Art critic Tiago Mesquita to curate SP-Arte 2019 Repertório sector

8 Jan 2019, 4:23 pm

Art history professor and art critic Tiago Mesquita will be the curator of the Repertório [Repertoire] sector at SP-Arte 2019, 3-7 April, at the Bienal Pavilion. As the name itself suggests, this is a sector dedicated to building a broader repertoire about art production over the last years. The idea is to create a dialogue between internationally acclaimed artists not that well known in Brazil and historically relevant names of Brazilian art, who did not receive the visibility deserved over the years.

Once again, the sector presents an exhibition from a particular period in history, this time focusing on artists from the 20^th century, especially names relevant to the post-World War II context (between 1950 and 1980). “I gave priority to artists who think of the avant-gardes after the utopian promises of modernity disappeared,” says Mesquita. Particular problems inherent to the period, such as representation crises and a conceptual bias of a critical tone, permeate the works of the artists invited so far. “I was less concerned with the theme tying the works together and more with the quality of the group selected”, he said.

The curator also promises a certain uniqueness: “I’m in search of pieces that are not usually exhibited, such as unusual formats or works from periods which the artists are not usually known for”. Mesquita values the aesthetic diversity of the works in his selection, which includes video artists, painters, performers and conceptual artists. More information on the complete list of names will be released soon.

Tiago Mesquita

Tiago Mesquita is an art history professor and art critic. With a PhD in Philosophy from the University of São Paulo, he has published works in Revista Fevereiro, Folha de S. Paulo, Frieze (London), Novos Estudos Cebrap, O Público (Lisbon) and Quatro cinco um. As a curator, he has organized exhibits of artists such as David Drew Zingg and José Bezerra. Published books include “Rodrigo Andrade: The Resistance of Matter”, “Paulo Monteiro: The Inside of Distance” and Imagem útil, imagem inútil [Useful Image, Useless Image].

Repertório [Repertoire] Sector

Curated by Jacopo Crivelli Visconti, the second edition of the Repertório sector focused on works of art produced in the 1980s and included names such as Chen Zhen (Galleria Continua), Christian Boltanski (Marian Goodman) and Ione Saldanha (Almeida e Dale).

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