SP-Arte 2019

Anniversaries offer a moment for reflection. A moment to assess time that has passed, to appraise what has been built and consider what is yet to be built. In the case of SP-Arte, its 15th anniversary also marks a birth: traço—, the SP-Arte magazine, has been revamped in line with the art fair’s new identity. It introduces fresh design and revised content, consolidating its passion and commitment with the creation of critical material that elaborates on topics of art and its ramifications.

One of these ramifications is the issue of time – which is more sensed than rationalised. In a historical era of information overload, it is paramount to think about the time we invest in understanding and receiving the information that comes to us. In this edition of traço —, curator and researcher Moacir dos Anjos analyses the works of Graziela Kunsch and Coletivo Amò. He argues that taking time in art is a fundamental tool for the inclusion of bodies excluded from the democratic landscape, underlining how prolonged artistic practices are currently under threat within exhibition spaces.

In partnership with the art website aarea, this edition proposes an artwork that unfolds both as physical object and a virtual space, as a way of exploring the individual rhythm of each medium. We have invited artist Lais Myrrha to come up with an exercise that responds to this. Breve cronografia dos desmanches [Brief Chronology of Dismantling], a research series that started in 2012, presents a catalogue of examples of dismantling mapped by the artist and spread across different times and geographies. These can be read on the magazine pages. It will be possible to follow the work’s unfolding, Diário dos desmanches [Dismanteling Diaries], in aarea’s virtual exhibition space. During the art fair, Myrrha is also intervening in SP-Arte’s social media, expanding her practice to three different modes of artistic expression.

Also in this edition, Argentinian Maria Angélica Melendi puts together a historical retrospective that examines the relationship between art production in Brazil and the rest of Latin America, considering a possible Latin American artistic identity and pondering what the future holds for us in this sense. To celebrate the centenary of designer and architect Zanine Caldas, Amanda Beatriz Palma de Carvalho presentes the artist’s profile and highlights his concern with Brazilian fauna and flora, particularly in the creation of durable objects such as his ‘denunciation furniture’. Finally, Jayme Vargas writes about the cultural weight of modern furniture in relation to the national modernist movement, considering how the perception of these furniture pieces has been adapted to their subsequent re-editions.

This publication aims to introduce to the reader different considerations that see time, and the deceleration of time, as a form of resistance. It is true that Latin America has experienced a constant process of construction, contestation and re-dimensioning of its memories, building new paths and creating new strategies for existing and resisting. We invite everyone to revisit their memories, not as plain nostalgia but as a way of contemplating and experiencing so, after this moment of pause, we can start to think about the future we wish for.

92 pages, 20.8 x 27 cm
Bilingual Portuguese / English