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BIOGRAPHY

Rubens Mano was born in São Paulo, 1960. Lives in São Paulo 2008 Contemplação suspensa, Projeto Octógono, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo; Espaços Reversíveis, Museu Cruz e Souza, Florianópolis, Brazil 2006 Espaço Aberto/ Espaço Fechado: Sites for sculpture in modern Brazil, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, England 2005 Permeáveis, Museu Victor Meirelles, Florianópolis 2004 Tudo entre nós, Galeria Casa Triângulo, São Paulo; 14th Biennale Of Sydney Selected Bibliography GARBELOTTI, Raquel, “Informal encounter” IN: Reason and Emotion (cat.) Sydney: Biennale of Sydney, 2004, pp. 142-145; GARCIA DOS SANTOS, Laymert, “Un arte del espacio y de su producción” IN: Parangolé: Fragmentos desde los 90 en Brasil, Portugal y España, Valladolid, Museo Patio Herreriano de Arte Contemporáneo Español, 2008, pp. 276-281; MANO, Rubens, “Um lugar dentro do lugar”, Urbânia nº 3, Editora Pressa, São Paulo, 2008, pp. 101-111.

INTERVIEW

Maria Lind: An interesting aspect of your work is how you tap into already existing infrastructures. How will that play into your work for the 28th Bienal de São Paulo?

Rubens Mano: From the outset I’ve thought that the place of the work – a video and the space built for its projection – should appear as an element both annexed to and “independent” of the institutional structure. The video shows nocturnal images of São Paulo, such that there are no traces of human presence on the streets, while the space where it will be shown was conceived as the place of its symbolic construction. The images offer us part of the visible reality of a Latin American metropolis (streets, buildings, features of urbanization…), removed from the defining action of its meaning (the movement of its agents). As such, just as the video presents the urban condition in a state of suspension, it also comments on the distance and exteriority of who sees it.

Maria Lind: How do you think about the Bienal and its amazing building in relation to the specific urban structure of São Paulo?

Rubens Mano: I find the relationship between the aims of the Bienal (a space for reflection on and the diffusion of contemporary art) and the fact that it is still enclosed almost exclusively in the building designed by Oscar Niemeyer curious. In a certain way, for me, it’s as if we were drawing a parallel between the crisis faced by the institution and the crisis represented by this model of architecture. When it started to be held in the Pavilhão das Indústrias [Industries Pavilion]* in 1957, the Bienal de São Paulo also signaled its intention to align itself with a discussion concerning the existing correspondences between the different manifestations in the field of culture. And the transfer of the exhibition to the recently inaugurated Ibirapuera Park, one of the most prominent landmarks of modern architecture in São Paulo, only emphasized such ambitions. After a relatively long time, the discussion surrounding visual arts was installed more definitively in the city’s social fabric, gesturing to the importance of and need for the resignification of other urban spaces, contrary to the general movement manifested by “our” architecture. My approach here thus questions whether this building, marked by its many architectural regulations and “patrimonial” obstacles, should continue to be the sole location for the manifestation of the Bienal. I don’t think the symbolism of its residence, or the imposing nature of the architecture in which it is held is in check. We should, however, consider the fact that if the intention of this discussion about the future of the exhibition is to take a more incisive and transformative stance; thus, its outcomes cannot remain alien to the fact that it is generated in a place so full of restrictions and impediments for certain actions of art. The reflection fostered and initiated in this edition of the Bienal strikes me as a big chance to leave the position of merely acknowledging the contingencies of this exhibition space and embrace the decision of establishing another spatial relationship with the city.

Maria Lind: How does this relate to your most recent presentations of work?

Rubens Mano: One of the main aspects of my project concerns the way in which the actions incorporate the different constitutive levels of the place for which they were conceived. It follows that this type of proposition provokes a kind of friction (functional, conceptual, operational…) between the process of producing the work and the place in which it is shown. In this sense, the proposed work for the Bienal presents a field of action very close to other works produced this year (such as Espaços reversíveis [Reversible Spaces] – Museu Histórico de Santa Catarina in the Palácio Cruz e Souza and Contemplação suspensa [Suspended Contemplation] – Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo), because, like them, it indicates a discussion of the limits in the mediation between artist and institution.

* Original name of the pavilion that houses the Bienal de São Paulo.


Maria Lind is a curator, currently working as the director of the graduate program at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College – Annandale-on-Hudson.

PROJECTS - 28TH SAO PAULO BIENAL

Projects with updated content