Take That Step #14
MASP (São Paulo Art Museum), the red building on the left, and the new MASP, the black tall one on the right
1) I love being a tourist in my hometown. I'm at home and, at the same time, I have very little time — there are only a few free days to really enjoy São Paulo. At the top of my list of priorities was to visit the new MASP (out Metropolitan museum) building, named after the museum's architect Lina Bo's husband, one of the museum founders, Pietro Maria Bardi.
In person, and from the inside, the project by METRO architects is much cooler than in photos. From the outside, it looks like a black monolith, but when you go inside, it reveals itself to be translucent and protected at the same time!
I always get emotional when I see Paulista Avenue — I like to remember that we are on top of a mountain and that São Paulo is also a landscape.
2) Another activity that had been on my list for a while was to visit Edmar Pinto Costa’s collection. How beautiful! Gathered in groups, like inseparable friends, these sculptures, paintings, etc., also made me think about the research, dedication and love involved in bringing these “objects” together under one roof. The care taken with each item is there, blatant.
When he visited Clemência Pereira de Souza’s ceramics studio, she said she didn’t have any pieces to show him. After some time of chatting, the artist surprised him: “I don’t have any pieces, but I do have some pots.” He asked what the difference was and Clemência replied: “A piece is what they taught me to do, a pot is what I invented.” Wow.
From left to right, clockwise: Clemência Pereira, Conceição dos Bugres, Antônio de Dedé, Geraldo Cabueta, vintage chairs, votives, José Bezerra, Zé Caboclo, Ulisses Pereira Chaves
3) Inspired by his research, I went to the thrift fair in Bixiga (an old school neighborhood) the next day :) There's so much crap, that sometimes you feel like running away. But suddenly... a gem appears — and you find some perfect little thing that you obviously knew you didn't need but buy it anyway. A delightful outing. Every Sunday :)
Look at what I got! An Imari plate, from Japan
4) Next, was the exhibition featuring the collection of gallery owner Vilma Eid at the Tomie Ohtake Institute. I knew her house and always thought it was the best sample of Brazilian art so that anyone (native or not) could see and understand the vastness of our country. A pioneer in this field of collecting Folk Art, she opens her collection to the general public in the museum.
5) I downloaded a series to watch at the airport/plane on my way to Brazil and chose one that I had read great reviews about in the NYTimes. I devoured it and loved it. An animation about the pharmaceutical industry and the power of mushrooms presented in a “South Park way”. Go to HBO Max — it’s called Common Side Effects. Add it to your endless list of things to watch:
6) I came to Brazil to curate a show called Out of Sight, curated by Lucas Alberto and organized by Gisela Projects. Art, friends, Aurélio Flores' iconic architecture and… my favorite Brazilian-arab food. The exhibition was inspired by a text by Claire Bishop and deals with our contemporary way of seeing, which is more fragmented, dispersed, but also generates different kinds of information.
7) We barely have enough time to see how little time we have— Pico Iyer
8) I loved this article by David Brooks in the NYTimes. Here are some highlights:
This is the part of myself I can’t see easily into. Why am I interested in astronomy but not geology? I don’t know. Why am I entranced by Rembrandt and left cold by El Greco? I don’t know. Why do I love her but not her? I don’t know. We can decide what we’ll order off life’s menu, but we can’t decide what we like.
As in any kind of falling in love, it happens in the wildness of the heart. As in any kind of falling in love, it can start with a subtle prenotion, but it soon arouses amazing energies. As in any form of falling in love, it can lead to sublime irrationality.
People tend to get melodramatic when they talk about the kind of enchantment I’m describing here, but they are not altogether wrong. The sculptor Henry Moore exaggerated but still captured the essential point: “The secret of life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for your whole life. And the most important thing is — it must be something you cannot possibly do!”
9) No comments. Thanks to all who shared Pedro Pascal behind the scenes with me after seeing him in my newsletter:
10) To make up for all the agitation of São Paulo's art week, the playlist has some Cuban piano: