Logo NAÏF 2012 no tema 1

 Felipe Arturo[Bogotá, 1979. Vive e trabalha em Bogotá]Biblioteca de Arte Ambulante, 2010. Assemblagem ambulante.Felipe Arturo[Bogotá, 1979. Vive e trabalha em Bogotá]Los Exilios de Trotsky, 2009. Vídeo, 14 min. 
História

Federico Herrero

[Bogotá, 1979. Lives and works in Bogotá]


Since 2009, the Colombian artist Felipe Arturo has been investigating the construction methods employed by street vendors in different Latin American cities. He notes how the ephemeral architectures specific to each of these cities have evolved based on complex processes of local policies and particularities related to the distribution of foods and merchandise within the urban and rural centers or between each nation and other countries. The phenomenon of populational displacement entailed by the informal commerce has an undeniable impact on the urban configuration of certain regions, where each day large commercial centers are set up and taken down in the open air, attracting thousands of consumers.

Due to their temporary and most often illegal nature, the architecture of this sort of commerce possesses some basic characteristics. In some cases it should consist of relatively light materials, for easy transport, while allowing for simple and efficient techniques for quick setup and takedown. The materials should invariably be easy to find and low-cost, but should also be durable and tough enough to stand prolonged exposure to the elements. It is therefore an architecture entirely founded on the pressing needs of these groups of formal workers, not based merely on academic principles and therefore informed by a living, popular know-how.

In São Paulo, as in other large Latin American cities, the daily activity of the street vendors takes place on a large scale, and it is precisely there that Arturo will engage in a short residency in order to produce a new commission for Além da Vanguarda based on his researches on the construction methods of the local street vendors. Appropriating construction materials and techniques learned from the street vendors of the city of São Paulo, the artist will construct a temporary environment, whose final configuration will be developed in the weeks preceding the exhibition. For the first time in the history of the Bienal Naïfs do Brasil, this work will occupy the large veranda adjoining the exhibition room of SESC Piracicaba, creating an area of observation and pause that connects the building’s interior to the areas dedicated to leisure and sports that are located in the anterior part of SESC’s grounds.