Occupation - by Cristina Suzuki

Cristina Suzuki occupies the Paço Exhibition Hall, in Santo André

The artist's first solo project in the city, "Ocupação" can be visited free of charge from 5 July

Santo André, June 27, 2022 - From July 5 (Tuesday, from 4pm) to August 20, the Exhibition Hall of the Paço will host Cristina Suzuki's Occupation. This is the first time the visual artist has held an individual project in the city where she has lived and worked for over 20 years.

The project, approved in Proac Expresso Lei Aldir Blanc no 50/2021, will take contemporary art through the artist's installations to an important space for the daily life of the city: the Exhibition Hall of the Palace, located at IV Centenário Square. Inaugurated in the 1960s, the Exhibition Hall of the Paço is part of the architectural and urbanistic complex located in the city centre and designed by the architect Rino Levi, one of the biggest names in modernism in Brazil, and landscaped by the renowned Brazilian artist Roberto Burle Marx.

The Occupation stems from the series "Imprinting", started in 2012, in which, from an initial drawing created by her and combined with itself in different ways, with a stamp, the artist transforms this element - called by her "Figure 1" - into new images on the most varied supports, proportions and arrangements.

Starting with small dimensions, on paper, as small prints in a handmade process, until moving to larger surfaces and digital media. The whole process has stamp inks as a reference, so the public will be able to observe the predominance of blue in Suzuki's work.

For the artist, the Occupation, more than an exhibition, can be translated as an event that has the proposal to talk to the exhibition space - The Exhibition Hall, located at IV Centenário Square, in the Centre of Santo André, an area that comprises the Municipal Palace and concentrates the three powers, besides the Municipal Theatre, the Library, the auditorium and the building of the Secretariat of Culture - with its original characteristics, how it has been made available to the public and how this public interacts with it.

The Exhibition Hall of the Santo André Municipal Paço bears the main characteristics of Modernist architecture, such as the simplicity of form, with a clean aesthetic, the valorisation of free and illuminated spaces and the use of glass - a resource that allows greater integration with the surrounding landscape.

And it is precisely to give access to what is usually restricted to those inside the exhibition spaces that, in this project, Suzuki will combine her "Figure 1" with herself to create complex and distinct patterns and occupy all the panels of the room that face the outside of the Hall. The space will be occupied from the inside out: during the period of the intervention, the room will remain closed and the public will be invited to access the artist's work without entering the space, but rather going around it

"As an artist, I have a position of taking work outside the institutional spaces of visual arts, of moving the contemporary art circuit to this other space in order to break a certain barrier that the formal circuit imposes on us. What I propose is to bring contemporary art into everyday life, to encourage people to look for other artists and to realise that we, who work with this language, are much closer to their daily lives than they imagine, occupying and relating to the same public spaces", says Cristina Suzuki.

"Imprinting in public spaces

Cristina Suzuki carries out projects that foster the visual arts not only in Santo André, but also in the ABC region, such as orientation of visual artists, curatorship and cultural production. The public notice of the Aldir Blanc Law enabled the artist to carry out this type of occupation previously with the same premises of occupying and interacting with the public space of Santo André.

"Since I started occupying external spaces, the desire has arisen to create more permanent installations, making this work reverberate in the region I occupy, like a public work," says Suzuki. The 150-metre public work installed in 2021 on the external wall of the Papa João I State School - located in Parque Novo Oratório, the neighbourhood where the artist lives and where she set up her studio - was also approved through the Aldir Blanc Law in 2020 and unfolded into a minidoc.

Also last year in São Paulo, another project by Suzuki was selected by Funarte SP to occupy his exhibition spaces at the Teatro de Arena Eugênio Kusnet and the Alex Vallauri extrena wall at the Cultural Complex on Alameda Nothmann, which is still available for visitation.

About the artist

CRISTINA SUZUKI (1967, São Paulo) lives and works in Santo André, SP. Graduated from Faculdades Integradas Teresa D'Ávila (Santo André, SP) in 1990. Researches patterns of different natures, possibilities of reproducibility and alternatives of 'pulverization' of the art work, using prints, photographs, objects, installations, digital drawings and videos. Besides her authorial production, she provides guidance to visual artists, curates and is a cultural producer. She has participated in several contemporary art exhibitions in Brazil and has works in institutional collections.

Among the exhibitions, the following stand out: Individuals: 2021 - Patterns Formed by alternating figure 1 and mirrored figure 1 - Text Rejane Cintrão - Funarte - São Paulo, SP; 2020 - Pattern - Zipper Galeria - São Paulo, SP - text by Júlia Lima; 2018 - Alternating figure 1 and mirrored figure 1 - SESI Digital Art Gallery - São Paulo, SP; 2017 - Figure 1 and Fig. 1 espelhada alternadas - Adelina Gallery - São Paulo, SP - curator Ananda Carvalho; 2016 - Edital de ocupação espaços SESI - Suzano, SP; 2014 - Exhibition Program of Casa da Cultura de Paraty - Parati, RJ; 2012 - Rendas Digitais - Espaço Cultural do Solo Sagrado - São Paulo, SP; 2006 - Fotocelular - Centro Cultural Bernardo Mascarenhas - Juiz de Fora, MG. Collective Exhibitions: 2022 - O Tempo Das Coisas - curated by Edmilson Nunes - Centro Cultural dos Correios - Rio de Janeiro, RJ; O Corpo do tempo, da psique e a voz - curated by Bruna Marassato and Paula Fiorotti - Pinacoteca de São Caetano do Sul - SCS, SP; Passagens: 1968-2022 - curated Reinaldo Botelho - Exhibition Hall of the Paço Municipal de Santo André; 2020 - Art as Breath Festival of Itaú Cultural (online); Funarte RespirArte Award (online); Distant Dialogues - Casa Tato - São Paulo, SP - curated Guilherme Teixeira, Márcio Harum and Nancy Betts; 2017 - So that I can hear - Adelina Gallery - São Paulo, SP - curated Douglas Negrisolli; 2016 - Santo André Contemporary Art Salon - Santo André, SP; 2013 - Praia Grande Salon - Praia Grande, SP; 2011 - 20th Atibaia Fine Arts Salon - Atibaia, SP; 39th Santo André Contemporary Art Salon - Santo André, SP (Acquisition Prize); 2009 - MARP Annual Exhibition Program - Ribeirão Preto, SP; 2007 - Arte Pará - Belém, PA; 2006 - Recôncavo Biennial - São Félix, BA.

SERVICE

Occupation - by Cristina Suzuki

Presentation by Nancy Betts

Opening: July 5 (Tuesday) - 2 pm to 9 pm.

Visitation: from 5 July to 20 August 2022.

Venue: Exhibition Hall of the Paço - IV Centenário Square, s/n, Centre, Santo André - SP.

Every day, 24 hours, free of charge.