The following interview has been written for a fictitious magazine named BRIC Art, focused on the emerging art scene of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China).

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BRIC Art: How are the exhibitions planned for the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo?

 

MA: Our team of curators, along with myself, shall draw up a first programming within the lines already defined in our policy on exhibits, from researches developed internally or from proposal presented by external partners (curators, artists or other institutions). After that, the proposal is analyzed by our Artistic Orientation Council, which gives the final approval for it to happen.

 

BRIC Art: Regarding the Octagon Project*, how did the idea to take advantage of the space was conceived? What do you think of similar projects like the Duveen Comission Series, in Tate Britain, and the Turbine Hall, in Tate Modern?

 

MA: The idea arose from a joint reflection with Ivo Mesquita, whom I invited to take over the curatorship of the project. Our intention was to occupy that space - which is a central space in both architectural and symbolic sense - with contemporary productions, to create a starting point and delimit the prospect of "where" we are working. We believe that it is from the contemporary production that we can stimulate the enjoyment and the overview of the historic production. Other similar initiatives seem to confirm this view, as well as highlight the central role played by the contemporary production as the structuring axis in art museums.

 

BRIC Art: The new home of the Museum of Contemporary Art next to the Ibirapuera Park and the Nova Luz Project (part of the Government revitalization plan for the centre of the city) are some of the upcoming attractions of Sao Paulo. How do you see the positioning of the city on a global scale?

 

MA: I believe that Sao Paulo occupies a privileged position in the world of the arts today, as an active hub of contemporary production in the Visual Arts field. Gathers a qualified infrastructure and displays a dynamism of achievements which gives it a unique role as the crossroads of the most distinguished poetics, that here find fertile space for their activities.

 

BRIC Art: The SP-Arte Fair had recently a considerable growth internationally, a likely reflect of the Brazilian artistic market boom inside and outside the country. What is your opinion on this new moment for national art?

 

MA: Undoubtedly the art market in Brazil is going through a time of growth and consolidation. This is a stimulus to production, but is just one component. The current artistic production in Brazil - that displays enormous vitality, diversity and originality - faces immense challenges, many of which inherent their own space of experimentation and research.

 

BRIC Art: Brazil receives large international exhibitions, on the other hand, how is the demand of works in national collections for institutions abroad?

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MA: We have recorded an increasing demand by foreign museum institutions requesting loans of works made by Brazilian artists, in order to participate in exhibitions abroad, mainly modernist artists of the 1920s/1930s, concrete artists of the 1950s/1960s and names that have already achieved an international recognition, such as Mira Schendel, Lygia Clark and Helio Oiticica.

 

BRIC Art: The term BRIC is already recognized in the economic sphere. Is it possible to have this potential in the cultural field?

 

MA: Perhaps. Cultural differences among the BRIC countries are profound. The similarities that have been identified in their economy until now, echoes in the cultural sphere only (or just yet?) in terms of market growth and internationalization of artistic production, but I believe that in terms of poetics, there are more parallels between the Brazilian production and the ones in other countries of Latin America, for instance.

 

*The Octagon Project began in 2003 and has four exhibits every year, more than thirty Brazilian and international artists have already shown their work in the space.

 

Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo

 

The building by Ramos de Azevedo is the oldest museum of the city and has been through important renovations since its original foundation in 1905, the most recent one by Paulo Mendes da Rocha in the 1990s, for which the architect won the Mies van der Rohe Award for Latin America in 2000. Later on, another Azevedo’s building  nearby became part of the institution - Estação Pinacoteca, adding up to twenty thousand square feet of exhibition space, this not including the public garden (Jardim da Luz) in front of the original museum, which now shows many sculptures part of its collection.

 

With a permanent collection of more than eight thousand works, mainly Brazilian artists from the 19th and 20th Century, including works by modernists Di Cavalcanti, Portinari, Tarsila do Amaral and Flávio de Carvalho, along with contemporary artists, such as Nuno Ramos and Paulo Pasta, Pinacoteca has become one of Brazilian main museums and hosts important international exhibitions (e.g. Andy Warhol, Mr. America, 2010 and Matisse Today, 2009), unquestionably a must-see attraction.