CERITH WYN EVANS AT THE TATE TRIENNIAL

Cerith Wyn Evans at the Tate Triennial

http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/triennial/

'TROPICALIA' CURATED BY CARLOS BASUALDO AT THE BARBICAN

Hélio Oiticica, Tropicália, 1967










Hélio Oiticica, Eden, first exhibited at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1969


Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Bahia Desorientada, 2005


Rhodia Dresses from the 1960s



avaf installation



Tetine playing inside avaf installation


David wearing Parangole


Tropicália:
A Revolution in Brazilian Culture
curated by Carlos Basualdo
Press Release

16 February – 21 May 2006
Media View: Wednesday 15 February, 11am – 2pm

‘Be an outlaw, be a hero.’ Hélio Oiticica

Tropicália: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture is a groundbreaking and vibrant exhibition which captures the spirit of Tropicália, one of the most significant cultural movements from South America in the last five decades. The Tropicália exhibition in the Barbican Art Gallery is the first event in a three-month long festival which encompasses art, music, theatre and education.

Tropicália marked a true revolution in Brazilian music, visual arts, theatre, cinema, fashion and architecture. Taking its name from an installation created in 1967 by the young Brazilian artist, Hélio Oiticica, it soon became the title of one of the most celebrated albums in Brazilian music history, featuring Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and Os Mutantes.

Tropicália was born out of a powerful desire to find a new identity for Brazilian art, one in which Brazil’s multi-culturalism and popular forms, of music and dance especially, were celebrated and synthesised with international modernism. Tropicália emerged against a backdrop of political repression that was becoming ever more powerful. Exuberant and dissenting, Tropicália sought the transformation of society through cultural production and exchange.

Tropicália is the first exhibition to chart this explosion of creative energy as a cohesive cultural moment. Its starting point is the 1967 exhibition New Brazilian Objectivity, held at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, in which Oiticica’s Tropicália was the centrepiece. At the same time as Oiticica was exhibiting Tropicália, dancing samba and being inspired by the favelas, musicians like Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Oz Mutantes, Tom Ze and Gal Costa were flouting convention to sing passionately rebellious lyrics to electric guitars in front of rapturous audiences. The exhibition includes footage of their memorable concerts, as well as clips from stage productions by the infamous theatre director José Celso Martinez Correa and films by Glauber Rocha.

Tropicália thrived on ideas, dialogue and the energy of the streets. It was enormously influential across South America and is the forerunner of much contemporary work which privileges the viewer and invites participation; so-called ‘relational aesthetics’. The significance and meaning of Tropicália is still the subject of lively debate. As a reflection of this, Tropicália includes a number of commissions by contemporary artists. Each work provides a uniquely personal reflection on the spirit of tropicalismo. The contemporary artists are: Arto Lindsay, Marepe, Ernesto Neto, Rivane Neuenschwander, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Moreno Veloso, Matthew Antezzo, Rodrigo Araujo, Karin Schneider, Lucas Levitan and Jailton Moreira and Assume Vivid Astro Focus.

This landmark exhibition reassesses the cultural significance of the 1960s movement 40 years on, recapturing the rawness and uninhibited vibrancy of the pioneering artists who changed the face of contemporary art.

Visitors to the gallery will be able to experience the unrestrained, anarchic philosophy behind Oiticica’s vision in the reconstruction of his two most important installations. Tropicália, a walk-in environment, plays on the clichés of Brazilian tropicalism with plants, parrots, sand and pebbles, while Eden features a garden of straw ‘nests’ and muslin tents. Visitors are invited to lie back and relax to the sounds of Gilberto Gil, take off their shoes and paddle, confuse their taste buds with Lygia Pape’s luminous water and try on Lygia Clark’s disorientating masks. This multi-sensory adventure in a mythical garden of earthly delights is designed to catapult participants back into the vibe of 1960s Brazil. As Oiticica said, ‘Experience the experimental.’

Facilitators will be on hand to assist the public with participatory works in the exhibition.
There will be regular weekend talks and discussions, as well as samba and drumming workshops.

Major artists in the exhibition include:

Hélio Oiticica (1937-1980 Brazilian)
Tropicália, 1967
Evocative of urban life in a favela, with sand on the floor, a flower-patterned vinyl curtain, macaws and a television. With this work and others, Oiticica challenged bourgeois taste, while questioning the myth of Tropicalism.

Eden, 1969
Originally shown at The Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1969, this is the first time this installation has been re-created for an exhibition. Straw nests, tents, huts, muslin drapes and a pool invite the audience to meditate and experience the multi-sensory nature of the different materials brought together by the artist. From above, it is possible to see the work as an abstract composition of coloured planes.

Lygia Clark (1920 – 1988 Brazilian)
Sensorial Masks, 1967
The I and the You: Cloth-Body-Cloth series 1967
Clark shared with Oiticica a desire to fully involve the spectator and activate sensations. Tropicália includes original and recreated suits, masks, glasses and handling objects by Clark.

A selection of contemporary works:

Marepe (b. Bahia, Brazil 1970)
A Mudanca (The Move) 2005
Mobility and transience are explored in this new work by the Brazilian artist, Marepe. The work comprises a life-sized wooden truck filled with representations of a couch, table, stove, refrigerator and chairs. The artist is commenting on the forced displacement that many Brazilians must endure in order to find a means of subsistence.
The piece has been newly commissioned for this exhibition.

Ernesto Neto (b.Rio de Janeiro, 1964)
That’s the Law, 2005
Netos’s work for this exhibition comprises a large stretched muslin form, onto which has been embroidered the words ‘Don’t think’; a commentary on the political climate that affected the Tropicalists and the prevalence of this attitude within contemporary society.
The piece has been newly commissioned for this exhibition.

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (b.Strasbourg 1965)
Bahia Desorientada (Disoriented Bahia), 2005
This film, which springs from Gonzalez-Foerster’s appreciation of the way in which nature and plant life impact on modernist architecture and landscape design in Brazil, depicts a beach on Ribeira, Salvador de Bahia. Housed within a simple wooden seating structure, Gonzalez-Foerster’s film features a specially created soundtrack by Arto Lindsay. The lapping of the waves is intended to evoke the ebb and flow of Tropicália.
The piece has been newly commissioned for this exhibition.

Rivane Neuenschwander
Carioca and Friends (Soccer Champion), 2005
This is an interactive wall painting, in which Neuenschwander has transformed Zé Carioca (Jo from Rio), a popular cartoon parrot created by Disney in the 1940s. Erasing both speech and images, an abstract wall of colour is created. Viewers are playfully invited to create their own cartoons.
The piece has been newly commissioned for this exhibition.

ALEKSANDRA MIR INVITES LASSER MODERNA TO PERFORM IN PARIS!

Adriana Lara a.k.a Lasser Moderna


Aleksandra Mir


Maria Ines Rodriguez


Eva Svennung


Alexis Vaillant


Matthieu Laurette


David Waddington

GEORGE AND DRAGON AT ICA!

Beatriz Lopez welcoming visitors to the ICA!


exhibition view


Richard Battye at the bar



Deborah Castillo's 'South American Cleaner' White Cubicle Installation


Prince Nelly's Retro Countdown


Liliana and Pablo


David Waddington and Claire Bishop's Raffle


Jens Hoffmann's Guacamole


Richard's parents and Richard preparing Liliana's birthday party


Mariachis


Lucas Sampellegrini and Johnny Woo


Madamme Diane Pernet


Jason Rhoades, Liliana Sanguino and Sebastian Ramirez


Sunday finale, Back to the George on the doubledecker


George and Dragon at ICA
London in Six Weeks
ICA, London
Richard Battye, Gregor Muir, Pablo Leon de la Barra, Liliana Sanguino, Beatriz Lopez, Nuno Antunes, Kerie Anne and the George and Dragon Staff are happy to invite you to the exhibition:
George and Dragon Public House at ICA
from Tuesday, September 20 to Sunday, September 25, 2005, 12:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Opening Night: Tuesday, September 20, 2005, 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
ICA, The Mall, London SW1

Once upon a time, on a Friday 13th back in December 2002, in the midst of the
coldest most obdurate winter to have afflicted London in forty or maybe seventy
years, there appeared a small glowing light at the Shoreditch end of Hackney
Road. Drawing closer, shivering but inquisitive passers-by discovered that these
lights were not Christmas decorations, but the tawdry decor of a newly reopened
pub. The George and Dragon's sumptuously low-budget interior - a hospice for
kitsch ephemera - beckoned them inside. This eclectic grotto was complemented
by an equally disparate clientele that seemed to catalysed a new mood in
Shoreditch. Within moments it was clear that the George and Dragon public house
promised an intoxicating polysexual future for a community of locals fatigued with
Old Street's metamorphosis into a meat-market for Ben Sherman-clad lads on the
pull.

The George and Dragon is uniquely a provincial public house in the inner city,
albeit one with an exuberant fiesta feel courtesy of its predominantly Latin-
American bar staff. Under the visionary fervour of landlord Richard Battye, the
George and Dragon has won the hearts and livers of London's fashion and art
bohemia, passing international art visitors, and a morass of sweaty queens, trannies
and bears. Great amount of the magic resides in George and Dragon's soundtrack,
a compelling roster of Djs programmed by Richard Battye, the most conceptual of
which is Prince Nelly, whose Retro Chart Rundown comprises every top 40 single
from a given week in the 80s played in meticulous order, accompanied by an
informative commentary. Through events such as Nelly's Countdown, the George
and Dragon pays homage to the decade that most shaped the souls and psyches of
its clientele, side-stepping cheap spectacle such as SchoolDisco.com for a more
adult and therapeutic emotional release aroused by Bonnie Tyler.

In Richardette the curly-locked landlord, barman Pablo Leon de la Barra found a
willing collaborator for his experimental social programming. First there came
24/7's Guacamole Monday, in which selected friends and customers were invited
to bastardise Mexico's most popular canapé. Then came White Cubicle, also
known as WC3, a sporadic gallery event taking place in the ladies' loo. This
project unequivocally encouraged viewers to re-evaluate conventions of sociallyengaged
and site-specific art by bringing a roster of both established and unknown
artists into a location already heaving with established and unknown artists.
Nearly three years since the pub's inauguration, Richard Battye has achieved his
ambition of running an institution that functions as “something between a drop-in
centre, a rehab clinic and his teenage bedroom”. The George and Dragon is more
than just a place to consume stingy British shots of vodka during bad weather, it is
an anti-essentialist essential in our increasingly corporate capital.

Within the ICA exhibition space, elements and events that form part of the George and Dragon will be displayed and displaced: this is not a recreation of the George and Dragon, it is an abstraction and translation of that that defines the George and Dragon experience.

Please join us for the following events that might happen during the week:

Saturday 17 and all week:
6:00 PM to 11:00 PM at the George and Dragon 2 Hackney Road, London E2
White Cubicle Toilet Gallery presents the exhibition Federico Herrero, Institutional Tropical Critique, curated by Jens Hoffmann

And at ICA all week during exhibition times:

All week:
DJ’s as Live Musical Sculptures including among others The Lovely Jonjo, Mrs. Elin Andersen, The Sizzle Sisters, John and Andy The Straight Boys, The Thank You Boys, Johnny Woo, Lady D.I.E., Richard Mortimer, Spanky and Angie, Danilo, Hazel Robinson, Seb Patane, La Viuda and others.
Friends as Barmen and Barmaids

Tuesday 20:
Opening Night 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
B-Lo’s Coming Home Party which might include Clarita’s Tombola, David’s Copacabana and Total Strip of the Heart
Jens’ Guacamole
White Cubicle Toilet Gallery at ICA presenting the exhibition Deborah Castillo, South American Cleaner
Rocky our star carpenter on the musical decks
and Gregor Muir’s MC curator’s talk!

Wednesday 21:
4:00-7:00 PM Prince Nelly's Retro Chart Rundown

Thursday 22:
Radio Egypt Drag Rehearsals
and the arrival of Richard’s Parents and Monsiuer Robin Schulie

Friday 23:
Margaritas Friday
Liliana Sanguino’s Birthday including Nuno’s Décor and Kerie Anne’s Birthday Cakes

Saturday 24:
Lady D.I.E’s Jumble Sale
The Thank You Boys Creche
The Main Ones (maybe)
bring your records and be a DJ with Six Foot Stereo

Sunday 25:
Yorkshire Style Sunday Buffet
and Country Club

Grand Finale:
And to end the week on Sunday 25 at 7:30 PM board the Double Decker going to the original George and Dragon Public House at 2 Hackney Road and join us to celebrate the end of George and Dragon week and the closure of London in Six Easy Steps exhibition.

All this might happen plus special unannounced events, blackouts and non working toilets, just like in the real George!

George and Dragon at 2 Hackney Road will continue open as usual except on Tuesday 20 when we will be closed.

G+D Guacamole Cookbook specially customized by B-Lo available at ICA’s bookshop.