(this page was last updated in August 2021)
PIPA Prize 2019 Finalists’ Exhibition took place at Villa Aymoré for the very first time, from August 10th through September 28th. The show, which occupied the entire exhibition area, featured the works of Berna Reale, Cabelo, Guerreiro do Divino Amor and Jaime Lauriano. They are the four finalists who were selected by the PIPA’s Board among the 67 participating artists this year.
Throughout this decade, the Prize has maintained its mission of supporting and promoting Brazilian contemporary art. During this period some changes in the original format happened, always in search of improvements.
In order to give more equity and importance to the four finalists, and to contribute to the development and production of new work proposals, each will receive a donation from the PIPA Institute in the amount of R$ 30,000. The winner will receive an additional donation of R$ 30,000 for the development of a project of the choice of the artist. The project may be a publication, a commissioned work, a research trip, an artistic residency programme, a website, an exhibition, etc.
Amongst the finalists, Berna Reale is recognized as a key Brazilian performance artist. Also a forensic expert, she has produced a body of artwork consisting of performances, photographs, videos and installations, marked by a critical approach to the material, the symbolic aspects of violence, and the processes of silencing present in the most diverse segments of society.
The artist, from Belém, PA, was already a finalist in 2013 and PIPA Online winner in 2012. Reale has already exhibited at the Venice Biennale, 2015, at Beijing Photo Biennial, in 2018, at MAXXI (Italy), in 2017, among other shows.
Cabelo is a poet, musician and artist who considers his drawings, paintings, sculptures, songs, performances, videos and “instaurations” as manifestations of poetry. According to Luiz Camillo Osorio, “the various lines of force of his poetics – drawing, music, text, materials – have an expressive happening as their focus, always marked by the incisive presence of the body”. Cabelo was born in Cachoeiro de Itapemirim (Espírito Santo state), but since his childhood lives in Rio, where he is currently working on the project ‘Light with Darkness’: an exhibition, a concert and a musical album that blend together into a single work. His work takes place both in museums and on the street. He participated in the X Documenta in Kassel, the 26th and 33rd São Paulo Biennials, the 7th Mercosul Biennial, among others.
Guerreiro do Divino Amor holds a Master’s degree in Architecture and builds in his work a universe of science fiction from fragments of reality, using as means of expression mainly audio-visual techniques, publications and installations. His research explores “Superfictions,” a fictional world atlas that explores political, social and religious issues. The artist creates supposed theories related to the social and historical formation of some cities that interfere in the construction of the territory and the collective imaginary. Guerreiro has a Swiss father and Brazilian mother, born in Geneva, Switzerland, but lives and works in Rio. The finalist has won the Pampulha 2019 Scholarship, and his films have already been shown at national and international shows and festivals in Mexico, Singapore, Japan, Philippines and Spain.
Jaime Lauriano searches, through audiovisual pieces, objects and critical texts, to recover the social memory, to revise and re-elaborate the Brazilian collective history. Born in São Paulo, Lauriano shows how violent relations maintained between the institutions of power and State control – such as the police, prisons, embassies, borders – and subjects shape the subjective processes of society. The artist has already participated in Documenta12, Germany, in 2007, the Asim’Tria VI Festival, El Cultural in Peru and the 2nd Biennale of Young Art Russia in 2010.
For the PIPA Prize 2019 exhibition, the artists presented works in diverse media. Berna Reale, well known for her performances, this time will create an installation composed of small painted coffins. Cabelo will adapt its multimedia and multisensory “Light with Darkness” installation to the area at Villa Aymoré gallery, bringing fabrics, objects, video and music. Guerreiro do Divino Amor will make changes in his exhibition space in order to create an immersive experience in an environment with 3 different videos of his “Superfictions” research, and Jaime Lauriano will present, sculptures and 3 collages of a recent research on the routes of colonial traffic, an installation thought especially for the finalists’ exhibition.
“We were very excited to host the PIPA Prize Finalist’s exhibition”, mentioned Gabriela Davies, the curator for Villa Aymoré, “the prize and the Institute has built an important support for Brazilian Contemporary Art, and this was very clear from the over 700 guests visiting the exhibition’s opening event alone”.
See some photos of the opening event:
