São Paulo – Facial expressions of grief, loneliness, and fear in streets and places in Sweden, India, Cuba, the United States, Israel, Netherlands, France, Palestine, Morocco and other countries, including cities in Brazil, are portrayed in the exhibition Desvios (Detours), by photographer Geraldo Melo, slated to open on December 8th at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Marco) in Mato Grosso do Sul state capital Campo Grande.
The show is part of the museum’s 4th Exhibition Season, and Melo’s work was selected via an open call. The 62-year old photographer travelled to all of the featured countries throughout his career. He was in Palestine three years ago and in Morocco roughly 20 years back. These are the two Arab countries depicted in the exhibit.
Questioned about the peculiarities of the two Arab countries where he photographed, Melo would rather focus on the features all the regions he visited share. “We are all equal, there’s loneliness in Paris,” he told ANBA on the phone. In people everywhere, he claims he found feelings like fear, joy and sadness. This is why he doesn’t even name the cities in the show’s photos, choosing to focus on the similarities between faces from around the globe instead.
In 2013 and 2014, the photographer had a similar exhibition, “Outsiders,” at Sweden’s Museum of Work. Geraldo Melo set out to capture, in human faces, the relationship people have with themselves. The purpose is to convey, in the countenances portrayed, the feelings that make people outliers or outcasts. "Each and everyone of us, like it or not, will at some point be at the Detour, Outsiders. We all tread a tightrope, rich or poor, black or white," he says.
Besides Melo’s work, in its new season Marco will present the exhibition Tech Colors, with collages by Bruno Lins, aRetratos, by Laury Junior, and O Horizonte e Eu Somos Um Vértice (The Horizon and I Are A Vertex), by Leonardo Motta Campos. With the exception of Junior, all photographers are from Rio de Janeiro.
Melo is from Bahia, but lives in Rio de Janeiro. He started to take pictures early, as a teenager, as a pastime. Besides artistic photography, he already worked in advertising, cinema and journalism, such as the Brazilian issue of Rolling Stone magazine, and taught photography classes. Owner of a bachelor’s degree in Photography and Art History, he won more than 30 awards.
Desvios (Detours) Exhibition
December 8th, 2015 to January 31st, 2016
Tuesday to Friday, from 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM; Saturday, Sunday and holidays, from 2 PM to 6 PM
Museu de Arte Contemporânea – Marco (Museum of Contemporary Art)
Rua Antônio Maria Coelho, 6000
Parque das Nações Indígenas – Campo Grande – MS
Information: (55 67) 3326-7449
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marco.museu
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum and Sérgio Kakitani
