Guto Lacaz

(this page was last updated in February 2020)

São Paulo, Brazil, 1948.
Lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil.

PIPA 2016 nominee.

In 1978 wins the award “Objeto Inusitado – Arte Aplicada” (Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil) and starts his career as a visual artist. In 1982 has his first solo exhibition “Idéias Modernas”, at São Paulo Gallery (São Paulo, Brazil). In 1983 the “Eletro Performance” at the 18th São Paulo Biennial, and in 1986 “Eletro Esfero Espaço”, at the exhibition “A Trama do Gosto”. In 1989 floating ensemble “Auditório para questões delicadas”, at the Ibirapuera lake and “Cosmos – um passeio no infinito”, at MASP (São Paulo, Brazil).

In 2014 participates in the 3rd Bahia Biennial with the work “Saravá, Espiral Cinética” for the Elevator Lacerda (Salvador, Brazil). Inaugurates his second public sculpture: “Ulysses, o elefante biruta”, at the Pedreira do Chapadão Park in Campinas, Brazil. In 2015 presents the kinetic sculpture “pororoca” at the exhibition “As Margens dos Mares”, at Sesc Pinheiros, the urban intervention “ALEX ALEX”, at CCSP and the performance “Ludo Voo” at the University Centre Maria Antonia (São Paulo, Brazil).

Website: www.gutolacaz.com.br

Video produced by Matrioska Filmes exclusively for PIPA 2016:

Artworks

Critical Texts

“Guto Lacaz Art and Humour” by Regina Silveira

Guto Lacaz is a distinctive and unique presence in the Brazilian contemporary art scene.
His multimedia approach to subjects that deal with technological paraphernalia is intelligent, ironic and conceptually consistent.
lt is also coherent with the variety of places, and situations where Guto presents his works: from galleries and museums to the theatre, public spaces and television channels.
I really appreciate the irony of his installations, where he’s radically and poetically transforms the uses and functions of daily objects.
The performances are for sure among his more strong and original accomplishments.
In them Guto manipulates a lot of incredible objects and presents himself as an amazing mixture of an artist- actor. inventor and magician.
*
Regina Silveira – Artist – Professor PHD – Universidade de São Paulo – Brazil.

“Lacaz transforms relationships in the big city” by Marcelo Coelho

Walking across the Viaduto do Chá (a viaduct in São Paulo) has never been a pleasant experience. The worst beggars in the city – in other words, the illest, with the most striking physical deformities – are concentrated there next to the very sad street vendors. Hence, artist Guto Lacaz has installed an immense periscope at the Eletropaulo building. Everything changed since last Saturday. Sparse reactions were produced. Guto Lacaz’s periscope connects the ground floor to the building’s fifth floor, where other works of art await the visitor. You are on the street and can see, thanks to a gigantic optical device, the people in the building. It initially seems to be a mirror. The group of people on the ground floor is also looking at the image of a group of people. The people who are in the fifth floor of the building are the ones who have gathered, as you have on the street, to see themselves, at the same time different and the same.

I came out of the experience feeling happier, lighter and more human. Each person on the ground floor feels like communicating with the group watching him/her from the fifth floor. Beautiful events are produced. Someone risks a wave to those who are on the ground floor. The wave is acknowledged and replied. A homeless kid on the ground floor asks for a cigarette from the group on the fifth floor. No problem: someone throws the cigarette and it tumbles from above. Other kids, on the fifth floor, pretend to be committing suicide with tragic gestures. The trick is not difficult. They lower themselves, thus escaping from the mirror’s visual field; those on the ground floor believe that the person has disappeared or jumped. One might pause to think about the subtle paradox involving this work of art by Guto Lacaz. The periscope enables an attempt to communicate between people who do not know each other – while it prevents any form of verbal communication. You cannot hear anything that is said on the fifth floor: you can only communicate through gestures, like children that wave from the back window of a car and we respond.

Childishness, of course, constitutes the key for Guto Lacaz’s work. It would be unfair to classify him as a “plastic artist”, a word that applies to all types of deception. He is a type of a mad inventor. The gadgets he builds are not however, only an exercise in performance humour, of this heavy and sinister sarcasm that afflicts avant-garde when irony and destructiveness is intended. What is best about Guto Lacaz is that he knows how to maintain the gratuitous purity, the childishness in his work. And in childishness, there is a vocation for humanity. That’s why we say, “all people are born equal”, in other words; they are equal before society imposes class differences. Differences that Guto Lacaz dissipates in his work, by making all of us become dazzled children, waving to each other through his periscope, in the distance miraculously overcome without words, between those below and those on the fifth floor. And the whole miracle is performed without words. In this sense, the utopia of “plastic arts” comes to life. Of course that in an ephemeral manner – but a transfiguration of personal relationships in the City was accomplished, by means of this artefact, Guto Lacaz. Georg Simmel, the German sociologist, commented on the extreme inhumanity that exists in large metropolis. People are crowded in buses, are closer than they’ve ever been, but they do not exchange words, they don’t communicate, a perverse and impersonal union, therefore. We are all more together than we have ever been and we become separate in this intimacy.

The event promoted by the state’s Department of Culture intends to show, on the contrary, the “flows” of the city. The commercial exchanges, traffic, mobility, passage. Lacaz radicalized this idea of “passage” and of flow making the transportation of people through a periscope instantaneous and magical. There would still be a lot to talk about the exhibition. Many things at the City Art exhibition deserve to be commented. Of course, I didn’t like everything. Despite this, reserving space for another article, I preferred to only talk about Guto Lacaz. Is he nonsensical, mad hatter, random? Perhaps he is all these things. But, if he can manage a feat such as his installation on the Viaduto do Chá and he delights us with it because his madness isn’t really that nonsensical and the gratuitousness he produces, elevates us, like a periscope, instantaneous and graceful, to heights which, who knows, maybe our own: the heights that exist when we are simply human.

P.S. 1 – In a compliment to gratuitousness, I paid tribute to Guto Lacaz. Join the first letter of each paragraph and Guto Lacaz’s periscope will appear. It was a silly, inconsequential exercise, but after all, Guto himself gives us the right to become children every now and then.
P.S. 2 – Silvio Lancellotti sent me a very nice fax agreeing with what I said about Pavarotti, Carreras and Domingo in the “Ilustrada” (column) of September 16. He corrected as to the origins of the “Peach Melba”; details on page 125 of his book “The Classic Kitchen” (Art Editora), which every person of culture should read.
P.S. 3 – A reader called my attention as to a typing mistake in my article of August 19 about Rudolph Valentino. The movie that I was commenting (“The Eagle“) was not based on an unfinished novel by “Punchio”, but of Puchkin (1799-1837). Caio Fernando Abreu published in the “Caderno 2” column of the “O Estado de S. Paulo” (newspaper), an article in which he reveals that he is HIV Positive. The article, secretly announced in two previous chronicles, is very beautiful. It avoids any facilitation
on the theme: it isn’t tragic, it isn’t sensationalistic, there is no self-commiseration, it does not ask for pity. It is the word of a dignified and brave person; it is the text of a writer and a man.

“The Mage Lacaz” by Paulo Bomfim

Guto Lacaz is above all a magician. A magician or a mage? He deals with shapes, and at the same time, the shapes deal with him. I know that he is a dream weaver. He has the terrible innocence of the genius and of the angels that rebel against routine. During the Middle Ages he would have caused perplexity to the doctors of the Sorbonne and would be able to cross the fires of the Inquisition in the bilge of his inventions. During Romanticism he would be the man of the barricades or an inhabitant of supernatural domains. He possesses a curious symbiosis of mysticism and science. He deals with the elements with the religiosity of an alchemist and the inquisitive spirit of quantum mechanics. Sometimes he is the troubadour of the lost castle; other times, he is the boy who invents, in his backyard, the trap to capture clouds. He takes life seriously in a ludic manner. He knows that we are chess pieces and offers a ring to the hand that plays with our fate. This is my friend Guto Lacaz.

Curriculum

Education
1974
– University of Architecture and Urbanism, São José dos Campos, Brazil

Exhibitions
2015
– “Jogando com Ben Patterson”, Bolsa de Arte
– “As Margens dos Mares”, Pororoca, SESC Pinheiros, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Reverta, Reciglagem /Miragem”, Oca
– “Invento”, Rádios Pescando, Oca
2014
– “As cameras duplas”, Sala Mario Schenberg FUNARTE SP, São Paulo, Brazil
– “benTV e Abbey Road”, Arquitetura e territorios afins, Carbono Galeria, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Saravá”, espiral cinética para o Elevador Lacerda, III bienal da Bahia, Salvador, Brazil
– “Três Velas”,– III Bienal da Bahia, Salvador, Brazil
– “Ulysses, o elefante biruta”, Parque da Pedreira, Campinas, Brazil
– “3 setas”, urban intervention
– “Diálogos com Palatnik”, Museum of Modern Art (MAM SP), Sala Paulo Figueiredo, São Paulo, Brazil
2012
– “OFNIs Ibirapuera – Objetos flutuantes não identificados Ibirapuera”, Cultura e meio Ambiente PMSP, São Paulo, Brazil
– ‘Eletro Livros’, Maria Antonia USP, São Paulo, Brazil
2011
– “OFNI Paranoá – Objeto flutuante não identificado”, Aberto Brasília CCBB, Brasilia, Brazil
– “Arte em Movimento” – Memorial da América Latina
– VIII Leilão de Pratos Museu Lasar Segal – Trio
2010
– “Pinturas Roubadas reaparecem na Bienal”, Padaria Bienal, São Paulo, Brazil
2009
– “Santos=Dumont designer”, Museu da Casa Brasileira SP, MAC Campinas, Centro Cultura Ribeirão Preto e SESC São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil
2008
– “Maquetes Reunidas”, Capela do Morumbi, DPH
– “Rotores”, Galeria Marilia Razuk, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Isaac Newton / Albert Einstein”, Einstein, Instituto Sangari, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Comparação entre 2 trens”, Einstein gdanken, Einstein / IS, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Jogos plásticos com figuras e objetos”, Game Cultura SESC Pompéia
2007
– “GRÁFICA”, Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
2006
– “Santos=Dumont designer”, Museu da Casa Brasileira São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
2005
– “Pinacotrens”, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Art Detectors”, Ocupação, Paço das Artes, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Chita releituras”, Ovo
– “Virada Cultural”, RG Enigmático, CCSP, São Paulo, Brazil
2004
– “Máscaras para mentir”, Arte na Escola, MAM
2003
– “A arte atrás da arte”, MAM Villa Lobos, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Pequenas Grandes Ações – serigrafias”, Val de Almeida Galeria, Galeria Circo Bonfim em Belo Horizonte, Dos artistas para Cidade, Galeria Olido and Mano Fato Mano, CCSP, São Paulo, Brazil
2002
– “Cadernos Modernos”, Papper House, London, UK
2001
– “Máscaras para mentir”, Café Teatro Os Sátiros, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Atelier Imaginário de Guto Lacaz”, Vitrine Artefacto – D&D
– “Móbiles”, Galpão de Design
– “Trajetória da luz”, Itaú Cultural
– “Salon des 100, Uma homenagem à Toulouse Lautrec”, Paris, France
1995
– 95 Kwangju Internacional Biennale, Korea
– “RG Enigmático /Viagens de Identidades”, Casa das Rosas, São Paulo, Brazil
1994
– “Recortes”, Paço Imperial do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– “Recortes”, Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo, Brazil
1993
– “Idéias Moderna”, Casa de Cultura de Poços de Caldas, IMS, Poços de Caldas, Brazil
1992
– “ECO 92-13 Cartazes para o Meio Ambiente”, Museum of Modern Art (MAM RJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
1990
– “O Papel no Cotidiano”, Museu Brasileiro do Papel
1988
– “Brazil Projects”, PS1 New York, USA
– “Idéias Modernas”, Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
1987
– “Muamba”, Subdistrito Comercial de Arte
– “Modernidade”, Museum of Modern Art Paris (MAM), France
1985
– 18ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
1982
– “Idéias Modernas”, Galeria São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
1978
– “Móvel e do Objeto Inusitado”, São Paulo Museum of Image and Sound, MIS, São Paulo, Brazil

Installations and Site-specific works
2015
– “ALEX ALEX”, Dia do Garfitti, CCSP, São Paulo, Brazil
2014
– “Saravá”, espiral cinética para o Elevador Lacerda, III Bienal da Bahia, Salvador, Brazil
– “Tres Velas”, III Bienal da Bahia, Salvador, Brazil
– “Ulysses, o elefante biruta”, Parque da Pedreira, Campinas, Brazil
2013
– “Trigêmeos Ciclistas”, Mais de Mil Brinquedos SESC Pompéia, São Paulo, Brazil
– “UTROPIC”, Centrum Cztuki Wspólczesnej, Wskansenie Miniatur W, Poland
2011
– “Raiso de Sol”, Oxigienio, Parque Buenos Aires, Argentina
– “A terceira Margem do rio”, AmBev/Trip, marquise do Ibirapuera SP, São Paulo, Brazil
2010
– “Buenos Livros”, Oxigênio, Parque Buenos Aires, Argentina
– “Ondas d’água”, lago da praça do SESC Belenzinho, São Paulo, Brazil
2009
– “Buenos livros”, Oxigênio, Parque Buenos Aires, Argentina
2007
– “Muro das Lamentações”, Ciclo Multicultural, Centro de Cultura Judáica, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Palíndromoscópio”, Nó na Língua, SESC 25 de maio, São Paulo, Brazil
2006
– “Parede em Movimento”, Projeto parede Museum of Modern Art São Paulo (MAM SP), São Paulo, Brazil
– “Linhas de água”, Luz da Luz, SESC Pinheiros, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Cataventos”, Off Bienal, MuBE
2005
– “Garoa Modernista”, projeto Octógono, Pinacoteca do ESP, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Pinacotrens”, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
2003
– “Mesas de pensar roupa”, 15º São Paulo Fashion Week, São Paulo, Brazil
2001
– “Ciclo Cine”, El Foco, Casa das Caldeiras, São Paulo, Brazil
2000
– “Garoa Modernista”, Oficina Cultural Oswald de Andrade, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Ciclo Cine”, Free Jazz, Museum of Modern Art (MAM Rio), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
1994
– “Periscópio”, Arte Cidade II
1993
– “Páginas Preciosas, templo mídia”, Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo, Brazil
1992
– “Música ao Vivo”, Centro Cultural UFMG, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
– “Video Games Mesmo”, Forum BHZ de Vídeo
– “Tora! Tora! Tora!” Columbia
1991
– “Cosmos, um passeio no infinito”, MASP, São Paulo, Brazil
1989
– “Auditório para Questões Delicadas”, Lago do Ibirapuera, SMC
1988
– “Trens em Casa”, Design Store
1986
– “Eletro Esfero Espaço”, A Trama do Gosto, Fundação Bienal, São Paulo, Brazil

Performances
2015
– ‘Ludo Voo – Ciclo O que não é performance?’, Coletivo sem Título, Centro Universitário Maria Antonia, São Paulo, Brazil
– apresentação do kit de identificação e sobrevivência para curadores, Artivação, Curso de Laboratório de Curadoria MAM SP, São Paulo, Brazil
– ‘Perfor 6’, Biciclóptica, Lgo da Batata, São Paulo, Brazil
2012
– ‘Heli Cub’o’,II Circuito Rgional de Performance Bode Arte, Natal, Brazil
2009
–’Máquinas V’, Teatro Aliança Francesa, São Paulo, Brazil
2008
– ‘3’, Small repertoire of performances: “Eletroperformance”, “Máquinas III” and “IOU – a fábula do cubo e do cavalo”, Teatro Aliança Francesa, São Paulo, Brazil
2002
– ’22 Antes e Depois’, Pocket Opera, SESC Ipiranga, São Paulo, Brazil
2001
– ‘Máquinas II’, Teatro do Centro da Terra, São Paulo, Brazil
– ‘Cinco Séculos de Silêncio com Marcelo Bratke’, CC Banco do Brasil, São Paulo, Brazil
2000
– ‘Máquinas II’, Teatro Alfa, sala B, São Paulo, Brazil
1999
– ‘Máquinas II’, Teatro Cultura Artística, São Paulo, Brazil
1992
– ‘Máquinas e Motores na Sociedade’, Teatro Crowne Plaza, São Paulo, Brazil
1990
– ’10 Cenas com um Armário’, Securit, MIS, São Paulo, Brazil
1985
– ‘Eletro Performance’, 18ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
– ‘Estranha Descoberta Acidental’, 18ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Urban Projects
2005
– ‘Relógio Lúdico’, Escola Carlitos, São Paulo, Brazil
2012
– ‘Conjunto eólico Claudio, Leonardo e Orlando Villas Boas’, Parque Estoril SBC, Base 7, São Paulo, Brazil
2014
– ‘Ulysses, o elefante biruta’, Parque da Pedreira, Campinas, Brazil
2015
– ‘ALEX ALEX’, Dia do Graffiti, CCSP, São Paulo, Brazil
– ‘Áreas verdes’, urban intervention, video
– ‘3 setas’, urban intervention, video

Scenography
2008
– O casal, Walter Breda, SESC Pinheiras, São Paulo, Brazil
2007
– O barbeiro de Sevilha, Teatro Municipal, ( estudo )
– Pocket Trilhas, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo, Brazil
2005
– Cosi fan Tutte, Teatro São Pedro, Porto Alegre, Brazil
2004
– Encontro Improváveis, CCBB, São Paulo, Brazil
– Rádio Ipiranga, SESC IpirangaSão Paulo, Brazil
2003
– Novo de novo, O Brasil de Pixinguinha, CCBB, São Paulo, Brazil.
– Eu sou a multidão, Vania Abreu, Teatro Castro Alves, São Paulo, Brazil
2002
– 22 Antes e Depois, SESC Ipiranga, São Paulo, Brazil.
– Flores de Aço, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo, Brazil.
2001
– Estranho Amor, Olair Coan, Teatro Maria Della Costa, São Paulo, Brazil.
1998
– Clip Kid Abelha, Flavio Colker
1995
– Eugênia Melo e Castro, SESC Pompéia, São Paulo, Brazil
– Futebol, Teatro FIESP ( adereços ), São Paulo, Brazil
1983
– Tubarões Voadores, Arrigo Barnabé, SESC Pompéia, São Paulo, Brazil

Awards
2013
– Prêmio FUNARTE de Arte Contemporânea 2013
2007
– Prêmio APCA – Obra Gráfica
2006
– Centenário da Asas – cem anos do vôo do 14 bis – Academia Brasileira de Aeronáutica – Universidade Anhembi Morumbi
2005
– Promessa de pescador -Melhor trabalho – voto dos colegas – A Imagem do som de Dorival Caymmi – Paço Imperial Rio de janeiro
2002
– 5 Melhores Designers Gráficos – Revista Design Gráfico – Market Press Editor
– Estação Baileys – Melhor Atividade de Percepção de Marca no
Global AMPRO Awards – instalação interativa – Campos do Jordão
2000
– 10 Melhores Designers Gráficos – Revista Design Gráfico – Market Press Editora
1999
– Melhor Portfólio – Revista Design Gráfico – Market Press Editora
1998
– Broadcasting Video Awards – Vinheta Mundo Animal GNT
– Best Portfolio – Revista Design Gráfico – Market Press Editora
– Best Work – O Som da Imagem de Caetano Veloso – Paço Imperial Rio de Janeiro
1995
– Bolsa John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
1992
– Prêmio ABERJ – Guia Papaiz Itália 90 – Papaiz
– Prêmio Excelência Gráfica ABIGRAF – Personagens Femininos de Vânia Toledo
1991
– XVI Prêmio Abril de Jornalismo – ilustração
1990
– XIII Prêmio Abril de Jornalismo – Ilustração
1988
– Prêmio APCA -Novas Mídias
1986
– Troféu Creme de la Creme – Harpias e Mansfield
1985
– Prêmio Espaço Luminária – Phillips MIS
1984
– Prêmio Espaço Luminária – Phillips MIS
1983
– X Prêmio Abril de Jornalismo – Ilustração
1978
– 1ª Mostra do Móvel do Objeto Inusitado – MIS

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