Exhibition "Bispo do Rosario - I came: apparition, impregnation and impact

ITAÚ CULTURAL OFFERS A JOURNEY THROUGH THE IMAGINARY OF ARTHUR BISPO DO ROSÁRIO AND THE DEVELOPMENTS OF HIS CREATION

The first exhibition of the year to extend over the three floors of the institution's exhibition space, it brings together more than 400 pieces by Bispo and includes artworks by contemporary and modern artists who were influenced or impacted by him. Inaugurated on the day of the Anti-mental institution struggle, the exhibition revives the debate about the modern experiences of ateliers in insane asylums and art therapy. It also includes a seminar on Culture, mental health and well-being

On May 18, the day of the Anti-mental institution struggle, Itaú Cultural opens the exhibition Bispo do Rosario - I came: apparition, impregnation and impact. The date is not pure coincidence. In this year in which the institution has been debating the role of art in mental health, as well as bringing together the largest number of pieces by Bispo ever seen together, outside the Museu Arthur Bispo do Rosário - Arte Contemporânea (mBRAC), and providing a great panorama of the artist's work, it unfolds in two nuclei. One deals with the impact and the impregnation of his production in other peers, modern and contemporary, to the point of opening new possibilities in the way of making art. The other brings artistic experiences carried out in ateliers in Brazilian psychiatric institutions, which led to a rethinking of the modus operandi of these places and generated other names of reference in Brazilian art.

In this dialogue between past, present and future, Bispo do Rosario - I came: apparition, impregnation and impact presents around 600 artworks. More than 400 pieces are by the artist himself - of the nearly one thousand that make up all his work. The rest bear the signature of a constellation of artists who, in some way, orbited or drank from this work. There are around 50 of them, such as Leonilson, Carmela Gross, Rosana Paulino, Jaime Laureano.

The curatorship is by Ricardo Resende, with co-curatorship by Diana Kolker, respectively curator and curator-pedagogue of mBRAC, partner of Itaú Cultural in the construction of this exhibition. The conception and idealization is from both institutions.

"All the pieces by Bispo do Rosário comprise, in his own understanding, a single work. It was the way he composed his universe," explains Resende. "Bispo catalogued the objects of the world", he adds. His work was created from everyday objects that he collected where he lived, in the former Colônia Juliano Moreira, in Jacarepaguá, Rio de Janeiro. They are what guide the whole exhibition, most of which is presented on the first floor. This floor has as reference for the expography the cell where he lived, for 50 of his 80 years, after being diagnosed as paranoid-schizophrenic.

"But they extend to the other floors. All three floors are impregnated by Bispo's work," Resende continues. Thus, the artistic cosmography that he generated sets the tone in the other spaces, which trace the existing dialogue between his work and that of artists impacted or influenced by Bispo. According to the curators, Maxwell Alexandre, for example, mentions him as his greatest and main artistic reference. Jaime Laureano also points him out as a figure to whom he pays reverence as an artist who creates countless possibilities.

"When we talk about Bispo's work we don't just talk about a work as a creation, it is also a creator," Diana notes. "More than interpreting or making analyses of Bispo's work, we seek to present it in this context, placing it side by side with contemporary and modern artists to bring and think in what way this presentation opens paths, possibilities and unprecedented perceptions," she explains.

Another aspect presented by the curators in this exhibition is "the Bishop effect", not only in the art scene, but also in mental health. Artists linked to the Gaia studio are presented there, an experimental centre and living together centre which is part of the Bispo do Rosário Museum. It was created in the 1990s as part of an art therapy project from which artists such as Arlindo Oliveira and Patrícia Ruth emerged among the inmates and contemporaries of Bispo. Since 2013, it has been frequented by artists who are users of mental health services in the region and is regarded as a place for creation, research, coexistence and artistic experimentation.

"Fundamental is that the exhibition wants to bring the effects and reverberations of this 'Bispo apparition' in the contemporary art scene and context and how they also incur not only in a present-future direction, but also of a past in the very way of looking, perceiving and thinking the history of art and the status of art," concludes the co-curator.

THE EXHIBITION

On the first floor, which condenses Bispo do Rosário's private universe, his pieces predominate. The floor contains over 200 of the more than 400 that permeate the entire exhibition. But there is room for other artworks in direct dialogue with this singular artist.

Among them, the installation I will ask for praise for those who should be praised, by Jaime Laureano (2022), two artworks by Rosana Paulino, highlight Atlântico Vermelho (2016), three by Maxwell Alexandre such as the painting Éramos aszas from the series Pardo é Papel (2018) which opens the exhibition along with the sculpture A Negra, by Carmela Gross (1997).

Other artworks to be seen on this floor are Viajando no Universo na instalação de meteoros by Luiz Carlos Marques, an artist part of the Gaia studio. Fernanda Magalhães' Natureza da Vida series is presented, a record of a performance made at the Juliano Moreira colony.

There is also a series of portraits of Bishop made by the photographer Jean Manzon and published in an essay in Revista Cruzeiro, 1942. There are also photos of the artist taken in 1982 by Hugo Denizart, author of the film Prisioner of the Passage, shown in the exhibition.

Among the audiovisuals, it is also worth highlighting I Need These Words Written, directed by filmmaker, anthropologist, visual artist and independent curator Milena Manfredini and the director of the Bispo do Rosario Museum Raquel Fernandes, and the Tresformance performance by Arlindo Oliveira, a member of Atelier Gaia at the Museum, recorded in 2017 by Margarete Araujo, Health manager also at this institution.

The first basement deals with the institutions. It houses another almost 200 pieces by Bispo among the nearly 300 artworks by other artists impacted by his production, displayed there. On this floor, there are some who were interns in these institutions, such as Edgar Koetz, from the São Pedro Psychiatric Hospital. There are also artworks by Aurora Cursino and Ubirajara Ferreira Braga. Others come from the Museu do Inconsciente Nise da Silveira - Engenho de Dentro, such as a series of photographs by Geraldo Lucio Aragão and gouaches by Isaac Liberato, to name but a few.

There are also artworks by Djanira, Maria Leontina, Maria Eugênia Franco, Flávio de Carvalho and Abraham Palatnik. There are also artworks by Regina Silveira, dating from 1962 and 1966, Geraldo de Barros and Ivan Serpa, among others.

The impact and impregnation in contemporary art, permeates the second basement. On this floor, Bispo's artworks dialogue with Leonilson, Paulo Nazareth, Maria Aparecida Dias, Rosana Palazyan, Rick Rodrigues, Sônia Gomes and Pedro Moraleida. Carmela Gross and Maxwell Alexandre appear again on this floor. From Bispo himself there is a diversity of pieces, such as Untitled [Partida de chess com Rosangela], undated. It is worth mentioning here that Rosangela Maria was a psychology intern who worked at the colony and was a friend of his to whom he dedicated some of his fundamental pieces, such as the two untitled [Romeu & Julieta Bed] and [Chair and Chains] - these names were given by the curators for cataloguing purposes.

Follow in Step by Step, the detailed route of each floor and more information about the artworks exhibited there.

SEMINAR

This year's program at Itaú Cultural promotes debates and reflections on the role of art in mental health. Inserted in this context, the Bispo do Rosário exhibition is accompanied by the seminar Culture, mental health and well-being. From May 24 to 26 (Tuesday to Thursday), always from 10am and until 11:30am, this online forum brings together psychiatrists, curators and personalities linked to cultural management and the study of mental health.

Organized by Observatório Itaú Cultural, the action is composed of one table per day, with guests and a mediator, which can be followed online, on the YouTube page, with English/Portuguese translation on the 25th and interpretation in Libras throughout the seminar.