Catálogo_MACRS

at some point, be seen by the public. As critical subjects of our time, we
need to create new spaces and technologies to face the great challenges
and dilemmas which today call on us to reflect. A contemporary art
museum is seen not as an object, but as a process, as something under
permanent construction and interaction. A museum that is not only
built of exhibits, but also made of its exhibitions. A museum primarily
concerned with the formation of audiences. And for this action to be
effective, it needs to be built with the community. A museum made with
projects and partnerships transcends utopia to become a concrete reality.
A place that can be seen and reviewed, where artists and the public can
discover each other, recognizing themselves as equal in differences.
In this sense, this publication we have in hand represents a new dawn,
awakening the curiosity of those who want to learn something every day and
ask: what museum is this? What is this place proposing an exchange of views
and bringing us a panorama of the world of art? A collection of academic
and non-academic nature, polyphonic, multifaceted, prismatic, revealing the
complexity of contemporary Brazil. This is why we cannot disconnect from
our museums. If art is a way of relating to the world, to others, and, above
all, to ourselves, we can perceive it as a starting point in developing a more
sensitive and critical viewpoint, with autonomy and creativity. Cataloging
this collection, especially during this moment of the maintenance of
artistic spaces during a pandemic, a time in which we feel it impossible to
live without art and culture, means assuming a collective responsibility to
manage this heritage. Continuing to ignore this could be devastating.
To be the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rio Grande do Sul, we
need to awaken in people the desire to see, know, live and be art itself. Our
project needs to maintain, in addition to an artistic outlook, also a social one.
And more than just being in tune with reality, we need to live it and reinvent
it. Anywhere we go we can easily see creation, and when we see it, we need
to be involved with it. Therefore, creating and guaranteeing the existence
of this museum is more than just creating visibility for the visual arts, is a
political act in which we not only perceive what exists, but also recognize
and participate in its creation. You need to have your own file to preserve
memory, and MACRS is the home of contemporary art, it is our home,
awaiting us and asking where art belongs and where we belong. For this
reason, we thank the artists and friends of the Museum, the companies and
partner institutions who have, throughout these three decades, supported
the construction of this place of questioning. All the experiences leading
to this point have been valuable and rewarding learnings in the collective
effort to carry out this institutional mission. This cataloging project provided
us with a professional and emotional coexistence demonstrating the care
and creativity that keep this museum alive, coupled with the confidence of
those who work and fight in the fields of art and culture.
The Catalogue of works is the result of an independent project,
financed through funds from the Cultural Emergency Law, Aldir Blanc,
which courageously and responsibly provided all of the professionals who
participated in it with the same respect and appreciation the community
has for the various works of the artists who make up this collection.
Coordinated by cultural producer Vera Pellin, researcher and professor
Maria Amelia Bulhões and her group of fellows, together with the Museum’s
qualified team and assisted by specialists in the areas of architecture,
design, photography and the press, the catalogue highlights the totality of
MACRS works, making this heritage accessible through the website, from
now on occupying a prominent place in the life of the institution.
This publication is a strong indicator of the consistency of the
Museum, of rescuing the biography of the artists, donors, managers,
servants, interns and collaborators who have highlighted this history,
from its beginning until today, for future generations. Contemporary art
in RS is present in all the strength of its production, realized by the 1,813
works of 921 artists, most from the last four decades, varying according to
the plastic-visual languages ​and assuming multiple forms. The Museum
of Contemporary Art of Rio Grande do Sul has the honour of presenting
its Catalogue of works, an indispensable publication to everyone wanting
to know more about contemporary art. A collection which for the first
time will be made available in all its breadth; above all, it is the images
presented here that outline this story.
PATHS TRAVELLED
Maria Amelia Bulhões
How could we develop this project considering the Museum of
Contemporary Art of Rio Grande do Sul and its collection without
focusing on understanding some aspects of contemporary art? Art in
which all methods are equivalent in a complex coexistence, allowing
objects from different fields to be integrated into the artistic circuit
through unlimited strategies.
The artistic categories, long restricted to painting, sculpture and
architecture, were expanded in modern times, incorporating drawing,
printmaking and photography. However, the scenario has become much
more diverse, through the crossing of several categories into objects that
become difficult to classify. By cultivating approximations with the banal,
by replacing finished work with documents of the work in process and by
adopting hybridism as an aesthetic proposal, a new paradigm is established.
Artists seek more direct forms of interaction with the public, using everyday
objects and themes. Contradictorily, however, even when focused on
the involvement of the viewer, contemporary art needs the presence of
mediating devices (or instruments), such as monitors, texts on the wall or
books on the artist in the exhibit space. This is because the vast majority of
people recognize only the traditional paradigms of art and have difficulty
understanding what is being proposed in the contemporary context. It is
evident some artists desire and make efforts to leave the system, considering
it restrictive and asphyxiating of their creativity. However, by breaking with
the traditions of art history and aesthetics, by abandoning the shelter of
artistic categories and ripping the contours of a socially recognized space,
they move between transgression and assimilation. As Néstor García
Canclini says, “The history of contemporary art is a paradoxical combination
of behaviours dedicated to securing the independence of its field and others
obstinate in overcoming the limits that separate it” (CANCLINI, 2012, p. 23).
For the development of these analyzes on contemporary art in Rio
Grande do Sul, I use a conceptual model examining these practices
through a network of relationships, involving the artists, critics, gallery
owners and institutions in a complex art system 1 . As this production is
increasingly international through circuits of fairs, biennials, and large
institutions and yet, paradoxically, more local in the construction of
relationships with realities and private societies, I incorporate the ideas of
Bruna Fetter on art ecosystems:
...a series of connected, overlapping, interlocking, and
intersecting art systems having different scales, geographic
locations and levels of power to interfere with the system itself.
So, instead of thinking about a great art system, represented
by actors from the global mainstream and removed from local
realities, I defend the current use of the term in the plural, and
always local way... (FETTER, 2018, p. 112)
It is possible to perceive that the crisis of the great stories 2 supporting
the history of western art, of its European base, opened possibilities for
artists to create micro-narratives focused on their own universes and
histories, to account for the multiple subjectivities in the different worlds
dispersed throughout the terrestrial globe. However, in peripheral regions
such as Rio Grande do Sul, the situation of contemporary art is problematic
and complex, since the local ecosystem is rarefied, it does not have
a strong social presence, nor a solid market and lacks the consolidated
institutions to support artists. This structure does not enjoy much support
in society; art is considered by many a sign of status, not stimulating to
the imaginations of most people. A great ambiguity is created in the
relationships of contemporary artists to the different instances of this
circuit. How is it possible to criticize and subvert this fragile local ecosystem
without overthrowing it completely and thus failing to be recognized as
an artist? This is a complex question.
Thus, I would like to highlight that the development of contemporary
art in Rio Grande do Sul was a slow and discontinuous process, beginning
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