1 Bienal Ceará América: De ponta cabeça
Bienal de Arte Contemporânea das Américas
Fortaleza Ceará Brasil
- Extract from the official press release -

Fortaleza

São Paolo, Venice, Kwangju, Dakar, Istanbul, Lyon, Porto Alegre, Lima, Havana, Mexico City, San Diego, Valencia, Sydney, Melbourne, Katmandu. One of the things that all these cities have in common is that they are organizing every two year an event giving an overview on the actual contemporary art practice. The 13th of December 2002 the city of Fortaleza can be added to this long and ever-growing list of biennals. Having already so many initatives of this kind (and even more then one in Brasil) it is clear that one asks oneself why Fortaleza needs a similar event.

Calling an exhibition a biennal shows the wish and ambition of a city to make of this event a tradition and long lasting project. As this Bienal Ceará América De ponta cabeça the first is in its kind it is meaningfull to put attention to some clear reasons and suggestions for organising this exhibition in Fortaleza and continuing the tradition.

First of all, Fortaleza is a megapolis and a capital with an important cultural heritage and lively art production. Next to the traditional Cearian arts and crafts scene the city has a well-skilled and rich scene of xylogravura. Chico Albuquerque can be named a photographer with international reputation. But above this Fortaleza has the privilege having a dynamic group of individual artists and art collectives working within a critical, international and contemporary art practice. And then of course we only talk about the visual arts not mentioning the other disciplines.

Secondly, Fortaleza opened about four years ago the Centro Cultural de Dragaõ do Mar, a multfunctional cultural centre including a museum for contemporary art, a memorial, a cinema complex, a theater and auditorium, a planetarium, library and these like. Having this infrastructure at one's disposal almost asks for the organisation of a project like the biennal which creates the encounter of about 45 artists from the three Americas. The Centro Cultural is the ideal basis for having an exchange of ideas, artistic visions, discussions and exhibiting the variety of the contemporary art. It is a well visited place where people from different realms of society find there way.

Thirdly, geographically spoken Fortaleza is far away from the cultural dominant South of the country. As culture and art (and the information about it) should be accessible to everyone within the possibilities it is important that the North of the country also has a meaningfull forum for contemporary art. A biennal could be the right answer in serving this function.

Finnally, Fortaleza is a dynamic city in economic development between the dominant presence of the ocean and the interior of the state. Art has to be a vivid and important function within the development of a city. A project as the Biennal can help to further precise and articulate the necessity of art within the city. Therefore artists will not only show work within the save walls of the museum, but will be directly acting in the city in contact with the inhabitants.
Is it not so that an exhibition should be a celebration? A celebration of art and the city in which the exhibition is being held.

1 Bienal Ceará América

Even if Fortaleza has so many assets for hosting this new biennal it is still important that within the landscape of biennals this project has its distinctive and proper qualities. This can be guaranteed when the exhibition arises from a cultural necessity in close and direct interaction with the city Fortaleza itself.

As for each exhibition the subject or 'theme' is a major issue in the reception and development of the exhibition's process. Instead of dropping a concept into the city of Fortaleza, it is the city itself which reveals or indicates the major lines of the exhibition. Walking throug the city of Fortaleza one is immediately surprised by the social and urbanistic differences between the coast and the inner-city. As if the city has a janus-like existence with a double acceleration. It is this prominent antagonism which is the point of departure for the biennial. This social urban duality incorporates namely some interesting and challenging oppositions which in globo relate to certain artistic and socio-political attitudes. Generally and idealistically spoken the coast can be related to the utopy, the gaze, the panorama, the distance, leisure, desire, the ideal, meditation. The inner city on the contrary can represent more the existential, the focus, work, survival, interaction, discussion and dialogue, pragmatism. . Above this it is important to relate to the actual mundial political situation and world cleavages. Probably approaching a second Gulf War and living through the consequences of the 11th of September 2001 it is of a major importance to confront and face the waining cultural and political hegemony of the Western hemisphere. The classical cultural hierarchy, the political and economical subordination and historical imperialism within the Americas can only be perceived as an actual reality but not as a world view for the future.

By proposing the above mentioned general conceptual framework to the artists the Bienal Ceará America will be developed and perceived as an exhibition which will closely fit the skin of the city of Fortaleza. As if the exhibition is the cities second skin

De ponta cabeça : 45 artists in 3 venues in 1 city

The Uruguyan artist Joaquin Torres Garcia made in the thirties a drawing titled 'O Norté é o Sul' with the map of the three Americas upside down. North-America becomes South and South-America becomes North. As if this drawing has some profetic qualities. More and more for instance North American metropoles are getting latinized demographically and culturally. Looking through it from an international perspective one has to admit that also on the economic and political level the world will be 'upside down' one day. The economic prosperity of East-Asia and the fast spread of the Islamic culture for instance signal the necessity for a rearticulation of the actual international political, diplomatic and economical constellation. Also within the perspective of contemporary art the North and Western artistic idiom could be challenged or questioned. South or Latin American art should not be perceived as the 'other' within a Western point of view but as an autonomuous and complex artistic reality. For this an other reasons the title of the first Bienal Ceará América is de ponta cabeça.

Practical imformations

EXHIBITION DATES:

From 13th of December 2002 - 28th of February 2003
Fortaleza, Ceará, Brasil

EXHIBITION VENUES:

Galpões RFFSA - Rua 24 de Maio, SN, Centro (Praça da Estação)
From Tuesday till Sunday/From 10h00 to 17h30
Centro Dragão do Mar de Arte e Cultura - Rua Dragão do Mar 81 (Praia de Iracema)
From Tuesday till Sunday/From 14h00 to 21h30

Casa Boris - Rua Boris 90 (Praia de Iracema)
From 14h00 to 21h30

Shuttle - A fee shuttle will be available for visitors between Centro Cultural and the Galpões.

Entrance Fee - Full price: 2 reais Reduction: 1 real (tickets can not be bought in the Casa Boris)

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM/SEMINARS:

During the exhibition guided tours and workshops will be organized for children and grown-ups for all age groups. The workshops will focus on different works in the exhibition giving an idea of the diversity of the contemporary art practice. Middle of January the international seminar 'Moments of Monuments' will be held. The colloquium will give a critical perspective on the monument in our present-day society. Above this the colloquium focus on the idea of the Biennal as a monument.

FOR ALL INFORMATIONS:

Estação Bienal
Rua 24 de Maio, SN
Centro (Praça da Estação)
Fortaleza Ceará
Brasil
bienalceara@dragaodomar.org.br
depontacabeca@terra.com.br
T/F: 0055 (0)85 4887604