Gustavo Torrezan

About the work:

“Rádio Livre”
The “Rádio Livre” project consists on building a radio station, assuming we are free to use air (and its spectrum), and a transmitted wave (frequency) as well as knowing how to make a program. It works as a political and affective device for exchange and collective learning, amplifying voices and speeches. It also works as a way to contest concessions system for radio stations.

“Comensalidade”
“Comensalidade” is an independent wi-fi platform for sharing files. It allows sending and receiving files of common interest.

“Convivialidad”
“Convivialidade” takes a proposal created by the philosopher Ivan Illich as a starting point to reflect on the ability to promote  the integration of the dimensions of production and care . Therefore, cultivating ways of learning that happen outside the institutionalized modes of knowledge (or education).

“estado”
A worker from a third party, hired by the State, uses his break time to work and complement his low salary. He makes the pole that holds the official flag of São Paulo State, which is not in its usual space. The gigantic flag gets a knot so not to touch the floor. The image of the reduced flag alludes to the actions of government at the same time that it stiffs what Pierre Clastres said about the relationship of the indigenous people and the State: “more against the State than no State.”

“Americano”
“Americano” stems from the juxtaposition of tensions to trigger the overlap of conflicts. A glass that usually contains liquid contains instead dry soil, alluding to the conditions of many cities, such as São Paulo. A city built in the middle of many rivers suffers from the lack of water. On the other hand, the question of land is also posed. Not any land, but a small repressed portion that came from the Guarani people from Jaraguá Peak, in São Paulo.

“Abolir o Futuro Planejado e Prometido” (“Abolishing the promised planed future”)
Built with precarious, easily disposable materials, he work sustains the typical frailty  of anti-monuments. Part of the barricades built by people in manifestations. Two basis made with used tires sustained two wood sticks that show, in the height and the perspective of a person, the registry of a small part of the Flag Monument when it was the stage for the indigenous people manifestation against what the monument represents and the always utopic promised future to the population.

“Bandeirante”
The work starts from the use of popular materials to create an association between two moments in history: the recent patriotic manifestations after the second mandate of the first elected president woman, where people dressed a yellow soccer team T-shirt. And the “Bandeirantismo”, when colonizers used horses to ravage the original people. The pole that holds the T-shirt on top makes a straight line with urucum (grinded and in seeds). This alludes to the purple Paulista (from São Paulo) soil torn by those who want to superimpose a culture over another.

“Sertão Sul”
The work reflects on the developmentalist “raid” to implement the idea of a modern Brazil which enters and reconfigures its own territory. By adding temporary materials and symbols, many times not connected to each other, provokes the tension that marked the depiction of parts of the country: mandacaru (cactus type of plant) from sertão (draught) gives support to electricity  and the tire surrounds the clay vase.

“Invenire”
Invenire is a Latin word that originated the words invention and inventory. Considering the common origin of the word, procedures were made attentive to the aspect of theft of art in collections. An inventory of stolen art was made. The artist makes some curatorial procedures to choose art to be exhibited, nevertheless there is no artwork. Instead, he created another way of showing them by displaying their technical information in a data sheet, as well as the depiction of the wall dimensions, so to create active spaces.

“Herança”
The city transformations and the constant overlap of histories is the scenario for “Herança” (heritage). The demolition of old buildings or less profitable ones and consequently gentrification are the questions implied in the work. Its research started with the photograph of the building to be demolished followed by the gathering of its remnants, then attached to a canvas. This causes a disruption between the protected bi-dimensional record and the stone fixed by a steel cable, pressed against the framed glass.

“Lição”
Every flag, as a nation’s official symbol, goes through a particular procedure to be kept safe. The folding is done so to emphasize  aspects indicating sovereignty, although the same is not made in governance procedures, which hold strong standards. By associating two perspectives the work presents São paulo State flag following the official procedures of the American flag.

“Sem título” (Desviantes)
The research comes from studies of social museology and community museums in Ceará, so to problematize the endless hegemonic speeches as well as the possibility of an institution to deviate from its usual role. From the erasure of traditional museum posters that are sold as souvenirs so to be framed as works of art, it was presented variations for the framing and the use of museums as strategic device to write a political counter-history.

“Dobra a força que vaza use uma torção a favor de um novo caminho”
The work stems from the reflection about visual syntax – vanishing point and frame – in relation to the organic line, the latter an experiment proposed by Lygia Clark in which a drawing is created from writing, in between the frame, referring to the translucent glass, and its surroundings.
A study about limits and on-site production. It was a common practice to use salt as a weapon so as to null a field. The salt was thrown onto the soil in order to make it acid and infertile, therefore, people would move away from the area. This act was performed by slaves who, in their majority, worked in sugar mills, then transforming them in salt mills.
The very same product, salt, may be used in a different context. When a person feels unwell, dizzy, weak and about to faint, salt can be used to help increase the blood pressure.
The proposal is to get a salt stone* which can be swallowed, or better, dissolved under the tongue anytime during the trip, when desired or needed. If the salt is not needed, it can be put as closest as possible to the Guantanamo Bay.
*Pedra do Sal [literally ‘Salt Stone’] is also the name of a place in Rio de Janeiro where there are remains of quilombolas who organize festivities such as samba and choro circles.

“Tecidades”
The intervention comes from an invitation I make to another artist to visit Campinas. I put plaques wherever I took my guest all the way to the exhibition, so anyone could make the same path to get to the exhibition. The work was a way of introducing the city as an affective cartography and a social fabric. The experience of being introduced to someone and introducing someone to a place was exhibited in a video format.

“Devir #3”
An industrial pallet sustaining a plastic chair and a floating dog drifting in a river. The work alludes to a short story by Guimarães Rosa, “A Terceira Margem do Rio” (The Third River Bank); its absence and the constantly changing river flow. A metaphor about life passage and the origin of Piracicaba city, that received the name of the river which cuts its territory. This work also offers a tribute to the popular artist, Elias dos Bonecos, who made art interventions by the Piracicaba river banks.

“|in|site”
A small frame is put inside an art catalogue with the saying: “from its affects and percepts elect something to indicate as art, frame it, register and send it to the email.”. A database was made from the material the participants had sent and it was exhibited.

“Catedral”
During a week, at the same hour a drawing was made at the window in the exhibition space. As the days went by the drawings were overlapped creating different layers and perspectives.  

“Demarche”
The intervention starts from the selection of places identified as “art works” in the city of Campinas, hence an exhibition throughout the city. In the empty museum there is a big display showing the city map and where the art works selected for the “Salão de Arte Contemporânea de Campinas”. There was also an invitation to visit the Salão in the format of a small book. “Demarche” is a direct reference to the conversations between Lygia Clark and Helio Oiticica who used this term to think about the way and process of their own works.