Seiva, 2019-20
Parte da exposição Terra de Ninguém, Galeria Leme, 2020
As pinturas de Seiva são palavras-signo que trazem elementos naturais: fogo, ouro e mercúrio. Feitas por um pintor especializado em letreiros de caminhões, elas encarnam uma faceta da cultura popular. São letras grandes e grossas, ligeiramente inclinadas, com cores fortes, sombreadas ou contornadas de modo a se destacar visualmente e ser lidas a distância.
Mercúrio, fazendo jus à fama de mensageiro, viajou por São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul e Mato Grosso, desaguando por ali na Amazônia. A principal forma de contaminação por mercúrio na Amazônia é a mineração de ouro em pequena escala – na qual ele é usado para purificar o metal precioso. Nesse processo, o mercúrio contamina os rios e assim se espalha, destruindo plantas, animais e prejudicando severamente a saúde de todos os habitantes da Amazônia.
Já o Ouro, saindo de São Paulo, atravessou o Estado de Minas Gerais e chegou a Salvador. Reconstruiu, de certa forma, a mesma rota do período colonial. Ouro que ainda hoje reveste as igrejas coloniais, construídas naquela época como uma primeira inscrição europeia no campo simbólico cultural brasileiro.
A pintura Fogo, com letras vermelhas ardentes, foi instalada como um lameirão (peça que fica presa por cima mas solta embaixo, mais ou menos na altura das rodas) num caminhão comercial. O fogo saiu de São Paulo e se alastrou rumo ao sul, até a Patagônia argentina, pertinho da Terra do Fogo. Pela fotografia feita pelo caminhoneiro em algum momento da viagem, o veículo transportou caixas em que se lê: “polar”. “Fogo polar”, um verso involuntário, fruto do encontro casual entre dois significantes. Por onde mais a pintura passou? Quem a encontrou pelo caminho? Quantos versos involuntários, aos quais jamais teremos acesso, ela produziu? De volta à galeria, essa pintura-lameirão é exposta na fachada, estabelecendo também um circuito com os outros caminhões que por ali transitam. A obra, assim exposta, parece encontrar seu lugar: nem dentro nem fora do circuito da arte, ou, como formulamos anteriormente, ao mesmo tempo dentro e fora dele.
*Mercúrio pertence à coleção Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo.
Este texto é um excerto do texto curatorial de Thaís Rivitti para a exposição Terra de Ninguém.
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Mercúrio
Fogo
Ouro
Sap, 2019-20
The paintings from the Sap series are sign-words, that brings natural elements: fire, gold and mercury. They are made by a specialized truck sign painter and represent a popular cultural side. Big, thick, slightly inclined letters write three words meant to be read in distance, by cars after trucks at the roads.
“Mercury”, as the messenger, travelled through São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso, entering the Amazon territory crossing the states of Rondônia and Acre all the way to the city of Cruzeiro do Sul, in the border with Peru and Bolivia.
The main way of river contamination in the amazon forest, mercury is used to separate gold nuggets from dirt. In the process, it spreads in the waters and contaminates rivers, therefore damaging water supplies for people and animals.
“Gold” has left São Paulo, through the state of Minas Gerais, arriving at Salvador. In a sense, it rebuilt the same gold route from colonial period. This same gold still decorates colonial architecture churches, built at that time as a first european inscription in the brazilian symbolic arena.
“Fire, in its raging red letters, has left São Paulo with destination to argentinian Patagonia, arriving at Tierra del Fuego. The photographs registers were made by the truck driver, then mounted in wood plates. In one of them, it reads “polar”. “Polar fire”, an involuntary verse, casual meeting between two significants. Where else did the painting visited?
Who has met it on its way on the roads? How many more involuntary verses, which we will never hace access to, did it produced? Back to the gallery, this fender-painting is exposed at the entrance, also setting a circuit with the other transport trucks that pass by. Exhibited like that, the work seems to find its place: nor inside, nor outside the art circuit, or, as said before, at the same time in and outside.
The text is a free translation excerpt from the curatorial text from Thaís Rivitti, curator of the No man's land exhibition.
The paintings from the Sap series are sign-words, that brings natural elements: fire, gold and mercury. They are made by a specialized truck sign painter and represent a popular cultural side. Big, thick, slightly inclined letters write three words meant to be read in distance, by cars after trucks at the roads.
“Mercury”, as the messenger, travelled through São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso, entering the Amazon territory crossing the states of Rondônia and Acre all the way to the city of Cruzeiro do Sul, in the border with Peru and Bolivia.
The main way of river contamination in the amazon forest, mercury is used to separate gold nuggets from dirt. In the process, it spreads in the waters and contaminates rivers, therefore damaging water supplies for people and animals.
“Gold” has left São Paulo, through the state of Minas Gerais, arriving at Salvador. In a sense, it rebuilt the same gold route from colonial period. This same gold still decorates colonial architecture churches, built at that time as a first european inscription in the brazilian symbolic arena.
“Fire, in its raging red letters, has left São Paulo with destination to argentinian Patagonia, arriving at Tierra del Fuego. The photographs registers were made by the truck driver, then mounted in wood plates. In one of them, it reads “polar”. “Polar fire”, an involuntary verse, casual meeting between two significants. Where else did the painting visited?
Who has met it on its way on the roads? How many more involuntary verses, which we will never hace access to, did it produced? Back to the gallery, this fender-painting is exposed at the entrance, also setting a circuit with the other transport trucks that pass by. Exhibited like that, the work seems to find its place: nor inside, nor outside the art circuit, or, as said before, at the same time in and outside.
The text is a free translation excerpt from the curatorial text from Thaís Rivitti, curator of the No man's land exhibition.