GROUP EXHIBITION

Through a timeless and decategorising selection, AAA navigates the field of visual arts—with paintings, sculptures, and videos—and architecture—with scale models, pieces of furniture and photographs of buildings. These works feature architecture as a vocabulary: be it in the relation between the construction of spaces and its representation, in the use of civil construction materials, or in the subversion of language itself as a resource for experimenting with scale, composition and geometry.

Based on those relationships, the curator established architectural elements to define categories for the exhibition, the first of which consists of Blocks, Pillars, Walls and Surfaces, grouping the works that deal with components of the constructed object. Blocks includes works formed by solid and modular units, such as the Estruturas de Caixas de Fósforo Preto/Branco [Matchbox Structures Black/White] (1964), by Lygia Clark, along with the design for MASP, present in the show by way of a maquette produced by the Instituto Bardi for the exhibition held that marked the building’s 50^th anniversary. The PMR Chaise Long (1985) by Paulo Mendes da Rocha and Ponto [Stop] (2015) by Iran do Espírito Santo are part of the Pillars subgroup, exploring elements of suspension and support. Walls as incorporated by artists André Komatsu and Ivens Machado analyses the issue of public barriers, which are as essential to architecture as they are controversial within the Brazilian sociopolitical context. The fourth subgroup is Surfaces and is made up of works by Lygia Pape, Athos Bulcão, and others, dealing with abstraction, angulations and folds.

Subtraction, Transparency and Color form a second category, dealing with the formal operations at stake in certain works that are entirely divorced from the representation of a specific object. Subtraction is considered as the action resulting in the configuration of spaces on the basis of emptiness—a resource present in the projects of spbr arquitetos, as well as in the series ‘Quadroquadro’ (2013–2016) by Renata Lucas. Works by Mauro Restiffe and Joaquim Tenreiro explore Transparency. Color, on the other hand, is a tool for decoding space created in the tapestries of Burle Marx and in paintings by Marcelo Cipis.

In the field of the representation of spatial concepts, works by Valeska Soares, Rivane Neuenschwander and Oscar Niemeyer are part of the Interiors subgroup, dealing with the concept of familiarity. Its counterpoint is the Façades subgroup, which explores architecture based on its relationship with the urban context, as in Janela [Window] (2018) by Rodrigo Matheus, and in paintings by Volpi and Lorenzato.

AAA – Anthology of Art and Architecture is an unfolding of Exhibit AAA—a special project developed for Bergamin & Gomide’s stand at Expo Chicago in 2019. While in its first version curator Sol Camacho sought to create a ‘small atlas’ of Brazilian art and its close relationship to architecture, the current topographical depiction is presented as an anthology. A plural collection of themes, temporalities and languages materializes in a bold exhibition design formed by modular structures that operate as a synthetic landscape.

With works by

Adriana Varejão, Alfredo Volpi, Aluísio Carvão, Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato, André Komatsu, Angelo Bucci, AR Arquitetos, Arquipélago, Athos Bulcão, Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca, Barrão, Bruna Canepa, Bruno Brito, Bruno Cançado, Caio Reisewitz, Carlos Bevilacqua, Carlos Fajardo, Carolina Martinez, Cildo Meireles, Cinthia Marcelle, Claudia Andujar, Cristiano Lenhardt, Eduardo Ortega, Erika Verzutti, Fernanda Gomes, Flávio de Carvalho, Geraldo de Barros, Gustavo Utrabo, Hélio Oiticica, Instituto Bardi & Porão, Iran do Espírito Santo, Ivens Machado, Jac Leirner, Joaquim Tenreiro, Juan Araujo, Leonardo Finotti, Lucas Simões, Lucia Koch, Luisa Lambri, Luiz Zerbini, Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape, Manoela Medeiros, Marcelo Cipis, Marcenaria Baraúna, Mauro Restiffe, Messina Rivas, Milton Dacosta, Mira Schendel, Montez Magno, Nelson Kon, Oscar Niemeyer, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Porfírio Valladares, Renata Lucas, Ricardo Alcaide, Rivane Neuenschwander, Roberto Burle Marx, Roberto Wagner, Rodrigo Cass, Rodrigo Matheus, Sérgio Camargo, spbr arquitetos, Studio MK27, TACOA, UNA barbara e valentim, Valeska Soares, vão arquitetura