Review
SP–Foto 2015

One of the event highlights was the presence of Sarah Meister, curator of photography at MoMA NY who was invited to the Fair to participate in Talks/Foto: Reflections. Moderated by Simonetta Persichetti, the conversation with the MoMA curator filled Lounge One at JK Iguatemi on a Thursday evening. “I always find new experiences enriching, they expand the perception I have of what is going on. At SP-Arte/Foto/2015 I discovered the work of the young artist, Ivan Grilo (Casa Triângulo), whose work I was not familiar with and whom I find very interesting for working with image archives, a practice seen frequently among international artists but whose work has a distinctly Brazilian nature, that recognizes its own Brazilian history,” states Meister.

Also invited to the Fair was the director-founder of Pace/MacGill: Peter MacGill, who was impressed by the contemporary photography, most notably Cris Bierrenbach at Galeria Rabieh.

The anthropological and cultural aspects of photography were discussed in a debate with Instituto Moreira Salles photography curator, Sergio Burgi, anthropologist and curator, Georgia Quintas and the photographer, João Farkas, who moved the public with his touching documentary on the Amazon and whose photos from Amazonia and Trancoso were exhibited at Galeria Marcelo Guarnieri and at Sesc Bom Retiro.

The Fair included the presence of German Lorca, Cristian Mascaro, and Robert Linsker who launched books of their works, as well as artists Vik Muniz, Marcia Xavier, Bob Wolfenson, João Castilho, Caio Reisewitz, Rochelle Costi, Claudio Edinger, Betina Samaia, Cris Bierrenbach, Araquém Alcântara, Vera Chaves Barcellos, and Lenora de Barros. Also present were curators, Agnaldo Farias, Ricardo Resende and Adriano Pedrosa in addition to Paulo Vicelli from Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, and Luis Terepins from the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo.

The Brazilian Association of Contemporary Art, ABACT, brought curators participating in the Getty Foundation intiative, Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, a program that involves Latin American artists and movements to be exhibited in Los Angeles institutions in 2017. The group included Aleca Le Blanc, assistant professor of Art History of the University of California and co-curator of the exhibition Materiality and Postwar Latin American Art at the Getty Center; Alex Gartenfeld, adjunct director and chief-curator of the Insititute of Contempoary Art, Miami, Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, guest curator of the Hammer Museum for the Pacific Standard Time show focusing on female artists up to the 1980s. Erin Aldana, co-curator of the exhibition Xerox Art in Brazil and Argentina, 1970-1980 at the University of San Diego; Justine Ludwig, director of exhibitions and senior curator at Dallas Contemporary, and Sara Chenault, assistant curator of the Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles and curator of the exhibition, The Roads that Lead to Bahia: Visual Arts and the Emergence of Brazil’s Black Rome.

Private collections acquired two works by Alair Gomes (Bergamin & Gomide); Lucas Lenci (ArtEEdições Galeria), the Spanish José Manuel Ballester and the Brazilian Cristiano Mascaro and Cristian Cravo (Dan Galeria); the Franco-Brazilian Pierre Verger (Galeria Marcelo Guarnieri); and Cássio Vasconcellos (Pequena Galeria 18).

Among the contemporary, local and foreign artists, highlights included João Castilho (Zipper Galeria e Celma Albuquerque); Fabiano Rodriges (Fita Tape); Márcia Xavier, Yuri Firmeza, Albano Afonso (Casa Triângulo); Antonio Guerreiro (Galeria da Gávea); Camila Gama (Room 8); Isidro Blasco (SIM Galeria); Cássio Vasconcellos and Marcel Gautherot (Pequena Galeria 18); Thiago Rocha Pitta, Sofia Borges e Lenora de Barros (Galeria Millan); Araquém Alcântara (Galeria de Babel), Gustavo Speridião (Carbono), Caio Reisewitz and Héctor Zamora (Luciana Brito Galeria).

Also notable were the young artists, Sara Não Tem Nome (Galeria Emma Thomas), the youngest artist in this edition (21 years) and Íris Helena (Portas Vilaseca Galeria).

One of the big attractions at the 9th edition of the Fair was the wide variety of photobooks available. The format was the topic of discussion at Livrarira da Vila which discussed this trend. The talk was moderated by curator and artist Denise Gadelha and brought together the co-founder of Vermelho, Eduardo Brandão; editor Iatã Cannabrava, creator of Estúdio Madalena, who specializes in photobooks, and coordinator of the Post Graduate program at the University Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (FAAP), Ronaldo Entler.

The trio debated questions involving the growing number of works and photographic essays conceived in book formats as a result of a growing resistance to the non materiality of virtual images and the democratization of photographs, which diminish the distance between arist and public.