BIOGRAPHY
Los Super Elegantes was created in 1995 by Milena Muzquiz & Martiniano Lopez-Crozet. Based in Los Angeles
2008 Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo
2007 Playback, Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris
2006 Los Super Elegantes/ Mike Kelley/ Ann Magnuson, SASSA, Los Angeles
Selected Bibliography BUCHANAN, Kyle, “Los Super Elegantes”,
The Advocate, April 22, 2008, p. 42; LISSONI, Andrea, “Netmage”,
Alias Supplement, Il Manifesto, January 26, 2008, pp. 6-7; MARTINAZZOLI, Luca, “Per un Futuro Tropical-Noise”,
Rolling Stone Italy, January, 2008, p. 147.
INTERVIEW
Luisa Duarte: What will you be presenting to the audience at the 28th Bienal de São Paulo?
Martiniano: It will have elements of theater, musicals and film. The main characters are Ivo Mesquita, Gisele Bündchen and the flip- flop manufacturing company Havaianas. We decided on the plot of the play after reading about the controversy behind the curatorial approach for this year’s Bienal and after reading a comment at frieze.com about the fiscal problems the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo is going through. I took bits and pieces of information from various interviews with Ivo and articles written about the curatorial approach and believed that, despite of what real link existed between the financial situation and the absence of physical artworks, two main ideas became really appealing to me: one was the allegation of a major financial crisis and an artist’s suggestion that a major audit be done on the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo. The other idea, which is what we based the plot of our performance on, was that precisely because of this financial crisis the Bienal was forced to draft a manifesto that would act as a justification for “the void” and clear all suspicions of bankruptcy. We used these two facts as the basis for creating our work. The project is still in progress.
Luisa Duarte: The description of the work planned for the 28th Bienal involves at the same time critical content and humor, irreverence of an entertainment nature. In your work, is there this concern about joining these spheres – a live, eloquent, pop communication – without losing sight of a critical, I would say, almost ironic voltage?
Milena: Our idea for the Bienal is to use the situation the institution finds itself in as a landscape for a theme in our play. It is concept specific. We are planning on performing it in Portuguese, which we will have to learn before the end of November; this will be a way to really integrate and become our characters, which are Brazilian. Method acting. Although people tend to jump to irony as a constant in our work we feel that we are simply translating a moment connecting to the things that surround us, there is always a possibility that through our misinterpretations or translated imitations we end up in some sort of comedy, but this is a comment about how we (in general, people) receive information, and finally create strict judgments and defined beliefs, even sometimes inventing realities that are reflective only of ourselves instead of the critical situation we intend to comment on. We are open to all possibilities.
Martiniano: We’ve never been interested in irony as an artistic trope. But we can certainly appreciate the absurdity and humor that often exist as the result of very serious endeavors. I grew up watching sexy comedy skits on Argentinean TV. They were at the same time crass, political and irreverent. The comedians often used the tension created by the disruption that happens when the actor forgets his / her lines, tries to patch up an unintended mishap or is essentially too drunk to act. I like to think of our performances as a whole made out of layers like gestures, moments, a dance step and usually some sort of script: not as pure critique, but more like painting. In terms of criticality, which is an element of our performance, the color of a panel hanging over the stage is no less important than any other aspect of the work.
Luisa Duarte is an art critic, independent curator and professor of the Visual Arts course of the Faculdade Santa Marcelina in São Paulo. She lives in São Paulo.
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