvola presena do pai, ela
se despedaou : "Puxaram-me do saco./E juntaram-me com
cola/E ento eu sabia o que fazer./Fiz um modelo de voc".
Embora seu pai ainda vivesse quando ela contava mais de
trinta anos, Bourgeois foi igualmente incapaz de estabelecer
sua soberania prpria antes de sua morte. Sujeita a episdios
de mutilante melancolia, ela, como a poetisa, foi obrigada a
construir um monumento a sua fcil autoridade para que
ento pudesse destru-Ia. uma prova do superior instinto de
autopreservao de Bourgeois que ela tenha to freqentemente conseguido se recolher e recompor no processo de
modelagem do patriarca tirn ico ou, no caso de Destruction of
the father, criar u ma imagem de desolamento causada pela
morte do marido e de um veculo 'para sua furiosa angstia.
Da angstia passiva ao dio ativo, esse "assassinato" fantstico redirecionou os impulsos suicidas que periodicamente
tomavam conta dela. Assim , o sacrifcio simblico da vida do
pai tornou possvel o prosseguimento da filha, preenchendo o propsito desse ritual em termos
concretos e metafricos.
Genuinamente totmico em sua funo-embora como entidades que contm em vez de
serem contidas, a anttese formal de suas peas entalhadas dos anos 40 e 50-, Destruction ofthe
father transformou agresso em expiao da traio filial e vingana coletiva em comunho
mediante uma dialtica psicolgica escrita na descrio de Freud da transgresso sacramental
em sociedades tribais. Freud, paradigmtico de parricdio psicolgico, acreditava que "o
banquete totmico, talvez o primeiro que a humanidade jamais celebrara, fosse a repetio,
o festival da memria, desse clebre feito criminoso".
Atuando em sintonia e com crueldade conspcua, os membros de um cl estabelecem as
fronteiras de conduta e afirmam sua herana comum mediante um excesso calculado e uma
culpabilidade compartilhada. Paradoxalmente, ento, a matana do pai ou o consumo do
animal-totem em que transubstanciado estabelece um rito comemorativo e um gesto de
contrio e reconciliao.
Uma anlise da resoluo social do dilema edipiano, a hiptese de Freud, antropologicamente duvidosa porm psicologicamente potente, esclarece os motivos conflituosos subjacentes cerimnia demonaca de Bourgeois. Seduzida emocionalmente e abandonada pelo
pai, ciumenta de seu amo r e seu poder arbitrrio sobre ela, a filha v em Destruction of the father
uma forma sardnica do melhor dos dois lados na qual se pode ter o pai e tambm com-lo.
Robert Storr. Traduzido do ingls por Adriano Pedrosa.
Este texto composto de partes de dois ensaios do autor, escritos em ocasies diferentes, sobre Destruction of
the father, de Louise Bourgeois. N. do E.
esquerda [Ieft] Destruction of the father Destruio do pai 1974 gesso, ltex, madeira, tecido [plaster, latex, wood, fabric]
237,8x363,8x248,7cm foto Peter Bellamy
acima [above] Grand bb [Big baby] 1998 tinta e lpi s sobre papel [ink and pencil on paper] 21 ,5x27,9cm foto Chris Burke
I.A
Louise Bourgeois
RobertStorr
The combination of a predator's cave with jutting stalactites, stalagmites and half-eaten prey,
and a Grand Guignol puppet theater stage, Destructon ofthefather (1974) is the scene of a crime.
ln Bourgeois's version ofthe events whose aftermath is depicted, the father, accustomed to sitting
at the head of the table and talking while all around him listened in silence, finally drives his captive audience to such a state of distraction that his children, rising up in revolt, kill and eat him.
On one levei, the tale fits the artist's description of the anger she felt towards her own
father, who liked nothing better than to entertain his family and guests for hours on end with
anecdotes and jokes, often at the expense ofhis children. On another leveI, this time psychoanalytic, we are dealing with a parable ofOedipal revenge, and more precisely of castration. For it is
hard not to see the wall-mounted chamber ofDestructon ofthefather, with its opposing tiers of
rounded shapes as a huge vagna-dentata. But the source ofthe image that emerges in Bourgeois's
early drawing is neither strictly autobiographical nor narrowly Freudian, it is in fact GrecoRoman. Fearful that his children would usurp his power or outshine him in posterity, Cronus, or
Saturn as he was later known, devoured his children, one by one. His cruelty is the subject of
countless works of art, including great paintings by Rubens and Goya. (ln the Renaissance,
Saturn's name carne to epitomize artistic melancholy.) Destructon ofthefather, shows the consequences of the children having turned the tables on their progenitor and murderer.
Thus motifs found in the artist's early work regularly crop up in her later pieces. Like the ubiquitous "knife", each is a symbol in its own right, while collectively they underscore the constancy
ofher obsessions as well as the odd efficiency ofthe apparently haphazard gestation ofher oeuvre.
Climax of a life-long filial grudge, cauterization ofthe deep wound caused by her husband's
death and the radical reworking of a modernist paradigm Destructon ofthefather exemplifies this
confluence of old intuitions with present needs and circumstances.
Initially titled Le repas du sor [The evening meal] the pie ce made its public debut in 1974 at
the experimental space at II2 Greene Street, the artist's first solo show since her 1964 exhibition
at the Stable Gallery. Wrapped in a makeshift tarpaulin curtain in a manner quite different from
its final puppet-theater presentation, the installation was the centerpiece oflarge selection of
work that also included bronzes and marbles executed in Italy during intermittent visits to
Pietrasanta over the previous four years. Among these more traditional sculptures were Hommage
to Bernn (r967) several versions ofthe Janus image from 1968 as well as a Baroque, Eye to eye, and
Rabbt, (all circa 1970), a number ofcarved as well as assembled "cumuls", and a small cast
portrait head ofher brother Pierre, which-though it has since been edited out-occupied a
position at the base ofDestructon ofthefather, making this original version ofthe work explicitly
autobiographical.
Recounted many times over with slightly varying emphasis or detail the scenario of the
Destructon ofthefather is at once completely anecdotal and deliberately mythic. A comprehensive
version, pieced together from several retellings follows.
"There is a dinner table and you can see all kinds of things are happening. The father is
sounding, telling the cap tive audience how great he is, all wonderful things he did, all the bad
people he put down today. But this goes on day after day. There is tragedy in the air. Once too
often he has said his piece. He is unbearably dominating although probably he does not realize
it himself. A kind of resentment grows and one day my brother and I decided, 'the time has
come!' We grabbed him, laid him on the table and with our knives dissected him. We took him
apart and dismembered him, we cut offhis penis. And he became food. We ate him up. It is, you
see, an oral drama. The irritation was his continuaI verbal offense. So he was liquidated the sarne
way he liquidated the children. The sculpture represents both a table and a bed. When you come
into [the] room you see the table but also, upstairs in the parent's room, is a bed. Those two
things count in one's erotic life: dinner table and bed. The table where your parents made you
suffer. The bed where you lie with your husband, where your children are born and you will die.
Essentially since they are about the sarne size they are the sarne object."
Centering on an image ofthe father as autocrat ofthe "word", Bourgeois's compressed
explanation can be interpreted in many ways, but a drawing from the late 1930S anticipates the
theme offamilial mayhem in a straight-forward manner. At one end of a curved table sits a woman
Couple III Casal II I 1997 tec ido, couro, ao [fabric, leather, steel] 71x99x180cm foto Peter Bellamy
----- -
circumscribed by the outline of a house, opposite her, stretched out on the fIoor, is a man with a
carving knife buried in his bacl<. Framed by the oval between them are the faces of children
whose unevenly rounded contours are similar to the crimped mounds that cover the "table"
Bourgeois sets for her sacrificial "evening meal." Whereas Saturn ate his offspring as punishment for his incestuous love for them-this is the subject of several other pre-war drawingsin Destruction ofthe father the children strike first.
For the first time since the late early twenty years, Bourgeois had conceived of a work as a
total environment. ln this case, however, she enclosed the space giving visual access to it only
through a proscenium arch rather than staging her drama "in the round" as she had in Peridot
Gallery shows in 1949-50 and would do in future installations. Destruction ofthefather was also
the first instance ofher employing the soft materiaIs she had used in her early 1960s work on a
large scale, even as the bulbous latex nodules that pack the roof ofthe niche quote Duchamp's
previously noted coal-sack-hung ceiling in the International Surrealist Exhibition at the Gallery
des Beaux-Arts in 1938, or recall the undulatingwalls ofthe Lascaux caves which Bourgeois had
visited during the 1960s. So too the animal scraps collected from local markets, cast in plaster
and scattered ove r the grotto fIoor ofthe piece evoke both a primitive hunter's ghastly left-overs
and the raw, meat-market quality ofThe quartered one (1964-65).
No sharp implements are to be found, however, nor is the father anywhere present in whole
or in partoAlthough claustrophobic, the site is virtually empty, as ifthe ritual slaughter had been
completed with the guest of honor duly and entirely consumed. Absent any evidence of the
perpetrators, the gender of the one primarily responsible is nevertheless apparent. A yawning
Sem ttulo Untitled 1946 tinta sobre papel [ink on pape r] 20,6x30,4cm coleo particular [private collection] foto Zindman-Fremont
Sem ttulo Untitled 1943 tinta e lpis sobre papel cinza [ink and penei I on grey paper] 12,3x6,9cm
maw with massive sets of opposing "molars", the simultaneously womb-like Destruction of the
father is itself a carnivorous creature and the ultimate vagina dentata. Despite the care taken to
implicate her brother in the crime, in fact, the daughter alone has feasted upon the father, and
so usurped the son's role in the struggle against his dominance.
ln order that the bloodthirsty triumph of one generation over another occur and recur to the
benefit of the once-dependent now murderously independent child, the father must be kept alive
or somehow resurrected. If his death comes prematurely, before the envious child can survive
without him and take pride in the power to do so, the effects can be devastating. That problem is
central to the life and work ofSylvia Plath, and her plight compares instructivelywith Bourgeois's.
"Daddy I have had to kill you.!You died before I had time," Plath wrote with thwarted enmity.
Deprived ofhis overbearing and malevolent presence, she went to pieces; "But they pulIed
me out of the sack. ! And stuck me together with glue.!And then I knew what to do.!I made a
model ofyou." Although her father lived through her thirties, Bourgeois was equalIy unable to
establish her own sovereignty prior to his death. Subject to episodes of crippling melancholy, she,
like the poet, was also obliged to build a monument to his glib authority in order that she could
then demolish it. It is a measure ofBourgeois's superior instinct for self-preservation that she
has so often managed to stick herselfback together in the process of modeling of the tyrannical
patriarch, or, in the case of the Destruction of the father , of creating an image of the desolation
caused by her husband's death and a vessel for her furious bereavement. Changing passive
anguish into active rage, this fantastic "murder" redirected her the suicidaI urges that periodicalIy
took hold ofher. Thus, the symbolic sacrifice ofthe father's life made possible the continuance of
the daughter's, fulfilling the purpose of such a ritual in actual as welI as metaphorical terms .
Genuinely totemic in its function-though as a containing rather than contained entity the
formal antithesis ofher carved wood pieces ofthe 1940S and sos-Destruction ofthefather transformed aggression into the expiation offilial betrayal and colIective revenge into communion by
means of a psychological dialectic spelIed out in Freud's description ofthe sacramental transgression in tribal societies. Paradigmatic of psychological parricide,
Freud believed, "The totemic banquet, perhaps the first mankind ever
celebrated, was the repetition, the festival of remembrance, of this
noteworthy criminal deed."
Acting in concert and with conspicuous cruelty the members of
a clan establish the boundaries of conduct and affirm their common
heritage through calculated excess and shared culpability. ParadoxicalIy, then, the killing of the father or the consumption of the totem
animal in whom he is transubstantiated, serves a .commemorative
rite and a gesture of contrition and reconciliation.
An analysis of the social resolution of the Oedipal dilemma,
Freud's anthropologicalIy unreliable but psychologically potent hypothesis sheds revealing light on the conflicted motives behind Bourgeois's
ghoulish ceremony. EmotionalIy seduced and abandoned by her father,
and jealous ofhis love and his arbitrary power over her, she envisions
in Destruction of the father a sardonic best of alI possible worlds in
which one can have one's father and eat him tOO.
Robert Storr
This text incorporates parts of two dtfferent essays written on dtfferent occasions
by the author on Louise Bourgeois's Destruction ofthe father. E.N.
Suely Rolnik
So Paulo, domingo, 15 de maio de 19941 Deitada no cho, olhos vendados, alvoroo de corpos
annimos agitando-se em torno de mim; no sei o que pode vir a se passar. Perda total de referncias, apreenso, desassossego. Estou entregue. Pedaos de corpos sem imagem destacamse, ganham autonomia e comeam a agir sobre mim: bocas annimas abrigam carretis de
mquina de costura, cujas linhas lambuzadas de saliva so ruidosamente desenroladas por
mos igualmente annimas, para em seguida deposit-Ias sobre meu corpo. Coberta pouco a
pouco dos ps cabea por um emaranhado de linhas, composio improvisada de bocas e
mos que me cercam, vou perdendo o medo de diluira imagem de meu corpo, diluir meu rosto,
minha forma, me diluir: comeo a ser este emaranhado-baba. O som dos carretis girando nas
bocas parou. As mos agora se embrenham nesta espcie de molde mido e quente que me
envolve para retir-lo de mim; umas, mais nervosas, arrancam tufos; outras erguem fios com a
ponta dos dedos como se temessem esgar-Ios-e assim vai at que nada mais reste. Meus
olhos so desvendados. Volto ao mundo visvel. No fluxo do emaranhado-baba plasmou-se um
novo corpo, um novo rosto, um novo eu.
Estou atordoada. O que isso que me aconteceu? Sinto-me convocada a enfrentar o enigma.
Procuro pistas nos textos da prpria Lygia, que sempre me soaram como os mais precisos
para dizer o indizvel de sua obra. Embora eu no disponha neste momento de acesso a seus
dirios 2 , posso contar com seus textos publicados e alguns inditos, suas entrevistas, sua correspondncia. Detenho-me especialmente na fase que se inicia logo aps o Trepante (1964), ltimo
de seus famosos Bichos-aquele que, segundo Lygia, levou um chute de Mrio Pedrosa 3 quando
ele o viu pela primeira vez, acompanhado em seguida de um comentrio entusiasmado: "at
que enfim se pode chutar uma obra de arte".4 A partir do momento em que este chute se torna
possvel, concretiza-se uma virada na obra de Lygia que j vinha se anunciando. A nova fase
inaugura-se com o Caminhando (1964) e encerra-se com as sesses dos Objetos relacionais, obra
Caminhando [Walking] 1964 foto Beta Felcio
Trepante [Crawler] 1959 madeira, metal [wood, metal] 32x41 x45cm coleo particular [private collection], So Paulo
que ela realiza de 1976 a 1981, e bem mais esporadicamente at 1984. este perodo que me interessa pesquisar, pois a que Lygia cria a "obra" que me aconteceu, qual deu o nome Baba
antropofgica (1973). So os vinte e quatro ltimos anos de sua produo, quando se torna (deliberadamente) invivel expor seus objetos isolados em museus, galerias, salas ou sales. Que
sentido teria expor carretis, por exemplo, sem esta experincia que descrevi?
Chama minha ateno a repetio insistente de algumas palavras e expresses, verdadeiros
ritornelos. Decido ento tom-los como linhas de minha investigao. Comeo por um deles
que menciona o corpo, j que foi a que algo de inquietante se passou comigo: "memria do
corpo". De que corpo e de que memria Lygia estaria falando?
Apelo para a memria das sensaes que vivi na Baba antropofgica. Descubro que o corpo em
que fui lanada e do qual Lygia tanto fala no o corpo orgnico, nem a imagem do corpo, nem
o invlucro de uma suposta interioridade imaginria, que constituiria a unidade de meu eu. E,
mais ainda, so exatamente estes corpos que foram se desmanchando em mim, diluindo-se na
mistura das babas. O corpo vivido nesta experincia est para alm deles todos, embora paradoxalmente os inclua: o corpo do emaranhado-fluxos/baba em que me desfiz e me refiz.
Penso no "corpo sem rgos", expresso de Antonin Artaud retomada e expandida por
Gilles Deleuze e Flix Guattari, no mesmo momento em que Lygia fazia sua Baba antropofgica. O
corpo sem rgos esta matria aformal de fluxos/baba, que experimentei num plano totalmente distinto daquele onde se delineia minha forma, tanto objetiva quanto subjetiva. Eu disse
matria "aformal" e no "informe", porque o que vivi ali no foi simplesmente uma ausncia ou
indefinio de minha forma, mas sim um alm da forma. Um plano habitado por uma ferviIhante agitao de fluxos de saliva, de linhas, de bocas, de mos, em movimentos de atrao e
repulsa, produzindo constelaes-uma pletora de vida em que um feixe desconhecido de
sensaes foi germinando, impossvel de ser expresso na forma em que eu me reconhecia. Foi
quando me estranhei: algo em mim deixara de fazer sentido. S fui me apaziguar quando senti
ganhando consistncia um novo corpo, um novo "eu", encarnao daquelas sensaes produzidas pela mistura dos fluxos /baba.
Vislumbro ento que o corpo sem rgos dos fluxos /baba uma espcie de manancial de
mundos-modos de existncia, eus, "corpos, como acontecimentos, como aquilo que sempre
est por aparecer, por ser produzido". 5 um fora de mim, mas que curiosamente me habita e
ainda porcima me faz diferirde mim mesma-como diz Lygia: "o dentro o fora". Este paradoxo
me leva a uma nova pergunta: se no dentro de mim, onde que tal fora me habita?
Lembro-me de um comentrio de Lygia sobre uma obra do perodo que estou investigando:
"O homem quando pe essas mscaras vira um bicho autntico, pois a mscara um apndice
dele." 6 Encontro uma pista: o fora o corpo sem rgos do autntico bicho-um alm de mim
enquanto forma dada, com seu contorno, seu dentro, sua estrutura, sua
psicologia. O fora o vivo no-humano que me habita: matria feita de
babas misturando-se ao infinito, produzindo dobras e mais dobras,
cujos contornos circunscrevem dentros. E os dentros vo sendo deglutidos no emaranhado das babas, bicho antropofgico que os devora
tornando-os contingentes e finitos. Cada dentro uma dobra do fora,
u ma dobra do autntico bicho.
A associao com os Bichos em suas mltiplas dobras imediata.
Mas tambm com o Caminhando que vem logo em seguida, inaugurando
esta ltima fase da obra de Lygia: uma iniciao do espectador ao
dobrar do fora, formando dentros efmeros que se desdobram para
dilurem-se novamente no fora. Palavras da prpria Lygia: "o caminhando permite ... a transformao de uma virtualidade em um empreendimento concreto".? Uma virtualidade produzida no fora que se concretizar na criao de uma nova forma.
Volto Baba antropofgica: deste fora que foi se produzindo um novo dentro de mim. Ed
para imaginar que se repetisse esta experincia em outros contextos, constitudos por outros
fluxos, outras misturas, outros dentros de mim iriam se produzir.
Se este o corpo que habitei na Baba, em que consiste a memria deste corpo? Que espcie de memria tal experincia ativou em mim?
bvio que o que se ativou no foi uma memria cronolgica, depsito/arquivo de uma
seqncia biogrfica que minha conscincia teria acessado; tampouco um esconderijo de representaes reprimidas deste passado.
De novo Lygia quem responde. O que a Baba ativou foi a memria do "arcaico", mais um
de seus ritornelos: o tal bicho-o no-humano no homem e seus afetos-paradoxalmente sempre contemporneo. Memria do corpo dos emaranhados-baba, campo de experimentao de
uma cronognese: engendramento de linhas de tempo espacializando-se em novos mundos.
Memria prospectiva, acessada por reativao (do bicho) e no por regresso (ao passado humano e seus contedos recalcados).
A uma outra pergunta vem impor-se a mim, a ltima que tenho de enfrentar para apreender
minimamente o que me aconteceu naquele domingo: o que Lygia pretende inventando objetos
cuja visada acessar a memria do corpo?
Baba antropofgica II [Antropophagic drool 11]1975
Canibalismo Cabo Frio, Brasil, 1973 foto Ftima Pombo
Se a memria a ser acessada a cronogentica, a fu no dos objetos de Lygia no a sensibilizao ou a liberao catrtica do corpo prprio como fonte de prazer, nem a expresso ou
a constituio de uma imagem do corpo como fonte de unidade psquica, nem o resgate das tais
representaes reprimidas que se encontrariam num arquivo secreto. Ao contrrio, a funo
destes objetos favorecer a exposio da subjetividade ao alm do humano no homem: o autntico bicho (o vivo).
a prpria Lygia quem afirma que o ritual que convoca esta memria no visa "buscar
uma forma a ser encontrada seja no passado, seja no futuro, mas a vivncia experimental do
particpio presente da evoluo incessante das formas. Ritual que servir de ponte para atravessarda terra pseudo-firme de sua alienao para as guas instveis e to inesgotveis de sua
liberdade de ao e do 'precrio como novo conceito de existncia"' .8 Ritual que devolve ao
"pulmo csmico" (outro ritornelo de Lygia) a potncia de respiraras ares do fora .
Lygia no quer apenas abrir o acesso ao informe (o negativo da forma, sua ausncia), nem
o que de essencial no objeto mobiliza o que descrevi por meio da Baba-aquilo que opera, no
corpo do espectador, uma experincia de desestabilizao de sua subjetividade, permitindo-lhe
viver a forma no momento de seu naufrgio, momento que tambm o de uma germinao. Lygia
quis e conseguiu reduzira mediao do objeto ao mnimo necessrio, o quase-nada que promove
este efeito. Assim so seus Objetos relacionais, sua ltima obra.
Produzireste efeito , a meu ver, a marca mais significativa do trabalho de Lygia e no apenas no perodo ps-Bichos: o que acontece com esta marca a partir de ento que ela se radicaliza, ganha maior visibilidade, revelando-se sua presena da primeira ltima obra de Lygia.
Como toda marca da memria de nosso corpo bicho de fluxos/baba ela eterna, sempre virtual,
podendo ser reativada a qualquer momento. S tem sentido trazer Lygia de volta se for para
reativar esta sua marca, reatualizar sua potncia de promover a entrega da subjetividade ao
estado de arte de modo a contaminar a cultura contempornea: uma prospectiva que tal marca
venha a desencadear e no uma retrospectiva de suas formalizaes.
Este o desafio que se coloca para qualquer tentativa de expor a arte de Lygia Clarksobretudo quando se pretende incl uir seus objetos ps-vi rada de 64 ousando enfrentar seu mistrio, o que indispensvel para a inteligibilidade de sua obra como um todo. Como reativar
hoje e num ambiente de museu ou galeria sua fora de proliferao? Como fazer emergir em
cada "visitante" a voz disruptora do bicho que Lygia nos legou? O desafio por enquanto permanece em aberto...
Suely Rolnik
Uma verso anterior deste ensaio apareceu em Trans. arts. cu Itures. media n.2 (1996), Nova York, e foi apresentado em "100 days, 100 guests", Documenta X, Kassel, emjulho de 1997. N. do E.
1. o relato que se segue descreve a experincia que fizda obra
da arte moderna e defensor das vanguardas, foi um intrprete
de Lygia Clark Baba antropofgica, no contexto de um grupo de
trabalho que visava inicialmente preparao da retrospectiva de sua obra na XXII Bienal Internacional de So Paulo.
2. Lygia Clark escreveu dois dirios: um dirio clnico (notas
das "sesses" com os Objetos relacionais, sua ltima obra) e um
dirio pessoal (trs volumes de textos que vo de 1955 a 1973).
Pesquisei este material em duas ocasies. Uma primeira vez,
em 1978, em resposta a um pedido de Lygia: tomar seu ltimo
trabalho como tema de minha dissertao (Mmoire du corps,
defendida na Universidade de Paris VII), bem como ajud-Ia
na elaborao do texto "Objeto relacional" para o livro que a
Funarte consagrou sua obra. Voltei a trabalhar nos dirios
para um projeto de edio de seus textos que desenvolvemos
juntas em 1987. Este projeto foi interrompido por sua morte,
assim como o acesso a seus dirios.
3. Mrio Pedrosa uma das figuras mais importantes da histria da crtica de arte no Brasil. Responsvel pela atualizao
esquerda [Ieft] Nostalgia do corpo-objetos relacionais [Nostalgia of the body-relational objects] 1965-88 foto Hubert Josse
acima [above] Rede de elstico [Elastic net] Cabo Frio, Brasil, 1973 foto Ftima Pombo
So Paulo, Sunday, May IS, 1994. 1 I am lying on the ground, blindfolded; a commotion of
anonymous bodies moving around me. I don'tknowwhatwill happen. A complete loss ofreference points: apprehension, disquiet. I surrender. Pieces ofbodies, withoutimage, gain autonomy and begin to act on me: anonymous mouths shelter bobbins for sewing machines, the
threads coated with saliva are noisily unwound by equally anonymous hands, to then be placed
on my body. Covered, little by little, from my feet up to my hands by an entanglement ofthreads,
a composition improvised by the mouths and hands that surround me. I slowly los e my fear of
seeing the image of my body dissolve-my face, my form, myself: I begin to be this entangleddroo!. The sound ofbobbins turning in mouths has stopped. Hands now become entangled in
the damp, hot mold that enwraps me in order to extricate me from it; some, more nervous, tear
offtufts, others lift threads with fingertips as ifthey were intent on fraying and so it continues
until nothing is left. The blindfold is taken of[ Return to the visible world. ln the flux of entangleddrool a new body, a new face, a new self was molded.
Iam stunned. What has happened to me? I feel called upon to confront this enigma.
I look for clues in Lygia Clark's own texts, which always seemed to me more precise in saying the unsayable ofher work. Although at this moment I don't have access to her journals I can
still count on her publications and some of her unpublished texts, interviews, and correspondence. 2 I focused especially in the phase that begins right after Trepante [Climber] (I964),3 the last
ofher famous Bichos [Beasts]-the one that according to Lygia, Mario Pedrosa kicked when he
first saw it, an act he followed with the enthusiastic remark: "Finally an artwork you can kick."4
From the moment this kick is possible, a shift in Lygia's work that could already be discerned
Pedra e ar [Stone and air] 1966 saco plstico, pedra [plastic bag, stone]
takes concrete formo The new phase is inaugurated with Caminhando [Walking] (I964) and ends
with the sessions of the Objetos relacionais [Relational objects], an oeuvre that she produced from
I976 to I98I, and more sporadically in I984. This is the period that 1 am interest in researching,
for there is where Lygia created the "work" that happened to me-the one she called Baba
antropofgica [Anthropophagic drool] (I973). Together those works comprise the last 24 years of
her production when (deliberatelY)j it was no longer viable to display her isolated objects in
museums, galleries, living rooms or salons. What point would there be in exhibition bobbins,
for example, divorced from the experience 1 described?
1 am drawn to the insistent repetition of some words and expressions, real ritornellos. 1
decided to take them as my line of investigation. 1 begin with one that mentions the body, as it
was there that something disquieting happened to me: "memory ofthe body." Ofwhat body and
what memory is Lygia speaking?
1 appeal to the memory ofthe sensations that 1 experienced during Baba antropofgica. 1 discover that the body into which 1 was launched and that Lygia spoke of so often is neither the
organic body, nor the image ofthe body, nor the envelope for a supposed imaginary interiority
that would constitute the unity of myself. And moreover, it is these very bodies that were unraveled in me, dissolved in the mixture of drool. The lived body in this experience is beyond all those
other bodies, though paradoxically it includes them: it is the body ofthe entangled-fluxes/drool
where 1 unmade and remade my self.
1 think of the "body without organs," an expression of Antonin Artaud taken up and
expanded by Gilles Deleuze and Flix Guattari at the sarne time that Lygia was making her Baba
antropofgica. The body without organs is that aformal material of fluxes/drool that 1 experienced
on a totally different plane from the one where my form, both objective and subjective, was delineated. 1 said "aformal" material not "unformed" because what 1 experienced there was not simply an absence or lack of definition of my form, but also "beyond form." A plane inhabited bya
burning agitation of the flux of saliva, threads, mouths, hands, in movements of attraction and
rpulsion producing constellations-a plethora oflife in which a bundle of unknown sensations
germinated, incapable ofbeing expressed in the form in which 1 recognized myself. That was
when 1 seemed strange to myself: something in me ceased to make sense. 1 was only pacified
when 1 began to feel a new body, a new "me" gaining consistencYj the incarnation ofthose sensations produced by the mixture of fluxes/drool.
1 then had a glimpse that the body without organs of the fluxes/drool is a sort of spring of
worlds-modes of existence, "I"s, "bodies, like events as what is always about to appear, to be
produced."s It is an outside ofme, but one that curiously inhabits me and also makes me differ
from myself-as Lygia says: "the inside is the outside." This paradox brings me to a new question:
Ifit isn't inside me, where is it that the outside inhabits me?
1 remember a comment Lygia made about a work from the period 1 am researching: "When
man puts on those masks he turns into an authentic bicho [beast]. 6 Since the mask is his appendix."7 1 find a lead: the outside is the body without organs of the authentic bicho-a beyond me
as a given form, with its contours, its inside, its structure, its psychology. The outside is the nonhuman alive that inhabits me: a material made from drool that is mixed ad infinitum, producing
folds and more folds, whose contours circumscribe insides. And the insides are swallowed in
the entanglement of drool-an anthropophagic bicho that devours them, rendering them contingent and finite. Bach inside is an outside fold, a fold of the authentic bicho.
The association with Bichos in their multiple folds is immediate. But also with Caminhando
which immediately follows them, inaugurating this last phase ofLygia's work: the initiation of
the spectator to the fold of the outside, forming ephemeral insides that are unfolded only to be
diluted once again in the outside. ln Lygia's own words: "Caminhando allows for the transformation of a virtuality into a concrete undertaking."8 Virtuality praduced in the outside that will be
actualized in the creation of a new formo
I go back to Baba antropofgica: it is fram this outside that a new inside of me was praduced.
It is easy to imagine that if this experience would be repeated in other contexts-composed of
other fluxes, other mixtures-it would praduce other insides of me.
If this is the body that I inhabited in Baba, what does the memory of this body consist of?
What type ofmemory did this experience activate in me?
It is obvious that what was trigged in me was not a chranological memory, nor a storage/file
of a biographic sequence that my conscience would have accessed, or a hiding place for the
repressed representations of the pasto
Once again Lygia is the one who answers. What Baba activated was the memory of the
"archaic," another one ofher ritornellos: the bicho-the nonhuman in man and its affects-that
is, paradoxically, always contemporary. The memory ofthe entangled-draol body, the field of
experimentation in a chranogenesis: the engenderment ofthreads oftime spacializing in new
worlds. The praspective memory accessed by reactivation (ofthe bicho) and not by regression (to
the human past and its repressed contents).
At this juncture another question imposed itself to me, the last one I have to confrant in
order to have some understanding ofwhat happened to me on that Sunday: what is Lygia after in
inventing objects whose aim is to access the memory ofthe body?
Ifthe memory to be accessed is the chranogenetic one, the function ofLygia's objects is
neither sensitization, nor the cathartic liberation of the body praper as a fount of pleasure, nor
the expression or constitution of an image of the body as a fount of psychic unity, nor the
redemption of those repressed representations, that would be found in a secret file. On the contrary, the function ofthese objects is to foment subjectivity to be exposed to the beyond human
in man, that is, toward the authentic bicho (the living one).
It is Lygia herself who affirms that the ritual that this memory invokes is not aimed at "capturing a form to be found either in the past nor in the future, but rather, the experimentalliving
ofthe present participle ofthe incessant evolution offorms. A ritual thatwill serve as a bridge to
crass fram the pseudo-solid land of one's alienation to the unstable and inexhaustible waters of
one's freedom to act the 'precarious as the new concept of existence.' "9 A ritual that gives back
to the "cosmic lung" (another ofLygia's ritornellos) the potency to breathe the outside air.
Lygia does not simply want to open access to the unformed (the negative of the form, its
absence), or to the capacity of changing forms (metamorphosis), which is a very frequent praposaI in this generation of artists that Lygia belongs to, and it's usually taken as avalue in itself.
Dilogo: culos [Dialog ue: goggles] Cabo Frio, Brasil , 1973 foto Ftima Pombo
Nostalgia do corpo-corpo coletivo [Nostalgia of the body-coliective body] 1986 1965-88 foto Srgio Zalis
What she wants is to create conditions to gain or regain a certain state in subjectivity that would
make it possible to bear the contingency of forms, to detach oneself fram an absolutist inside
experienced as identity. To navigate in the unstable waters of the aformal body and to acquire the
freedom to make other folds, each time that a new bundle of sensations in the bicho requires it.
It is as an answer to this requirement that changing forms gathers meaning and value, imposing
itself as necessary for the vital adventure.
Lygia called this "attaining the singular state of art without art": the last ofher ritornellos
that I will evoke, because it defines the experience that I am interested in prablematizing here.
One question immediately arises: why "without art?" This is an essential detail: for her, to experience the state of art"':""-to embody a new bundle of sensations, which are unique by definition-doesn't happen only in the creation ofthe so-called "object of art." Experiencing the state
of art also happens in the creation ofthe objective existence and/or subjective existence. What
Lygia wants is to rescue life in its creative power, whatever the terrain in which such power
is exercised.
Attaining the state of art in the artist's own subjectivity is nothing new, since it is in this
state that the artist creates. Lygia always experienced real convulsions during the gestation of
each phase ofher work. Her turbulence was not merely a picturesque biographical detail, a peculiarity ofher "psychological structure," but part ofher creative pracess, during which an idea, at
once artistic and existential, took shape.
To achieve this state of art in her work, to shake it loose fram its reification in the objectreification that has substantial support in the art market-is doubtless an important step. But if
that were the only question in her work, Lygia would bring nothing new in her time.
l think that Lygia' s main target is the subjectivity of the spectator: it is there that she wished
to achieve what she called the state of art-she hoped to dust offthe position ofthe spectator, to
de-reifY it radically. This goes far beyond the simple notion of participation, common to her generation and reducible to a politically correct democratism. 10
Here lies the originality and major strength ofLygia's oeuvre. This is what made her move
herself gradually from those who visit museums and galleries, a public that is exaggeratedly reified in its identity as spectator. She then started to look for her "spectators" among the young
students ofpoSt-Ig68 Sorbonne, and late r, among anonymous passersby in the streets ofParis.
ln the end she looked for her spectators one by one, preferably among the borderlines, in the
context ofwhat she herself called the "experimental doctor's office," that she installed in her
apartment on Prado Junior Street in Copacabana. The spectators' access to the objects comes to
depend on the giving of one's self over to an initiation; on the surrendering of subjectivity to the
state of art. As Guy Brett writes, "would not Lygia's exdusion of an audience be, in fact, a paradoxical means of searching for a 'creative audience?'''l1
What Lygia is trying to provoke in the spectator can be confused with the counter-cultural
propositions of her contemporaries. Among them, to liberate the body, and to develop creativity-whether by using objects ludically as in a playground, or incarnating the diche of the
artist dormant in everyone, a Sleeping (Art) Beauty that can and should be awakened. None of
this is what Lygia is after; what she strives for is that existence be made into a work of art, one
spectator at a time.
lt is true that as an aesthetic proposal this is nothing new: one could say that such an aesthetic accompanies modernism from its very beginning. But Lygia goes further: she strives for
the de-reification ofindividual and collective existence, the decoagulation offorms, the conquest
offluidity in the processes ofsubjectivization. To be molded, as she says, to allow oneselfto be
unsewn and sewn 12 through the pullulating of the subterranean work in the strengthslfluxes of
our bicho, a germination that occurs in silence and demands a
body to come and incarnate it, a body of thought, of art, of existence, etc. Lygia proposes an anthropophagic mo de of subjectivization: the bicho devouring the man, another man being born
from this devouring, ad infinitum.
lt is also true that there is nothing new in proposing to rip
apart figures in/order to allow the foreseeing of the activating
forces in action. Such a proposition is formed in conjunction
with modetnity in art that already reached its highest degree of
refinement with Czanne. But each artist has his own way of proceeding in order to do it concretely. What is singular in Lygia's
method is to have achieved this in the body of the spectator;
place it on-line' with the forces, dose to life; launch it into the
process ofbecoming.
To arrive at this, Lygia had to perfect the object to the point
that it became almost-nothing. This could be understood as a
"non-object," a concept forged by Malevich at the beginning of
the century and in vogue in the '60S. Ferreira Gullar thought
about the Bichos in this way, but Lygia already disagreed then.
There is an "almost" that remains, and this almost is what essentially mobilizes in the object that l described in relation to Baba-
thatwhich produces, an the bady afthe spectatar, an experience afthe destabilizatian afhis subjectivity, allawing him to live the farm in the mament af
his drowning, the mament that is alsa that af a germinatian. Lygia wanted
and succeeded in reducing the mediatian af the abject to the bare minimum,
the almast-nathing that praduces this effect. Hence her Objetos relacionais,
her last wark.
To praduce this effect is, in my apinian, the mast significant mark af
Lygia's wark and nat simply in the past-Bchos periad. What happens then,
with this mark is that it is radicalized, achieves greater visibility, revealing its
presence from the first to the last afLygia's wark. As with every mark afthe
memary af aur bicho bady af fluxes/droal, it is eternal, always virtual, capable
afbeing reactivated at any mament. It is anly meaningful to bring Lygia back
ifit means reactivating this mark, reactualizing its pawer to pramate the surrender af subjectivity to the state af art, in arder to cantaminate contemparary
culture: a prospective autcame that such a mark would unfold in the present
rather than a retrospective ofher farmalizatians in the pasto
This is the challenge inherent in any attempt to exhibit the art ofLygia Clark-especially
when ane intends to include her past-turning-af-'64 abjects, daring to canfront their mystery,
which is indispensable for the intelligibility afher wark as a whale. Haw can her wark's pawer
af proliferatian be reactivated taday and in the cantext af a museum ar gallery? Haw can the disruptive vaice af the bicho that Lygia left us be made to emerge in each "visitar"? The challenge
remains apen. . .
Suely Rolnk. Translated from the Portuguese by Wlson Costa Leite de Almeida.
An earler verson ofthis essay appeared in Trans. arts. cultures. media n.2 (1996), New York, and was presented as a lecture n "100 days, 100 guests," Documenta X, Kassel, nJuly 1997. E.N.
I. The experience described here is one I made ofLygia Clark's
work Baba antropofgica, in the context of the sessions with a
group dedicated to her work, initially aimed at the preparation
of its retrospective for the XXII Bienal Internacional de So
Paulo.
2. Lygia Clarkwrote two journals: a clinical journal (notes on
the "sessions" with the Objetos relacionais her last work) and a
personal diary (three volumes oftext that date from 1955 to
1973). I researched this material on two occasions: the first
time in 1978, in response to a request from Lygia to choose her
last work as the topic of my thesis (Mmoire du corps, defended
at the University ofParis VII), as well as to help her in composing her text "Objeto relacional" for the book that Funarte
dedicated to her worl<. I returned to work on her diaries for a
project we developed together in 1987, aimed at publishing
her texts. This project was interrupted by her death, which
also meant the end of my access to her journals.
3. Mario Pedrosa is one of the most important landmarks in
the history of art criticism in Brazil. He was a privileged interpreter ofLygia Clark's worl<.
4. Extract from the text of the personal diary of Lygia Clark
that comprises the book jacket ofArtes by Sonia Lins, her sister
(Nova Fronteira: 1995).
esquerda [Ieft] Objetos relacionais em um contexto teraputico: a estruturao de si prpio [Relational objects in a therapeutic
context: the structuring of one's self] 1976-82 performance participativa [participatory performance]
acima [above] Nostalgia do corpo-mscara abismo [Nostalgia of the body-abyss mask] 1965-88
"O canibalismo substitui a verdadeira transgresso imaginria de uma falta (privao, perda, abandono, separao, etc.) cujo desconhecimento se configura
como uma negao do real. No podemos nos enganar: quaisquer que sejam as
expresses clnicas emprestadas angstia da separao (no duplo sentido de
'separar-se de' e de 'ser separado', ou seja 'em pedaos'), o canibalismo compreende esta agressividade presente na prpria angstia de perder o objeto do amor
e de neg-lo mais que de renunciar a ele afastando-se. O luto canibal de fato
esta soluo incestuosa de unio alimentar com o objeto do amor cujo desaparecimento pode chegar ao saber mas-segundo a lei da clivagem-permanece
definitivamente fora do alcance do crer.
Que surja de um fantasma, de um sonho ou de um delrio, o canibalismo constitui o contedo mtico da iluso em que o inconsciente faz o jogo selvagem no gozo
melanclico de devorar o objeto do amor ao qual o eu est ligado por esta identificao primitiva que traz em si a ameaa de sua prpria ruptura. Quando Freud
'reconstruiu' o processo pelo qual, na melancolia, a libido, recusando-se a considerar qualquer objeto substitutivo, 'foi recolhida no eu' e 'serviu ento para
estabelecer uma identifrcao do eu com o objeto abandonado', parece subestimar
o papel da angstia nessa identificao do eu com o objeto ao qual se est ligado
pela ameaa de que ele seja de todo perdido. Dito de outra forma, o canibalismo-que
designa o contedo mtico do fantasma ligado angstia da separao-est
inscrito na natureza mesma dessa identificao: a perda do objeto (separao,
abandono ... ) no comporta seno uma ameaa sob esta condio de conduzir a
destruio do eu. A identificao narcisista primitiva tal que a angstia da perda
do objeto do amor se deixa interpretar como a angstia do eu de no poder sobreviver ao desaparecimento do objeto: a melancolia menos a reao regressiva
perda do objeto que a capacidade fantasmtica (ou alucinatria) de mant-lo uiuo
comoobjeto perdido. A ambivalncia do canibalismo se esclarece se se diz correlativamente que a angstia melanclica canibal e que ela diz respeito, nesse sentido,
dependncia do eu da ameaa da perda de seu objeto: esta am bivalncia significa que o mais seguro meio de se preservarda perda do objeto destru-lo para
mant-lo vivo."
Extrado de Pierre Fdida, ["O canibal melanclico", A ausncia]. Traduzido do
francs por Valria Piccoli.
469 Fragmento
~absence,
Paris: Gallimard,
Eva Hesse
A arte de Eva Hesse a arte do corpo: a forma feminina exterior, sua prpria psique interior.
Trata-se de uma absoro deliberada no eu: consumiro eu para encontrar a identidade-no no
sentido cultural dos anos 90, mas de modo profundamente pessoal-para ento materializ-Ia
em forma de arte. "A arte uma essncia, um centro."1 A procura do pintor abstrato-expressionista para expressar seupathos interior, que havia adquirido propores mticas desde os
anos 50, constituiu um precedente para as reflexes de Hesse sobre identidade. Ainda assim, a
artista precisava romper com aqueles progenitores masculinos e com o quadrado: a moldura
expressionista, os quadrados-dentro-de-quadrados em cores, feitos por seu professor Josef
Albers, o quadrado minimalista e o cubo da mesma tendncia, produzidos por seus colegas e
contemporneos, o continer de estilos artsticos, a imagem do artista de sexo masculino. Em
sua busca pelo eu e pelo feminino, Hesse precisava encontrarformas ainda desconhecidas, formas que resistissem a se fixar permanentemente. Assim, transformou o poder emotivo do expressionismo abstrato, o formalismo "cientfico" de Albers e a pureza e rigidez do minimalismo
num vocabulrio pessoal (ou "excntrico", como os crticos o denominavam na poca). Consumindo e metabolizando histria da arte, Hesse criou com seu trabalho um espao no mundo
artstico, tanto para si prpria, quanto para as geraes de mulheres que a sucederam.
Para Eva Hesse, a ingesto edigesto do passado eram um ato interno, total e autodefinidor.
"Pintarei contra todas as regras que eu ou outros tenhamos invisivelmente criado. Oh, como elas
penetram total e completamente."2 Assim como Louise Bourgeois, Hesse revolucionou a arte ao
revelar o eu interior em esculturas sensuais e sexuais, que tinham o corpo como referncia.
Como nas construes sensuais de esculturas-corpo de Lygia Clark, comeou por rompercom o
plano pictrico para ocuparo espao. Para sairdo passado, a artista utilizou materiais que no
pertenciam histria da arte convencional. Incorporou pintura escultura: a pintura foi para as
paredes das construes, depois para o cho, e finalmente voltou parede para relacionar-se
~
Robert Smithson
Duas figuras catalticas: uma mulher nascida em 1936, um homem nascido em 1938. Situados artisticamente num
momento em que o cenrio nova~iorquino de arte se transformava da expressiva abstrao painter/y [de alta qualidade
tcnica e esttica] dos anos 50 em formas minimalistas, racionais e ponderadas, e em planos conceituais dos anos 60
e incio dos 70, Eva Hesse e Robert Smithson tomaram rumos independentes, que mudaram sensivelmente o curso
da arte contempornea. Os trabalhos introspectivos que ela faz obsessivamente mo em seu estdio; a remode~
lao do terreno que ele empreende com equipamento de escavao in situ. Um inventor da arte de instalao, da
"arte da terra". Hesse morreu de cncer no crebro aos 34 anos de idade; Smithson morreu num desastre de avio
aos 35 anos, quando trabalhava no projeto Amarillo ramp [Rampa de Amarillo], no Texas.
A arte de Robert Smithson do mundo: a terra no lado de fora, o fragmento deslocado no lado
de dentro. Ele consumiu geologia para expandiro espao da escultura. Rejeitou a abstrao de
Jackson Pollock, Willem de I<ooning e Sarnett Newman, que havia absorvido em suas prprias
pinturas em fins dos anos 50. Em 1963, passou a usar a geometria na escultura. Sua abstrao no
seguia o estilo purista de seus contemporneos minimalistas, mas a natureza fsica dos cristais
-estruturas simtricas que definiam e continham aquilo que de outra forma poderia parecer
um caos. Do mapeamento de cristais, voltou~se para os mapas-estruturas de malhas, cons~
tructos mentais de matria-e depois inventou mapas tridimensionais dentro das galerias (que
apelidou de "nonsites" [nolugares]) e fora, na terra (o que chamou de "geologia abstrata")'.
Ao ingerir o vocabulrio formalista do momento, Smithson o fazia falar do mundo real:
aquilo que podemos e no podemos ver na natureza, e seu estado de constante transformao.
Tomando o continer abstrato do minimalismo, colocou o mundo dentro dele. Para o artista, o ato
de mapear, definir, ordenaro universo com recursos de geometria era um processo esttico, que
lhe permitia contero caos da paisagem natural ou industrial ao mesmo tempo que revelava sua
ordem interna. Desta forma, Smithson absorveu em sua arte aspectos de conteno e caos.
Robert Smithson fazia parte da vanguarda. Ele desejava romper a estrutura conceituai na
qual se inseria a definio de artista: "Acredito que o assunto principal da arte nesse momento
seja a definio de suas fronteiras. H muito tempo os artistas vm aceitando a tela e o chassis
como limites".2 Desafiando o sistema da arte, Smithson fazia perguntas fundamentais, que
redefiniam a idia de obra de arte, daquilo que constitua a arte, e em que lugar ela pode ser
situada. Acreditava que o conceito de museu estava restrito caixa formada pela galeria, espaos
cadavez menos capazes de conter a arte. "Embora os artistas no estejam confinados, a pro~
duo deles est. Da mesma forma que os sanatrios e as penitencirias, os museus tm pavi~
Ihes e celas-ou seja, salas neutras denominadas 'galerias'. Ao ser exposta numa galeria, a
Robert Smithson
com o entorno. Suas superfcies escultricas tambm tm uma sensibilidade painterly. As superfcies ricas e luminosas so construdas em camadas; Hesse trabalhava espontaneamente
mo, da maneira como um expressionista manejava a tinta sobre a tela. Ao assimilar e retrabalhar a idia da pintura para alcanar seus prprios objetivos, foi capaz de conservar a marca
e a evidncia da prpria mo, assim como tambm a tendncia expressionista para a qualidade
emocional. Esta orientao se contrapunha prtica ps-ateli de sua gerao de artistas, seu
abandono do toque do artista, at mesmo do objeto de arte.
Hesse fazia parte da vanguarda, possuda pela necessidade moderna de criar por meio da
transgresso de regras, instigada a articular sua identidade individual como artista e pessoa,
levada a criar um todo novo a partirdas partes que herdara. Ela sabia que, primeiro, teria de ser
bem-sucedida no sistema de arte convencional-aprendendo a pintar, inserindo-se no mundo
da arte de Nova York. Trabalhando dentro da estrutura da arte, poderia descobrir os limites da
arte, localizar suas margens, e ento transferir-se para fora deles. Trabalhando sem regras fixas,
poderia trazer para a arte e o fazer artstico aquilo que anteriormente era definido como marginaI. Trabalhando margem do sistema artstico, era levada a questes fundamentais que
desafiavam a noo de arte: O que uma obra de arte? Quando se pode chamar algo de arte?
Assim, Eva Hesse logrou assumir uma posio de poder porque operou dentro e fora, fazendo
uma arte derivada de outras a partirde sua notvel inventividade.
A artista teve de construir um novo sistema para sua arte. Entretanto, no permitiu que
esta adquirisse um efeito totalizante, transformando-se num universo fixo e fechado. Ainda que
alternativo, numa situao limite este sistema a teria contido e consumido. Sem seguir regras
estabelecidas, a arte de Eva Hesse permanenceu em estado emergente, entre sua materialidade
individual e um todo orgnico, maravilhoso e feio, abstrato e figurativo, muitas vezes entre masculino e feminino. "A artista queria preservar visualmente o limiar, onde as partes comeam a
integrar um sistema mas ainda no o fizeram completamente."3
A transparncia de seus meios materiais e a maneira como so construdos mostravam
claramente a sua atualidade, revelando a escultura como sendo um conjunto de partes e articulaes, e no um todo sem emendas. Para Eva Hesse, o fazer era um ato no-ilusrio. "No seria
possvel reduzir ainda mais as iluses.sem que os materiais se tornassem o material no-designado da no-construo."4 Alm disso, a evidncia do processo deu ao seu trabalho a aparncia
da matria em curso: um objeto pego num estado momentneo, com a possibilidade de ser
transformado novamente em outro estado. As partes podiam ser redistribudas, expandidas ou
contratadas num determinado espao: a relao entre elas, embora independente, permanecia
em curso devido ao carter temporrio de cada instalao. Os materiais fugidios, impermanentes de Eva Hesse tambm desafiam sistemas de carter fixo; eles mostram os efeitos dos
processos naturais e das foras gravitacionais-pendendo, ruindo, como partes que saem de
Eva Hesse
1960 Trs pinturas Untitled [Sem ttulo]. Hesse comea pela tinta, o retngulo da moldura
do quad ro, figuras feitas com formas circulares, seios e ventres inchados, formas arredondadas
inscritas num quadrado. 1965 Ringaround arosie [Ciranda]. Um retngulo, ausncia de figura, os
crculos que agora formam padres concntricos, vrtices de energia, seios com bicos, seios e
1964 Untit/ed [Sem ttulo]. Estruturas geomtricas espelhadas descrevem formas do cristal.
Robert Smithson
Eva Hesse
ventre, The Venus of Willendorf [A Vnus de Willendorf], cordes umbilicais, "um seio e um
pnis"7-masculino e feminino se tornam uno. Esta uma pintura escultrica, a juno entre
pintura e instalao escultrica. Mas tambm a alimentao do eu pelo fazer de um corpo
feminino que nutre, redondo e prenhe, que se amarra a esta identidade com cordes, enquanto
destri a imagem do corpo-apagando a semelhana, cortando-a em pedaos-, numa desintegrao canibalista do todo.
O quadrado torna-se a estrutura escultrica, um receptculo para o corpo, o corpo dela
prpria, em camadas pessoais e associativas. Elementos simples e duros produzidos por outros
contm os elementos sensuais dela: sua mo se mistura com as de outros, e todas esto
absortas no trabalho da artista. 1967 Washer table [Mesa de lavar]. A base, criada por seu amigo
e artista minimalista Sol LeWitt, um dispositivo ordenador no qual foram colocadas, porm
no rigidamente fixadas, arruelas industriais de borracha, cujas superfcies esto desgastadas
de maneira diferente, definidas de forma individual. 1967 Accession II [Acesso II] . Esta caixa
perfurada de metal rgido, fabricada industrialmente sob encomenda, serviu de matriz dentro
da qual Hesse cortou e enfiou em cordes mais de
30.000
uma mistura catica de "cerdas" parecidas com cabelo. 1968 Aught [Tudo] . Quatro lenis
Eva Hesse Accession II Acesso II 1967 ao galvanizado, tubulao de borracha [galvanized steel, rubber tubing] 78,1 x78,1 x
78,1 cm coleo The Detroit Institute of Arts adquirido por [purchased by] Founders Society com fundos de [with funds of] Friends
of Modern Art e outras doaes [and miscellaneous gifts]
Smithson junta uma caixa de alumnio minimalista (dois lados da qual so feitos de ripas e
espaos da mesma largura) a um mapa de ruas e uma declarao conceituai descrevendo o local
de referncia e o objeto como obra de arte. A tenso das pedras precariamente jogadas dentro
da caixa evoca o caos de uma avalanche. Mono Lake nonsite [nolugar Lago Mono]. Uma paisagem
enigmtica, um mapa evasivo "que mostra como chegara lugar nenhum"11 inspirado num lago
salgado ao norte da Califrnia, um lago apagado pela entropia, um lugar de caos. " por isso
que gosto dele: porque, num certo sentido, o lugar inteiro tende a se evaporar." 12 A rea que o
circunda, ocupada porum vulco inativo, coberta de finos gros de pedra-pomes e cinzas vulcnicas. No mapa, serve de margem, de moldura: aquilo que cerca e define algo que no mais
existe no interior. Mirror displacement (Cayuga salt mine) [Deslocamento do espelho (Projeto salina
de Cayuga)] . Aqui a dialtica se d entre a mina/exterior e a galeria/interior, mas ao contrrio
de outros nolugares, a relao continer/contedo inversa. Conforme o artista percebeu, normalmente o continer rgido e o material amorfo e catico. Aqui o continer (sal) amorfo e
os elementos contidos (espelhos) so rgidos. Na realidade, o inverso tambm verdadeiro, se
considerarmos aquilo que no vemos a olho nu to bem quanto aquilo que vemos: o sal tem uma
estrutura molecular regular, enquanto a composio do vidro do espelho amorfa. Smithson continua a compor um ritmo dialtico entre a conteno e o caos. 1969 Incidents ofmirrortrauel in the
Yucatan [Incidentes da viagem do espelho pelo Vucatan]. O lugar refletido no espelho, o espelho
contm e emoldura um fragmento do lugar. Os espelhos deslocam a realidade: "O espelho um
deslocamento, como uma abstrao que absorve e reflete o lugar de maneira muito fsica".13
Apesar de a foto apreender o lugar, a substncia desse trabalho a ausncia de matria e nada
desse trabalho existe no lugar. O espelho-como entidade fsica e reflexo- a dialtica.
Desenhos registram a trajetria dialtica. 1970 Island project [Projeto ilha]. Culturas antigas,
assim como velhas paisagens, foram erodidas, consumidas por transformaes ao longo do
tempo. Das fantsticas evocaes de prises romanas do sculo XVIII, que mostravam um
mundo catico e em runas na srie Carceri d'lnuenzioni, de Piranesi, Smithson absorveu imagens
em sua prpria arte. 1971 Spiral hill [Monte em espiral] retoma essas mesmas imagens e as traz
Robert Smithson Island project Projeto ilha 1970 lpis sobre papel [pencil on pape r] 48,3x61 cm coleo Nancy Holt cortesia
John Weber Gallery, Nova York
Robert Smithson
Eva Hesse
4. Idem .
5. Lippard, P19 2.
6. Ibid., P209.
7. Ibid ., P3 8 .
8. Ibid ., p.210.
9. Bill Barrette, Eua Hesse: sculpture, Nova York: Timken Publishers, Inc., 19 89, P.17.
Eva Hesse Sem ttulo [Untit/ed) 1960 leo sobre masonite [oil on masonite) 40x30,5cm Esplio de [The Estate of) Eva Hesse
corte si a Robert Miller Gallery, Nova York
9. Ibid., p.181.
10. Ibid., P.170.
11. Robert Hobbs, Robert Smithson: sculpture, Ithaca: Cornel!
University Press, 1981, p.112.
12. Holt, P.177.
13. Ibid., P.169.
14. Ibid., p.221.
Robert Smithson Bingham copper mining pit-Utah reclamation project Vala de minerao de cobre em Bingham-projeto de
recuperao de Utah 1973 mapa fotosttico, revestimento de plstico transparente, lpis litogrfico, fita [photostat map, clear
plastic overlay, grease pencil, tape] 51,4x35,6cm coleo Nancy Holt cortesia John Weber Gallery, Nova Vork
Robert Smithson
Eva Hesse's art is ofthe body: the female form outside, her own psyche inside. It is a deliberate
absorption into self: consuming selfto find identity-not in the cultural sense ofthe 1990s, but
in a deeply personal way-then materializing it in art. "Art is an essence, a center."l The abstract
expressionist painter's search to express his inner pathos, which had taken on mythic praportions
since the 1950s, was a precedent for Hesse's reflections on identity. Yet she needed to break away
fram those male pragenitors and out ofthe square: the expressionist painting frame, her teacher
Josef Albers's colored squares-within-squares, the minimal square and cube ofher colleagues
and contemporaries, the container of art styles, the image ofthe male artist. ln her search for self
and the female, she needed to find forms as yet unknown, forms that resisted being permanently
fixed. Thus, she transformed the emotive power of abstract expressionism, the "scientific" formalism of Albers, and the purity and rigidity of minimalism into a personal ("eccentric," critics
called it at the time) vocabulary. Consuming and metabolizing art history, thraugh her work she
made a pIa ce in the art world for herself, and for generations of women after her.
For Hesse, the ingestion and digestion ofthe pastwas a total, internal, self-defining acto "I
will paint against every rule I ar others have invisibly placed. Oh, how they penetrate thraughout
and all over."2 Like Louise Bourgeois, she revolutionized art by revealing the inner selfin sensuous
and sexual sculptures referencing the body; as in Lygia Clark's sensual body-sculpture constructions, this path began by breaking away fram the picture plane and moving into space. Hesse's
way out of the past was through the use of materiaIs for which there was no history in established artmaking. She absorbed painting into sculpture: painting became wall constructions,
moved to the floar, then back to the wall and in relation to the surrounding space. Her sculptural
Eva Hesse
Robert Smithson
Robert Smithson's art is ofthe world: the land outside; the displaced fragment inside. He consumed geology to enlarge the space of sculpture. He rejected the abstraction ofJackson Pollock,
Willem de Kooning, and BarnettNewman that he had absorbed into his own paintings ofthe late
1950s, and began in 1963 to use geometry in sculpture. His abstraction was not the purist style
ofhis minimalist contemporaries, but was based on the physical nature of crystals-symmetrical
structures that defined and contained what might otherwise seem to be chaos. From mapping
crystals, he turned to maps-grid structures, mental constructs of matter-and then invented
three-dimensional maps, inside the gallery (which he dubbed "nonsites") and outside in the
land (which he referred to as "abstract geology").l
1ngesting the formalist vocabulary of the moment, he made it speak of the real world: what
we can see in nature and what we cannot see, as well as its constantly changing state. He took
the abstract container of minimalism and put the world into it. He saw the act of mapping,
defining, ordering the universe with geometry as an aesthetic process, one through which he
could contain the chaos of the natural or industriallandscape while exposing its internal order.
Thus, Smithson absorbed into his art aspects ofboth chaos and containment.
Smithson was ofthe avant-garde. He wanted to break down the conceptual frame that confined the definition of artist: "I think the major issue now in art is what are the boundaries. For
too long artists have taken the canvas and stretchers as given, the limits."2 Challenging the art
system, he asked fundamental questions that redefined the idea of the work of art, what constiRobert Smithson Map of broken clear glass [Mapa de vidro transparente quebrado] 1969 colagem de mapa fotosttico e lpis
[coliage of photostat map and penei I] 42,6x37cm coleo Nancy Holt cortesia John Weber Galiery, Nova York
surfaces have a painterly sensibility, too. Their luminous, rich surfaces are built up in layers;
Hesse worked spontaneously by hand, the way an abstract expressionist moved paint araund a
canvas. Absorbing and reworking the idea of painting for her own purposes, she was able to
maintain the mark and evidence of the hand, as well as the expressionist tendency toward emotional quality. This direction stood in opposition to her generation's post-studio practice, its
abandonment ofthe artist's touch, even the art objecto
Hesse was of the avant-garde, possessed by the modern need to create thraugh breaking
down rules, prapelled to articulate her individual identity as an artist and a person, driven to
create a new whole fram the parts she had inherited. She knew she had to succeed first in the
conventional art system-Iearning to paint, being within the New York art world. By working
inside the structure of art, she could discover art's limits, locate its edges, and subsequently
move outside them. Working without fixed rules, she could bring into art and artmaking that
which had previously been defined as outside. Working at the edge ofthe art system, she was led
to fundamental questions that challenged the idea of art: What is the work of art? When is something art ar not? Thus, Hesse was able to assume a position of power because she functioned
both within and without, making art that derived fram others and by her own unique invention.
Hesse had to construct a new system for her art. However, she resisted having it take on a
totalizing effect, becoming a closed and fixed universe. Such a system, albeit an alternative,
would have ultimately contained and consumed her. Not prescribed by established rules, Hesse's
art remained in a state ofbecoming, between its individual materiality and an organic whole,
beautiful and ugly, the abstract and the figurative, at times, between the female and the male.
"She wanted to preserve visibly the threshold where parts begin to enter a system but have not
dane so completely." 3
The transparency ofher material means and their manner of construction kept their actuEva Hesse Washer table Mesa de lavar 1967 borracha, madeira, metal [rubber, wood, metal] 126x126x22cm coleo The LeWitt
Collection cortesia Wadsworth Atheneum , Hartford , Connecticut
Eva Hesse
Robert Smithson
tuted art, and where it can be located. He felt that the concept of museum was constricted by the
box that was the gallery, a space increasingly unable to contain art. "Artists themselves are not
confined, but their output is ~ Museums, like asylums and jails, have wards and cells-in other
words, neutral rooms called 'galleries.' A work of art when placed in a gallery loses its charge,
and becomes a portable object or surface disengaged from the outside world."3 To Smithson, art
needed to go beyond the container of the gallery walls and he contributed to a radical repositioning of art, not just as sculpture located outdoors, but as the earth itselftransformed into art.
The artist had to construct a new system for his art. Through a dialectical view of the world,
he incorporated into his art both sides ofthe equation: formal abstraction and representation of
physical structures in nature, the outward appearance of geography and the hidden forces of
entropic change. Inside/outside, center/fringe, the world/the gallery, space/nonspace, site/nonsite, sight/nonsight.
Smithson gave form to this dialectic in his site/nonsites. The process started in an intuitive
way, as an emotional, unconscious response to a site in a landscape, reminiscent ofthe romanticism associated with a painter, but it took on a conceptual and abstract mode of presentation.
"The site, in a sense, is the physical, raw reality [.. .] instead of putting something on the landscape I decided it would be interesting to transfer the land indoors, to the nonsite, which is an
abstract container."4 "The nonsite exists as a kind of deep three-dimensional abstract map that
points to a specific site on the surface ofthe earth."s So, in the gallery or museum, the actual
location (the concrete world) remained invisible, while the conceptual marker (the idea of place)
was made visible. Site and nonsite represented, too, the dialectic between the center and the
Robert Smithson Eight-part piece (Cayuga salt mine) Pea de oito partes (Salina de Cayuga) 1969 sal-gema, espelhos [rocksalt, mirrors] 28x76,2x 914,4cm cortesia John Weber Gallery, Nova York
ality evident, revealing sculpture as parts and joinings rather than presenting a seamless whole.
Making, for Hesse, was a nonillusionary acto "Illusions could not be further reduced without materiaIs becoming the mere undesignated material of unconstruction."4 The evidence of process,
too, gave her work the appearance of matter in flux: an object caught in a momentary state with
the possibility ofbeing transformed again to another state. Parts could be rearranged, expanded,
or contracted within a given space; their relationship, though interdependent, remained in flux
with each installation being of a temporary order. Hesse's fugitive, impermanent materiaIs also
defjr systems of a fixed order; they show the effect of natural processes and gravitational forcesdrooping, collapsing, as parts fall out of a state of wholeness or are subject to effects of decay
and deterioration. Containment and control were temporary at best; planned and uncalculated
aspects combine: "[ ... ] there is a lot that I'll just as welllet happen [... ]"5 Change occurs and
chaos overtakes permanence. But in the fragmentation of parts and changing nature of material substances, there occurs "the disintegration of one order in favor of a new one,"6 and art takes
on new meanings.
1960 three Untitled paintings. She beginswith paint, the rectangle ofthe painting frame,
figures made of circular forms, breasts and distended bellies, rounded shapes within a square.
1965 Ringaround arosie. A rectangle, the figure is gone, the cirdes remain and become concentric
patterns, vortexes of energy, breasts with nipples, breast and belly, The Venus ofWllendoif, umbilical cords, "a breast and a penis"7-male and female becoming one. This is a sculptural painting,
the juncture between painting and sculptural installation. But this is also the nourishing ofthe
selfthrough the making ofthe nurturing female body, round and pregnant; tying oneselfto this
identity with cords, while destroying the image of the body-erasing resemblance, cutting it into
pieces-the cannibalistic disintegration of the whole.
The square becomes the sculptural frame, a receptade for the body, her body in personal
and associative layers. Simple, hard elements produced by others contain her sensuous elements;
her hand combines with those of others, theyare absorbed into her own art. 1967 Washer table.
Its base, made by minimalist artist-friend Sol LeWitt, is an ordering device into which were
placed, but not rigidly fixed, industrial rubber washers whose surfaces are worn and varied, individually defined. 1967 Accession II. This perforated hard metal box, fabricated bya company on
order by the artist, served as the matrix into which Hesse cut and threaded ove r 30,000 soft and
pliable plastic tubes, a chaotic array ofhairlike bristles. 1968 Aught. Four sheets hang on the
gallery wall; their surfaces are painterly yet their form sculptural, stuffed and sagging, but contained within rectangular frames. 1970 Unttled ("Wall piece"). Now ill, working from her bed, she
directed the hands of others. ln the year ofher untimely death, she still confronted the duality of
being: serial geometry and organic forms-containment and chaos. Less minimal than before
and repositioned offthe floor and back on the wall, each rectangular frame has its individual
uniqueness, existing outside a rigid system of relationships: four units, each different in size and
depth, with varied textures. From each leap out cords, veins streaming in energetic vitality onto
the floor, and springing back up.
The use of the square and cube for Hesse was a format in which to contain art, a system to
fix form, to hold chaos at bay. Square and cube were places to experiment with serial processes
but not be bound by them; places in which to express the personal; a container to break in order
to dissolve the whole, and then to make whole again. It was a container for bits of reality, parts
ofthe body and the psyche, to contain them and attempt to retard their change and disintegration.
But the parts eluded contain1nent: marred washers, unruly tubes, extended tentades. Showing
evidences of entropy through material decomposition or degeneration, her art is absorbed back
Eva Hesse
Robert Smithson
edges. To Smithson, sites had no central focus; they were fringe areas, without boundaries, not
contained, open, and constantly undergoing change. The nonsite gives the site focus; it orders
space thraugh the imposition ofthe rectangle- the frame. "[Sites] are only closed on the map,
and the map serves as the designation,"6 ar another "way to locate a thing is to circumscribe it
with a photograph ... [which] acts as a kind ofmap."7
The synthesis of Smithson's dialectic is found in his earthworks: "I am talking about a
dialectic of nature that interacts with the physical contradictions inherent in natural forces as
theyare [... ] Nature is never finished."8 He knew this pracess fram cultures thraughout time as
well as fram nature: the layering ofhistory and the stratification of the earth. While he accepted
the effects thatwould later lead to disintegration as nature moved toward a gradual equilibrium"collaborating with entrapy" 9-Smithson began by containing a part of the world within geometry and calling it art. "I don't think you can escape the primacy of the rectangle. 1 always see
myself thrawn back to the rectangle. 1 see it as an inevitability; of going toward the fringes,
towards the braken, the entrapic."10 Helio Oiticica, too, at this time attempted to give structure
to things of the world with his Bldes, placing a frame ar box araund nature and the everyday to
simultaneously give it form and make it actual, and bring it into the idea of the aesthetic and
make it transcendental.
1964 Unttled. Mirrared geometric structures describe crystal forms. 1968 Nonste (PaIsadesEdgewater, New Jersey). Smithson joins a minimalist aluminum box (of equal slats and spaces on
two sides) to a street map and a conceptual statement describing the source location and the
object as a work of art. The tension of precariously balanced racks contained within the box
evokes the chaos of an avalanche. Mono Lake nonste. An enigmatic landscape, an elusive map
Robert Smithson Nonsite (Palisades-Edgewater, New Jersey) Nolugar (Palisades-Edgewater, Nova Jersey) 1968 esquerda [Ieft]
alumnio pintado, esmalte, pedra [painted aluminum, enamel, stone] 142,2x66x91,4cm direita [right] tinta sobre papel [ink on
paper] mapa [map] 3,8x5,1cm descrio [description] 18,7x24,8cm coleo e copyright Whitney Museum of American Art, Nova
York adquirido com fundos de [purchased with funds of] Howard and Jean Lipman Foundation, Inc.
into a state of nonart. Hesse was resigned to, even philosophical about, inevitable 10ss: "Life
doesn't last, art doesn't last, it doesn't matter."8 All order is ephemeral; permanence is an ideal
illusion. Chaos eats order. Yet chaos possesses a structure and, even if not revealed to us, has its
own arder. Of one ofher last works, Hesse said: "lts order could be chaos. Chaos can be structured as non-chaos. That we know fram Jackson Polloclc"9 ln her art Hesse made visible the
image ofthe order of chaos.
I..Luey Lippard, Eva Hesse, New York: Da Capo Press, 1992,
P 2 05
2. William S. Wilson, "Eva Hesse: on the threshold of illusions," Insde the vsb[e: an e[[ptca[ traverse af 20th century art, M.
Catherine de Zegher, ed., Kortrijk, Belgium: The Kanaal Art
Foundation, 1996, P.427.
3. Wilson, P43 0 .
4. Wilson, P43 0 .
5. Lippard, P192.
6. Ibid., P.209.
7. Ibid., P3 8 .
8. Ibid., p.2IO.
9. Bill Barrette, Eva Hesse: scu[pture, New York: Timken Publishers, Ine., 1989, P.17.
Eva Hesse
Robert Smithson
"that telIs you how to get nowhere"l1 based on a salt lake in Northern California, a lake erased by
entropy, a site of chaos. "That's why I like it, because in a sense the whole site tends to evaporate." 12 Its outlying area, the site of an inactive volcano, is covered with fine grains ofpumice and
cinders. On the map it is a margin, a frame: what surrounds and defines that which no longer
exists inside. Mirrar displacement (Cayuga salt mine project). The dialectic is between the mine/outside and the gallery/inside, but unlike other nonsites, the container/contained relationship is
reversed. As the artist noted, usualIy the container is rigid and the material amorphous and
chaotic; here the container (salt) is amorphous and the contained element (mirrors) is rigid. Yet,
in fact, the reverse is true, if we consider what we do not see as welI as what we do: salt has a regular molecular structure, while the composition ofthe glass in the mirro r is amorphous. Smithson
continues and compounds a dialectical rhythm between containment and chaos . 1969 Incidents
ofmirror travel in the Yucatan. The site is reflected in the mirror; the mirror contains and frames a
fragment of the site. Mirrors displace reality: "The mirror is a displacement, as an abstraction
absorbing, reflecting the site in a very physical way."13 The photograph captures the site and yet
the substance of this work is the absence of matter and nothing of this work exists on site. The
mirror-as a physical entity and a reflection-is the dialectic.
Drawings record the dialectical journey. 1970 Island projecto Ancient cultures like ancient
landscapes have been eroded, consumed over time by change. From Piranesi's Carceri d'Invenzioni,
18th-centuryvisionary evocations ofRoman prisons depicting a world in chaos and ruin, Smithson absorbed images into his own art. 1971 Spiral hill takes up this sarne imagery and brings it to
a site, a location in Emmen, Holland, formed by entropic forces after the last ice age that resulted
in a wide array of diverse terrain in a single locale which was further eroded by the presence of a
sand quarry. APiranesian white path spirals up to the center on top of a black archetypal form of
a hill. This is in opposition to the flat, light-colored sand and centrifugaI image surrounded by
water ofits companion piece, Broken circle. 1973 Bingham copper mining pit-Utah reclamation projecto
The centrifugaltcentripetal opposition of forces is again created, this time by a wheel motif,
spinning out to the terraced outlines or pushing in from the surrounding tiers. Fantasy is
replaced by reality. The site is a three-mile-wide and mile-deep hole left in the ground as a result
of mining. Smithson planned to bring alI the circular lines of the strip cuts into a single pattern,
an abstraction that would also be a land reclamation projecto Entropy is temporarily halted and
chaos contained.
Like Gordon Matta-Clark, ultimately Smithson aimed for his art to have a socialIy constructive as welI as aesthetic function. "The artist must come out of the isolation of the galleries and
museums and provide a concrete consciousness for the present as it realIy exists, and not simply
present abstractions or utopias. Art should not be considered as merelya luxury, but should work
within the processes of actual production and reclamation."14 By the time his career and life
were prematurely cut short, Smithson had made clear his ambition to bring order to the chaos of
industrial sites in the landscape. Addressing these sites of accelerated entropy, he sought to
create from the earth geometric, abstract forms of a natural order-an art to contain chaos.
8. Ibid, P.I33.
9. Ibid, p.I8!.
10. Ibid, P.I70.
II. Robert Hobbs, Robert Smithson: sculpture, Ithaca: CorneU
University Press, 1981, p.II2.
12. HoIt, P.I77.
13. Ibid, P.I69.
14. Ibid, p.22I.
Bruce Nauman
o artista verdadeiro
"Nem anjo nem fera, mas homem." Essa a frmula que Blaise Pascal usou para classificar a
natureza humana. A exemplo de muitos filsofos de tempos mais antigos-e a exemplo de
muitos de hoje ainda-, somente ao nos contrapormos com os absolutos obselVados que
poderamos avaliar nossas caractersticas essenciais. Os homens Ce as mulheres) eram definidos
pelo que no eram. Na equao de Pascal, isso significava pairar abaixo do coro serfico e acima
da manada animal.
Michel de Montaigne, predecessor de Pascal, tinha viso menos categrica desses assuntos,
mas o jogo dialtico dos contrrios lhe aguava o fio do pensamento. Primeiro ensasta da Era
das Exploraes, Montaigne dominou rapidamente as suposies auto-elogiosas que a Europa
aplicava aos povos e continentes recm-"descobertos". Ansiosos para justificar sua misso de
fora civilizadora nos ermos do Novo Mundo, os europeus que cruzavam os oceanos se apressavam em designar pela palavra "brbaros" os costumes das populaes indgenas com que
deparavam. Histrias de nudez bestial e de um apetite "inatural" pela carne da prpria espcie
representavam os extremos a que chegava a "barbrie" nas regies externas de Terra Firma. Assim
nasciam os "canibais". E no Brasil, alis. bvia a convenincia ideolgica do canibal para os
colonizadores europeus; sua utilidade para Montaigne foi inesperada na mesma medida. Pois
nesses "nativos" temidos-trs dos quais o pensadorde poltrona teve ocasio de obselVar na
cidade de Ruo, aonde tinham ido em cativeiro rgio-Montaigne viu uma nobreza que levantava
dvidas sobre a "barbrie" maior da prpria cultura a que pertencia, corrupta e belicosa.
Na tradio ocidental, os preceitos dicotmicos nos assombram a auto-avaliao a cada
passo. Siga-se a lgica de Pascal, e o que "inumano" fica ou abaixo ou acima de ns. Aplique-se
o padro ctico de Montaigne, e a "inumanidade" d nome a costumes aliengenas que valem
principalmente pela luz que lanam sobre as manchas da nossa conduta, para as quais o hbito
nos cegou. Combinem-se ambas as abordagens-a rgida oposio que Pascal coloca entre
exaltao e aviltamento e a interpretao inortodoxa que Montaigne d a contradies inerentes-e podemos discernir os rudimentos de um mtodo para lidar com uma criatura cuja
auto-imagem oscila desesperadamente entre o "melhor" e o "pior" que consegue conceber,
entre a coeso essencial pela qual anseia e o estado de desunio que a descoberta dos "outros"
se destina a resolver, mas na verdade corrobora.
O arcabouo filosfico de Bruce Nauman pertence nossa era, no quela em que Pascal
apostava que o estado de graa poderia existir mas jamais seria alcanado pela razo, ou em
que a interpretao crtica de Montaigne das imperfeies do homem originou o "nobre selvagem" que come seus semelhantes, embora o faa com dignidade exemplar. A viso de Nauman,
muitas vezes spera, no corresponde nem mesmo quela de um quase contemporneo de
Pascal, Thomas Hobbes, o materialista ingls que via o homem, "em estado natural", como um
animal em guerra contra outros animais, para quem a vida era "torpe, animalesca e curta". Ao
contrrio, Nauman pertence a uma gerao cujos pontos de referncia intelectuais abrangem
B. F. Skinnere LudwigWittgenstein, isto , a psicologia do comportamento e a teoria lingstica-com topologia no meio. Mesmo assim, no repertrio de temas e imagens de Nauman
podemos claramente distinguir um padro de termos e contratermos, que evocam as polaridades clssicas que acabamos de mencionar.
Em um extremo filosfico da obra de Nauman acha-se o idealismo aparentemente no
qualificado da simples frase "O artista verdadeiro uma surpreendente fonte luminosa" . Esta
declarao manifestamente romntica-que surgiu pela primeira vez, em 1966, numa cortina
de plstico transparente no ateli de Nauman e, mais tarde, em uma exposio de 1968, na
forma de letras de quebra-cabea ao redorde um vo de porta-equipara-se em fervor moral s
palavras de um non de 1967, em que se lia: "O artista verdadeiro ajuda o mundo porque revela
verdades msticas". Quando digo que a primeira, assim como a ltima, indica um idealismo
"aparentemente no qualificado", o elemento de incerteza que Nauman introduz coerente
com sua assero literal. No estamos lidando aqui com a ironia sistemtica Duchamp, muito
menos com uma espcie mais contempornea de cinismo de Salon, mas antes com a ressonncia
concordante entre a afirmao esperanosa e a dvida que corri.
Ao usaro non para sugerir proposies metafsicas em pblico, em vez de lampejar mensagens comerciais, Nauman punha prova a convico esttica de seu pblico, junto com a dele
mesmo, em uma mdia normalmente empregada por piratas publicitrios. "Voc vai 'comprar'
essa idia da vocao do 'artista verdadeiro'?", o que o sinal suplica com franqueza ao espectador ofuscado; "Ser que compro essa idia?", pergunta implicitamente a si mesmo o autor
quando o claro do non o atinge. O texto do vo de porta de 1968 provoca a mesma ambivalncia. Ao passarmos por baixo dele, estaremos concordando tacitamente com a crena de q ue o
artista um ser inspirado e a galeria, um recinto quase sagrado? A verso final da obra, em que
as letras que a compunham estavam agora misturadas no cho, parecia colocar para sempre
fora do alcance o potencial de significado da sentena; ainda assim, de algum modo, sabedores
do significado que um dia tiveram, esses pedaos esfacelados de palavras continuam a emitir
uma aura conceituaI.
Alm disso, claro, h a personificao fotogrfica de uma fonte (1966-67) de Nauman .
Ser o homem de peito nu dessa figura a encarnao recente de um demiurgo grego ou estar
apenas cuspindo besteirol? Estar caoando da arte, do artista ou do pblico-de sua disciplina, de si mesmo ou de ns? Ou ser orculo de um ceticismo geral que, ao mesmo tempo que
Self-portrait as a fountain Auto-retrato como uma fonte da srie Eleven color photographs Onze fotografias coloridas 19661967-1970 49,8x59,7cm
d um belisco nas crenas culturais convencionais, capaz de trazer tona um anseio coletivo
pela revelao esttica, caso em que esta persona ambgua representa, afinal, uma fonte de
verdade mistificadora, seno mstica?
No outro extremo filosfico est o pessimismo alucinatrio de peas formalmente seme
Ihantes, como o caso do non de 1972 EAT/DEATH [COMER/MORTE]. Recorrendo uma vez mais
arte do fazedor de sinais-explorando, desta vez, a sobreposio de textos eletronicamente
sincronizados-, este painel de mensagens ligadesliga enquadra a primeira palavra, aparente
mente positiva, fria luz da segunda, negativa, e reduz a busca de alimento a uma luta basica
mente intil contra a morte. Ao transformar efetivamente a expresso convencional "Comer
para viver" em "Comer para morrer", Nauman exprime com impiedosa conciso o destino do
homem-e sua oralidade avassaladora. Em From hand to mouth [Da mo boca] (1967), Nauman
faz igualmente uso de um pouco do linguajarcomum, literalmente transfigurandoo de forma
tal que a idia originalmente expressa, de prolongar a existncia pelo uso do alimento que esteja
mais mo, tornase um smbolo perturbadoramente complexo no s da vida de subsistncia
mas tambm do elo entre ato e expresso vocal, entre palavra e feito.
Desenhos como Punch andJudy " birth & life & sex & death1 [Polichinelo e sua mulher II nasci
mento & vida & sexo & morte] (1985) desenvolvem essa luta pela sobrevivncia sem oferecer
nenhuma outra razo para se ter esperana. O estudo em escala real de outro non sincroniza
do, em que uma silhueta masculina e outra feminina se defrontam e em seguida matam uma a
outra, matamse ou "comem" sexualmente seus doppelgiingers2, retrata a fantochada das com
pulses humanas como "torpe e animalesca", mas semfim, em vez de misericordiosamente
"curta", como na mxima de Hobbes.
Em estudos correlatos, figuras arquetpicas semelhantes reencenam a batalha dos sexos
em variaes comparavelmente grotescas dessa orgia assassina, ao passo que, em outros
desenhos e nons, antagonistas do mesmo sexo enfrentamse em duelos flicos grosseiros e em
disputas a tapa; e, em outros mais, cabeas e mos se confrontam a espetaro nariz e cutucar os
olhos do oponente, assinalando uma progresso que vai da agresso sexual burlesca intimi
dade regressiva e violao e, por fim, quando uma cabea solitria engole o muco que goteja
do prprio nariz, autofagia primitiva. Assim retratada, a "natureza humana" fica inteiramente
condicionada crueza dos apetites e suas frustraes inevitveis. Os homens e as mulheres que
povoam essas imagens infernais pareceriam estar fora do poderde ajuda do "artista verdadeiro"
e, dada a intensidade com que Nauman descreve as degradaes de rotina deles-intensidade
disparada pela identificao com elas-, podese suspeitar que o prprio "artista verdadeiro"
tambm esteja entre os amaldioados.
A arte de Nauman repleta de exemplos dessa comdia violenta, bem como de referncias
violncia que nenhuma espcie de humor alivia. Algumas obras aludem indiretamente
dimenso poltica do conflito humano. Vrios desenhos dos anos 80 mostram cadeiras suspensas
no espao-de p, de lado e de cabea para baixo-, s vezes isoladas, s vezes formando
estranho conjunto com formas geomtricas fundamentais; cruzes, quadrados, crculos e trin
gulos. Fundamentada no princpio do pndulo de Foucault que, dependurado a grande altura
sob o domo do Panteo de Paris, oscila suavemente em reao ao movimento de rotao da
Terra, a imagem de Nauman alude ao modo como as sublevaes ocorridas numa parte do globo
so registradas em lugares longnquos. Mais especificamente, a cadeira alude ao confinamento
solitrio do jornalista argentino Jacobo Timmerman, cujas memrias do crcere Nauman lia
poca em que fez essas esculturas, trs das quais, de 1981, levam os ttulos South America circle
[Crculo Amrica do Sul], South America square [Quadrado Amrica do Sul] e South America triangle
[Tringulo Amrica do Sul]. Do mesmo perodo, um esboo em que a cadeira aparece com uma
inscrio em letras de forma logra seu intento com uma perfeio serena que envolve tanto o
Norte quanto o Sul. Metade delas invertida, as quatro linhas empilhadas de texto so: "AMERICAN /DELlCATE/BALANCE/VIOLENCE" [AMERICANO(A)/DELlCADO(A)/EQUILBRIO/VIOLNCIA].
Quando Nauman tira as medidas do homem, os resultados so fragmentrios, inconclusivos e contraditrios. Que maneira de ser, por exemplo, uma pea de pano perfurado e engordurado descreve? No estilo lacnico de Nauman, o ttulo lista os ingredientes da obra de 1966 e
d nome a seu assunto da seguinte maneira: Collection ofuarious ~exible materiais separated by layers
ofgrease with holes the size of my waist and wrists [Coleo de materiais flexveis diversos separados
porcamadas de gordura com buracos do tamanho de minha cintura e pulsos]. Que esse rasteiro
laminado de borracha, feltro e papel de alumnio fosse um auto-retrato parcial parece pouco
provvel; que o papel de alumnio manchado de leo luzisse palidamente como ouro em cima
do feltro repugnante parece ainda mais improvvel. No entanto, l est ela, uma superfcie
fosca estranhamente corprea a emitir um calor inexplicvel. Feita no mesmo ano, a pea anterior Neon templates
esquerda de meu corpo feitos a intervalos de dez polegadas (25 centmetros)] tambm um
simulacro incomum da forma humana. Desta vez, Nauman evoca os cnones da escultura
South America triangle Tring ulo Amrica do Sul 1981 vigas de ao soldadas, cadeira de ferro fundido [welded stee l beams, cast
iron chair] 99,1 x429,3x429,3cm coleo Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden , Washington, D. C. adq uirido com fundos de
[purchased wi th funds of] Holenia em memria de [in memory of] Joseph H. Hirshhorn foto Lee Stalsworth
clssica-de acordo com os quais a altura ideal de uma esttua.em tamanho real era de sete
"cabeas"-e pe entre parnteses a forma humana ausente mediante o uso de uma srie de
compassos (co"m escala) verdes fosforescentes. No primeiro exemplo, o corpo substituto de
Nauman uma relquia inserida e nociva; no segundo, um fantasma radiante e ascendente.
O uso franco que Nauman fez do prprio corpo como material de escultura se estende a
dois outros trabalhos: a modelagem grotesca das feies dele prprio nas cinco matrizes de silkscreen, de 1970, Study for hologram [Estudo para holograma], um experimento infantilmente
regressivo de "fazer caretas" que acaba por rivalizar com os caprichos fisionmicos de Franz
Xavier Messerschmidt, escultorvienense do sculo XVIII; e a mmica musical Beckett do videotape Violin tuned D E A D [O violino afinado D E A D]3 (1969), em que o artista reitera sua frase
tonal mrbida, atacando as cordas de seu instrumento como se fosse um aluno desesperanadamente sem talento, condenado a uma prtica solitria, eterna.
A esse respeito, somos levados a nos lembrar uma vez mais do arco descrito pela "mo leva-
da boca", pois, no universo de possibilidades estticas que Nauman abriu para si mesmo,
mente e matria, discurso e ao, recursos conceituais e processos de ateli mais ou menos
tradicionais esto todos inseparavelmente conectados ao projeto global de articulao das
ansiedades e contradies bsicas ao redordas quais gira sua obra. Cada tcnica se recomenda
como um modo de expresso ou, um instrumento analtico-at se poderia dizer diagnosticador-dentro de um dado conjunto de circunstncias artsticas. A primazia de Nauman reside
no s em seu domnio dos muitos modos de fazer-domnio que se manifesta tanto por sua
recusa em sucumbir s tentaes das sutilezas superficiais quanto por sua capacidade real de
Collection of various flexible materiais separated by layers of grease with holes the size of my waist and wrists Coleo de
materiais flexveis diversos separados por camadas de gordura com buracos do tamanho de minha cintura e pulsos 1966 lmina de
alumnio, folha plstica, borracha esponjosa, feltro, graxa [aluminium foil, plastic sheet, foam rubber, felt, grease] 3,8x228,6x45,7cm
coleo Museum of Modern Art, Nova York foto Glenn Halvorson
delinear formas, adaptar objetos, orquestrar sons, luzes e figuras em movimento, tudo isso de
grande, embora austera, beleza-, mas tambm em sua capacidade de relacionar essas abor
dagens estilisticamente to dspares a um ncleo de preocupaes tanto emocional quanto
logicamente coerente.
Em algumas casos, como se o mtodo principal de Nauman equivalesse a um esforo de
mascaro prprio conceito de "natureza humana" e cuspilo fora em tantos pedaos quanto con
segue criar. Em outras ocasies, como se o artista estivesse se autoconsumindo por etapas, a
fim de refazer a sua imagem de acordo com uma "segunda natureza" integrada, de sua prpria
inveno. A partir dessa ltima perspectiva, a arte o mesmo que uma provao ritual, da qual
algum s sai inteiro depois de se submeter s mais rigorosas provas fsicas e psicolgicas-se
que alguma vez algum de fato sai inteiro.
Em Anthrofsocio (Rinde facing camera) [Antro/socio (Rinde olhando a cmera)] (1991), o anta
gonismo irresolvel entre instinto e razo nos bombardeia de todos os lados. Ser o homem
senhor de seu destino ou ser ele, ao contrrio, prisioneiro de suas necessidades e primeira
vtima de suas iluses quanto ao poder? doutrina do sculo XX, de que as cincias sociais
poderiam resolver esse dilema e fornecer a chave para a autocompreenso e autoaperfeioa
mento ilimitado, Nauman responde com uma queixosa barragem de som. O homem que grita
para o espectador, das paredes e telas esparramadas pelos espaos penumbrosos e vazios desta
instalao, o eco amplificado de um antigo estudante de behaviorismo-o artista-a quem
ensinaram que fazer ratos correr atravs de labirintos desvendaria os mistrios dos costumes
humanos e nos ensinaria a agirem nosso prprio interesse. Face benigna da loucura totalitria,
tais fantasias de submisso lgica autoridade mais elevada acabam degenerandoseem con
fuso sadomasoquista de dependncia e controle.
"Ajudeme/Machuqueme, Sociologia", entoa a cabea falante. "Alimenteme!/Comame,
Antropologia!", grita ele. Gradualmente, contudo, sua litania de exigncias e desejos antitticos
convertese em uma cano singela curiosamente harmnica, e as imagens mltiplas de sua
cara agoniada tornamse um coral assombrosamente disperso. Deste modo, a feira contm e
acaba por revelar o seu contrrio, a desordem perceptiva no limiardo tolervel se transmuta em
padro e ritmo estranhamente reconfortante; e o homem, no extremo de sua abjeo e agres
sividade, tornase um farol-"uma surpreendente fonte luminosa"-nas sombras de inesca
pvel i ncerteza a respeito da essncia de seu carter.
tal homem diferente dos animais porque s ele tem conscincia de seu ser ou porque
s ele oprime a prpria espcie ou implora para ser oprimido? ele anjo cado ou fera desviada
dos padres, o rbitro de sua salvao ou o pior inimigo de si mesmo? "Ajudeme/Machuque
me! Alimenteme/Comame!" Resposta no h, s o som da voz desse homem no vazio que
partilhamos.
Robert Storr. Traduzido do ingls por Claudio Frederico da Silva Ramos.
1.
Bruce Nauman
curador iaRobertStorr
"Neither angel nor beast, but man." This is the formula Blaise Pascal used to describe human
nature. Like many philosophers of early times-and like many still today-reckoning our essential characteristics could only be accomplished by contrasting us to perceived absolutes. Manand woman-were defined by what they were noto ln Pascal's equation that meant hovering
below the seraphic choir and above the animal herdo
Michel de Montaigne, Pascal'spredecessor, took a less categorical view ofthese matters,
but dialectical play with contraries sharpened the edge ofhis thought. The premier essayist of
the Age ofExploration, Montaigne was quick to seize upon the self-congratulatory assumptions
Europe applied to newly "discovered" continents and peoples. Anxious to justifY their mission
as a civilizing force in the wilderness ofthe New World, Europeans crossing the oceans hastened
to assign the word "barbarous" to the customs ofthe indigenous populations theyencountered.
Tales ofbestial nakedness and an "unnatural" appetite for the flesh oftheir own species represented the extremes to which "barbarousness" reached in the outer regions ofTerra Firma.
Thus, "cannibals" were born. ln Brazil, as it happened. The ideological convenience ofthe cannibal to European colonists is obvious; their use to Montaigne was correspondingly unexpected.
For in these feared "natives"-three ofwhom the stay-at-home thinker chanced to observe in
the city ofRouen where they carne in regaI captivity-Montaigne saw a nobility that called into
question the greater "barbarousness" ofhis own corrupt and warring culture.
ln Western tradition dichotomous precepts haunt our self-assessment at every turno Follow
Pascal's logic and that which is "inhuman" is beneath or above us. Apply Montaigne's skeptical
standard and "inhumanity" becomes the name for ways that are foreign and whose principal
value is the light they shed upon the flaws in our own conduct to which we have been blinded by
habito Combine these two approaches, Pascal's stark opposition between exaltation and debasement and Montaigne's unorthodox appreciation for inherent contradiction, and one discerns
the rudiments of a method for grappling with a creature whose self-image swings desperately
between the "best" and "worst" it can conceive, the essential coherence it longs for and the
dividedness that the invention of"others" is designed to resolve but in fact confirms.
Bruce Nauman's philosophical framework is of our era, not that ofPascal's wager that
state of grace might exist but can never be achieved through reason or Montaigne's criticaI
appreciation of man's imperfections that give rise to the "noble savage" who eats his fellows but
does so with exemplary dignity. Nor does Nauman's often harsh vision really correspond to that
of Pascal's approximate contemporary, Thomas Hobbes, the English materialist who viewed
man "in a state of nature" as an animal at war with other animaIs for whom life was "nasty,
brutish, and short." Nauman is, instead, of a generation whose intellectual points of reference
encompass B.F. Skinner and Ludwig Wittgenstein, that is to say behavioral psychology and the
linguistic theory-with topology thrown in. Still one may clearly distinguish in Nauman's
repertoire of themes and images a pattern of terms and counter terms that evoke the classical
polarities just cited.
At the one philosophical extreme lies the apparently unqualified idealism of the simple
phrase "The true artist is an amazing luminous fountain." This patently romantic declarationEAT/DEATH COM ER/MORTE 1972 tubulao de neon com moldura tubular suspensa de vidro transparente [neon tubing with clear
glass tubing suspension frame) 19,1 x64,1 x5,4cm coleo Angela Westwater, Nova York cortesia Sperone Westwater, Nova York
which first appeared on a transparent plastic window shade in Nauman's studio in I966 and
later, in a I968 exhibition, as jigsaw-cut letters around a doorway-is matched in moral fervor
by the words of a I967 neon which read, "The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic
truths." When I say that the former-Iike the latter-bespeaks an "apparently unqualified"
idealism, the element of uncertainty Nauman introduces is of a piece with his literal assertion.
We are not dealing here with Duchamp-style systematic irony, much less Salon cynicism of a
more contemporary variety, but rather with the sympathetic resonance ofhopeful affirmation
and gnawing doubt.
Using neon to publidy advance metaphysical propositions rather than to flash commercial
messages, Nauman tested the aesthetic conviction of his audience, along with his own, in a
medium usually employed by copyrighting hacks. "Will you 'buy' this idea ofthe 'true artist's '
vocation?," the sign frankly entreats the bedazzled viewer; "Do I buy that idea?," its author
implicitly asks himself as its glare hits him. Nauman's I968 doorway text provokes the sarne
ambivalence. When passing under it, is one tacitly subscribing to the belief that the artist is an
inspired being and the gallery quasi-sacred precinct? The work's final version, where the letters
that had composed itwere dumped on the floor and scrambled, seemingly placed the sentence's
potential for meaning forever out of reach, yet somehow, knowing the significance these verbal
shards once had, they continue to emit a conceptual aura.
And then, of course, there is Nauman's photographic impersonation of a fountain from
I966-67. Is the bare-chested man in this picture a latterday incarnation of a Greek demiurge ar
is he just spouting nonsense? Is he mocking art, the artist or the public-his discipline, himself
or us? Or is he the orade of a general skepticism who, at the sarne time as he tweaks cultural
piety, is capable ofbringing to the surface a collective longing for aesthetic revelation, in which
case this ambiguous persona represents, after all, a source of mystifYing if not mystic truth?
At the other philosophical extreme ofNauman's work is the hallucinatory pessimism of
formally similar pieces such as the I972 neon EAT/DEATH. Once again turning to the signmaker's craft-this time exploiting electronically cyded text overlays-this on-again, off-again
message-board frames the first, apparently positive ward in the cold light of the second, negative
one, reducing the quest for nourishment to an ultimately futile struggle against death. Effectively transforming the conventional expression "Eat to Live"
into "Eat to Die," Nauman renders man's fate-and
his desperate orality-with pitiless concision. ln
From hand to mouth (I967) Nauman likewise takes a
bit of common parlance and literally transfigures it
in such a way that the idea it originally expressed of
eking out an existence by feeding off what is nearest
at hand turns into a disturbingly complex emblem not
only of subsistence living, but also of the link between
gesture and utterance, between ward and deed.
Drawings such as Pune h and Judy II birth & life &
sex & death (I985) elaborate on this struggle to survive
without offering any more reason for hope. A fullscale study for another synchronized neon in which
male and female silhouettes face-off and sequentially
kill one another, kill themselves, or sexually "eat"
their doppelgangers, it depicts the puppetry of human compulsion as "nasty and brutish," but
never-ending rather than mercifully "short," as itwas in Hobbes's dictum.
ln related studies, similarly archetypal figures replay the battle ofthe sexes in comparably
gratesque variations of this murderaus orgy, while in other drawings and neons, sarne sex antagonists engage in clownish phallic duels and slapping contests, and in still others confrantational
heads and hands pick the noses and poke the eyes oftheir opposite number, marking a pragression fram slapstick sexual aggression to regressive intimacy and violation and finally, when a
solitary head swallows the mucous oozing fram its own nose, to primitive self-consumption.
Thus portrayed, "human nature" is wholly conditioned by crude appetites and their inevitable
frustrations. The men and women who populate these infernal images would seem to be beyond
the help of the "true artist," and given the intensity with which Nauman describes their rautine
degradations-an intensity fired by identification with them-one suspects that the "true artist"
is, in fact, among the damned.
Nauman's art is rife with examples of such violent comedy, as well as references to violence
unrelieved by humor of any kind. Some works point indirectly to the politicaI dimension of
Anthro/socio (Rinde facing camera) Antro/socio (Rinde olhando a cmera) 1991 aparelhos de videolaser, monitores coloridos,
projetores coloridos de vdeo, CD vdeos [videod isc players, color monitors, color video projectors, videodiscs] dimenses variveis
coleo Ydessa Hendeles cortesia Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, Toronto foto Scott Frances
human conflict. Various drawings ofthe I980s show chairs suspended in space-upright, sideways and upsidedown-sometimes alone, sometimes in awkward conjunction with fundamental
geometric shapes; crosses, squares, circles and triangles. Based on the principIe ofFoucault's
pendulum which hangs from a great height under the dome ofthe Pantheon in Paris and oscillates gently in response to the earth's rotation, Nauman's image refers to the manner in which
upheavals on one part ofthe globe register in faraway places. More specifically, the chair refers
to the solitary confinement ofthe Argentine newspaperman Jacobo Timmerman, whose memoir ofimprisonment Nauman read at the time he made these sculptures, ofwhich three from
I98I carry the titles South America crcle, South America square, and South American triangIe. A sketch
of the sarne period in which the chair appears with a block lettered inscription makes the point
with a sobering clarity that implicates both North and South. Half ofthem inverted, the four
stacked !ines oftext are: "AMERICANIDELICATE/BALANCE/VlOLENCE ."
When Nauman takes the measure of man the results are fragmentary, inconclusive and
contradictory. What manner ofbeing, for example, does an unctious pad ofperforated fabric
describe? ln Nauman's laconic style the title lists the I966 work's ingredients and names its subject as follows : Collection ofvariousjlexibIe materiaIs separated by Iayers ofgrease with hoIes the size ofmy
waist and wrists. That this earth-hugging laminate of rubber, felt, and aluminium foil should be a
partial self-portrait seems hardly possible; that the oil-stained foil should shimmer like gold
atop the repugnant felt strikes one as even more improbable still. Yet there it lies, a strangely
corpo real mat emitting an inexplicable warmth. Made the sarne year, the previous piece Neon
tempIates ofthe Ieft half ofmy body taken at ten-inch intervaIs is also an uncanny stand-in for the figure. This time Nauman evokes the canons of classical sculpture-according to which the ideal
proportions for a life-size statue was seven "heads" high-and brackets the absent human form
with a series ofphosphorescent green calipers. ln the first instance, Nauman's surrogate body
is an insert, noisome relic; in the second it is a radiant,
ascending phantom.
Nauman's frank use ofhis own body as a sculptural material extends to the grotesque "modelling" of
his own features in the five Study for hoIogram screenprints of I970-a childishly regressive experiment in
"making faces" that ends up rivaling the physiognomic caprices of the l8th-century Viennese sculptor Franz
Xavier Messerschmidt-and to the Beckett-like musical mimicry ofthe videotape Violn tuned D EAD (I969)
in which the artist reiterates his morbid tonal phrasethe notes spell DEAD-by striking the strings of his
instrument as ifhe were a hopelessly untalented student
condemned to eternal, solitary practice.
ln this regard, one is once again reminded of
the arc that joins "hand to mouth," for in the universe
of aesthetic possibilities, Nauman has opened up for
himself, mind and matter, speech and action, conceptual means and more or less traditional studio processes are all inseparably connected to the overalI project of
articulating the basic contradictions and anxieties
around which his work revolves. Each medium recom-
mends itself as an expressive mode or analytic-one might even say diagnostic-tool within a
given set of artistic circumstances. Nauman's preeminence rests not only on his mastery of
many ways of making-a mastery revealed as much by his refusal to succumb to the temptations
of superficial refinement as by his actual ability to delineate forms, fashion objects, orchestrate
sounds, lights and moving pictures of great albeit austere beauty-but also on his ability to
relate such stylistically disparate appraaches to an emotionally as welI as logically coherent core
of concerns.
ln some instances, it appears as ifNauman's overarching method amounted to an attempt
at chewing up the very concept of"human nature" and spitting it out in as many pieces as he can
create. On other occasions, it seems as ifthe artistwas consuming himselfin stages in order to
remake his image in accordance with an integrated "second nature" ofhis own devising. Fram
the latter perspective, art is tantamount to a ritual ordeal, from which one emerges whole only
after submitting to the most rigorous physical and psychological tests-if, indeed, one ever
emerges whole.
ln AnthrofSocio (Rndefacing cam era) (I99I) the unresolvable antagonism between instinctand
reason bombards us fram every side. Is man the master ofhis destiny or is he, instead, the captive
of his needs and first victim of his delusions of power? To the twentieth-century doctrine that
social science could solve this dilemma and pravide the key to unlimited self-understanding and
self-impravement, Nauman responds with a plaintive barrage of sound. The man who shouts at
the viewer from the walls and screens scattered in the penumbraI, otherwise vacant spaces of
this installation is the amplified echo of a former student ofbehaviorism-the artist-who was
taught that running rats thraugh mazes would unlock the mysteries ofhuman habit and teach
us to act in our own best interests. The benign face of totalitarian madness, such fantasies of
logical submission to higher authority ultimately degenerate into the sadomasochistic confusion
of dependency and contraI.
"Help me! /Hurt me, Sociology" the talking-head intones. "Feed me! /Eat me, Anthropology!"
he cries. Gradually, however, his litany of antithetical demands and desires resolves into a curiously harmonic plain chant, and the multiple images ofhis anguished visage become a hauntingly disembodied chorus. The ugliness contains and eventually reveals its opposite, perceptual
disorder at the threshold oftolerance transmutes into oddly reassuring pattern and rhythm, and
man at his most abject and most aggressive becomes a beacon-"an amazing Iuminous fountain"-in the shadows ofinescapable uncertainty about his essential character.
Is such a man different fram the animaIs because he alone is conscious of his being or
because he alone preys upon his own kind or begs to be preyed upon? Is he fallen angel or a deviant
beast, the arbiter ofhis salvation or his own worst enemy? "Help me/Hurt me! Feed me/Eat me!"
Robert Storr
There is no answer, only the sound ofhis voice in the emptiness we share.
Bound to fail Fadado/amarrado ao fracasso 1967 carvo sobre papel [charcoal on pape r] 95,3x62,9cm coleo particular [private
collection] foto Ellen Page Wilson
Square knot N direito 1967 aquarela e carvo sobre papel [watercolor and charcoal on paper] 76,84x69,85cm coleo particular
Dennis Oppenheim nasceu em 1938. Tony Oursler nasceu em 1957. Um intervalo de tempo -18
anos . diferena de idade entre os dois-faz-nos pensar que comparar suas prticas torna-se
tarefa relativamente possvel, se levarmos em conta o temido e rechaado processo de globalizao. Esse o contexto em que suas obras podem ser lidas: os dois so americanos, vivem em
Nova York e no cerne de suas atuaes a questo central a existncia frente ao consumo do
nosso tem po.
Os dois, sem dvida, nesse hiato de tempo que determinaria a distncia entre suas vidas,
aproximam-se, criando quase que um sincretismo de sentido em suas prticas, onde a densidade
e a intensidade das suas poticas ocorre a partirde um processo de contaminao e resistncia:
de um lado, absorvem a cultura hbrida decorrente da expanso urbana-os processos impostos pelos meios de comunicao de massa, a velocidade com que a indstria cultural con'stri e
retoma o contato simultneo entre emissores e receptores e a sociedade do espetculo-de
outro lado, resistem, desenvolvendo uma prtica artstica que articula a cultura popular contempornea com a tradio moderna e com aspectos scio-polticos.
curioso observar que, embora no se conheam, as suas atitudes frente obra tambm
os aproximam: os dois colocam o espectador em um ambiente onde o clima prximo a um
sonho, onde a percepo sensria o fio condutor dos significados e da dimenso simblica
gerada em suas poticas. A metfora, a desconstruo do pensamento linear, a teatralidade, a
ritualizao e a magia esto presentes na produo de ambos.
Obviamente, o hiato de tempo aqui assinalado determina diferentes impasses em relao
a seus fazeres artsticos. Dennis Oppenheim vem da minimal-art dos anos 60 e, nos anos 70, o
ataque arte purista, formalista, passou a ser a gnesis do seu impasse. Com o desenvolvimento
de suas performances, o minimalismo deixa de ser o enfoque bsico e o fazer artstico passa a
ser questo central em seu discurso.
Enquanto artista dos anos 80, Tony Oursler, por sua vez, critica e ironiza a pop art dos anos
60, bem como a linguagem televisiva e os meios de comunicao de massa.
Metforas e nonsense
Seja nas esculturas de Oppenheim, ou nas vdeoinstalaes de Oursler, a utilizao de um substituto, o boneco, vai constituir a metfora. Em Attemptto raise hell [Tentativa de criaro inferno] de
Dennis Oppenheim, um boneco sentado recebe pancadas de um sino na cabea. O som do sino
que bate a cada 60 segundos ativado por ms, e atravessa a sala da instalao, repercutindo
no espao e no crebro. como se o artista estivesse batendo a cabea contra um objeto slido,
como que impossibilitado de passar por ele, produzindo rudos. O boneco, convm notar,
rplica da imagem do prprio artista, e essa auto-referncia pode serentendida como um ato de
autocanibalizao, quase uma penitncia, uma torturada apropriao de si mesmo, que evoca
a razo e a forma de produzir arte. Ao simulada, atuao simblica. Esse nonsense, esse tangenciardo absurdo, revela o tragicmico em sua obra e surpreende o espectador atravs do impacto.
A mesma atitude pode ser percebida na produo de Oursler. Se o fazer artstico-questo
tpica dos artistas dos anos 60/70- a tnica do discurso de Oppenheim, em Oursler essa
questo no central. a investigao de diferentes meios que caracteriza a sua produo: a
linguagem televisiva conjugada com o teatro, o trabalho do ator e a utilizao de bonecos geram
metfora. A utilizao da palavra completa cada obra de Oursler. Mas o nonsense e o absurdo
transparecem no modo como utiliza o som: o sentido das palavras desconstrudo atravs do
uso da metonmia.
Dennis Oppenheim Attempt to raise hell Tentativa de criar o inferno 1974 instalao manequim de bronze, sino de bronze
[bronze mannequin, bronze bell] 790x247cm coleo Muse National d'Art Moderne-Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Misticismo
A instalao System for dramatic feedback [Sistema para feedback dramtico], 1994, exemplifica a
tnica da potica de Oursler: o reflexivo est intimamente ligado anlise e interpretao de
seus contedos e os aspectos surrealizantes, a alegoria e o simbolismo so presenas conjugadas a situaes inslitas, imprevisveis, onde tempo de durao e repetio so componentes
bsicos de um modo de trabalhar que, ao mesmo tempo em que prope a reinveno da arte
figurativa, vale-se da apropriao, da estrutura narrativa e da metafsica-criando um sentido
religioso, incorporando um tom mstico ao trabalho. De formao catlica, ao mesmo tempo
em que critica os caminhos da igreja, "o artista reconhece que atravs dela adquiriu um lado
mstico que se contrape ao tecno-materialismodo nosso tempo".'
Em Oennis Oppenheim a preocupao existencial que determina o misticismo. A partir
da morte de seu pai, no incio dos anos 70, o artista interessa-se pelo xamanismo e pela magia.
Utilizando o surrealismo como instrumento de auto-referncia, passa a realizar experincias
que recuperam vivncias do passado, removendo importantes aspectos psicoteraputicos. E o
faz a partir da apropriao de gestos e desenhos dos seus prprios filhos, reconhecendo a importncia dos arqutipos. O carter alegrico contido em sua obra possui contedos simblicos,
em que a narrativa e a ironia aparentes so fices que remetem ao seu ser. Sua arte produtora
de conscincia e autobiogrfica, estabelecendo a metfora das suas crenas e f.
Corpo
As obras de Oppenheim funcionam como extenses de seu ser; mesmo que ele use seu prprio
corpo na obra, ele elemento de manipulao para externar uma extenso do seu prprio "eu".
Uma busca de ultrapassagem de fronteiras, limites; uma tentativa de captura do impossvel. Seu
questionamento sobre a atividade e o processo da arte opera no territrio do visual e do verbal,
criando tenses e deslocamentos entre o contexto psicolgico e o autobiogrfico.
Em Tony Oursler, as vdeoinstalaes se baseiam num espao de acontecimentos com
relatos a viva voz, em monlogos ou dilogos dos bonecos, de onde surge a projeo de rostos que
choram, falam, gritam e gemem. O vdeo passa a ser "lugar" de acontecimento do corpo, que se
reduz e se concentra no rosto, projeo fragmentria do corpo. Por trs do rosto, territrios frteis;
a captao das variantes de carterdos personagens e fragmentos do interior psquico. A emoo
em Oursler ferramenta, instrumento para gerar significados, e reflete um estado de esprito
que alude disperso e dissociao a que se v submetido o indivduo dos nossos tempos.
Repetio
A repetio do som nas instalaes dos anos 70 de Oppenheim compe uma espcie de ritual
contemporneo, onde a ao fsica gerada por uma reao visceral concomitante. O trabalho
entendido como carga comunicativa suficientemente poderosa para transcender o produtor,
matando-o ou tornando-o impotente.
Na obra Search for c/ues [Busca por pistas], 1976, de Oppenheim, um boneco apunhalado
ao mesmo tempo em que sua filha de 7 anos discute o fato serenamente, num canto, ao fundo,
onde um vdeo com trilha sonora mostra uma faca sendo atirada repetidamente numa massa
no identificvel. Pode a arte, a rigor, tornar-se mecanismo de autocanibalizao, enquanto
autoconsumo ... 7
Dennis Oppenheim Wall-nuts Nozes/Loucos de parede 1992 plstico vacuum forming, duas fitas de vdeo com udio, dois monitores
de vdeo [vacuum-formed plastic, two video tapes with audio, two video monitors] faixa 1 [track 1]-wa ... wa ... wa ... wa ... wall ... wall ...
faixa 2 [track 2]-nu ... nu ... nu ... nuts ... nu ... 426,7x426,7x121,9cm foto Joseph Helman Gallery, Nova York
Nos dois artistas, a utilizao de bonecos e figuras so projees existenciais; o marco conceituai, a reflexo sobre a experimentao so
valores decisivos, que estabelecem o questionamento poltico e social,
atravs da criao de espaos catrticos e su rreal izantes, onde as
mudanas de escala e ambiente revertem-se em crticas mordazes e
contundentes do psiquismo contemporneo. Mas h, ainda, uma
importante influncia do passado recente, que nos permite justapore
comparar a produo desses dois artistas.
Proponho observarmos a escultura Fast exit [Sada rpida], 1996,
estdio derrubado de Oppenheim, espao "container" que praticamente vomita gente; ou ainda "sua parede serial" de nozes que se assemelham a crebros, com
um vdeo acoplado que faz "close" numa boca, ou os bonecos da srie Black ball [Esfera negra],
1995, de cabea para baixo, e tantas outras peas da sua produo dos anos 90.
Todo esse aparente nonsense geradordo grande significado na <;Jbra de Oppenheim remetiame a alguma coisa que ficara gravada em minha memria, mas que eu s consegui identificar
durante uma longa conversa com o artista em Nova York, quando falvamos de como a leitura,
nos dias de hoje, tornou-se algo um pouco alheio ao meio artstico em geral e, insistindo,
descobri que seu autor preferido, at hoje, Samuel Beckett!
Repetio
Mas Beckettj havia retornado ao meu universo h cerca de cinco anos, quando vi pela primeira
vez uma instalao de Tony Oursler em Nova York, em uma exposio que se chamava Vdeo
spaces [Espaos de vdeo] no MoMA ... aquelas instalaes de Oursler, com aquelas vozes estridentes, aquele texto dito pela boca dos bonecos, a repetio de algo que no era exatamente
compreensvel, aquilo me remetia a um clima que anunciava a presena de Beckett. As
repeties contidas em seus textos, de certa forma esto contidas nos textos de Oursler, assim
como a visualidade das instalaes tem a ver com NO.1 [Nmero 1], monlogo de Beckett de
1977, onde s se via a boca de uma mulher num palco escurecido, enquanto ela falava da sua
misria e de seu horror. Proponho, ento, uma pequena anlise a partir da retomada de um
trecho de Beckett:
Para qu, porque, ou?
Porque em outra escurido ou na mesma?
E de quem a voz perguntando isso?
Quem pergunta, de quem a voz perguntando isso?
E retomo um trecho de texto da instalao Autochtonous too high [Autctone alto demais] (1995),
de Oursler:
3. Oswald de Andrade, "A utopia antropofgica", Obras completas de Oswald de Andrade, 2 a ed., So Paulo: Globo, 1995. Inclu:
Aantropofagia ao alcance de todos, por Benedito Nunes, P-47.
4. ido Ibidem, P51.
Tony Oursler RGB VVA 1996 detalhe boneco azul [detail blue dali] instalao com trs elementos [installation with three elements]
projetor 30 PC Citizen, vdeo-cassete, boneca, madeira, veludo [Citizen 30 PC projector, VCR, dali, wood, velvet] cortesia Metro
Pictures, Nova York
Dennis Oppenheim was born in 1938. Tony Oursler was born in 1957. An interval in time-I8
years is the difference between them-makes us think that it is possible to compare their practices, if we take into consideration the feared and repudiated globalization processo This is the
context in which their oeuvre can be read: they are both Americans, live in New York, and the
central issue oftheir activities is the opposition between being and the consumerism of our time.
Without doubt, in the gap oftime that might establish the distance between their lives, they
approach each other, creating a syncretism of meaning in their actions, where the density and
intensity of their art derives from a process of contamination and resistance: on the one hand
they absorb the hybrid culture resulting from urban growth-the procedures imposed by the
mass media, the speed with which the culture industry builds up and reclaims the simultaneous
contact between transmitters and receivers and the society of spectacle-on the other hand, they
resist while developing an artistic practice that incorporates contemporary popular culture, the
modern tradition, and social-politicaI elements.
It is curious to observe that although they do not know each other, their approach to art
also brings them together: they both place the viewer in a dreamlike atmosphere, where sensory
perception is responsible for generating the meanings and the symbolic dimension of their art.
Metaphor, deconstruction oflinear thought, theatricality, rituaIs and magic are part of the production ofboth artists.
It is obvious that the gap in time aforementioned determines different obstacles with
regard to their artistic production. Dennis Oppenheim comes from the minimal art ofthe '60S,
and the attack on the purist and formalist art of the '70S became the genesis ofhis predicament.
As his performances developed, minimalism was no longer his basic approach, and the artistic
production itselfbecame the central issue ofhis discourse.
As an artist ofthe '80S, Tony Oursler is criticaI and ironic about the pop art ofthe '60S, as
well as TV syntax and mass media.
Metaphor and nonsense
ln the sculptures by Oppenheim, or in the video installations ofOursler, the use of a substitute,
the dummy, constitutes the metaphor. ln Oppenheim's Attempt to rase hell, a dummy in a sitting
position is hit on the head by a bell. The sound of the bell, which is activated by magnets every
60 seconds, crosses the installation room reverberating in the space and in the brain. It is as if
the artist, not being able to pass through a solid object is banging his head against it, producing
noises. Is important to note that the dummy is a reproduction ofthe artist, and this self-reference
can be understood as an act of self-cannibalization, almost a penitence, a tortured self-appropriation that evokes reason and the means of producing art. Simulated action, symbolic acting.
This nonsense, this brushing with the absurd reveals the tragicomic in Oppenheim's oeuvre and
surprises the viewer by its impacto
A similar attitude can be perceived in Oursler's production. If artistic creation-a common
question for the artist ofthe '60S and '70S-is stressed in Oppenheim's discourse, in Oursler
this question is not central. It is the investigation of different media that defines his production:
TV syntax combined with theater, the work of the actor and the use of dummies to generate
metaphors. The use of words completes each of Oursler's works. But the nonsense and the
absurd are revealed in the way the sound is used: the meaning of the words is deconstructed
through the use of metonymy.
Mysticism
The installation Systemfor dramatcfeedback, 1994, exemplifies the general tone ofOursler's work:
reflection is closely linked to the analysis and interpretation of the content, and the surrealist
aspects, allegory and symbolism are elements connected to unusual and unpredictable situations, where the duration oftime and repetition are basic components of a way ofworking that
proposes the reinvention of figurative art while relying on appropriation, on narra tive structure
and metaphysics-creating a religious meaning, adding a mystic tone to the work. Of Catholic
upbringing, he criticizes the paths of the church, but at the sarne time "the artist recognizes that
through it, he acquired a mystic side that opposes the techno-materialism of our time."l
With Dennis Oppenheim, mysticism is determined by an existential concern. Since the
death ofhis father in the early '70S, the artist became interested in shamanism and magico Using
surrealism as a tool of self-reference, he began performing experiments that recall passed
events, extracting important psychotherapeutic aspects. This occurs through the appropriation
of drawings ofhis own children, in recognition ofthe importance of archetypes. The allegorical
character ofhis works has a symbolic content where the apparent narrative and irony are fictions
that refer to his own being. Bis oeuvre engenders consciousness and is autobiographical, establishing the metaphor ofhis beliefs and faith.
Body
Oppenheim's oeuvre functions as an extensionofhimself; even when he uses his own body in
the work, it is an element of manipulation to reveal an extension ofhis "L" A search to cross borders, limits; an attempt to capture the impossible. Bis inquiry on the process and activity of art
takes place in the visual and verbal domains, creating tensions and displacements between psychological and autobiographical contexts.
Tony Oursler's video installations are based on a defined space of occurrences with live
voice statements, in monologues or dialogues of the dum mies on which are projected faces that
cry, speak, scream and moan. The video becomes the "place" ofbody action, that is reduced and
concentrated in the face, a fragmented projection of the body. Behind the faces, fertile terrain;
the capture ofthe character's variances ofpersonality and the fragments oftheir psychic interior.
Emotion in Oursler is a tool, instrumental in generating meanings, reflecting a state of mind
which is an allusion to the dispersion and dissociation of individuaIs in our time.
Repetition
The repetition of sound in Oppenheim's installations from the '70S constitutes a sort of contemporary ritual where the physical action is generated concomitantly with a visceral reaction. The
work is understood as a communication load that is powerful enough to transcend its creator,
killing him or making him impotent.
ln Oppenheim's Searchfor clues, 1976, a dummy is stabbed at the sarne time as its 7-year-old
daughter calmly discusses the event in a corner, in the background, where a video with a soundtrack shows a knife being repeatedly thrown at an unidentified mass. Can art, strictly speaking,
become a mechanism of self-cannibalization, while being self-consumption ... ?
ln his video performance Gngerbread man, 1970-71, Oppenheim eats a cookie with a human
form; after that, the digestion of the cookie appears on a video that shows his stomach in the
process of digestion.
Tony Oursler RGB VVA 1996 detalhe ma vermelha [detail red apple] instalao com trs elementos [installation with three
elements] cermica, CD player, alto-falantes, lmpadas [ceramic, CD player, speakers, lightbulbs] cortesia Metro Pictures, Nova York
ln both artists the use of dummies and figures are existential projections; the conceptual signature and the reflection on experimentation are the decisive values that establish the politicaI and
social questioning, through the creation of cathartic and surreal spaces where the change of
scale and ambiance are turned into biting and incisive critiques ofthe contemporary psyche. But
there is another important influence ofthe recent past that makes it possible for us to juxtapose
and compare the production of these two artists.
I propose that we observe the sculpture Fast ext, I996, Oppenheim's fallen stadium, the
container space that almost vomits people; or even "his serial wall" ofwalnuts which look like
brains, and the associated video that shows a close-up of a mouth, or the upside-down dummies
from deBlack ball series, I995, and so many other pieces from his production ofthe '90S.
All ofthis apparent nonsense which generates the great meaning ofOppenheim's oeuvre
reminded me of something fixed in memory, and which I was only able to identifY during a long
conversation with the artist in New York, when we were noting that nowadays reading has
become somewhat foreign to the artistic milieu, and after some insistence I discovered that his
favorite author, to date, is Samuel Beckett!
Repetition
But Beckett had already returned to my universe 5 years ago, when I saw for the first time an installation by Tony Oursler in New York, at the exhibition Vdeo spa ces at MoMA . .. those installations,
with those strident voices, those texts coming from the dummies' mouths, the repetition of something that was not really understandable, all this evoked in me an atmosphere that suggested
Beckett's presence. The repetitions found in his texts are in a certain way present in Oursler's text,
as well as the visual quality ofthe installations related to N01, Beckett's monologues from I977,
where one sees only a woman's mouth on a dark stage, as she speaks about her poverty and her
horror. I propose therefore a brief analysis using an excerpt from a Beckett text as the starting point:
For what, why, or?
Why in other darkness or in the same one?
And whose is the voice asking this?
Who is asking, whose is the voice asking this?
And using an excerpt from Oursler's installation Autochtonous too hgh, I995:
What do you want?
What do you want?
What do you want?
Come back here
Come back here
Let me look at you
Let me look at you
What format have you acquired this time?
Who areyou?
Who areyou?
Who areyou?
Whoareyou?
ln the texts above, the dialogue devoid of context introduces onto the scene a "voice" that we do not know to
whom it belongs. This "voice" works as a consciousness; a consciousness out of context that resembles
biblical narratives, where there is always a voice offscene which one doesn't know exactly to whom it
belongs. And this is not mere accident. The existentialists used to ask themselves where did they come fram
and where were they going, always carrying the burden
oftheir own bodies. ln Waitingfor Godot, Beckett focuses
on a life without goals, but where there is always hope.
This hope generated the following analysis: "The
author is not a cynic; he is a religious man tormented
by doubts and who consequently has faith." Being religious, Beckett is metaphysical, and all his oeuvre
revolves around the question of the interior "1."2 For
Oppenheim and Oursler, mysticism and faith are legacies of an existentialist thinking via Beckett.
The manifestation of these artists' conflicts is
produced bya dense weaving between modern culture
and the web of ideological structures that comprise
postmodern thought. They explore the borders
between perception and the belief in a symbolic game
that intends to flatten the effects of a society that orbits
around a grandiose syntax. Thus their oeuvre can be perceived as paradoxes that indicate the
postmodern dilemma: the depletion ofthe meaning, the loss ofthe symbolic dimension, and the
strangulation of the individual.
Even using new technologies, their works are not exactly what one might call "high-tech,"
and this is intentional. They resist the capture of references of identity: they work on the territory
of subjectivity, and appropriate the impenetrable contradictions oftheir time, in order not to be
consumed. As Oswald de Andrade would say, in his anthrapophagic manifesto: "It is only anthropophagy that unites us [them]. Socially. Economically. Philosophically. [... ]"3 "Everyday love and
the capitalist modus vivendi. Anthropophagy. Absorption of the sacred enemy. To transform him
in totem." 4
Vitria Daniela Bousso. Translatedfrom the Portuguese by Michael Reade.
Elizabeth Janus, A conversaton wth Tony Oursler, Exhibition
Salzburguer Kunstverein, 1994, PP.4-5.
2. Beckett, Samuel, Companha, Rio de Janeiro: Francisco Alves,
19 82 ,p.63
3. Andrade, Oswald de, "A utopia antropofgica"-2nd ed., S.
1.
Paulo: Globo, 1995. Obras completas de Oswald de Andrade [Complete works ofOswald de Andrade] . included: A antropofaga
ao alcane de todos [Anthropophagy for alI], by Benedito Nunes,
P47
4. Ibid. P5 1
Tony Oursler RGB VVA 1996 detalhe lmpada verde [detail green lightbulb] instalao com trs elementos [installation with three
elements] lmpada, CD player, alto-falantes [Iightbulb, CD player, speakers] cortesia Metro Pictures, Nova York
Rosa Olivares
Pedaos de ns mesmos
Os nativos de Lochac traziam gravado na pele o mapa do lugar onde viviam. Essa era a sua
nica vestimenta; eles convertiam seus corpos em mapas do esprito nos quais desenhavam o
lugaronde nasceram. Os comentrios dos cartgrafos medievais pretenderam, com um conhecimento fragmentado, construir mapas para conhecer territrios estranhos, para dar-nos uma
viso completa do mundo, sem perceber que cada pessoa um nativo de Lochac; que trazemos
gravado em nossos corpos o mapa do que somos, de onde viemos, onde vivemos. Somos simples
fragmentos, pedaos do mundo, de um mundo cujo conhecimento impossvel por sua extens.o, um mapa que s seria possvel em seu tamanho real e portanto impossvel de reproduzir,
impossvel de assimilar, de compreender. Ento vemos que esse mapa apenas a origem de
outro, e este, por sua vez, de outro mais detalhado, e assim vamos fragmentando a suposio, o
todo ideal, reduzindo-o a pedaos cada vez menores, at configurar nossos corpos. Ecompreendemos que o fragmento, o pedao do corpo, que simboliza e define esse corpo completo,
talvez inexistente. Como cada palavra, fragmento do conhecimento e da percepo, resume
um discurso concreto. E, finalmente, que o conhecimento global, a compreenso do todo,
impossvel, porque esse todo jamais existiu. Porque essa extenso que define o todo formada
por partes, por individualidades que somadas conformam o corpo, a superfcie do mundo.
"Busquei a liberdade em sua amplitude desavergonhada e em seu lugar achei a morte. Porque
certos homens me deram uma parte de suas vidas ao compartilhar seus conhecimentos. Esuas
diversas perdas, agrupadas, equivalem a uma morte que minha, pois tenho me assenhorado
do que eles decidiram dar."1 A liberdade, a totalidade, a felicidade, o amor, a verdade. Palavras,
fragmentos de pensamentos que nos conduzem a outras palavras, a outros corpos verbais, s
vezes celestiais, levando-nos a um labirinto que nunca tem sada. Graas fragmentao,
podemos nos relacionar com todos e conosco, nascendo da a linguagem e a forma de comunicar por partes, em pedaos, s vezes, em pores de conhecimento. Da mesma forma que a
percepo sexual, ertica, se fragmenta e se individualiza nas partes de um corpo, de um
nico corpo entre milhares, entre milhes. Nenhum cirurgio, nenhum aougueiro tem cutelos ou bisturis to afiados quanto o olhar. O olho a mais cortante das armas com que desarmamos corpos e objetos; com o 01 har fragmentamos o que est ao nosso redor. E a arte se faz
basicamente com o olhar; por isso a histria da arte, a histria das imagens, sagradas ou artsticas, repleta de fragmentos de corpos. Somente a cmera fotogrfica e posteriormente a
imagem cinematogrfica conseguiram igualar-se ao olho, em sua capacidade de entabular
um dilogo direto com o corpo, com a morte, com o horrorfinal que, para o homem, est sempre localizado em seu prprio corpo: o sexo e a morte; a vida e a morte; a morte. O artista utiliza o olho como o cartgrafo utiliza sextantes, compassos, rguas, lapiseiras, e o resultado
semelhante. Como os indgenas de Lochac, o artista desenha todos os mapas em seus mltiplos
corpos, em cada uma de suas obras. Assim, a arte se constri na esfera do fragmento e sobre
essa zona ferida, que todavia ainda sangra, que a linha do corte, em breve restar uma cicatriz
permanente. Assim em Crash, de David Cronenberg, seus protagonistas s alcanaram o xtase
lambendo as cicatrizes, acariciando essas reas partidas e reconstrudas, possuindo esses
corpos que so diferentes, que atravessaram a fronteira entre o antes e o depois da dor. E, naturalmente, em um momento como o presente, essas cicatrizes no foram causadas porferidas
de guerra, com um certo grau de orgulho e nobreza, nem mesmo pela honra duvidosa de um
conflito pessoal, e sim por acidentes de trnsito; essa guerra fragmentria que a civilizao
desenvolve contra si mesma e que vai nos eliminando, sem honra, pouco a pouco.
A cicatriz apenas o sinal de uma ferida. Um corte que elimina o membro intil, que
delimita o que nos falta. , por excelncia, o sinal da castrao edipiana que, segundo Freud,
todas as mulheres tm. Nesse processo de castrao, como em todo corte, preciso sinalizar
dois momentos: a ao de cortar, dolorosa e cheia de angstia, que define a perda em si; e outro
posterior e permanente que supe a cicatrizao simblica dessa ferida, porque a perda irreparvel. So as cicatrizes, as feridas da srie de trabalhos de Rosngela Renn, que mostram mais
das pessoas de quem fala do que talvez seu rosto o faria; so um retrato da pele, um mapa de
sua experincia.
A ferida por excelncia o sexo, e em particular, o sexo da mulher, sempre predisposto ao
sangue. Uma ferida sempre aberta, que no cicatriza e que simboliza, no ser humano e sempre,
segundo Freud, o medo da morte, o horrordo desconhecido, da dor, de ser devorado e, cabe
lembrar, o mito da vagina dentada: uma grande boca disposta a devorartudo o que nela entra.
O cinema atual tambm simbolizou essa 'ferida', sempre disposta a nos fazer sofrer, que
nunca se fecha, no filme A ferida, de Louis Malle. A mutilao est na raiz cultural do homem e
aparece na obra de Robert Gober, talvez com mais fora, porque est fora do meio ambiente, da
paisagem. Contudo, antes de Gina Pane, antes do acionismo vienense, antes de Chris Burden,
antes de toda a pintura religiosa que nos apresenta corpos sangrentos, fragmentos de corpos
mutilados, antes da prpria religio que encheu nossos templos de pedaos de corpos feridos,
Lucio Fontana Conceito spazziale/attesa Conceito espacial/espera [Spacial concept/waiting] 1966 acrlica sobre tela com uma
inciso [acrylic on canvas with an incision] 164x114cm coleo Stedelijk Museum, Amsterd
Chris Burden Shoot Dispare 19 de novembro 1971 performance F Space foto Alfred Lutjeans "At 7:45 p.m. I was shot in the
left arm by a friend. The bullet was a copper jacket 22 long rifle. My friend was standing about fifteen feet from me." ["s 19:45 fui
baleado no brao esquerdo por um amigo. Era uma bala blindada de um rifle calibre 22. Meu amigo estava a aproximadamente
4,5m de distncia."]
de ex-votos, existia o corpo real, que cortado e mutilado, fragmento de verdade. O tema, na
realidade; o corpo, esse lugar, esse mapa dos indgenas de Lochac, onde tudo acontece, que
simboliza a terra, o universo, "a totalidade". O corpo como lugarde experimentao, seu
encontro como meta mstica ou ertica, cujos limites Ce no preciso citar Bataille) se cruzam
e se confundem at ficarem unidos, inseparavelmente. O corpo o alimento da arte, como o
alimento da medicina. Nossa carne, nosso sangue, nossas vsceras, nossa pele, nossas unhas,
nossos ossos, constrem todo o corpo da cincia mdica, todo o arcabouo artstico, at
chegarmos a um momento como o atual, quando isso no s parece evidente, como surgem
correntes tericas que nos falam do alimento, da fonte nutritiva que hipoteticamente nosso
prprio corpo representa.
Os antigos conquistadores, exploradores primitivos e cartgrafos de vocao, aportaram
em praias desconhecidas e se aproximaram, como mais tarde fariam Burton, Frazer, Freud e
tantos antroplogos, socilogos e psiclogos, das tribos de homens primitivos, que andavam
nus, ainda nas fases totmicas bsicas, e praticavam o canibalismo. Os que no foram devorados nem assimilados voltaram para nos contar. Para nos dizerque os guerreiros comiam o
corao e o fgado, ainda quentes, de suas vtimas e dessa maneira conseguiam seu valor.
Assim compreendemos, com a ajuda dos filmes sobre vampiros, que nos alimentamos dos
outros, e de seu sangue e de sua carne conseguimos nossa renovao; que um retrato sempre
um auto-retrato, que o olhar no s corta e fragmenta, mas assimila e devora; que podemos
comer com os 01 hos e ficar com a essncia dessa pessoa, do objeto 01 hado. Essa transformao
uma das caractersticas da arte, como caracterstico do sexo querer possuir, devorar o amante,
conseguiressa efmera comunho de carne, sangue e fluidos, de sensaes e sentimentos.
Esses primeiros viajantes rumo ao mundo extico, quando se depararam com os corpos nus
dos indgenas, descobriram algo que estava oculto portrs de sua prpria evoluo, que esses
corpos eram uma rica fonte de conhecimento, e ainda algo muito mais importante: que o nu
um mundo autnom0 2
A fragmentao , ento, um mtodo, e a apresentao do corpo mutilado, cortado, ferido,
destroado, fragmentado, o tema. Sua presena na arte, na histria da arte, remonta s
prprias origens, assim como nas origens da humanidade o corpo representa o indivduo e a
fora da alma, do esprito, est nesse corpo e se identifica com ele ou com fragmentos dele.
Mas na arte contempornea que essa prtica feroz parece alcanar seu mximo esplendor.
Porque na ao de ferir, de cortar, de mutilar, no ato final do canibal, na submisso total que
impe o vampiro, no ato de domao que o exerccio amoroso representa, no trabalho intelectual est-implcita a fora, o desejo, essa nsia ancestral que continua perseguindo o homem,
essa necessidade de saber, de poder, de ter, de ser, essa angstia de explicar, de demonstrar.
Contudo, o problema que, a partir das sucessivas mutilaes, o indivduo busca a totalidade.
Quer ser, mas sertudo, e finalmente no quer se explicar, quer serentendido, que, como diz
Jana Sterbak, voc "sinta o mesmo que eu". A identificao, a postulao de outro, do outro,
em um nico: quero que veja o que eu vejo e isso s pode ser com meus olhos, que sinta o
mesmo que eu e isso s pode ser sob minha pele, que trema com meu desejo ... s pode acontecer se voc foreu, se estiver dentro de mim. Esta a nica forma de compreenso: ser um s.
A incgnita saber se a vtima realmente desafortunada ou chega a ser outro, a se converter
nele. "O corpo no s um territrio material. Tambm tem um valorsimblico."3 O rito
sagrado da comida como comunho, como ato de compartilhar, alcana seu nvel mais alto
quando "devoramos", quando compartilhamos o corpo do outro e este devora o nosso. Esse
continua sendo o rito que no se esquece.
s vezes essa loucura de trabalhar com o corpo, com esse material real, se converte em
obsesso. Porque, se primeiro foi a pintura e a escultura, depois viria a performance, quer dizer,
a realidade. Quando Burden atira contra si mesmo, quando Gina Pane se corta nos braos, ps
e lngua; quando atuantes e artistas realizam suas obras, repetem estruturas primitivas. Como
o faz Lucia Fontana rasgando, cortando a tela. Atacam o corpo, transgridem as leis e as proibies, querem ver o que existe por trs, o que h dentro, o que existe do outro lado. Quando os
surrealistas apresentam o corpo apenas por meio de fragmentos, esto repetindo algo que
essencial na arte, como em toda religio: representar o todo por uma de suas partes. Foi comentado em relao ao trabalho de Robert Gober, de como suas pernas, suas bundas e pedaos
isolados de seu corpo, que se limitam diretamente com uma parede, tm esse destacado
carter de ex-votos religiosos; mais ainda, quando a aids marca o entorno e a vida (e os corpos
de tantos amigos) do artista. Como mais tarde tentar realizar Orlan, demonstrando-nos que
o fato de a obra ser um processo pode converter-se em algo excessivamente evidente. A arte
nos salva da loucura e evita que Bellmer massacre seus modelos vivos, ainda que s vezes no
consiga evit-lo totalmente. Como o escultor que recentemente foi detido na Inglaterra por criar
suas esculturas com pedaos de corpos humanos reais, roubados da morgue e dos cemitrios.
A pintura, a fotografia, a imaginao nos permitem trabalhar com idias, com formas
que so reais apenas no territrio da criao, ainda que continue existindo a atrao irresistvel
da verdade. Joel PeterWitkin e seus corpos destroados, recriados, mutilados, mesclados,
cabeas cortadas que se beijam sobre um prato. Corpos reais, pedaos reais, a excitao do real,
a atrao pela morgue que levou tantos fotgrafos a visitarem a ante-sala da morte.
A realidade igual mentira nesse mundo da arte onde os mapas nunca delimitam o
lugar que criamos. Fotografar um corpo morto, mutilado, to real quanto reais so as criaes
deJake e Dinos Chapman: corpos impossveis com pnis no lugardo nariz, com vaginas em
toda parte; monstros de sexos mltiplos na era da reproduo clnica. A obra de Paloma
Navares baseia-se nos corpos excelsos, belssimos, paradigmas da beleza, da arte clssica; suas
madonas, suas virgens, suas mulheres fetiches e smbolos. Ela os fotografa, os fotocopiasempre em preto-e-branco-amplia os corpos, isola-os da paisagem, de seus companheiros
de quadro; corta-os, destroa-os, colocando-os em prateleiras, em geladeiras, congeladores,
armrios ... Armazns do tempo como os museus, que ela, a artista, apenas conserva (no
inteiros, umas pernas, um pbis, uns peitos, umas mos, isentos de significado, a no sero de
pertencer a um corpo sagrado, como em Veermer, ou Boticelli, que moldam em nossa memria
o que vem a ser um corpo, sempre de mulher) para criar com seus fragmentos outras obras.
Esse, diz-se desde os anos 80, um estilo de apropriao, como se o Renascimento no tivesse
se apropriado da histria, como se todos crescssemos unicamente com o que tiramos de outros, com o que podemos usar dos outros.
J no necessrio recorrer histria da arte, porque o corpo, sua representao, tot~1 e
parcial, fragmentada e mutilada, sua presena ausente constitui a proposta da arte atual. Da
o reaparecimento da fotografia, da figurao, do ready-made, da realidade em si mesma. Essa
utilizao, fragmentao e acumulao, formam a obra de tantos e to diferentes artistas.
Desde a superposio e mistura de rostos de Nancy Burson que Thomas Ruffreutilizaria nas
sries de retratos em preto-e-branco, a partir dos negativos de seus retratos coloridos mais
conhecidos. Desde a ausncia que denotam os trajes, a roupa vazia de MeyerVaisman, as
prateleiras de medicamentos de Damien Hirst ... essa roupa para cobrir nossos corpos, essas
drogas so para curar nossos corpos. E os aposentos dolorosamente vazios de Rebecca Horn
s tm sentido se pensarmos que uma vez foram ocupados por amantes que se quiseram e se
Rosa Olivares
lIi!I
The natives ofLochac bore the map of where they lived engraved an their skino That was all the
clothing they possessed, and they made their bodies into maps of the spirit on which they drew
their birthplaceo With their fragmentary knowledge, the medieval cartographers used comments
to attempt to draw maps to explore unknown territories-to try to give us a complete view of
the world-without realising that every human being is a native ofLochac, that on our bodies
we bear the map ofwhatwe are-where we come from, and where we liveo We are sim pie
fragments, little pieces ofthe world, of a world which, due to its sheer size, is impossible to
know completely-a map which would only be possible full size and therefore impossible to
reproduce, assimilate or understando But later we see that this map is just the source of another,
and the other, in its turn, of another more detailed one, and so we gradually fragment the supposition more and more, the ideal, everything, to further reduce it into littler pieces, smaller
and smaller every time, until we reach our own bodieso And we understand that it is the fragment, the piece ofbody which symbolises and defines that complete-possibly nonexistentbodyo Like each word, fragment ofknowledge, and of feeling, it sums up a specific discourseo
We understand, finally, that overall knowledge, an understanding of everything, is impossible,
because that "everything" never existed; because that extension which defines everything is
made up ofparts, ofindividualities which, all added up, make up the body, the surface ofthe
worldo "I sought freedom in its unashamed breadth, and instead of it I found deatho Because
certain men gave me a part of their life in the act of sharing their knowledgeo And their different
losses are together equivalent to a death which is mine, as I have taken upon myself what they
decided to giveo"l Freedom, wholeness, happiness, love, trutho Words, fragments ofthoughts
which lead us to other words, to other verbal bodies, sometimes celestial, to lead us through a
maze which never has a way outo Thanks to fragmentation, we can relate to everyone and to
ourselves: this is where language and the way of communicating come from, in bits, in little
pieces, sometimes in shreds ofknowledgeo Just as sexual, erotic perception is broken up and
individualised in the parts of a body, of one single body amongst thousands, millionso No
surgeon, no butcher, has knives or scalpels as sharp as the eyeo The eye is the most invasive
Robert Mapplethorpe CoeI< Pau 1982 fotografia em preto-e-branco [black and white photograph]
weapon with which we disarm bodies and objects. It is with the eye that we break up our surroundings. And art is ma de basically with the eye. It is for that reason that the history of art,
the history ofimages-sacred ar artistic-is full ofpieces ofbodies. Only cameras, and later,
film images have been capable of what the eye can do, in its capacity to conduct a direct dialogue
with the body, with death, with the final horror which, for man, is always within his own body:
sex and death; life and death; death. The artist uses the eye as the mapmaker uses sextants,
arcs, rulers, pencils, and the result is similar. The artist however, like the Lochac natives, draws
all maps on his multiple bodies, in each one ofhis works. Thus, art is constructed within the
sphere of the fragment and on that wounded area which still bleeds on occasions, which is the
cutting line, where later a permanent scar will remain. Thus, in Crash, by David Cronenberg, his
protagonists will only reach ecstasy, licking their scars, stroking those fractured and reconstructed areas, possessing those bodies which are different, which have crossed the frontier
between the before and the after of pain. And naturally, at a moment like the present one, those
scars which have not been caused by war wounds, with a certain degree of pride and nobility,
not even due to the doubtful honour of a personal conflict but from car accidents; that fragmentary war which civilisation wages against itself and which gradually eliminates us, with no
honour, little by little.
The scar is only the trace of the wound. A cut which eliminates the useless member, which
delimits what we lack, what we no longer have. It is, par excellence, the trace of the Oedipal
castration which, according to Freud, we women all have. ln that process of castration, as in all
cutting, there are two moments: the fact of cutting, painful and full of anguish, which defines
the loss in itself; and another, later and permanent one which is the symbolic forming of the
scar from that wound because the loss is irreparable. The scars, the wounds ofRosngela
Renn's series ofworks, say more about the people it portrays than their own faces would, they
are a picture of their skin, a map of their experience.
The wound, par excellence, is sex, and particularly, sex as a woman's body, always predisposed to blood. A wound always open, which does not heal over and which also symbolisesthis time for men, and always according to Freud- the fear of death, the horror ofthe unknown,
pain, being devoured: suffice it to remember the myth of the toothed vagina: a great mouth
about to devour everything which enters it. Contemporary cinema has also symbolised that
"wound" always prepared to make us suffer, which never heals in the film Wounded (Louis Malle) .
Mutilation is at the cultural root of man and looms ever larger and perhaps with more force,
as it is devoid of surroundings, oflandscape in the work ofRobert Gober. But before Gina Pane,
before Viennese action, before Chris Burden, before all religious painting which presents us with
bleeding bodies , fragments of mutilated bodies, the real body existed, which is cut and mutilates, which truly fragments. The subject, however, is really the body; that place, that map of
the natives ofLochac, where everything happens, which symbolises the Earth, the universe,
"entirety." The body as a place of experimentation, discovering it as a mystic ar erotic objective,
the limits of which (we do not have to quote Bataille) cross each other and become entangled
until they are inseparably joined. The body is the food of art, as it is the food of medicine. With
our fles h, our blood, our viscera, our skin, our nails, our banes, the whole body of medical
science is built up-the whole artistic network-until we reach a moment like the present one
when this seems not only evident, but also theoretical trends appear which talk to us of food,
of the nutritional source which is our own body.
Felix Gonzales-Torres Sem ttu lo Untitled 1991 outdoor [billboard] referente exposio Projects 34: Flix Gonzales-Torres
Museum of Modern Art , Nova York 1992 dimenses variveis cortesia Andrea Rosen Galiery, Nova York foto Peter Muscato
body, they transgress laws and prahibitions, they want to see what there is behind, what there
is inside, what there is on the other side. When the surrealists present the body only through
fragments, they are repeating something which is essential in art as in all religion; representing
the whole by one ofits parts. This which has been remarked on when discussing the work of
Robert Gober, ofhow his legs, his bottoms, his disconnected bits ofbody, bounded directly by
a wall, have that marked character of religious votive offerings-even more so now that AIDS
marks the surraundings and the life ofthe artist (and the bodies of so many friends). As, years
later, Orlan was to attempt to do, demonstrating to us that the idea that the work of art is the
process itself may become something excessively obvious. Art saves us from madness and
avoids Bellmer massacring his real models, although sometimes he does not manage to
achieve this completely, like the sculptor who was arrested recently in the UI< for creating his
sculptures with parts of real human bodies, stolen from the morgue and cemeteries.
Painting, photography, imagination enables us to work with ideas, with forms which are
only real in the territory of creation, although the irresistible attraction of truth continues to
exist: Joel Peter Witkin and his destrayed bodies, re-created, mutilated, mixed, severed heads
which kiss each other on a plate; real bodies, real pieces, the excitement ofwhat is real, the
attraction ofthe morgue which has led so many photographers to the anteroom of death.
Reality is the sarne as a lie in that world of art in which maps are never bounded by the
place we thought. To photograph a dead body, mutilated, is as real as the creations ofJake and
Dinos Chapman are real: impossible bodies with penises instead of noses, with vaginas everywhere, monsters of multiple sexes in the times of clone repraduction. The work ofPaloma
Navares is based on exalted, perfect bodies, paradigms ofbeauty, of classical art; her madonnas,
her virgins, her fetishistic women and symbols. She photographs them, she photocopies
them-always in black and white, she enlarges them, she isolates them fram the landscape,
fram their companions in the painting, and cuts them up in pieces to put tp.em on shelves, in
fridges, freezers, cupboards ... warehouses of time, like museums-only she, the artist, merely
preserves the bodies (not whole bodies, only some legs, a pubis, some breasts, some hands,
exempt of meaning ifit is not that ofbelonging to a sacred body, as in is Vermeer or Boticcelli,
which make up our memory of what a body is, always a woman's) to create with her fragments
other works. It is-it has been said since the '8os-a style of apprapriation, as if the Renaissance did not appropriate itself ofhistory, as ifwe all did not graw only with what we take away
fram others, with what we can use of others.
It is no longer necessary to recur to the history of art because the body-its representation,
total and partial, fragmented and mutilated, even its absent presence-is there in the idea of
art today. This is thereason why photography, realism, the ready-made in itself, reappear. And
that use, that fragmentation, that accumulation, forms the work of so many, of such different
artists. Fram Nancy Burton's superimposing and mixing offaces, which later Thomas Ruff
was to reuse in his series of portraits in black and white from negatives ofhis best-known
colour portraits. Fram the absence left by his suits, the empty clothes ofMeyer Vaisman, Damien
Hirst's shelves ofmedicines ... those clothes are to cover our bodies, those drugs are to cure
our bodies. And Rebecca Horn's painfully empty raoms only make sense ifwe think that once
they were occupied by lovers who wanted each other and loved each other, and hated each
other and killed each other in an absolute process of cannibalism, oflove, desire and ritual
culmination. Presence and absence; perhaps we will reach the point of convincing ourselves
that there is not so much difference. When Flix Gonzlez Torres places a pile of sweets in a
corner of an exhibition it is not easy to guess that their total weight amounts to that of a person.
Of whom? Whose date ofbirth is it? That year was the year they
met-he and that other person whose weight is the weight ofthe
sweets on the other side ofthe room. The installations ofGonzlez
Torres talk to us ofhis life which revolve around his experience, an
experience marked by his body and that of others, a question of
weights and measures. Another artist creates bodies with his work,
with photographs and fibre optics, with minimum projectors and
electrical transmitters, with light and darkness-the way we are all
made. Daniel Canogar works with fragments ofbodies. Later he
gradually reconstructed the body for us, man, from the visual and
allegorical recomposition ofhis senses: hearing, touch, vision, smel!. For this a projected
image, in black and white, of eyes, a nose, ears, hands, which were made much longer and
communicated with each other with energy-conducting cables, like the nerves and veins of
the body. The next step is to enter the body, to offer the projection in a dark room, of what that
body-those eyes-see. 1 want you to see what 1 see, with my eyes, 1 want you to have my
memories in your memory, 1 want you to feel the sarne as me ...
All those bodies are real, like Bellmer's dolls, grandmothers ofCindy Sherman's sexual
dolls. ln Sherman's work the body becomes the protagonist once more. ln the series on sex
and based on the use of prostheses and mannequins, where the body is now represented by
full-scale simulation, the photography is based on systematic and brutal mutilation. Man is
reduced to his penis, a gigantic penis which occupies the whole picture, but here we will not
find the sensuality of many explicitly sexual photographs, nor the bittersweet smell of the sex
of pornographic representations, nor the excitement of the images of the sexes and the penetrations ofMapplethorpe. Here sex is the machine, the body is dehumanised and all that remains
is what it has of object, for use and consumption, what it has ofthe animal, i.e. everything
which is not humano Those cut torsos which end and begin in sex organs, those open and
deformed vaginas, those leg joints of crude mannequins which open their legs to be penetrated, with no warmth, no desire, mere mechanics. We are at the very edges ofthe map. We talked
of nudity as an autonomous world, of the body as the only possible map, multiple and always
different. But art, artists, we ourselves, we peer out towards the horror, we spoil the landscape
of that autonomous world because we have forgotten the rules of survival and we see in cannibalism, in the desire of others, something perverse. But we accept worse methods to justifY our
needs. The permanent experimentation which goes on in the terrain of science, surgery, art
and culture is based on the great industry of the body, of which absolutely nothing is left to go
to waste. So much is this the case that our body scarcely belongs to us at all, because everythingwhich makes us human is repugnant to uS. ln the carnality offlesh, in the viscerality of
viscera, in the wetness of our blood, our semen, our body fluids, in the reconstruction of our
fragments is where we begin to reconsider ourselves as humans. Art teaches us to read in that
book offlesh, in that map ofthe world thatwe are, each one ofus. "1 am a man because ofmy
hands and my feet, my belly, my heart of flesh, my stomach the knots of which take me closer
to the putrefaction oflife."3
Rosa Olivares. Translatedfrom the Spanish by Fona Westbury.
Comment by Fra Mauro, r6th-century Venetian cartographer,
in his diaries, A mapmaker's dream: the meditations ofFra Mauro,
cartographer to the court ofVenice, James Cowan.
2. Osvaldo de Andrade, "Manifesto antropfago": "O que
1.
Dan iel Canogar Alien memory Memria aliengena 1998 fibra tica, geradores de luz, siides [fiber optics, light generators, slides]
cortesia Galeria Helga de Alvear, Madri foto Amparo Garrido
Jean-Hubert Martin
A religio,
hertica para a arte moderna
Em 1982, a Bienal de Sydney foi ocasio de admirvel intromisso da arte aborgine no bemprotegido meio da arte contempornea. Em um salo que lhes era reservado, um grupo de
aborgines nus, recobertos de pinturas corporais, entregou-se a uma cerimnia que durou
diversos dias. Cantos lancinantes e danas ao ritmo guerreiro se alternavam com a realizao
de uma grande pintura feita sobre um cho de areia levemente calcado.
Certas fases ocorreram entre quatro paredes; quando no, podia-se facilmente observar
de uma varanda a evoluo da pea durante os dias que antecederam o vernissage. A pintura
representava u ma espcie de serpente figu rada a parti r de grossos pontos de pigmentos brancos, ocres e negros.
Os executantes traduziam o dreaming de uma mulher idosa do grupo, uma narrativa mitolgica estreitamente ligada ao territrio deles e que envolve divindades sempre prontas a intervir
no desenrolar da vida cotidiana.
Essa obra suscitou intensa discusso entre os artistas e curadores presentes. Encarregado
da representao francesa, eu selecionara e levara Laury, Rutault, Sarkis, Toroni, Vieille e
Vilmouth. No houve noite em que a presena desses aborgines no tenha sido discutida. O
impacto visual da pea era inegvel, mas como analisaresse pasticho de cerimnia religiosa
fora do contexto. A nossos olhos, os executantes evidentemente tinham apenas dbil conscincia do ambiente de museu em que haviam posto os ps. Teriam ento sido enganados e
manipulados por ns para o simples prazer hedonista dos visitantes da Bienal.
Teria isso a ver com um fenmeno neocolonial, o Ocidente uma vez mais a se arrogar as
regras do jogo para revelar uma faceta suplementar da grande enciclopdia de povos do mundo
que ele escrevera com sucesso desde o sculo XIX. Um nmero a mais para esse formidvel
inventrio. A isso se juntava o constrangimento de os ver evoluir nus pelas salas da New South
Wales Art Gallery. Essa nudez, considerada normal no bush [mato], era aqui incongruente,
porm, faltando-lhe mesmo a qualidade de contravalor muitas vezes revestido de um fio de
escndalo que ela assume no domnio da arte. Que sentido podia tero gesticulatrio guerreiro
da parte de gente quej no combate com lanas?
Diante de meus argumentos positivos, Toroni, fiel a seu radicalismo respingado de racionalismo, foi incisivo na defesa de uma coerncia total: se aceitssemos a incluso de obras
religiosas nas exposies, seria igualmente preciso abrir espao para os artistas cristos que
fazem crucifixos. Embora aparentemente lgico, o argumento especioso, uma vez que na
Europa a religio est longe de ocuparo mesmo espao que entre os aborgines. Sem contar
que, aps Hegel, j no nos privamos de falar da religio da arte, mesmo que o termo no
designe nem as mesmas prticas nem o mesmo investimento.
No entanto, estava posta a questo fundamental. Podiam as artes religiosas ou originrias
de crenas partilhadas e vividas por populaes no-europias tomar lugar nos museus de
arte moderna?
At o presente a resposta havia sido negativa. As elites, seguidas pelos marxistas, acreditavam desde a revoluo em uma histria linearque faria pouco a pouco desaparecer, em favor
do pensamento racional, as religies e demais formas de superstio. foroso constatar que
essa bela progresso rumo a um futuro de razo est longe de se concretizar. antes um fenmeno inverso de integrismo e de renascimento das religies a que hoje se assiste.
A partir de sua criao na poca da revoluo, o museu era enciclopdico e aberto a todas
as prticas do mundo inteiro, to diversas quanto fossem. Um movimento duplo, suscitado
pela ruptura da arte moderna a partir de Gauguin, engendrou ao mesmo tempo a recuperao
das artes ditas primitivas que revelavam novos cnones estticos, bem como a segregao que
exclua as artes vivas de culturas no-ocidentais.
O descobrimento da arte negra no incio do sculo trouxe luz obras at ento menospre~
zadas, mas seus descobridores europeus-Apollinaire, por exemplo-as consideravam seja
peas arqueolgicas de grande antigidade seja perpetuao dessas formas por parte de
autores que infatigavelmente copiavam e tornavam a copiaros mesmos modelos. Os artistas
europeus se serviram amplamente das solues formais da arte negra, apesarde se haverem
abstido de fazer o mnimo esforo para conhecer seus colegas. "O museu imaginrio" causou
sensao em '947, pois nele Malraux aplicava pela primeira vez o princpio de igualdade de
valor das artes do mundo todo, embora meticulosamente evitasse o contemporneo. poca,
todas as esperanas se fundavam na pintura abstrata, considerada uma linguagem universal
dotada de caractersticas regionais. Sendo assim, esquecia-se de que o "meio a mensagem";
que, porconseqncia, o suporte "tela e moldura" conotava a dominao da grande arte
ocidental. Estava quebrada a coerncia do museu enciclopdico e, ao mesmo tempo que a arte
de vanguarda tentava afirmar-se diante do peso das convenes do passado, as artes noocidentais que pagavam o preo da operao. Em nome de conceitos de gosto (na Europa,
um objeto novo jamais teve o mesmo valorde um objeto usado, patinado e envelhecido) e de
preconceitos sobre os fenmenos de aculturao (o Ocidente qualifica as obras de falsas, folclricas e inautnticas), os artistas do Sul se viram excludos dos Museus de Arte Moderna. A arte
dos povos sem escrita ganhou pouco a pouco seus foros de nobreza, para ser considerada
comparvel das sociedades que conhecem a escrita, indevidamente reputadas mais sofisticadas, desde que se tratasse do passado. No tocante ao contemporneo, ficava marginalizada
nas categorias bastardas que certos crticos, com a maior seriedade do mundo, chamavam "de
transio". Esses conceitos secos no levam em conta nem a singularidade de personalidades
originais nem a existncia em carne e osso desses autores que traduzem uma cultura e um conjunto complexo de idias. Quando antiga, a arte religiosa valorizada. pacfico o reconhecimento de haverela engendrado as maiores obras-primas da humanidade. Em compensao,
suspeita quando contempornea. Jamais bastante autntica aos olhos do perito ocidental que
no consegue se desfazer da nostalgia de um tempo anterior presena destrutiva do branco.
verdade que, para caar, usam espingardas, que alguns se deslocam de avio para comprar parte de seus alimentos, que outros vivem em tristes casas pr-fabricadas cuja entrada
juncada de embalagens e de objetos de consumo comum quebrados. Nada de pitoresco nesses
lugarejos prximos a Yirrkala. Gostaramos tanto que eles continuassem a fazer cabanas de
troncos e fibras vegetais para que as colssemos em nosso acervo de imagens da diversidade
dos povos. Ante esse espetculo desolador, mais no falta para que muitos decretem que a
cultura deles est morta.
No h dvida alguma de que o contato conosco a transformou profundamente. Mas
freqente o Ocidente se satisfazer com julgamentos prematuros fundados nas aparncias.
Ora, numerosos exemplos provam que a adoo da tecnologia, da espingarda at o motorde
popa da canoa, no modifica totalmente o sistema de pensamento e as crenas tradicionais.
que podemos mobilizar para ir levara medo a um de nossos semelhantes. Um miservel filme
de 50 minutos de caminhadas por terrenos acidentados e de pequenos sofrimentos, para no
final alcanar um sorriso extico que mal dissimula um olhar amedrontado.
Os objetos destinados ao culto, desde que elaborados por autores especializados, tm
sido objeto de pagamento ou de troca. Nesses intercmbios, cuja parte simblica est longe
de serescassaj que a se est a tocar no sagrado, em foras transcendentais, a retribuio ao
artista pode ultrapassar largamente o simples valordo material e da mo-de-obra. certo que
a difuso da moeda perturbou profundamente grande nmero de sistemas autarcas, mas um
objeto sagrado ou uma obra de arte possuem valor agregado em todas as culturas. A relao
monetria no assim suficiente para desnaturar "a autenticidade" de uma obra de arte ou de
um objeto de valor espi ritual.
Em sua obra, o artista afro-brasileiro Didi reclama alto e bom som o reconhecimento de
dois pri nc pios: o valor q ue ela representa para a cu Itu ra afro-brasi lei ra e o direito dupla
vocao de artista e sacerdote do candombl.
As esculturas feitas a partirde nervuras de palmeira amarradas dentro de crculos de couro
coloridos encontram origem no smbolo do orix Obalua, aquele que cura as enfermidades. A
partirde um objeto litrgico, Didi elaborou uma criao original. Suas esculturas tm o mrito
da singularidade da forma e do material, o que as devia valorizar diante da arte moderna, mas
apresentam o defeito de possuir sentido religioso. At Magiciens de la Terre [Mgicos da Terra] e
sua bela exposio monogrfica de 1996, na Bienal de So Paulo, Didi foi descartado dos
crculos mais importantes, no s porque o contedo religioso dificilmente poderia ser compreendido pelos estrangeiros, mas sobretudo em virtude desse mesmo contedo. Se ele tivesse dito
que elas eram fruto de alguma fantasia pessoal e escapavam a qualquer fenmeno social ou
religioso, sem dvida seu reconhecimento pelo meio artstico teria chegado mais cedo.
Quero paradoxo que as obras destitudas de sentido religioso ou social sejam favorecidas
em relao quelas carregadas de um ou de outro. Rubem Valentim teve um pouco mais de
sorte, j que utilizava o meio pictrico e, conseqentemente, caa num perfil convencional.
No foi considerado menos herege perante o dogma da arte abstrata, o qual ditava que no
fosse feita nenhuma referncia a uma realidade social qualquer.
A arrogncia do dogma modernista levou-o a desprezar o rito, considerado obscurantista,
sem se darconta de que todo o meio artstico funciona a partirde um ritual no-dito, e por
isso mesmo varivel, que dita o essencial dos comportamentos. O conhecimento enciclopdico
do mundo, a conscincia de sua multiplicidade e o sentimento de que a cincia fornece uma
explicao para tudo conferem ao Ocidente a convico de sua superioridade. Ela, entretanto,
no oferece nenhuma soluo milagrosa para a condio fundamental do homem. Confrontado
com isso, o artista ocidental bem freqentemente usa procedimentos arcaicos e refaz individualmente esse mergulho na indagao da relao do homem com o mundo. Torna a partirdo
zero e reconstri na matria as passarelas que lhe deveriam permitir ultrapassar a si mesmo e
atingir os lugares onde poderia saciar desejos impossveis. assim que, ao fazer suas caminhadas, a cabea cheia de canes de Bob Dylan, Richard Long ressuscita formas arquetpicas
que remetem aurora da humanidade. No esto assim to longe de ns aqueles que reencontram esses vnculos imateriais nas crenas partilhadas e herdadas de sua tradio. O fenmeno
evidente na msica, na dana e no teatro. Para as artes plsticas, em parte a hipertrofia dos
discursos e de uma semntica exacerbada que ergue uma barreira. Ela no intransponvel.
Jean-Hubert Martin. Traduzido do francs por Claudio Frederico da Silva Ramos.
Jeah-Hubert Martin
Until now, the response has been negative. Since the Revolution, elites, followed by
Marxists, have believed in a linear history that would gradually make religions and other forms
of superstition disappear in favor of rational thought. We are obliged to observe that this lovely
progression toward a future of reason is far from materializing. Rather, it is the opposite
phenomenon -fundamentalism and the rebirth of religions-that we are witnessing today.
From its creation with the Revolution, the museum has been encyclopedic and open to all
practices, however diverse they might be, from the entire world. A dual movement, introduced
with the break represented by modern art beginning with Gauguin, led both to the recuperation
of so-called primitive arts-which revealed new aesthetic canons-and to segregation, which
excluded the living arts of non-Western cultures.
The discovery ofblack African art at the beginning of the century brought to light works
that until then had been held in contempt, but their European discoverers, such as Apollinaire,
considered them either very ancient archaeological pieces, or the perpetuation of these forms
byartisans tirelessly recopying the sarne models. European artists ma de ample use of the formal
solutions ofblack African art, but refrained from making the slightest effort to know their colleagues. The "imaginary museum" was a sensation in I947 because, for the first time, Malraux
set forth the principIe ofthe equal value of all arts ofthe world; yet he carefully avoided contemporaryart. At the time, everyone placed his hopes in abstract painting, which was considered a
universallanguage with regional characteristics. ln so doing, people forgot that the "medium
is the message" and that, as a result, the canvas and stretcher connoted the dominance ofthe
major Western art formo The coherence ofthe encyclopedic museum was shattered, and, as
avant-garde art tried to assert itself against the weighty conventions of the past, non-Western
arts bore the cost ofthe operation. ln the name ofjudgments oftaste (in Europe, a new object
has never had the sarne value as an old, secondhand, patinated object), in the name ofprejudices about the phenomenon of acculturation (works are defined by the West as counterfeit,
folkloric, and unauthentic), artists ofthe southern hemisphere have found themselves excluded
from museums of modern art. The art of peoples without writing gradually earned its letters of
nobility and was judged comparable to the art of writing societies (wrongly reputed to be more
sophisticated), so long as it was art from the pasto As for contemporary art from societies without writing, it was marginalized in hybrid categories, and called, in all seriousness, "transitional" by certain critics. These scathing judgments do not take into account the uniqueness of
original personalities or the existence oftlesh-and-blood artists who are translating a culture
and a complex set ofideas. Religious art is valorized when it is old. lt is generallyacknowledged
that such art has produced the greatest masterpieces ofhumanity. ln contrast, religious art is
suspectwhen it is contemporary. lt is never authentic enough in the eyes ofWestern experts, who
cannot rid themselves oftheir nostalgia for a time prior to the destructive presence ofwhites.
The museum of modern art has beco me an obstacle in the diffusion of non-Western arts.
lt has long since abandoned exclusively aesthetic criteria, something that does not fail to
produce many debates, in favor of artistic activities privileging the object's relation to meaning
and a criticaI attitude toward society. The beautiful is thus no longer its sole concerni yet arguments based on good taste are regularly used to oppose non-Western works. These works often
seem too "new" to our experts, especially since non-Western artists prefer industrial paint,
with its vastly more resistant and visually more effective colors, to the old pigments, more muted
and volatile, but which rapidly give the appearance of age so dear to art lovers.
ln contrast to an elaborate and complex art, which is aware of a history that gives it its
legitimacy, and which is proud to have broken with the conventions of representation inherited
from the Renaissance, aborigines-as their name indicates-seem to be merely the remnants
of a prehistory, debased innocents, heirs to a crumbling system ofthought, victims of acculturation incapable of making the leap into modernity. They belong to the museum of ethnology,
which studies these dying vestiges of archaic societies.
lfwe look closely, however, things are hardly so simple. The politicaI consciousness of
aborigines has developed enormously in the last few years. Their (legitimate) struggle to defend
their rights has borne fruit and has led to a few successes. Much remains to be done in recovering their land, whenever the interests of miners and farmers are at stake. Before they were
made sedentary by missionaries, the groups moved through their territories as nomads, and
many sites are designated in the mythology of dreamng as places where deities and spirits have
left their marle These sites are the object ofveneration, ceremonies, and taboos. ln the eyes
of older aborigines, it is therefore essential to protect such places.
The strategy developed has been calmly elaborated at the cultural leveI. Knowing that, to
be recognized, they had to create an image, aborigines elaborated veritable marketing strategies
targeting tourists. The culturally validating shop window was set up facing museums, to better
publicize artistic practices and the phenomenon of global thinking that underlies them. When
aborigines come to perform a ritual in a museum, they know perfectly well what they are doing,
and they do it with the conviction that the defense oftheir rights is contingent upon cultural
recognition. We must therefore stop clinging to schemata that make them the poor victims of
Western cultural consumption. Contact with great metropolises, it is claimed, will make them
lose their marvelous innocence and they will suddenly be torn apart and destroyed byacculturation. The disadvantage of such stereotypes is that they ignore the force ofthe aborigines'
conviction and the deep-rooted nature of their system of thought.
It is true they hunt their prey with rifles, that some of them fly in airplanes to buy part of
their food, and that others live in dismal, prefabricated houses, their doorways littered with
packaging material and broken objects of general consumption. There is nothing picturesque
about the villages near Yirrkala. We would be so pleased ifthey continued to make huts from
vegetation, so that we could cling to our image of the diversity of populations. This sorry spectacle is all many people need to decree that aboriginal culture is dead.
There is no question that this culture has been profoundly transformed through contact
with uS. But the West is often too easily satisfied with hasty judgments based on appearances.
And, as many examples prove, the adoption of technology, from the rifle to the outboard motor
on canoes, does not totally modifY a system ofthought and traditional beliefs.
Human beings and religions have an enormous capacity to adapto Biculturalism is very
widespread. Many aborigines are Christian, which does not prevent them from respecting the
rites ofpassage within their own traditions. Even in the West, nationalism and capitalism have
hardly swept away religious thought.
For many elites, faith in biblical mythology coexists with a commitment to industrial
progresso
Aborigines, who may appear indolent and remiss since they are not constantly rushing
about as we are, are spurred to activity for the important ceremonies oftheir group-funerals,
for example-which can keep them actively engaged for several days or even weeks.
David Malangui decided not to attend his exhibition at the Muse des Arts d'Afrique et
d'Ocanie in 1995 because he was invited to a ceremony by a neighboring group. He had no
doubts about priorities.
The question of the sacred and of what can be disclosed outside one' s own community
has been debated at length. Certain motifs and figures are protected by strict rules or are the
exclusive property of particular individuaIs.
Therefore, not every image can be diffused or sold with impunity. Certain iconographies
that are revealed beco me public without an accompanying explanation or with only a partial
explanation. This only increases interest in these paintings, since the idea that there may be a
secret cannot fai! to excite the insatiable curiosity ofthe West.
The notorious secrets of"primitives" are of course nothing more than rules of universal
wisdom. It is true that fear for a culture's disappearance is often incited by the disclosure of
esoteric knowledge. Such was the case for the medicine man Hosteen Klah, who in the 1920S
revealed the marvelous sand-painting motifs used by the Navajo for their healing rites. Joe Ben
Junior, who continues to make successful use ofthatmarvelous technique, paid homage to
Hosteen Klah in his installation at the La galere des cnq contnents [Gallery of the five continents]
exhibit at the Muse des Arts d'Afrique et d'Ocanie in 1995.
During a trip to Yirrkala in 1996, I was fortunate to see an exhibition at the center for
Buku-Larmgay Arts, which presented major works recently created by aboriginal artists from
the region.
One painting on bark stood out from the rest, both by its size and by its sharply contrasting
black and white hues. The asymmetrical composition is a retelling of an episode from a sea
myth. Two striated swordfish, accompanied by many other fish, are the major components
organizing the work. The image does not correspond to the most widespread typologies. I was
not surprised to learn from Andrew Blake that, before it was authorized for sale, this painting
had been the object of a bitter discussion among the elders. Several of them maintained that the
iconography did not correspond to known models and took too many liberties with tradition.
The artist defended his work with conviction in the name of artistic freedom, and eventually
won his case.
This example calls for three remarks on Australian aboriginal painting.
First, there is still an aboriginal form of painting on bark that is faithful to its tradition;
its iconography usually retells mythical narratives or depicts elements of cosmology. Painting
on bark was developed at the instigation of missionaries, to ensure some sort of income to the
aborigines they had settled. Otherwise, painting was usually practiced on the body, on the
ground, and on rock faces. The size ofthe bark has increased a great deal recently. Paint made
from natural pigments and applied to bark has a specific material quality that gives it a particular
piquancy. These qualities account for its originality, which we label "authenticity."
Second, aboriginal painting has undergone a particularly dynamic evolution for tens of
decades. The Papunya school, begun by Geoffrey Bardon in 1960, introduced Western techniques of acrylic painting on canvases pulled over stretchers.
The geometrical features of this surface and the diversification and intensity of colors
added a new dimensiono The use ofjuxtaposed dots remains a privileged technique, however.
It gave rse to a proliferation of"abstract paintings," whose intellectual foundation ought not
to be neglected. As it happens, many paintings represent specific sites of dreamng and mythic
episodes rendered with marks or signs.
Third, the artist, though immersed in the social body ofhis community, can highlight his
own ability to transform the codes of representation. ln the situation of change that aboriginal
culture is experiencing in contact with colonization, it would be troubling if aboriginal art were
simply repeating formulas without alterng them.
The artist's freedom and his contradictory dialogue with the representatives ofthe social
order is the guarantee ofthe vitality of a society and ofits capacity for assimilation, when that
society has not given up the essence ofits beliefs.
Respect for tradition, a rich evolution, and the artist's individual freedom are the necessary
ingredients if a culture is to live and develop. Consistent with this analysis, Western art stems
from the sarne sort of operation. The idea is gradually gaining ground that the process of creation in societies without writing is not fundamentally different from our own.
It would be misleading to generalize, however, since there are also cases where formulas
inherited from a religious dogma are sclerotically repeated. Tibetan mandalas have been reproduced in nearly identical form since the sixteenth century. At least, the fundamental structure
has not changed. Although the lamas who produce them do not allow themselves any creativity
and pride themselves on tepeating a fixed model, we must point out that the details of mandala
designs have evolved. Many stylistic elements have been transformed over the course of centuries, to the point that experts can date them based on formal criteria. The gap between
ancient art and contemporary art is perfectly apparent in this case. Museums exhibit many
ancient mandalas, but the idea that Tibetan monks might come do an "installation" in the form
of a powder mandala that would faithfully reproduce an ancestral model is gaining ground
only very slowly.
The religious value of the work, which gives it credibility in museums of ancient art, also
bars it access to museums of modern art. Fidelity to a fixed model can only increase its inappropriateness for the latter. Although the majority ofWesterners express doubts about the
authenticity of so-called acculturated aborginal thought, theyare convinced ofthe Tibetans'
great religious intensity and ofthe timelessness oftheir beliefs. This is above all a question of
image. We can therefore understand the aborigines' efforts to communicate the significance
oftheir culture to Westerners, if only by performing ritual ceremonies in their museums.
For those who would like aborgines to resemble images from the Magasn pttoresque
[Picturesque magazine] and to be confined to reservations to that end, the simple act of selling
paintings is suspect. To free ourselves from nostalgic views, we must recognize that globalization is affecting every individual on the planet. The poor reporters who still make films in Irian
Jaya, searching for someone who has never seen a white man, only demonstrate the enormous
investment of energy we are capable of mobilizing to frighten one of our fellow human beings.
A paltry fifty-minute film about trudging through rough terrain and suffering minor indignities
leads to nothing more than an exotic smile that poorly conceals a look of fright.
As soon as objects destined for religious use were produced by specialized artisans, they
became the object of payment ar barter. ln these exchanges, whose symbolic role is far from
insignificant, since the sacred-transcendental forces-is involved, the artist's remuneration
can greatly surpass the value of the material and ofhis labor. Of course, the diffusion of money
has profoundly disrupted many autarkic systems, but a sacred object or a work of art has added
value in every culture. The exchange of money is thus not sufficient to undermine the "authenticity" of a work of art or an object of spiritual value.
Through his art, the Afro-Brazilian artist Didi loudly demanded the recognition of two
principIes: first, the representative value ofhis work for Afro-Brazilian culture; and second, the
right to a dual vocation as artist and as sacerdotal priest ofthe candombl.
Sculptures made from the ribs of palm leaves, lashed together in circles of colored
leather, originated in the attribute ofthe Orisha Oblauaie, ar healer. From a liturgical object,
Didi developed an original creation. The merit ofhis sculptures lies in the uniqueness oftheir
form and material, which ought to give them value for modern art; but they have the misfortune ofbearing a religious meaning. Until the Magcens de la terre [Magicians ofthe earth] and
his fine monographic exhibition in I996 at the Bienal de So Paulo, Didi was excluded from
major art circuits, not just because the religious content was difficult for strangers to understand, but because of that content itself. lfhe had claimed his works were the result of some
personal fantasy and stood apart from any social or religious phenomenon, no doubt his
recognition from art circles would have come sooner.
lt is a paradox that works devoid of religious or social meaning are favored over those
charged with such meaning. Rubem Valentim had somewhat better luck, since he used the pictorial medium and, as a result, fit into a conventional framework. Nonetheless, he was considered heretical in relation to the dogma of abstract art, which dictated that no reference be
made to any external reality.
The arrogance of their dogma has led modernists to show contempt for the rite, which is
considered obscurantist, without realizing that art circles as a whole operate on the basis of an
unspoken, and, by that very fact, ever-shifting ritual, which dictates the major modes ofbehavior. An encyclopedic knowledge ofthe world, an awareness ofits multiplicity, and the sense
that science provides an explanation for everything confer upon the West a conviction ofits
superiority. Yet that conviction does not offer any miraculous solution to the fundamental
human condition. The Western artist who confronts this condition often uses archaic procedures
and refashions individually the disarienting inquiry into the relation ofhuman beings to the
world. He begins from scratch and reconstructs in material form the pathways that might
allow him to transcend himself and to reach places where impossible desires can be satisfied.
Thus, in his marches, with Bob Dylan's songs filling his head, Richard Long resuscitates
archetypal forms dating back to the dawn ofhumanity. Those who rediscover these immaterial
connections in beliefs shared and inherited from their tradition are not so distant from us. The
phenomenon is obvious in music, dance, and theater. For the plastic arts, it is partly the hypertrophy of discourses and of an overwrought semantics that has thrown up a barrier. lt is not
insurmountable.
Jean-Hubert Martn. Translatedfrom the Prench by Jane Marie Todd.
"This, then, is the visible work ofMenard, in chronological order (with no omission other than a few vague sonnets of circumstance written for the hospitable, or
avid, album of Madame Henri Bachelier). I turn now to his other work: the subterranean, the interminably heroic, the peerless. And-such are the capacities of
man!-the unfinished. This work, perhaps the most significant of our time, consists ofthe ninth and thirty-eighth chapters ofthe first part ofDon Quixote and a
fragment ofChapter XXII. I know such an affirmation seems an absurdity; to justifY this "absurdity" is the primordial object ofthis note.
[ ... ]
He did not want to compose another Quixote-which is easy-but the Quixote itself.
Needless to say, he never contemplated a mechanical transcription ofthe original;
he did not propose to copy it. His admirable intention was to produce a few pages
which would coincide-word for word and line for line-with those ofMiguel de
Cervantes.
[ ... ]
The first method he conceived was relatively simple. Know Spanish well, recover
the Catholic faith, fight against the Moors or the Turks, forget the history of
Europe between the years I602 and I9I8, be Miguel de Cervantes. Pierre Menard
studied this procedure (I know he attained a fairly accurate command of seventeenth-century Spanish) but discarded it as too easy. Rather as impossible! my
reader will say. Granted, but the undertaking was impossible from the very beginning and of all the impossible ways of carrying it out, this was the least interesting.
To be, in the twentieth century, a popular novelist of the seventeenth seemed to
him a diminution. To be, in some way, Cervantes and reach the Quixote seemed less
arduous to him-and, consequently, less interesting-than to go on being Pierre
Menard and reach the Quixote through the experiences ofPierre Menard."
Extracted from Jorge Luis Borges, "Pierre Menard, author of the Quixote," trans.
James E. 1rby, Labyrinths: selected stories and other writings, New York: New Directions
Publishing Corp., I9 64, PP.36-44.
"Hasta aqu (sin otra omisin que unos vagos sonetos circunstanciales para el
hospitalario, o vido, lbum de Madame Henri Bachelier) la obra uisible de Menard,
en su orden cronolgico. Paso ahora a la otra: la subterrnea, la interminablemente heroica, la impar. Tambin iayde las posibilidades dei hombre!-Ia inconclusa. Esa obra, tal vez la ms significativa de nuestro tiempo, consta de los
captulos noveno y trigsimo octavo de la primera parte dei don Quijote y de un
fragmento dei captulo veintids. Yo s que tal afirmacin parece un dislate; justificar esse "dislate" es el objeto primordial de esta nota.
[ ... ]
... ]
EI mtodo inicial que imagin era relativamente sencillo. Conocer bien el espanol,
recuperar la fe catlica, guerrear contra los moros o contra el turco, olvidar la historia de Europa entre los anos de 1602 y de 1918, ser Miguel de Cervantes. Pierre
Menard estudi ese procedimiento (s que logr un manejo bastante fiel dei
espanol dei siglo diecisiete) pero lo descart por fcil. iMas bien por imposible!
dir ellector. De acuerdo, pero la empresa era de antemano imposible y de todos
los medios imposibles para lIevarla a trmino, ste era el menos interesante. Ser
en el siglo veinte un novelista populardel siglo diecisiete le pareci una disminucin. Ser, de alguna manera, Cervantes y !legar ai Quijote le parcei menos arduoporconsiguiente, menos interesante-que seguirsiendo Pierre Menard y lIegaral
Quijote a travs de las experiencias de Pierre Menard."
Extrado deJorge Luis Borges, "Pierre Menard, autordel Quijote", Obras Completas,
1923-1972, Carlos V. Fras (ed.), Buenos Aires: Emec Editores, 1974, p. 446-47.
531 Fragmento
Oswald de Andrade
Manifesto antropfago
S a antropofagia nos une. Socialmente. Economicamente. Filosoficamente.
nica lei do mundo. Expresso mascarada de todos os individualismos, de todos os
coletivismos. De todas as religies. De todos os tratados de paz.
Tupy, or not tupy that is the questiono
Contra todas as catequeses. E contra a me dos Gracos.
S me interessa o que no meu. lei do homem. lei do antropfago.
Estamos fatigados de todos os maridos catlicos suspeitosos postos em drama. Freud acabou
com o enigma mulhere com outros sustos da psicologia impressa.
o que atrapalhava a verdade era a roupa, o impermevel entre o mundo interiore o mundo
exterior. A reao contra o homem vestido. O cinema americano informar.
Filhos do sol, me dos viventes. Encontrados e amados ferozmente, com toda a hipocrisia da
saudade, pelos imigrados, pelos traficados e pelos touristes. No pas da cobra grande.
Foi porque nunca tivemos gramticas, nem colees de velhos vegetais. E nunca soubemos o
que era urbano, suburbano, fronteirio e continental. Preguiosos no mapa-mndi do Brasil.
Uma conscincia participante, uma rtmica religiosa.
Contra todos os importadores de conscincia enlatada. A existncia palpvel da vida.
E a mentalidade prelgica para o Sr. levi Bruhl estudar.
Queremos a revoluo Caraba. Maiorque a Revoluo Francesa. A unificao de todas as
revoltas eficazes na direo do homem. Sem ns a Europa no teria sequer a sua pobre
declarao dos direitos do homem.
A idade do ouro anunciada pela Amrica. A idade de ouro. E todas as girls.
Filiao. O contato com o Brasil Caraba. O Vi/legaignon printterre. Montaigne. O homem
natural. Rousseau. Da Revoluo Francesa ao Romantismo, Revoluo Bolchevista,
Revoluo surrealista e ao brbaro tecnizado de I<eyserling. Caminhamos.
Nunca fomos catequizados. Vivemos atravs de um direito sonmbulo. Fizemos Cristo
nascer na Bah ia. Ou em Belm do Par.
Mas nunca admitimos o nascimento da lgica entre ns. Contra o Padre Vieira. Autordo
nosso primeiro emprstimo, para ganhar comisso. O rei analfabeto dissera-lhe: ponha isso
no papel mas sem muita lbia. Fez-se o emprstimo. Gravou-se o acar brasileiro. Vieira
deixou o dinheiro em Portugal e nos trouxe a lbia.
O esprito recusa-se a conceber o esprito sem corpo. O antropomorfismo. Necessidade da vacina
antropofgica. Para o equilbrio contra as religies de meridiano. E as inquisies exteriores.
S podemos atender ao mundo orecular.
Tnhamos ajustia codificao da vingana. A cincia codificao da Magia. Antropofagia.
A transfor-mao permanente do Tabu em totem.
Contra o mundo reversvel e as idias objetivadas. Cadaverizadas. O stop do pensamento que
dinmico. O indivduo vtima do sistema. Fonte das injustias clssicas. Das injustias
romnticas. E o esquecimento das conquistas interiores.
Roteiros. Roteiros. Roteiros. Roteiros. Roteiros. Roteiros. Roteiros.
O instinto Caraba.
Morte e vida das hipteses. Da equao eu parte do Kosmos ao axioma Kosmos parte do eu.
Subsistncia. Conhecimento. Antropofagia.
Contra as elites vegetais. Em comunicao com o solo.
Nunca fomos catequizados. Fizemos foi Carnaval. O ndio vestido de Senador do Imprio.
Fingindo de Pitt. Ou figurando nas peras de Alencar cheio de bons sentimentos portugueses.
J tnhamos o comunismo. J tnhamos a lngua surrealista. A idade de ouro.
Catiti Catiti
Imara Noti
Noti Imara
Ipej.
A magia e a vida. Tnhamos a relao e a distribuio dos bens fsicos, dos bens morais, dos
bens dignrios. E sabamos transporo mistrio e a morte com o auxlio de algumas formas
gramaticais.
Perguntei a um homem o que era o Direito. Ele me respondeu que era a garantia do exerccio
da possibilidade. Esse homem chamava-se Galli Matias. Comi-o.
S no h determinismo, onde h mistrio. Mas que temos ns com isso?
Contra as histrias do homem, que comeam no Cabo Finisterra. O mundo no datado.
No rubricado. Sem Napoleo. Sem Csar.
A fixao do progresso por meio de catlogos e aparelhos de televiso. S a maquinaria.
E os transfusores de sangue.
Contra as sublimaes antagnicas. Trazidas nas caravelas.
Contra a verdade dos povos missionrios, definida pela sagacidade de um antropfago,
o Visconde de Cairu:- a mentira muitas vezes repetida.
Mas no foram cruzados que vieram. Foram fugitivos de uma civilizao que estamos
comendo, porque somos fortes e vingativos como o Jabuti.
Se Deus a conscincia. do Universo Incriado, Guaraci a me dos viventes. Jaci a me
dos vegetais.
No tivemos especulao. Mas tnhamos adivinhao. Tnhamos Poltica que a cincia
da distribuio. E um sistema social-planetrio.
As migraes. A fuga dos estados tediosos. Contra as escleroses urbanas. Contra os
Conservatrios, e o tdio especulativo.
De William James a Voronoff. A transfigurao do Tabu em totem. Antropofagia.
O paterfamlias e a criao da Moral da Cegonha: Ignorncia real das coisas + falta de
imaginao + sentimento de autoridade ante a pro-curiosa (sic).
preciso partir de um profundo atesmo para se chegar idia de Deus. Mas o caraba
no precisava. Porque tinha Guaraci.
O objetivo criado reage como os Anjos da Queda. Depois Moiss divaga. Que temos ns
com isso?
Antes dos portugueses descobrirem o Brasil, o Brasil tinha descoberto a felicidade.
Contra o ndio de tocheiro. O ndio filho de Maria, afilhado de Catarina de Mdicis e
genro de D. Antnio de Mariz.
A alegria a prova dos nove.
No matriarcado de Pi ndorama.
Contra a Memria fonte do costume. A experincia pessoal renovada.
Somos concretistas. As idias tomam conta, reagem, queimam gente nas praas pblicas.
Suprimamos as idias e as outras paralisias. Pelos roteiros. Acreditar nos sinais, acreditar nos
instrumentos e nas estrelas.
Contra Goethe, a me dos Gracos, e a Corte de D.Joo VI.
A alegria a prova dos nove.
A luta entre o que se chamaria Incriado e a Criatura-ilustrada pela contradio permanente do
homem e o seu Tabu. O amor quotidiano e o modus vivendi capitalista. Antropofagia. Absoro
do inimigo sacro. Para transform-lo em totem. A humana aventura. A terrena finalidade.
Porm, s as puras elites conseguiram real!zar a antropofagia carnal, que traz em si o mais
alto sentido da vida e evita todos os males identificados por Freud, males catequistas. O que se
d no uma sublimao do instinto sexual. a escala termomtrica do instinto antropofgico.
De carnal, ele se torna eletivo e cria a amizade. Afetivo, o amor. Especulativo, a cincia. Desviase e transfere-se. Chegamos ao aviltamento. A baixa antropofagia aglomerada nos pecados
do catecismo-a inveja, a usura, a calnia, o assassinato. Peste dos chamados povos cultos e
cristianizados, contra ela que estamos agindo. Antropfagos.
Contra Anchieta cantando as onze mil virgens do cu, na terra de Iracema-o patriarca Joo
Ramalho fundadorde So Paulo.
A nossa independncia ainda no foi proclamada. Frase tpica de D. Joo VI:-Meu filho, pe
essa coroa na tua cabea, antes que algum aventureiro o faa! Expulsamos a dinastia.
preciso expulsar o esprito bragantino, as ordenaes e o rap de Maria da Fonte.
Contra a realidade social, vestida e opressora, cadastrada por Freud-a realidade sem
complexos, sem loucura, sem prostituies e sem penitencirias do matriarcado de Pindorama.
Oswald de Andrade
Em Piratininga
Ano 374 da deglutio do Bispo Sardinha.
Originalmente publicado em Reuista de Antropofagia, n.1, ano 1, maio de 1928, So Paulo.
Oswald de Andrade
Anthropophagite manifesto
Only anthropophagy unites uso Socially. Economically. Philosophically.
The world's only law. The masked expression of all individualisms, of all collectivisms.
Of all religions. Of all peace treaties.
Tupy, or not tupy that is the question. 1
Against all catechisms. And against the mother ofthe Gracchi.
The only things that interest me are those that are not mine. Law of mano Law of the
anthropophagite.
We are tired of all the suspicious catholic husbands put in drama. Freud put an end to
the woman enigma and to other frights of printed psychology.
What hindered truth was clothing, the impermeable element between the interior world and
the exterior world. The reaction against the dressed mano American movies will informo
Sons of the sun, mother of the living. Found and loved ferociously, with all the hypocrisy of
nostalgia, by the immigrants, by the slaves and by the touristes. ln the country of the big snake.
lt was because we never had grammars, nor collections of old plants. And we never knew
what was urban, suburban, boundary and continental. Lazy men on the world map ofBrazil.
A participating consciousness, a religious rhythm.
Against all importers of canned consciousness. The palpable existence oflife. And the
pre-Iogical mentality for Mr. Levi Bruhl to study.
We want the Carahiba revolution. Bigger than the French Revolution. The unification of all
efficacious rebellions in the direction of mano Without us Europe would not even have its
poor declaration of the rights of mano
The golden age proclaimed by America. The golden age. And all the girls. 2
Descent. The contact with Carahiban Brazil. a Vllegagnon prnt terre. Montaigne. The natural
mano Rousseau. From the French Revolution to Romanticism, to the Bolshevik Revolution, to
the surrealist Revolution and Keyserling's technicized barbarian. We walk.
We were never catechized. We live through a somnambular law. We made Christ be born in
Bahia. Or in Belm do Par.
But we never admitted the birth oflogic among uso Against Father Vieira. Author of our first
loan, to gain his commission. The illiterate king had told him: put this in paper but don't be
too wordy. The loan was made. Brazilian sugar was recorded. Vieira left the money in Portugal
and brought us wordiness.
The spirit refuses to conceive the spirit without body. Anthropomorphism. The need for an
anthropophagical vaccine. For the equilibrium against the religions of the meridiano And
foreign inquisitions.
We can only attend to the oracular world.
We had justice codification of vengeance. And science codification of Magic. Anthropophagy.
The permanent transformation ofTaboo into totem.
Against the reversible world and objectivized ideas. Cadaverized. The stop of thought which is
dynamic. The individual victim of the system. The source of classical injustices. Of the
romantic injustices. And the forgetting ofinterior conquests.
Routes. Routes. Routes. Routes. Routes. Routes. Routes.
The Carahiban instinct.
Life and death ofhypotheses. From the equation I part of the Kosmos to the axiom Kosmos part
ofI. Subsistence. Knowledge. Anthropophagy.
Against plant elites. ln communication with the soil.
We were never catechized. What we really did was Carnival. The Indian dressed as a Senator of the
Empire. Pretending to be Pitt. Or featuring in Alencar's operas full of good Portuguese feelings.
We already had communism. We already had the surrealist language. The golden age.
Catiti Catiti
ImaraNoti
Notilmara
Ipej.
Magic and life. We had the relation and the distribution of physical goods, of moral goods, and
the goods of dignity. And we knew how to transpose mystery and death with the aid of some
grammatical forms.
I asked a man what Law was. He replied it was the guarantee of the exercise of possibility.
That man was called Galli Matias. I ate him.
Determinism is only absentwhere there is mystery. Butwhat do we have to do with this?
Against the stories ofman, which begin at Cape Finisterra. The undated world. Unsigned.
Without Napoleon. Without Caesar.
The fixation of progress through catalogues and television sets. Only machinery.
And the blood transfusors.
Against the antagonical sublimations. Brought in caravels.
Against the truth of missionary peoples, defined by the sagacity of an anthropophagite,
the Viscount ofCairu:-It is the often repeated lie.
But they who carne were not crusaders. They were fugitives from a civilization that we are
eating, because we are strong and vengeful as a Jabuti.
IfGod is the consciousness ofthe Uncreated Universe, Guaraci is the mother ofthe living.
Jaci is the mother of plants.
We did not have speculation. But we had the power of guessing. We had Politics which
is the science of distribution. And a planetary-social system.
The migrations. The escape from tedious states. Against urban sclerosis. Against
Conservatories, and tedious speculation.
From William James to Voronoff. The transfiguration ofTaboo in totem. Anthropophagy.
The pater families and the creation ofthe Moral ofthe Stork: Real ignorance ofthings +
lack ofimagination + sentiment of authority before the pro-curious (sic).
It is necessary to depart from a profound atheism to arrive at the idea of God. But the
Carahiba did not need. Because he had Guaraci.
The created objective reacts as the Fallen Angels. After Moses wanders. What have we got
to do with this?
Before the Portuguese discovered Brazil, Brazil had discovered happiness.
Against the Indian with the torch. The Indian son ofMary, godson ofCatherine de Mdici
and son-in-Iaw ofDon Antnio de Mariz.
Happiness is the proof ofthe pudding.
Oswald de Andrade
ln Piratininga
Year 374 ofthe swallowing of the Bishop Sardinha.
L
2.
Originally published in Revista de Antropofagia, n.1, year I, May 1928, So Paulo. Translated
from the Portuguese by Adriano Pedrosa and Veronica Cordeiro.
"Sim, estou chegando ao ponto. Ao menos estou tentando. difTcil falardo beb.
Ela era to adorvel. To suave, macia, suas covinhas, to boba, engraada, amorosa, quentinha, forte e doce. Ela era quase totalmente careca quando nasceu,
mas suas orelhas tinham uma pelugem bem clara e surpreendentemente longa
na ponta superior, como um duende. Quando levantada contra a luz do Sol, suas
orelhas ficavam rosa e a franja delas brilhava como ouro fiado. Tudo isso fazia
Tonye eu dar risadas.
E ento uma noite eu me levantei para aliment-Ia. Ela estava chorando, por
isso me levantei para aliment-Ia. Quando cheguei perto do seu bero ela estava
gritando, mas logo que me viu sorriu, um grande sorriso de boas-vindas, e imediatamente fiquei feliz por estar de p com ela, e levei-a sala e a alimentei. Ela
mamou e mamou e eu sorri e brinquei com ela, chamei-a de coisinha gulosa, mas
delicadamente, e a noite terminava em manh, e quando ela acabou e apagou, eu
estava vida e faminta. Aparei-a contra meu ombro e fui cozinha para encontrar
algo para comere no havia praticamente nada; certamente nada que se pudesse
preparar com apenas uma mo, com um beb no colo. No, nada no, eu havia
me esquecido. Havia uma pequeno pedao de doce de leite. Eu me lembro agora,
porque eu olhei para aquilo e pensei como se parecia com meu peito, to macio e
cremoso, com aquelas delicadas veias. E eu comi e fiquei ainda esfomeada, morrendo de fome e uma pouco zangada com Tony porter sido to egosta e comido
todas as sobras, mesmo os biscoitos de gengibre. Pensei que deveria pro beb
de volta na cama e depois cozinhar alguma coisa. Levei-a ao quarto e comecei a
trocar suas fraldas. Ela estava realmente adormecida, com seus braos prximos
ao corpo, por isso no acendi a luz do teto, apenas a luminosidade suave da luz
do abajur. Ela usava um daqueles pijaminhas que permitem trocar as fraldas sem
retir-Ias, mas estava encharcado. Eu estava irritada e quase no dei bola; voc
pode simplesmente meter umas fraldas limpas e deixar por isso mesmo. Era o que
eu devia ter feito. Mas queria que ela dormisse confortavelmente, para que eu
tambm pudesse, mais tarde de manh, quando estivesse cheia do que fosse que
ia cozinhar para mim. Ento tirei logo sua roupa, at mesmo sua camiseta, uma
vez que j tinha comeado; ela tinha aquelas camisetinhas que na frente cruzam
e so amarradas, pois ela parecia no gostar de roupas que precisavam ser puxadas pela cabea. Ento ela estava nua, sonolenta, gordinha, doce, e eu estava
cansada, com fome, e alcancei uma camiseta limpa e ela se virou e ali estava seu
lindo bumbum empinado no are suas lindas orelhas banhadas por uma luz delicada, e eu sabia exatamente o que estava fazendo e sabia que no devia e no
podia resistir. Era assim, bem simples, eu no podia resistir. S uma mordida, eu
disse a mim mesma, uma mordida no vai machuc-Ia. Ela era uma delcia dos
cus. Depois da primeira mordida eu no consegui mais parar. Uma delicada mistura de galinha e vitela, eu diria. Pensei em sal e pprica, mas no estavam mo,
e eu no podia parar para busc-los. Eu comi meu beb, la tartare. Foi a melhor
refeio que j fiz. Simplesmente delicioso. Eu a amei. Eu a amei e a comi."
Extrado de Sara Maitland, ["Gula", Os sete pecados capitais]. Traduzido do ingls
por Adriano Pedrosa.
Ca~ibalismos
"Yes, I am getting to the point. I'm trying to anyway. It is hard to talk about the
baby. She was completely lovely. She was so soft and dimpled and silly and funny
and loving and warm and strong and sweet. She was almost totally bald when she
was born but her ears had a fringe of adorable fair hair along the top of them, like
a pixie, surprisingly longo If you held her up to the sunlight her ears would glow
pink and her ear fringe would shine like spun gold. It made Tony and me giggle.
And then one night I got up to feed her. She was crying so I got up to feed
her. When I went to her crib she was yelling but as soon as she saw me she smiled,
a great wide welcoming grin and immediately I was happy to be up with her, and
I carried her into the living room and fed her. She sucked and sucked, and I smiled
and teased her, called her a greedy little thing, but gently, and night was thinning
out into morning, and when she had finished and dozed off, I was ravenously
hungry. I shifted her onto my shoulder and went into the kitchen to find something
to eat and there was practically nothing; certainly nothing you could prepare onehanded with a baby on your shoulder. No, not nothing, I had forgotten. There was
a small piece of dolcelatte. I remember now, because I looked at it and thought
how like my breast it was, soft and creamy with those delicate veins. And I ate it
and I was still famished, starving and a bit cross with Tony for being so selfish and
eating all the left-overs even the ginger biscuits. I thought I would put the baby
back to bed and then cook something. I carried her into her room and started to
change her nappy. She was still pretty much asleep, with her arms tucked in dose
against her body, so I didn't put the ceiling light on, just the soft glow from the
night light. She was wearing one of those sleep suits that you are supposed to be
able to change a nappy without taking off, but it was soaking. I was irritated and
I almost didn 't bother; you can just slip a dean nappy on and let it go if you want
to. I wish I had. But I wanted her to sleep comfortably, so that I could too later in
the morning when I was full of whatever it was I was going to cook myself. So I
stripped her right off, even her vest once I had got started; she had those little
vests that cross over and tie in the front because she never seemed to like having
things pulled over her head. And then she was naked and sleepy and fat and sweet
and I was tired and hungry and I reached for a dean vest and she rolled ove r and
there was her beautifullittle rump stuck up in the air and those wonderful ears
just catching the gentle light, and I knew exactly what I was doing and I knew I
shouldn't and I couldn't resist it. It was as simple as that, I couldn't resist it. Just
one bite I said to myself, one bite won't hurt her. She tasted heavenly. After the
first bite I couldn't stop. A delicate cross between chicken and veal I would say; I
thought of salt and perhaps paprika, but I didn't have them to hand, and I
couldn't stop to go and get them. I ate my baby, la tartare. It was the best meal
I had ever had. Simply delicious. I loved her. I loved her and I ate her.
Extracted from Sara Maitland, "Gluttony," The seven deadly sins, Alison Fell Ced.),
London: Serpent's Tail, I987.
541 Fragmento
Alfredo Volpi
(ltlia/Brasil,1896-1988)
543 Biografias
interests. ln general, the work of artists associated with CoBrA demonstrate an aggressiue
use ofline and color, often depicting fantastic
creatures inspired by Nordic mythology
and folklore. The group continued to grow
in size and included artists such as Ejler Bille
(b.191O), Egilljacobsen (b.191O),
Carl-Henning Pedersen (b.1913), and
Theo Woluecamp (b. 1924), from Denmark,
Pierre Alechinsky (b. 1927), from Belgium,
Eugene Brands (b. 1913), Constant (b. 1920),
and Anton Rooskens (1906-76), from the
Netherlands, Suauar Gundnasson (1909-88)
and Karl Otto Gtz (b. 1914), from Germany.
The group created 8 issues ofthe CoBrA
Reuue, published 15 monographs, and participated in three exhibitions during its three
years in existence. -T.O.
Dada e Surrealismo
Suas primeiras obras estavam relacionadas com land art, produzindo projetos em grande escala sobre meio
ambiente. Tambm trabalhou em
performance, criando Reading position
for second degree bum [Posio de leitura
para queimadura de segundo grau] em
1970. Mais tarde, comeou a produzir
montagens mecnicas com peas eltricas em movimento, referindo-se a
elas como Factories [Fbricas] a partir
de 1979. Em 1986, o artista comeou a
criar grandes instalaes, com objetos
transformados, desfigurados e brincalhes, tais como sua escultura de igreja
de cabea para baixo, Deuice to root out
euil [Dispositivo para erradicar o mal],
de 1997. Sua obra cria situaes cheias
de suspense, comportamento fora dos
padres e humorirnico.
His early work was inuolued with land art,
mechanical assemblages with mouing electrical parts, referring to them as Factories from
1979 onwards. ln 1986 the artist began to
create large installations, with mutated, distorted and playful objects, such as his upside
down church sculpture, Device to root out
evil, from 1997. His work creates situations
full of suspense, deuiant behauior and ironic
humor. -T.O.
Eva Hesse
(Alemanha/Estados Unidos, 1936-70)
Gerhard Richter
(Alemanha, n .1932)
545 Biografias
Monocromos
547 Biografias
Nota do editor
Para sua XXIV edio, a Bienal de So Paulo reformulou sua poltica editorial. Na realidade,
a primeira vez que as publicaes tm de fato um editore organizador. As quatro publicaes
correspondem aos quatro segmentos da exposio: Ncleo Histrico: Antropofagia e Histrias de
Canibalismos, "Roteiros. Roteiros. Roteiros. Roteiros. Roteiros. Roteiros. Roteiros.", Representaes Nacionais
e Arte Contempornea Brasileira: Um e/entre Outro/s. O quarto livro ser publicado em novembro deste
ano, pois, num tratamento especial dado arte contempornea brasileira, registrar as obras e
instalaes especialmente feitas para a XXIV Bienal.
A principal reformulao de nossa poltica editorial refere~se ao prprio formato e ao con~
ceito das pu bl icaes. Este ano, afastamo~nos da idia trad icional de "catlogos de exposio",
que parecem estar sempre restritos funo catalogadora, plidas cpias do verdadeiro show.
A funo catalogadora, com seus aspectos de registro e arquivo histricos, de fato importante;
no entanto, pode serdesempenhada com mais eficcia por uma lista completa (sem ilustraes)
de todas as obras da XXIV Bienal; para tanto necessrio esperar at a abertura da mostra para
que se possa precisaro que curadores e artistas porfim incluram. Quanto ao formato, pensamos
em livros menores com encadernao menos luxuosa, de capas simples (as dimenses finais
deste Ncleo Histrico refletem concreta e estritamente a densidade e extenso das obras e con~
ceitos aqui tratados).
Em vez de catlogos, pensamos ento em liuros que acompanham e problematizam a XXIV
Bienal. As quatro publicaes so partes essenciais e integrantes da exposio. A maior parte
dos textos de autoria dos curadores, mas h outros que foram encomendados especialmente
pelo curador~geral. No se trata de reflexos perfeitos da mostra, mas de complementaes.
Assim h obras que esto presentes na exposio, mas que no surgem nos livros, bem como
artistas que desenvolvem projetos especficos para as publicaes, mas que no expem no pavi~
Iho. Procuramos nos afastar do formato tradicional de ensaios de curadores seguidos por
pranchas e reprodues. H muito mais texto do que imagem, e essas aparecem intercaladas
com o prprio texto-trabalhamos com a perspectiva de que os livros sejam lidos e no apenas
distribudos e expostos. Outras referncias foram trazidas de forma mais fragmentada, mas
sempre conceituai mente articulada e pertinente: trechos, imagens.
Os livros estabelecem contaminaes entre os quatro segmentos da mostra, desestrutu~
rando uma estrutura aparentemente rgida que havamos construdo. Num nvel, h contami~
naes da arte contempornea brasileira que surgem nas exposies dedicadas aos sculos
XVI-XVIII (com Adriana Varejo e Tunga) e ao sculo XIX (com Cildo Meireles) e Francis Bacon
(com Arthur Barrio). Num outro nvel, algumas obras de artistas de "Roteiros ... " so aqui
reproduzidas UeffWall e Sherrie Levine). H outros cruzamentos desenvolvidos tambm em
Representaes Nacionais, "Roteiros ..." e Arte Contempornea Brasileira.
O prprio tratamento dos textos e a estrutura dos livros tambm foram reformulados em
vrios aspectos. Nossas normas de padronizao foram estabelecidas de modo flexvel o bastante
para darvoz e textura aos diversos colaboradores. Assim, porexemplo, em Representaes Nacionais,
mantivemos a grafia vigente em Portugal no texto do curador Joo Fernandes sobre Francisco
Tropa e Lourdes Castro. Optamos tambm por uma aproximao um tanto idiossincrtica em
relao lngua e traduo. Certos termos que na lngua me das publicaes nos pareciam
compreensveis ao leitorde lngua inglesa no foram traduzidos: "instalao", "vdeo", "bibliografia", "dimetro". Em Representaes Nacionais, talvez de forma mais radical, optamos por no
traduzir para o ingls os nomes dos pases, que aparecem em tamanho menor que o do artista.
O tratamento e a poltica das lnguas nos levaram a publicar, em alguns casos selecionados,
textos em lnguas que no o portugus e o ingls: o texto dos Roteiros Amrica Latina surge em
espanhol e em ingls, reconhecendo a primazia dessa lngua no subcontinente, registrando o
gro da voz original da curadora e de certo modo confiando na proximidade com o portugus.
H tambm fragmentos em francs e em espanhol que no foram traduzidos para dar expresso,
em instncias pontuais, escrita no original.
Uma das maiores inovaes refere-se ao designo Estabelecemos uma colaborao e sintonia
extremamente afinadas em relao a curadoria, edio, formato e desenho. Da mancha grfica
escolha de tipografias, da formatao das biografias ao posicionamento de legendas e ttulos,
da seleo de imagens respectiva ocupao nestas pginas-no h entre ns sequer um
spread que no tenha sido discutido e retrabalhado extensamente. Para tanto, a parceria de
trabalho estabelecida com o designer Raul Loureiro, instalado no prprio pavilho, foi precisamente articulada. Esta articulao, o estabelecimento de dilogos entre os diferentes momentos
de conceituao e produo que antes operavam de forma mais autnoma, tambm ocorre com
a equipe de traduo, sob a coordenao precisa de Veronica Cordeiro, de preparao e reviso,
comandada zelosamente por Tereza Gouveia, incansvel pesquisa de material fotogrfico, com
Carla Zaccagnini, e a assistncia editorial para textos em ingls e copyright de Tobias Ostrander.
Nossas publicaes tm uma funo educacional; so, a propsito, distribudas a bibliotecas de todo o pas e vendidas muito abaixo de seu preo de custo. Os livros refletem a orientao da Fundao Bienal, uma instituio sem fins lucrativos, por meio de um dilogo que se
foi desenvolvendo na escolha de colaboradores, textos e projetos artsticos pontuais ao processo
de preparao e articu lao da exposio.
No entanto, necessrio registrar aqui a dificuldade de finalizar livros que acompanham
uma exposio ao mesmo tempo que a antecedem-e a experincia que este ano fazemos com
a Arte Contempornea Brasileira, o nico livro a incluir reprodues da montagem final da XXIV
Bienal, talvez venha a sugerir uma nova poltica para a Fundao Bienal quanto a suas futuras
publicaes de mostras contemporneas. No momento em que escrevo h ainda emprstimos
a serem confirmados e obras a serem construdas. Ainda, se uma Bienal feita em pouco
menos de dois anos, suas publicaes devem ser produzidas em pouco mais de quatro meses.
Adriano Pedrosa
Editor's note
For its XXN edition, the Bienal de So Paulo has reformulated its editorial policy. ln fact, it is the
first time the publications have an editor and organizer. The four publications correspond to the
exhibition's four segments: Ncleo Histrico: Antropofagia eHistrias de Canibalismos, "Roteiros. Roteiros.
Roteiros. Roteiros. Roteiros. Roteiros. Roteiros," Representaes Nacionais and Arte Contempornea Brasileira:
Um e/entre Outro/s. The fourth book will be published in November this year since, in a special
treatment given to Brazilian contemporary art, the book will include images of the works and
installations especially made for the XXN Bienal.
The key reformulation of our editorial policy relates to the very format and concept of the
publications. This year, we have distanced ourselves from the traditional idea of"exhibition catalogs," which seems to be forever restricted to the cataloguing function, pale copies of the real
show. The cataloguing function, with its aspects ofhistorical recording and archiving, are in fact
important, yet may be performed more accurately by a complete list (without illustrations) of all
works which are, in the end, included in the Bienal. For that matter, it is necessary to wait until the
opening of the show for a precise knowledge of what curators and artists have finally included.
ln regards to the format, we planned smaller and lighter books, with a less luxurious cover, simply
paperback (the final dimensions ofthis Ncleo Histrico reflect strictly and in a concrete manner
the density and breadth ofthe works and concepts dealtwith).
Instead of catalogs, we thus thought ofbooks that accompany and problematize the XXIV
Bienal. The four publications are integral and essential parts ofthe exhibition. The vast majority
ofthe texts was written by the curators, but other texts are included especially commissioned by
the chief curator. The books are not perfect reflections of the show, but rather pieces that complement it. ln this sense, there are works in the exhibition that do not appear in the books, as
there are artists who develop specific projects for the publications, yet are not in the Pavilion. We
tried to distance ourselves from the traditional format of curator's essays followed by plates
and reproductions. There's much more text than images, and the latter appear intercalated
with the former-we worked with the idea that these would be read, and not merely distributed
and displayed. Other references were brought in a more fragmented fashion, yet always conceptually articulated: excerpts, images.
The books establish contaminations between the four segments ofthe XXIV Bienal, destructuring the seemingly rigid structure we had initially set up. On one leveI, there are contemporary
Brazilian art contaminations that emerge alongside the exhibitions dedicated to the XVI-XVIII
centuries (with Adriana Varejo and Tunga) as well as the XIX century (with Cildo Meireles) and
Francis Bacon (with Arthur Barrio). On another leveI, some works of"Roteiros ... " artists are
reproduced here (JeffWall and Sherrie Levine). Other intercrossings appear in also in Representaes Nacionais, "Roteiros . .. " and Arte Contempornea Brasileira.
The treatment and preparation of the texts and the structure of the books have also been
reformulated in several aspects. Our style sheet was established in a flexible way allowing us to give
texture and voice to our diverse contributors' texts. ln this way, for example, in Representaes Nacionais, we maintained the Continental Portuguese spelling for Joo Fernandes' text on Francisco
Tropa and Lourdes Castro. We've chosen a somewhat idiosyncratic approach to language and
translation. Certain words which in the mother tongue ofthe publications seemed decipherable
to the English-speaking reader were deliberately not translated: "instalao," "vdeo," "bibliografia," "dimetro." ln Representaes Nacionais, and perhaps more radically, we have chosen not to
translate into English the names ofthe countries, which appear in a smaller scale than that ofthe
artist. The treatment and politics oflanguage, in some chosen cases, led us to publish texts in
languages other than Portuguese and English: the Roteiros Amrica Latina essay will be published in English and Spanish, acknowledging the primacy of the latter in the subcontinent, as well
as recording the original grain ofthe curator's voice and, in a way, relying on the proximitywith
our Portuguese. There are also fragments in French and Spanish which were deliberately not
translated in order to fully express, in punctual instances, the original writing.
One ofthe major innovations is related to the designo We have established a dose relationship and extreme affinity between curatorship, editing, format, and designo From the grid to the
choice of typography, from the format of the biographies to the positioning of the photo captions,
from the selection ofimages to their placement on these pages-there is not among us one single
spread which hasn't been thoroughly discussed and reworked. For that matter, the collaboration
with Raul Loureiro, the graphic designer for our publications, was precisely articulated and set
up in this Pavilion. This articulation, the establishment of a dialogue between several instances
of conceptualization and production which were previously functioning autonomously, also
appears with the translation team, under the precise coordination ofVeronica Cordeiro, proofreading, meticulously led by Tereza Gouveia, tireless photo research with Carla Zaccagnini, and
the editorial assistance for English texts and copyright, with Tobias Ostrander.
Our publications have an educational function; theyare distributed to libraries all over the
country and sold at a much lower price than their actual cost. The books reflect the approach of
the Fundao Bienal, a non-profit institution, through a dialogue that developed with the choice
of collaborators, texts and artistic projects punctual to the process ofpreparation and articulation
of the exhibition.
Nonetheless, it is necessary to record here the difficulty of finalizing books which accompanyan exhibition and simultaneously come before it-and the experience which this year we
carry out with Arte Contempornea Brasileira, the sole book to indude reproductions of the final
installation of the XXN Bienal, may suggest a new policy for the Fundao Bienal with respect to
its future publications of contemporary exhibitions. At the time of writing, there are stillloan
requests to be confirmed and works to be made. Further, if a Bienal is created in less than two
Adriano Pedrosa
years, its publications are produced in little over four months.
Agradecimentos Acknowledgments
Academia Real Espanola de la Lengua, Madri
Acervo Artstico e Cultural do Palcio do
Governo do Estado de So Paulo
Adam Weinberg, Nova York
Ademar Seabra da CruzJr., Londres
Adolpho Leirner, So Paulo
Adriana Cisneros, Caracas
Ad riano Caetano, Buenos Aires
AdrienMaeght, Paris
Agnes C. M.Grondman, Heino-Wijhe
Agnes Gund, Nova York
Ahmet Ertegun, Nova York
Alain Sayag, Paris
Alberto Bailey
Aleca Lipskey, Nova York
Alejandra de la Paz, Mxico
Alexander Bonin, Nova York
Alfred Pacquement, Paris
Alfredo Fontes, Rio de Janeiro (in memoriam)
Alfredo Tapia
Amsterdams Historisch Museum, Amsterd
Amy Densford, Washington D.e.
Andr Le Prat, Paris
Andr Millan, So Paulo
Andrea Czre
Andrea Miller-Keller, Connecticut
Andrs Sicard
Andrew Murray
AndyWarhol Museum, Pittsburgh
Angel Kalenberg, Montevidu
Angel Suarez Sierra
Angela Westwater, Nova York
Anglica B. Pmanes, Monterrey
Anita Balogh
Anita Marques da Costa, So Paulo
Anja van Wyk
Anna Maria N. L. Parsons, Universidade
Federal de Ouro Preto
Anna Marie e Robert Shapiro, Nova York
Anna O'Sullivan, Nova York
Anna Sermont, Paris
Anne Adriaens-Pannier, Bruxelas
Anne Barz, Hamburgo
Anne Bouvier, Paris .
Annelie Ltgens, Wolfsburg
Annette Pioud, Saint-Paul de Vence
AnnieJacques, Paris
Antoinette Romain, Paris
Antonio Carlos Duarte, Juiz de Fora
Anton io Dias, Rio de Janei ro
Antonio Fernando de Franceschi, So Paulo
Antonio Fernando Batista dos Santos,
Belo Horizonte
Antonio Herman, So Paulo
Anton io Man uel, Rio de Janei ro
Antonio Nunes Garca-Saco, Madri
Anushka Shani, Londres
Ardmore Investments, Nova York
Argos Films
Ariel Jimenez, Caracas
Arizona State University Art Museum
Arken Museum for Moderne I<unst,
Copenhague
Armando Mrquez Revern, Caracas
Arnaldo Caiche D'Oliveira, Braslia
Arts Council, Londres
ArturOmar, Rio de Janeiro
Association Annette e Alberto Giacometti, Paris
Augusto Livio Malzoni, So Paulo
Barbara Astaburuaga
Barbara Lucero Sand
Bart de Baere, Gent
Beatriz Gaede, So Joo dei Rei
Beatriz Gutierrez Walker, Secretara da
Cultura, Buenos Aires
Beatriz Pimenta Camargo, So Paulo
Benjamin Brown, Londres
Beno Suchodolvsky
Bernard Blistene, Paris
Bernard Schotter
Bernardo Damasceno, Rio de Janei ro
BetsyWittenborn Miller
Betty Stroskel, Genebra
Betty Zam brano, Caracas
Biblioteca Municipal Mrio de Andrade,
So Paulo
Biblioteca Nacional, Rio deJaneiro
Bibliotheque du Service Historique de
la Marine Franaise, Paris
Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris
Birgit Damgaard, Copenhague
Blackwell Publishers, Oxford
Bolsa de Arte do Rio de Janeiro
Brad Bames, Londres
Brigitte Baumstark
Brigitte I<ramer, Berlim
Brooke Alderson, Nova York
Bruno Musatti, So Paulo
Bruno Santana, So Paulo
Bruno Stagnaro, Buenos Aires
Cabinet Diot, Paris
California Newsreel
Camilla Duprat
Cantz Verlag Publishers
Cardine Matthieu, Paris
Carina Evangelista, Nova York
Carla Faesler Bremer, Morelos
Carlos A. Lemos, So Paulo
Carlos Fajardo, So Paulo
Carlos Maldonado Varcarcel, Madri
Carlos Martins, So Paulo
Carlos Pinoti, So Paulo
Carlos Scliar, Rio de Janeiro
Carmela Gross, So Paulo
Carmen Snchez, Madri
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Carolina Cisneros, Caracas
Casa de Ci nema de Porto Alegre
Cassio Michalany, So Paulo
Catherine de Croes, Bruxelas
Catherine Legrand, Paris
Cavalli-Bjrkman, Sucia
Ccile Camart, Paris
Cecilia de Torres, Nova York
Centraal Museum, Utrecht
Centre George Pompidou, Muse National
d'Art Moderne, Paris
Centro Cultural de So Paulo
Centro de Estudos Murilo Mendes, Universidade
Federal de Juiz de Fora
Csar Ach, Rio de Janei ro
CET-Central de Engenharia de Trfego
Charles Burnett
Charles Choffet
Charles Cosac, So Paulo
Charlotte van Beurden
Charly Herscovici, Bruxelas
Chris Dercon, Roterd
Edward Jaeger-Booth
Edwin Gogel, Colmbia
Egill e Evelyn Jacobsen Fund, Copenhague
Ejvi nd Koefoed
Elastim, So Paulo
Elena Vallenilla de Arnal, Caracas
Elia Suleiman
Eliane de Wilde, Bruxelas
Elisabeth Lawrence, Paris
Elizabeth Kujawski, Nova Vork
Elizabeth Sophie Balsa, Bonn
Emanuel Arajo, So Paulo
Embaixada da Argentina em Braslia,
Embaixador Jorge Hugo Herrera Vegas
Embaixada da Frana em Braslia,
Embaixador Philippe Lecourtier
Embaixada do Brasil em Bonn, Embaixador
Roberto Pinto Ferreira Mameri Abdenur
Embaixada do Brasil em Buenos Aires,
Embaixador Luiz Felipe de Seixas Corra
Embaixada do Brasil em La Paz, Embaixador
Marco Cesar Meira Naslausky, Conselheiro
Fernando Muggiatti
Embaixada do Brasil em Londres, Embaixador
Rubens Antonio Barbosa, Chefe do Setor
Cultural Ademar Seabra da CruzJr.
Embaixada do Brasil em Madri, Embaixador
Carlos Moreira Garcia, Conselheiro Durval
Carvalho de Barros
Embaixada do Brasil em Paris, Embaixador
Marcos Castrioto de Azambuja, MinistroConselheiro Gonalo Mello Mouro
Embaixada do Brasil em Pretoria, Embaixador
OtoAgripino Maia, Adido Cultural Jos
Ricardo Alves, Secretrio Vi I mar Couti n ho
Embaixada do Brasil em Tquio, Embaixador
Fernando Guimares Reis, Chefe do Setor
Cultural Andr Luis Venturini dos Santos
Embaixada do Brasil em Viena, Em baixador
Affonso Celso de Ouro-Preto, Ministro
Oswaldo E. B. Portella
Embaixada do Brasil na Haia, Embaixadora
Vera Pedrosa
Embaixada do Brasil no Mxico, Embaixador
Francisco de Paula de AlmeidaJunqueira,
Conselheiro Paulo de Tarso Jardim,
Adido Cultural
Emec Editores, Buenos Aires
Emmanuel Schwartz, Paris
nido Michellini, So Paulo
Epstein FamilyCollection, Washington D.e.
Erika Rdiger Diruf
Ernst Romers
Esberg Kunstmuseum
Estao Liberdade, So Paulo
Estate ofRobert Smithson, Nova Vork
Eugenia Volpi, So Paulo
Eurobrs
Evelyn Weiss, Colnia
Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da
. Universidade de So Paulo
Famlia Schageter Boulton, Caracas
Fany Feffer, So Paulo
Federica Matta, Paris
Fernanda de Toledo Arruda, So Pau lo
Fernando Checa Cremadez, Madri
Fernando Gutierrez, Nova Vork
Fernando Pini, So Paulo
Ferrar Strauss & Giroux, Nova Vork
553 Agradecimentos
Hank Hine
Hanna Hohl, Hamburgo
Hannema-de Stuers Fundatie, Heino-Wijhe
Hans Nobel
Hans-Ewald Schneider
Hara Museum
Harcourt Brace & Company, Orlando
Hasenkamp Internationale Transporte,
Colnia
Hayward Gallery, Londres
Hector Borrei Rivero Miranda, Mxico
HectorOllea, Austin
Heitor Reis, Salvador
Helen van der Meij
Hlene Faur, Paris
Helosa Lustosa, Rio de Janeiro
Henie Onstad Kunstsenter
Henry Ingberg, Bruxelas
Henry Loyrette, Paris
HenryV. Zimet, Nova Vork
Hrcules Barsotti, So Paulo
Herning Kunstmuseum, Herning
Herning Museum
Herta and Paul AmirCollection, Beverly Hills
Hester Dohmen
Hiroaki Fuji, Tquio
Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden,
Washington D.e.
Holger Reenberg
Hugh Davies, La Jolla
Inge Merete Kjeldgaard
Ingrid Melizn, Caracas
Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros da
Universidade de So Paulo
Instituto Moreira Salles, So Paulo
Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mxico
IPHAN, Minas Gerais
Irene Bizot, Paris
Irene Bradbury, Londres
Iris & B. Geral Cantor Foundation,
Los Angeles
Isaac Krasilchik, So Paulo
Isabelle Maeght, Paris
Isabelle Monod Fontaine, Paris
Isaias Melsohn, So Paulo
Isobel Johnstone, Londres
Itautec
Ivoncye Evelyn loschpe, So Paulo
J. Carter Brown, Washington D. e.
Jacqueline Rapmund, Roterd
Jacques Marcovitch, So Paulo
Jacques Vilain, Paris
Jacques Vistel, Paris
Jaime Garca Amaral
James T. Demetrion, Wash i ngton D. e.
Jan Bren, Estocolmo
JanHoet, Gent
Jan Van Branteghem, Morlanwelz
Janice Lebeau, Nova Vork
Japan Foundation, Tquio
Jay A. Levenson, Nova Vork
Jean Boghici, Rio de Janeiro
Jean Lvy, So Paulo
Jean Rouch, Paris
Jean-Michel Ribettes, Paris
Jeanne Hoel, Chicago
Jean-Pierre Angrmy, Paris
Jean-Pierre Beauvois, Paris
Jean-Pierre Cuzin, Paris
555 Agradecimentos
,tv1ahuteno e montagem
Guimar Morelo
Hildimar Gonalves F'r~.nc.isco
Agnaldo Tadeu Dias;;''
Carlos Eduardo Ferreira
Dorgival Cordeiro Costa
yr Salles B. Filh~:; .
Pereira Costa
lindomar Raimundo de S. Freitas
Walter Moacir R. Costa
Brilho Iluminaes ltda.
Francon Construes ltda.
Limpeza
Assistentes
DeniseVideira
Marllo Camargo
Const:?tvao
Angela Freita
AnnaluizaSarti
Educao
Maria F.
de.~RE~~~!nrll~ A%FII~::Iliii
Telefonistas
Assessoria de imprensa
Coordenao
Sergio Cr4so
Antro:p~flial e
incorporation
Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1990
trans. J.M.Cohen
Penguin books, Harmondsworth, 1955
Jacques Lacan,
dialtica da castra.qo", O seminrio, livro VII/-
a transferncia, (1960'-91)
Jorge Zahar Editor Ltda", So Paulo, 1992
Jacques Lacan, "Le transfert at la pulsion",
Le seminaire, livre XI-Ies quatre eorlcepts
fondamentaux de la psychanalyse (1,964)
J~cques
fllnf:i1mer(fJis da psicanlise
JQrge fahar Editor Ltda., So p'aulo, 1992
1. Nominao da total unio: o "prazer simples e nico", "a alegria sem mcula
e sem mistura, a perfeio dos sonhos,a realizao de todas as esperanas", '''a
magnificncia divina", : o repouso comum. Ou ainda a plena: satisfao da propriedade; eu sonho que gozamos um do outro segundo uma apropriao absoluta;
a uniofruitiva, a fruio do amor (palavra pedante? com sua frico inicial e seu
burburinho de vogais, o gozo falado assim fica acrescido deuma volpia oral; ao
dizer, gozo essa unio na boca).
Extrado de Roland Barthes, Fragmentos de um discurso amoroso, Rio de Janei ro: Francisco Alves, 1981, 2 a edio, traduzido do francs por Hortnsia dos Santos.
r. Nomination de l'union totale: c'est l' "unique et simple plaisir", "la joie sans
tache et sans mlange, la perfection des rves, le terme de tous les espoirs", "la
maginificence divine", c'est: le repos indivisoOu encore: le comblement de la proprit; je rve que nous jouissons l'un de l'autre selon une appropriation absolute;
c'est l'union fruitive, lafruton de l'amour (ce mot est pdant? avec son frottis initial et son ruissellement de voyelles aigues, la jouissance dont iI parle s'augmente
d'une volupt orale; le disant, je jouis de cette union dans Ia bouche).
Extrait de Roland Barthes, Fragments d'un dscours amoureux, Paris: ditions du
SeuiI, 1977.
[Unli ke the more limited En glish histories, the Portug uese histrias, much li ke the French histoires and the Spanish historias,
may identify both fi ctional and non-fictional texts, th us markin g at once the histori cal, the anecdotal and the literary. ]
I S8N 85-85298-08-
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