“Como (...) coisas que não existem – Obras selecionadas”, (How to […] things that don’t exist – Selected works), in Ribeirão Preto

After a showing at FAAP’s São José dos Campos campus, the exhibition entitled “How to (...) things that don’t exist – Selected Works” can now be seen at FAAP Ribeirão Preto, opening April 27th. The exhibition displays selected works from the 31st Art Biennial held in 2014 in São Paulo, specifically those by three artists: Romy Pocztaruk (Brazil), Michael Kessus Gedalyovich (Israel) and Teresa Lanceta (Spain).

Curated by Charles Esche Galit Eilat, Nuria Enguita Mayo, Pablo Lafuente and Oren Sagiv, the exhibition tries to recreate the experience of the Bienal’s pavilion. With that in mind, the artists were chosen for the flagrant connection held between their works.

Pablo Lafuente, one of the curators, explains that Teresa Lanceta’s tapestries, for instance, propose the recognition of the knowledge of northern African communities and is directly related to Romy Pocztaruk’s work on his trip along the Trans-Amazonian Highway. He adds that the urgency of a new relation with the world derived from Romy’s journeys find echo in Gedalyovich’s amulets, collected during his trip from Eden Hills, in Israel, to the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest.

The 31st Biennial’s traveling exhibition

The 31st Biennial’s traveling exhibition program includes showings in six cities in Brazil and one abroad. Distinct selections of works from the 31st Biennial will visit Campinas/SP (SESC), Juiz de Fora/MG (Murilo Mendes Art Museum), São José do Rio Preto/SP (SESC), Belo Horizonte/MG (Palace of Arts and Contemporary Art and Photography Center) and Porto, in Portugal.

This is the first time that the São Paulo Biennial’s traveling exhibition program will be leaving the country since its creation, in 2011. According to Luis Terepins, president of the São Paulo Biennial Foundation, the traveling showings "seek to expand the possible interchange between the cultural life of São Paulo and exhibition spaces throughout the Brazilian countryside and abroad, bringing the questions raised by the 31st Biennial to new audiences and taking the exhibition in new directions".

However, this is not the first time that FAAP receives traveling exhibitions from the Art Biennial. In 2012 and 2013, both the Ribeirão Preto and the São José dos Campos campi hosted works by Lucia Laguna (Brazil), Juan Iribarren (Venezuela) and Hreinn Fridfinnsson (Iceland), all of which participated in the 30th São Paulo Biennial – The imminence of poetics.