A measure of enchantment

“... that the importance of something is not measured with a measuring tape nor with scales or barometers, etc. That a thing’s importance must be measured by the enchantment that it produces in us.” (1)

Manoel de Barros

The feeling of enchantment mentioned in the poetry of Manoel de Barros, when brought to the field of artistic appreciation, inspires a critical measure to assess the quality of the impressions we obtain from a work of art. This measure requires that we devote some time to contemplation, a special moment for the work to exist beyond its borders and for it to become sheltered in our sensible memory, either by enchantment or apathy, leaving a trace of this experience.

Through the artist’s gaze, we invade colorful fields, unusual forms, various angles, palettes that color our daily life and make us partners in an imaginary realm previously restricted to the world of those who conceive the modes of expression, which symbolically represent ways of seeing and interpreting the world.

The naive artist presents narratives originating from a sophisticated perception of his/her culture and transforms the blank space of the canvas into representations of the matrices of that culture’s beliefs, popular festivals, scenes from daily life and thematic variables appropriated by this art. He/she registers his/her outlook and poetics in regard to traditions and contradictions, and to territories that transit between the rural and the acquisition of the urban, stemming from social transformations and geographic contours of the space where he/she lives.

The wealth of this production and its apparent formal simplicity keep its expressive traditions alive. These characteristics have made naive art interesting to some contemporary artists, who collaborate toward diversifying the current scene, by blending or invading established territories of artistic practice.

Now, as the Bienal Naïfs do Brasil arrives at its 11th edition, it is an opportune moment to look to the past with the aim of enlarging the perception of the paths taken over the course of this development, to update the context of how the exhibition is held and to guide further actions.

SESC’s first initiative in presenting an exhibition of naive art was inserted in the project Cenas da Cultura Caipira [Scenes from Caipira Culture], held from 1986 to 1988. Later, the exhibition was maintained in an independent way, and gained greater visibility in 1991. Beginning in 1992, it was held on a biennial basis and received the name Mostra Internacional de Arte Ingênua e Primitiva [International Show of Ingenuous and Primitive Art]. In that year, the show received the prize of the Best Event in Visual Arts of the State’s Interior, awarded by the Associação Paulista de Críticos de Arte (APCA).

From 2004 on, the biennial has been curated by invited critics, thus instating a format that offered a significant change in its conception, adding a special room and also hosting works by contemporary artists. This proposal has allowed different approximations, relations and readings on the production of naive art and stimulated dialogues in respect to this artistic expression in the current context. Thus, in the last four editions, this production of popular inspiration has been featured alongside the universe of contemporary artists.

In its 11th edition, the Bienal Naïfs do Brasil seeks to enlarge the dialogue and approximation between the popular and the contemporary production. In this perspective, the exhibition’s curatorial design by Kiki Mazzucchelli works in harmony with the architectural design by Ana Paula Pontes to present a significant change, breaking down the borders of the physical space between the award-winning entries, the selected works, and the participants of the special room, all sharing the same context. This destructuring of the physical compartments has allowed the featured artworks to be shared with the public in an entirely new way.

By hosting artworks from popular origins in counterpoint or in dialogue with contemporary manifestations, SESC reaffirms the criteria of plurality and democratization that have guided its sociocultural actions, a stimulus for re-creating relations and intersections in the context of the arts.

In light of the artworks presented at this 11th edition of the Bienal Naïfs do Brasil, we recur to poet Manoel de Barros, so that the enchantment produced in us will be the measure of new encounters with art, intensely moving us in an inexhaustible process, since it is a part of human experience and development.

 

1 From the poem “Sobre importâncias”. Manoel de Barros. In Memórias inventadas: a segunda infância, editora Planeta, São Paulo, 2006.