In Contextu

In Contextu, 1980

Gabriel Borba In Contextu

My commentary

 

Paulo Figueiredo was a good and patient friend. I related to his gallery in various ways. I gave courses, presented Vilém Flusser for a series of lectures, there were three, if I can remember, and in years no exhibition. I am not sure how the time came and I asked him to allow me a small and intimate and short-lived thing that was resolved with my "conceptualist" papers, as they say, from some drawings of Pequeno Mobiliário and Jaula da Anta, passing through today called Gestörte Numeration; Mutations; Quality; all Rebusteia; Canceled. .. in a mount that filled two walls of the small room on the upper floor of the Gallery on Rua Bela Cintra, São Paulo. In the center of the room was a table, board on an easel, with works by friends of the same interest. In my memory it comes, Julio Plaza, Amelia Toledo, Mario Ishikawa, Regina Siveira, Ubirajara Ribeiro and so many others tha tcould have been there, especially those who participated in the On Of publication.

An exhibition that was left without documentation. Only the note I made as an invitation and some stories to tell remained. The most touching and moving was the affectionate message that Hervé Fischer left written on a backrest at the entrance to the room. And for him, Hervé, I asked if he remembered, at least, the date he was in Brazil
Here is our correspondence between 25 and 30 May 2020:

Gabriel Borba: Cher Hervé, en ce moment, je travaille sur mon site et je monte une exposition que j'ai faite et je sais que tu l'as visitée. Le problème est que je ne connais pas l'année. Sachant que tu étais là, je te demande si toi tu te souviens de ta voyage à São Paulo entre les années 70 et 80. Je te remerci 

Gabi

Hervé Fischer: Cher Gabi,

Je suis venu en 76 et en 80.

Je me souviens d’avoir visité ton expo. Mis je ne sais plus laquelle de ces deux années.

Salutations

Hervé

GB: Cher Hervé, merci pour l'information. La seule chose dont je me souvienne de cette exposition, c'est que tu as écrit un message sur le tableau noir qui était là et que j'ai vraiment aimé. Mais, pauvre moi, je ne me souviens pas des mots.
Il était l’anné 1980.

Ton frère,

Gabi

HF: Alors il faut que je réinvente les mots. Qd l’expo sera sur ton site, dis-le moi.

Et en voilà d’autres:<image0.jpeg>

Hervé 

GB: Certes Hervé. Ta proposition est très bienvenue et je te propose de l’étendre  jusq'a publié dans mon site notre correspondence, après la présentation qui existe déjà, avec les beaux tweets arte qui sont venue ensamble. 

Après tout, comme tu pourrais voir, la exposition s'appele Gabriel Borba In Contextu et il avait au millieu de la sale une grosse table avec les travailles des mes amies les plus chére. On la ‘remake’ ... avec ton travail. Je te fais mon "contextu"

Dis-moi si c'est une bonne idée.

Gabi

HF: Prezado Gabi,

Eu revisitei o seu site. Será com muito prazer, se você citar nossos intercâmbios e as tweets artes que eu lhe enviei. Aqui está outro.

Amizade.

Hervé

HF: J'aime beaucoup cette définition de l’oeuvre d’art que je te propose:

Amitié

Hervé

GB:  Salve Hervé.

Recebi mais este. E gostei. Lembro bem do Julio Plaza declarando que “Arte é um bem que faz mal”

Aviso você quando começar a colocar no site nossa correspondência que explicará o motivo da sua presença. Farei de modo que você poderá recusar ou pedir alterações em alguma coisa.

Abraço

Gabi

HF: Obrigado, Gabi. Tenho boas lembranças do Julio Plaza e da Regina Silveira. Eu gosto dessa linha que você citou. Em seu site, você faz o que quiser. 

Saudações de amizade.

Hervé

 

                

 

         

 

              

                  

 

HF.Thanks, Gabi. It was a great pleasure to revisit your site completed with our exchanges. How wonderful to be able to communicate so friendly and so quickly despite the distance between Quebec and Brazil and the pandemic that prevents us from taking the plane. This digital ease of use - and there is also digital horror - promotes the development of our "increased awareness", planetary and in real time, thanks to the techno-humanism that underlies our hyperhumanism: more humanism thanks to the multiplication of our hyperlinks.

Hervé   (This last statement was originally written in Portuguese)

    

   

Conjunto da Obra

Em Quatro Desentende-se Melhor (Four are Best Misunderstood)

Figura (Figure)

Gestörte Numeration

Hino dos Vencidos (Anthem of the Defeated)

Jaula da Anta (Tapir's Cage)

Nós (Us or Knots)

Obra esparsa (scattered works)

Pequeno Mobiliário Brasileiro

Rebusteia

TRÄMA

Transparências (Transparencies)

Um Golpe de Dada (A Coup of Dada)

Jaula da Anta heliografia, 1976

Heliografia com madeira e fio, 47.70 X 57.00

Works, Series and Collections: Jaula da Anta (Tapir's Cage)

Expositions: Copy Art in Brazil, 1970-1990, Espaço B, In Contextu, IX Congresso Brasileiro de Arquitetos

 

Jaula da Anta, blueprint, 1976

Tapir's Cage

May commentary

In August of 1976 I enrolled in the National Architecture Exhibition of the IX International Congress of Architecture and Urbanism, in São Paulo, and presented the project Jaula da Anta (Anta’s Cage), in blueprint from a drawing on tracing paper.

To the drawing seen here was added a side banner with the title of the exhibition and the congress (obligatory) and, by my account, a "describing report" saying:

 

"There are two architectures

one large, monumental

and another simple and close.

 

 That one of the nation, of the continent,

of the world.

This one, of the Anta (tapir),

 

the rest is nothing but cement

(in Portuguese this last sentence can also be read as

The rest is forgetfulness)”

 

Below this image, there is a more elaborate drawing, also in blueprint and collage, of the same size, preparatory to the drawing that went to the Biennial of Paris, the following year, for which I was invited.

As in Aesop, the allegory of the figures chosen to compose the project induces meanings beyond their appearances. Rope, feather and anta (tapir) are figures of popular sayng that, once used in the same sentence, can project a significant universe. Try it: "You are an Anta ( so dumb). Too bad (uma pena= a feather) you stretched the rope until it cracked"

 

The easel, support of things, as I have draw it, let you read name ANTA. It is connected to the video ME, in which the subject is replaced by an abstraction of itself. And also, with some effort, it's similar to the mirror scene in Us Version II.

Gabriel Borba, 2019