(São Paulo, Brazil)
As part of Project Season 2014, promoted by Paço das Artes, artist Érica Ferrari presents the series “Estratigrafia – Palácios” [Stratigraphy – Palaces”], on view since 7th July.
About the series, according to the artist:
“Estratigrafia – Palácios” comes from a research on the historical layers of the National Palaces, with special attention to those where struggles and violence took place, and that currently work as museums or cultural spaces.
These buildings have some architectural characteristics in common (sumptuous entrance halls and staircases, high ceilings, Greek-roman elements, etc) that suggest power statuses. What is interesting here is the relationship between the history of these constructions and their uses, in choosing the places for raising them (where some social or political movement was already present) as well as in the importance of their taking over in popular revolutions.
In this sense, these buildings are aligned by a monument condition, mixing the idea of heritage and glorification of facts and people, where they can perish with destruction enforced by new agents, unhappy with the previous meanings. Therefore, the transformation of these spaces into museums or cultural centres seems to amortise this glorification purpose, absolving them from their past and making them relevant merely for their aesthetics and age.
“Estratigrafia – Palácios”, by Érica Ferrari
On view through 7th September
Paço das Artes
Av. da Universidade, 1
Cidade Universitária
T 55 11 3814 4832
pacodasartes@pacodasartes.org.br