Priscila Lena Farias / Anna Calvera Marcos da Costa ... - Blucher

ANASTASSAKIS, Zoy
comes from a series of scattered movements that try to insert
industrial design practice and teaching in the Brazilian cultural
context.
In 1963, Lina lives the climax of a stage that begins in 1958, with
her move to Bahia. Lina, who had arrived in Brazil in 1947, settling
down in São Paulo, starts, in 1958, a season in Bahia, that lasts
until 1964, when, due to the military coup d’état, she is forced to
leave her position at MAMB. Until 1977, Lina experiences moments
of isolation, which even include jail time and some time spent in
exile. Her definitive return, which happens in 1977 with the beginning
of the work at SESC Pompéia, had been rehearsed since 1975,
when she sets up the exhibit “Repassos” at MASP. Therefore, while,
in 1963, Lina experiences a moment of professional accomplishment,
where, in a new context, she is successful in a series of actions
that are different from the ones she took part in, throughout
the 1950’s, in São Paulo; between 1975 and 1977, she tries to get
back in the scene, after a period that she was forced to stay away
from it.
Aloisio, on the other hand, also experiences, in 1963 and 1976/77,
two very distinct moments. In 1963, he was in Rio, where he had
opened, three years before, a design studio, and joins the group
of professionals that first create ESDI. In 1975, he starts moving
closer to issues related to cultural policies, which would lead, in
1979, to his appointment to be the president of IPHAN. Therefore,
if at first he starts of as a designer, later on, an acknowledged
professional, he starts alternating his time in the studio and the
development of projects that end up bringing him gradually closer
to management of public cultural policies.
In the 1950’s, Lina is involved, as a lead character in the attempt
to implement design in Brazil, attempts made amidst the universe
of modern art and culture, still considerably interwoven. Aloisio, in
turn, hovers over the modern art universe, but in universes unattached
from the centers from which Concretism slowly enters,
movement which Lina joins, at first. If then, Aloisio is a little out
of place in face of the main axis of universalist modernism insinuated
here, it does not keep him from joining, still as a plastic artist,
from the modern arts circuit, in which Lina is inserted, so much so
that, according to what was discovered, they possibly met in the
50’s, in art events, probably in São Paulo.
In 1957, however, Aloisio is in touch with the North-American
Design, which leads him to a rupture with his artistic identity,
something that becomes stronger after he visits the construction
of Brasilia, in 1959, and with his resulting move to Rio, where he
opens up a design studio. Simultaneously, after failing to conquer
a position at the FAU-USP, and witnessing as her project for MASP
is interrupted due to a political disagreement between Chateaubriand
and the São Paulo government, Lina leaves São Paulo, seeking
to develop, in Bahia, another proposal of cultural action that, while
still organized around a modern museum, tries to create new acting
parameters, thus rehearsing for the development of a modernity
project, which some critics named hybrid.
Between 1957 and 1960, however, it is possible to identify a
movement in their trajectories that is caused by frustration with
a context in which they were inserted towards a new configuration,
in new contexts, of ideas that, up until that point, that been
dispersed. This way, at that time, both of them formulated ideas
that would be milestones in their trajectories in the course of their
next years.
The military coup d’état, which transforms the socio-political
structure in Brazil, affects Lina and Aloisio in very different ways.
While she is forced to retreat, rebuilding her field of action, now
limited to cooperation with theater and films, and, thus, far away
from bolder attempts; he starts a series of works in a joint effort
with government bodies. Therefore, while, to Aloisio those years
meant professional growth, to Lina the years following the military
coup would be years of survival.
Between the years of 1975 and 1979, which by no coincidence
was also the time of a gradual political opening, Lina and Aloisio
start towards new professional stages. He, who has just left a successful
career in the field of graphic design to the public management
of cultural policies, which leads to his appointment to the
Department of Education Culture Secretariat, in 1980; she comes
from a long period of forced retreat to return to action, now leaning
towards programs such as the project of SESC Pompéia and, later,
in the 1980’s, in conjunction with the government of Sao Paulo and
Salvador.
The 1980’s are marked by Aloisio’s death, and by Lina’s cooperation
with cities managed by politicians associated to left-wing parties,
such as Mário Kertész, in Salvador, and Luiza Erundina, in São
Paulo. In 1992, ten years after the former dies, the Italian passes
away too. However, the issues raised by them are still open, and
their propositions still inspire discussions about other possibilities
for Design and for the country.
References
Anastassakis, Z. 2007. Dentro e fora da política oficial de preservação
do patrimônio cultural no Brasil: Aloisio Magalhães e o Centro Nacional
de Referência Cultural. Master Thesis. PPGAS/MN. UFRJ. Rio de Janeiro.
Anastassakis, Z. 2011. Triunfos e impasses: Lina Bo Bardi, Aloisio Magalhães
e a institucionalização do design no Brasil. Doctorate Thesis. PP-
GAS/MN. UFRJ. Rio de Janeiro.
Borges, A. (org.). 2010. Pavilhão das culturas brasileiras: Puras misturas.
São Paulo: Terceiro Nome.
Bourdieu, P. 1996. Razões práticas: sobre a teoria da ação. Campinas:
Papirus.
Cara, M. S. 2010. Do desenho industrial ao design no Brasil – uma bibliografia
crítica para a disciplina. São Paulo: Blucher.
Elias, N. 2000. Os estabelecidos e os outsiders: sociologia das relações
de poder a partir de uma pequena comunidade. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar.
Design Frontiers: Territiories, Concepts, Technologies 500