Daniel Steegman Magrané “Teque-Teque”, 2011 – Video

Blind Field

Brazil has long been called “the country of the future.” From the dramatic construction of the ultramodern capital of Brasília in the late 1950s to the country’s status as an emerging economic powerhouse in the 21st century, Brazilian national identity is inextricably intertwined with the idea of its potentiality. Yet the Brazilian saying from which this idea derives is more complex, for it suggests that the notion of potentiality is itself something of a mirage, an illusion that blinds its citizens to the reality of the present day. In 1970, the French sociologist and philosopher Henri Lefebvre described the “blind field” as a transitional zone that lies between socio-economic modes of production and escapes comprehension within existing ideological paradigms. This exhibition takes up blindness as a critical category, a metaphor for the way in which the obstruction of perception can illuminate alternate modes of knowledge and experience. It focuses on a young generation of artists working in Brazil who offer a critical perspective on processes of transition within contemporary society, be it from the public space of the street to the virtual zone of the computer screen, or the scale of local communities to the structure of large-scale political action. These works speak to the complexity and heterogeneity of an art milieu that is both tied to the local and manifestly global in reach.

PROPOSED ARTISTS:
Jonathas de Andrade (b. 1982 Maceió, works in Recife), Tatiana Blass (b. 1979 São Paulo, works in São Paulo), Marcelo Cidade (b. 1978 São Paulo, works in São Paulo), Carolina Cordeiro, Marilá Dardot (b. 1973 Belo Horizonte, works in São Paulo), Marcius Galan (b. 1972 USA, works in São Paulo), Cao Guimarães (b. 1965 Belo Horizonte, works in Belo Horizonte), André Komatsu (b. 1978 São Paulo, works in São Paulo), Graziela Kunsch (b. 1979 Great Britain, works in São Paulo), Cinthia Marcelle (b. 1974 Belo Horizonte, works in Belo Horizonte), Lais Myrrha (b. 1974 Belo Horizonte, works in São Paulo), Nicolás Robbio (b. 1975 Argentina, works in São Paulo), Daniel Steegman Mangrané (b. Spain 1977, works in Rio de Janeiro), Rodrigo Matheus (b. 1974 São Paulo, works in São Paulo), Carlos Mélo (b. 1969 Riacho das Almos, works in Recife), Matheus Rocha Pitta (b. 1980 Tiradentes, works in Rio de Janeiro), Thiago Rocha Pitta (b. 1980 Tiradentes, works in São Paulo), Marcelo Sola (b. 1971 Goiânia, works in Goiânia), Marcio Shimabukuro (b. 1978 São Paulo, works in São Paulo), and Héctor Zamora (b. 1974 Mexico, works in São Paulo)

Organizer:
Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Curators:
Tumelo Mosaka, Curator of Contemporary Art
Prior to joining KAM, he was the Associate Curator of Exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum where he organized the exhibitions, Infinite Islands: Contemporary Caribbean Art (2007), Passing/Posing: Kehinde Wiley (2004); he was also co-curator of Open House: Working in Brooklyn (2004). In addition he organized the presentation of Alexis Rockman’s monumental mural Manifest Destiny (2004), Petah Coyne (2008) and co-organized @ Murakami (2008).

Previously, he worked for the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina where he co-curated the exhibition Evoking History (2002). Mosaka has organized several national and international exhibitions for other institutions such as the National Center for Afro-American Arts (2004) and the St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum (2003). He was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and currently lives and works in Champaign, Illinois.

Irene Small, assistant professor, Art History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Irene V. Small’s area of study includes Modern and Contemporary Art History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her current book project, Hélio Oiticica: Folding the Frame, focuses on the emergence of a participatory art paradigm in mid-1960s Brazil. The project has been supported by the Creative Capital and Andy Warhol Foundations, the Getty Research Institute, the Dedalus Foundation, and the Research Board of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include historical and neo-avant-gardes; modernism in a global context, particularly Brazil and Latin America; abstraction; problems of methodology and interpretation; relationality and the social implications of form. Small has published essays and criticism in several journals including Artforum, Art Asia Pacific, Getty Research Journal, Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, and Spectator. Forthcoming essays consider autopoiesis and the notion of medium specificity (for the anthology Contemporary Art: Themes and Histories, 1989–Present, Wiley-Blackwell) and intersections between the historiography of the avant-garde and ideologies of development in 1960s Brazil (for the London-based journal Third Text). She received her Ph.D. from Yale University in 2008.

Amongst the participating artists are PIPA nominees André Komatsu (2010 nominee and 2011 finalist), Carlos Mélo (2011 nominee), Cinthia Marcelle (2010 finalist and 2013 nominee), Daniel Steegman Mangrané (2012 and 2013 nominee), Héctor Zamora (PIPA 2011 nominee), Jonathas de Andrade (2011 finalist and 2010 nominee), Lais Myrrha (PIPA 2010, 2012 and 2013 nominee), Marcelo Cidade (PIPA 2010 and 2011 nominee), Marcelo Solá (PIPA 2010 nominee), Marcio Shimabokuro – Shima (PIPA 2013 nominee), Marilá Dardot (2010 and 2011 nominee), Marcius Galan (2010 finalist and PIPA 2012 winner), Matheus Rocha Pitta (2011 and 2013 nominee and 2012 finalist), Rodrigo Matheus (2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 nominee), Tatiana Blass (winner of PIPA 2011 and Popular Vote 2011, 2010 nominee) and Thiago Rocha Pitta (2010 and 2011 nominee and 2012 finalist).

Blind Field
June 7th to September 8th, 2013

Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University
East Circle Drive
East Lansing, MI 48824
Michigan

Brazil has long been called “the country of the future.” From the dramatic construction of the ultramodern capital of Brasília in the late 1950s to the country’s status as an emerging economic powerhouse in the 21st century, Brazilian national identity is inextricably intertwined with the idea of its potentiality. Yet the Brazilian saying from which this idea derives is more complex, for it suggests that the notion of potentiality is itself something of a mirage, an illusion that blinds its citizens to the reality of the present day. In 1970, the French sociologist and philosopher Henri Lefebvre described the “blind field” as a transitional zone that lies between socio-economic modes of production and escapes comprehension within existing ideological paradigms. This exhibition takes up blindness as a critical category, a metaphor for the way in which the obstruction of perception can illuminate alternate modes of knowledge and experience. It focuses on a young generation of artists working in Brazil who offer a critical perspective on processes of transition within contemporary society, be it from the public space of the street to the virtual zone of the computer screen, or the scale of local communities to the structure of large-scale political action. These works speak to the complexity and heterogeneity of an art milieu that is both tied to the local and manifestly global in reach.

PROPOSED ARTISTS:
Jonathas de Andrade (b. 1982 Maceió, works in Recife), Tatiana Blass (b. 1979 São Paulo, works in São Paulo), Marcelo Cidade (b. 1978 São Paulo, works in São Paulo), Carolina Cordeiro, Marilá Dardot (b. 1973 Belo Horizonte, works in São Paulo), Marcuis Galan (b. 1972 USA, works in São Paulo), Cao Guimarães (b. 1965 Belo Horizonte, works in Belo Horizonte), André Komatsu (b. 1978 São Paulo, works in São Paulo), Graziela Kunsch (b. 1979 Great Britain, works in São Paulo), Cinthia Marcelle (b. 1974 Belo Horizonte, works in Belo Horizonte), Lais Myrrha (b. 1974 Belo Horizonte, works in São Paulo), Nicolás Robbio (b. 1975 Argentina, works in São Paulo), Daniel Steegman Mangrané (b. Spain 1977, works in Rio de Janeiro), Rodrigo Matheus (b. 1974 São Paulo, works in São Paulo), Carlos Mélo (b. 1969 Riacho das Almos, works in Recife), Matheus Rocha Pitta (b. 1980 Tiradentes, works in Rio de Janeiro), Thiago Rocha Pitta (b. 1980 Tiradentes, works in São Paulo), Marcelo Sola (b. 1971 Goiânia, works in Goiânia), Marcio Shimabukuro (b. 1978 São Paulo, works in São Paulo), and Héctor Zamora (b. 1974 Mexico, works in São Paulo)

Organizer:
Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Curators:
Tumelo Mosaka, Curator of Contemporary Art
Prior to joining KAM, he was the Associate Curator of Exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum where he organized the exhibitions, Infinite Islands: Contemporary Caribbean Art (2007), Passing/Posing: Kehinde Wiley (2004); he was also co-curator of Open House: Working in Brooklyn (2004). In addition he organized the presentation of Alexis Rockman’s monumental mural Manifest Destiny (2004), Petah Coyne (2008) and co-organized @ Murakami (2008).

Previously, he worked for the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina where he co-curated the exhibition Evoking History (2002). Mosaka has organized several national and international exhibitions for other institutions such as the National Center for Afro-American Arts (2004) and the St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum (2003). He was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and currently lives and works in Champaign, Illinois.

Irene Small, assistant professor, Art History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Irene V. Small’s area of study includes Modern and Contemporary Art History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her current book project, Hélio Oiticica: Folding the Frame, focuses on the emergence of a participatory art paradigm in mid-1960s Brazil. The project has been supported by the Creative Capital and Andy Warhol Foundations, the Getty Research Institute, the Dedalus Foundation, and the Research Board of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include historical and neo-avant-gardes; modernism in a global context, particularly Brazil and Latin America; abstraction; problems of methodology and interpretation; relationality and the social implications of form. Small has published essays and criticism in several journals including Artforum, Art Asia Pacific, Getty Research Journal, Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, and Spectator. Forthcoming essays consider autopoiesis and the notion of medium specificity (for the anthology Contemporary Art: Themes and Histories, 1989–Present, Wiley-Blackwell) and intersections between the historiography of the avant-garde and ideologies of development in 1960s Brazil (for the London-based journal Third Text). She received her Ph.D. from Yale University in 2008.

Amongst the participating artists are PIPA nominees André Komatsu (2010 nominee and 2011 finalist), Carlos Mélo (2011 nominee), Cinthia Marcelle (2010 finalist and 2013 nominee), Daniel Steegman Mangrané (2012 and 2013 nominee), Jonathas de Andrade (2011 finalist and 2010 nominee), Marilá Dardot (2010 and 2011 nominee), Marcius Galan (2010 finalist and PIPA 2012 winner), Rodrigo Matheus (2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 nominee), Tatiana Blass (winner of PIPA 2011 and Popular Vote 2011, 2010 nominee) and Thiago Rocha Pitta (2010 and 2011 nominee and 2012 finalist).

Blind Field
June 7th to September 8th, 2013

Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University
East Circle Drive
East Lansing, MI 48824
Michigan