Institutional geopolitics: art in dispute in international circulating exhibitions in Brazil (1948-1978)

• Grant number: 22/12333-3
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants
• Start date: December 01, 2023
• End date: November 30, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Art Fundamentals and Criticism
• Principal Investigator: Maria de Fátima Morethy Couto
• Grantee: Maria de Fátima Morethy Couto
• Host Institution: Instituto de Artes (IA). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• City of the host institution: Campinas
• Principal investigators: Dária Gorete Jaremtchuk
• Associated researchers: Adele Nelson ; Camila Santoro Maroja ; Dária Gorete Jaremtchuk ; Emerson Dionisio Gomes de Oliveira ; Luisa Fabiana Serviddio ; Mariola Virginia Alvarez ; Michiko Okano ; Moema de Bacelar Alves ; Patricia Leal Azevedo Corrêa ; Renata Cristina de Oliveira Maia Zago ; Renata Gomes Cardoso ; Simele Soares Rodrigues ; Vera Beatriz Cordeiro Siqueira
• Associated scholarship(s): 25/20387-4 - Eastern European Modernism in Traveling Exhibitions in Brazil and South America (1948-1978), BP.PD; 25/15421-9 - Italian Traveling Art Exhibitions in Brazil and South America (1948-1978), BP.PD; 25/08926-7 - Compilation of archival materials pertaining to international traveling exhibitions hosted by MAC USP (1963-1978), BP.TT; + associated scholarships 25/11068-2 - Modern and contemporary art in the columns of the newspapers Estado de São Paulo and Folha de São Paulo between the years 1948 and 1978, BP.IC; 24/22580-3 - Modern and contemporary art in the columns of Jornal do Brasil and O Globo: the art criticism of Harry Laus and Vera Pacheco Jordão, BP.IC; 24/05725-8 - Geopolitical strategies in the visual arts: the actions of the British Council in Brazil (1950s/1970s), BE.PQ; 24/19501-4 - International exhibitions circulating in binational centers (1948-1978), BP.TT; 24/16083-7 - "Creation of the architecture and implementation of the database and management of the software used in the project (Phase 1)", BP.TT; 24/13615-8 - Survey of documentation on international traveling exhibitions that took place at MAM SP (1948-1978), BP.TT; 24/09116-6 - The Mini Art Gallery of the United States Information Service (USIS): a space for promoting the visual arts of the United States in São Paulo, BP.IC; 24/08436-7 - National delegations at the São Paulo biennials transformed into traveling exhibitions (1951-1979), BP.TT; 24/09077-0 - The exhibition American Advertising Art and its Connections with the Brazilian Advertising Field, BP.IC; 24/07530-0 - Modern and contemporary art in newspaper columns: Jayme Maurício and the Correio da Manhã, BP.IC; 24/07398-4 - Organization and systematization of documentation in the Itamaraty archive regarding support for international traveling exhibitions, BP.TT; 24/07400-9 - Survey of documentation on international traveling exhibitions that took place at MASP (1948-1978), BP.TT - associated scholarships

Abstract

This project aims to map and analyze the international exhibitions of visual arts that circulated in Brazil and other South American countries between 1948 and 1978. It seeks to understand the connections between Brazilian institutions and museums and foreigners cultural and diplomatic institutions and the formation of regional networks that were established from these shows. It is also intended to analyze the texts of the cataloges as discursive practices that propagate artistic canons. Our hypothesis is that this inventory and its analysis will make it possible to identify the aesthetic-artistic debates embedded in this set of circulating exhibitions, as well as reveal their political and diplomatic dimensions. Although exhibitions are a recurrent object of study in the field of visual arts, there are still few studies that analyze their performance in the international/national art scene from the relationships established with institutions, cultural agencies and diplomatic agents. By placing this research in the intertwining of artistic/cultural and geopolitical interests, this project will contribute to the construction of historiographical perspectives in Brazilian art with an emphasis on the cultural and political dimension present in institutional dynamics. (AU)