NA LATA FESTIVAL X STRAAT
"Entre o permitido e o excluído onde mora a arte?"
(Between the permitted and the excluded, where does art dwell?)
Collab with Marcelo Pasqua, guidance by João Correia
Na Lata Festival x Straat - São Paulo
October 5th - November 16th, 2024
Context of the Artwork: Between Erasure and Exhibition
The installation "Observadora" was created as a direct response to a controversial decision made at the start of the festival: the curator chose to erase the museum's façade, which was originally covered with numerous pixos, to make way for the exhibition. The museum, being a space dedicated to street art, paradoxically erased the most authentic marks of the urban landscape – the interventions it should be celebrating. This is particularly striking in the context of São Paulo, the birthplace of pixação.
The act of erasing the pixos brought to light questions about the role of institutions in preserving or excluding urban culture. The artwork challenges the boundaries between the permitted and the excluded, the transient and the permanent. Hence, the message "Between the permitted and the excluded, where does art dwell?" not only titles the piece but also encapsulates the reflections it provokes.
The sculpture, installed on the rooftop and accessible at any time, establishes a direct dialogue with the city and the movements that inhabit it. It symbolizes resistance against the sanitization of spaces and attempts to return art to the public without restrictions.
Art work: Observer
A sculpture in a posture of contemplation and reflection, installed on the rooftop. Displayed outside, it brings both the gaze to the exterior and serves as the only work available for visitation at any time, whether the space is open or not — much like the pixo-covered buildings that occupy the city.
What could be as artistically intriguing as an entire building covered in pixo?
What are the meanings behind these transgressions? Protest? Pleasure? An act of resistance against the current system? Ego?
What is the weight of pixo on a wall? And what does the act of erasing it symbolize? Could it be a reflection of gentrification and the sanitization of spaces, or just part of the natural rotation of urban life?
Which movements occupy the city, and how are they being represented – inside and outside the institutions?
The sculpture, in addition to being an observer, becomes a silent witness to time, to the gestures that transform the landscape, whether visible or erased.
Between permanence and the ephemeral, what defines the space of art?
Does the work become part of the city, or does the city become part of the work?
Just as pixo claims a place in the collective memory, this sculpture is also a manifesto — not only of what is seen, but of what endures, even when ignored.
"Do graffiti artists or pixadores need to be bound to the spray can? Or is it a lifestyle, a concept, a critical view of the world?
Does cloning the figure of a pixadora and positioning her in the collective imagination of the street — as an observer, who, by capturing the imagination of passersby, awakens them to a critical view of the system — also serve as a work of a pixadora? Or are pixadores and graffiti artists forever bound to the can to express themselves?
In the 1950s, at the height of Abstract Expressionism in the United States, critic Harold Rosenberg introduced the idea that, during the act of painting, the emphasis was on the physical action of the artist. He highlighted the importance of the creative process, gesture, and action, rather than the finished work.
This focus on gestural process and interaction with real life outside of art sparked a gradual movement that, in the following decade, freed artists from the paintbrush, with the emergence of happenings, conceptual art, and more. There was a shift in perception that expanded the horizons of art and expression.
What about street art? Although pixo and graffiti share urban space, they are distinct movements, each with its own nuances, as theorized by authors such as Norman Mailer, Jean Baudrillard, Gustavo Lassala, and many others. Thinking specifically about pixo... it is already characterized by such an intense physical action and performative charge, a singular critical gaze — not to mention its own code of conduct, social critique, networking, and strong community sense that crosses regional boundaries.
Could there not be ways for the pixo movement — just like graffiti — to also explore these defining characteristics, transcending its physical tools and becoming free from the spray cans?
This is one of the questions explored in the work “The Observer,” by Eneri in collaboration with Marcelo Pasqua, in which the figure of a pixadora was cloned and placed on a wall, observing the city while smoking and holding a can, reflecting the relationship between street art, the city, and the public."
– João Correia
