Avant-Gard is not dead, the title chosen by Marcelo Cidade for his third solo show at Vermelho, refers to the literal meaning of the expression avant-gard, in French. Originally, the expression denoted the row of soldiers that precedes a regiment moving forward in battle. The phrase Is not dead, which completes the title, refers to the punk movement and the widespread statement that the movement has not died – punk is not dead.
Together in a single phrase, these two references summarize the content of the works featured in this solo show, which aim to question the modernist ideals imported in large part from the 20th-century European vanguards and applied in a disordered way in various sectors of Brazilian culture.
in the beginning of 1960s, modernism – although still underway in this country, especially in the field of architecture – was considered dead. Avant-Gard is not dead provides a non-nostalgic view of this period, appropriating some of the icons – such as Helio Oiticica’s Projeto Ambiental [Environmental Project] and Lina Bo Bardi’s architecture – to suggest not a resumption but rather a revision of the ideals that pervaded the field of the arts at that time.
In the sculpture Despropriação [Disappropriation], Cidade refers to the Frei Egídio chair created by Lina Bo Bardi in partnership with Marcelo Ferraz and Marcelo Suzuki, and reconstructs it using pink Maderite, a material typically used in the fencing around large construction projects. However, Cidade removes any functionality from the object by fastening its joints together with fragile pins that will not bear a person’s weight, creating a trap for the “participative” public. A similar dynamic appears in the sculpture Abuso de Poder [Abuse of Power], created originally for the XIV Sculpture Biennial of Carrara (Italy). Abuso de Poder is a mousetrap made from Carrara marble, a trap which, like Despropriação, questions the idea of the viewer’s participation and intervention in the artistic object.
The concrete typically used in modernist buildings and which appears in various of Cidade’s previous works is also present in the installation Triste Tropicália [Sad Topicalia], created with concrete tubes like those used as the support of samambaia ferns in various Brazilian middle-class residences in the 1980s. Concrete blocks are also used as the basis for the photo installation Modelo de Superfície [Surface Model], in the series of drawings Condomínio [Condominium], and in the concrete of the ticket windows that are part of the six photographs of the polyptych Espaço Cego [Blind Space].
By means of different aesthetic operations, Avant-Gard is not dead suggests a revision of modernism based on the lexicon imported from Europe and applied in Brazil. With these procedures, Cidade reinvents forms of language constituting new spaces and giving rise to possible heterotopias that bring art and life closer together.
Avant-Gard is not dead, the title chosen by Marcelo Cidade for his third solo show at Vermelho, refers to the literal meaning of the expression avant-gard, in French. Originally, the expression denoted the row of soldiers that precedes a regiment moving forward in battle. The phrase Is not dead, which completes the title, refers to the punk movement and the widespread statement that the movement has not died – punk is not dead.
Together in a single phrase, these two references summarize the content of the works featured in this solo show, which aim to question the modernist ideals imported in large part from the 20th-century European vanguards and applied in a disordered way in various sectors of Brazilian culture.
in the beginning of 1960s, modernism – although still underway in this country, especially in the field of architecture – was considered dead. Avant-Gard is not dead provides a non-nostalgic view of this period, appropriating some of the icons – such as Helio Oiticica’s Projeto Ambiental [Environmental Project] and Lina Bo Bardi’s architecture – to suggest not a resumption but rather a revision of the ideals that pervaded the field of the arts at that time.
In the sculpture Despropriação [Disappropriation], Cidade refers to the Frei Egídio chair created by Lina Bo Bardi in partnership with Marcelo Ferraz and Marcelo Suzuki, and reconstructs it using pink Maderite, a material typically used in the fencing around large construction projects. However, Cidade removes any functionality from the object by fastening its joints together with fragile pins that will not bear a person’s weight, creating a trap for the “participative” public. A similar dynamic appears in the sculpture Abuso de Poder [Abuse of Power], created originally for the XIV Sculpture Biennial of Carrara (Italy). Abuso de Poder is a mousetrap made from Carrara marble, a trap which, like Despropriação, questions the idea of the viewer’s participation and intervention in the artistic object.
The concrete typically used in modernist buildings and which appears in various of Cidade’s previous works is also present in the installation Triste Tropicália [Sad Topicalia], created with concrete tubes like those used as the support of samambaia ferns in various Brazilian middle-class residences in the 1980s. Concrete blocks are also used as the basis for the photo installation Modelo de Superfície [Surface Model], in the series of drawings Condomínio [Condominium], and in the concrete of the ticket windows that are part of the six photographs of the polyptych Espaço Cego [Blind Space].
By means of different aesthetic operations, Avant-Gard is not dead suggests a revision of modernism based on the lexicon imported from Europe and applied in Brazil. With these procedures, Cidade reinvents forms of language constituting new spaces and giving rise to possible heterotopias that bring art and life closer together.
