Autonomous form, materialist form, objective form: nexus with the Brazilian matter

• Grant number: 25/08872-4
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - International
• Start date: August 10, 2026
• End date: September 12, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Art Fundamentals and Criticism
• Principal Investigator: Gustavo de Moura Valença Motta
• Grantee: Gustavo de Moura Valença Motta
• Visiting researcher: Nicholas Mainey Brown
• Visiting researcher institution: University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) , United States
• Host Institution: Instituto de Artes (IA). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• City of the host institution: São Paulo

Abstract

The project proposes the visit to São Paulo of researcher and professor Nicholas Brown, from the School of Art & Art History at the University of Illinois, Chicago, to hold discussions on ongoing research involving critical, artistic, and literary issues. Specifically, within the visual arts scope, it will focus on works and questions related to modern and contemporary art, emphasizing Brazilian authors in all these areas. The program includes scientific meetings, classes, lectures, and debates led by Prof. Nicholas Brown in São Paulo. These activities will be jointly promoted by three Graduate Programs: the PPGArtes at the Institute of Arts of UNESP (host institution), the PPG in Visual Arts at ECA-USP (co-proponent institution), and the PPG in Art History at EFLCH-UNIFESP (co-proponent institution).In particular, at the host institution (Institute of Arts - UNESP), Professor Brown's visit will directly engage with recent developments in the research project "Participation and it's discontents: Modern and Contemporary Brazilian Art," which focuses on the late works of Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica. This research is led by Prof. Dr. Gustavo Motta within the research group artecolapso - practical and theoretical critique of visuality.Overall, Professor Nicholas Brown's Activity Plan includes direct contact with faculty researchers and students from the three mentioned Graduate Programs. It also involves a joint short-term graduate course offered by PPGArtes-IA-UNESP and PPGAV-ECA-USP; extension activities with PPGHA-EFLCH-UNIFESP; and additionally, contact and collaboration with the graduate course "Literature, Cinema, and Society: From Modernism to Post-68," taught by Prof. Dr. Ana Paula Pacheco within the PPG in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature at FFLCH-USP.Regarding the graduate course "Autonomous Form, Materialist Form, Objective Form: Connections with Brazilian Matter," it will be jointly offered in the Graduate Program by PPGArtes-IA-UNESP and PPGAV-ECA-USP, and as an extension course by PPGHA-EFLCH-UNIFESP. The activities will take place alternately in auditoriums across the three institutions. In this course, the concept of form will be considered alternately from three main perspectives: as "autonomous form," as "materialist form," and finally, as "objective form." These perspectives will be presented historically, specified, and compared, especially regarding the different relationships they establish with Brazilian matter.In this context, the history of dialectical critique-originating in literature - as well as the discussion of the notion of cultural system (formulated by literary critic Antonio Candido), and the debates sparked by the seminar on Capital (conducted by professors and students from FFLCH-USP starting in 1958), will serve as paradigms for a critical process rooted in and developed through a radical critical reflection on dependency and the dialectic between periphery and center. The ongoing critical-reflective process, which involves translating these critical practices from strict reading to the realm of visual arts, will also be discussed. (AU)