{"id":212993,"date":"2019-04-26T07:00:14","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T10:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=212993"},"modified":"2019-06-30T16:31:08","modified_gmt":"2019-06-30T19:31:08","slug":"sharjah-biennial-features-work-by-two-brazilian-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/sharjah-biennial-features-work-by-two-brazilian-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharjah Biennial features work by two Brazilian women"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 The 14th<\/sup> Sharjah Biennial (SB14), in the UAE, features previously unseen work by two Brazilian artists \u2013 Aline Baiana and Laura Lima. The\u00a0exhibition<\/a>\u00a0opened on March 7 and will continue until June 10, featuring work by 80-plus artists. This year\u2019s theme is Leaving the Echo Chamber<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Biennial comprises three exhibits, curated by Zoe Butt (Vietnam), Omar Kholeif (Egypt) and Claire Tancons (Guadalupe, Caribbean). The Tancons-curated show Look for Me All Around You<\/em> contains work by 30 artists from the world over, including Aline Baiana and Laura Lima of Brazil.<\/p>\n

Rainbow Snake<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aline Baiana\u2019s purposely created multimedia installation draws a parallel between the building of dams in Brazil and Lebanon that might jeopardize rivers and the biodiversity they support. The setup comprises two pieces: Janna Dam or The second murder of Adonis<\/em>, and Alian\u00e7a por um Mundo Ensolarado ou A Cobra Grande em Rios Livres<\/em> (Alliance for a Sunny World or The Big Snake in Free Rivers).<\/p>\n

\"\"
Janna Dam, by Aline Baiana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The two pieces are linked together by a strip of water. The Big Snake<\/em> features an original canoe from North Brazil\u2019s Tapaj\u00f3s River, overflowing with water and containing a river\/snake shaped mirror. \u201cWhen the sun hits it, between 1pm to 4pm, the mirror projects a rainbow snake on the wall. It\u2019s a reference to the (African-Brazilian religion) candombl\u00e9 entity Oxumar\u00e9, and with a mythological animal for the riverside communities of Tapaj\u00f3s, Mangabal and Pimental. They believe the big snake lives in the river and protects it,\u201d Aline Baiana told ANBA over the phone from Berlin, where she lives. Underlying the canoe is a cement replica of it, with loudspeakers emitting forest sounds and statements from riverside community leaders.<\/p>\n

The water strip connecting the pieces is modeled after the Falaj, an Arab irrigation system that relies on gravity alone to distribute water from underground springs in desert areas for farming and household use. The water from the canoe falls into this river\/serpent-shaped strip and flows towards the other piece, Janna Dam<\/em>, consisting of a traditional water jug from Beirut, Lebanon designed to mimic a hydrologic microsystem. Water drips into the jug from a rock above it.<\/p>\n

According to Baiana, a Brazilian company was contracted to build the Janna Dam on Lebanon\u2019s Adonis Valley, and large areas have been deforested. In the area there\u2019s a stone with an Arabic inscription by a Roman emperor stating that cutting down trees isn\u2019t allowed. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the oldest documentations of an environmental concern,\u201d said the artist, whose work includes phrases by local residents regarding the dam\u2019s status, which she wrote into stone.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudies were made [in Adonis Valley] and besides being a seismic area, which means building and maintaining a dam is dangerous here, the soil is composed of highly porous limestone, therefore the dam can never run at full tilt, because a large portion of material will get absorbed into the ground,\u201d she explained. \u201cMoreover, the Adonis Valley aquifer supplies Beirut, so the capital\u2019s supply could be threatened,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Baiana decided to create a piece bridging together a problem that\u2019s common to two continents. The work was commissioned by the Sharjah Art Foundation, and preproduction saw her travel to the Tapaj\u00f3s River to seek out the canoe and listen to what people had to say. Although she didn\u2019t travel to Lebanon, a Lebanese producer helped her get quotes from Adonis Valley residents.<\/p>\n

According to Baiana, viewer reception was great. \u201cPeople found the piece very interesting, especially the depth of research that went with it and the fact that it geographically links two continents through serious dam-related environmental issues,\u201d she said. \u201cI may be a romantic, but I believe art creates enchantment and brings about some change in the way people see things,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Aline Baiana\u2019s oeuvre focuses on conflicts of ontology (the field of philosophy that occupies itself with the being and existence) in convergence with studies in indigenous feminist, ethnical, environmental and social justice, revealing the importance of unearthing other stories. A native of Salvador, Baiana currently lives and works in Rio de Janeiro and Berlin.<\/p>\n

Massive Kinship<\/strong><\/p>\n

Laura Lima of Minas Gerais, Brazil is featured with an installation (pictured above) that was also commissioned by the Sharjah Art Foundation: Massive Kinship (solitary promenade)<\/em>, or Gigantesco Parentesco<\/em> in Portuguese \u2013 an allusion to the lyrics to Lilith<\/em>, a song by Rio-based singer-songwriter Ava Rocha. One verse in the song is Ela \u00e9 minha irm\u00e3 de cor, irm\u00e3 de corpo\/ Irm\u00e3 de santo, mana de sorte\/ Gigantesco parentesco\/ Quero ser que nem ela\/ Ela \u00e9 minha irm\u00e3 de cor<\/em> (She\u2019s my sister in color, sister of body\/Sister of faith, sister of luck\/Massive kinship\/I want to be like her\/She\u2019s my sister in color).<\/p>\n

Lima\u2019s installation consists of a 5-meter-tall black velvet panel with cables and a tracking system that weaves its way through the 3-meter ceiling height venue. \u201cThe panel visits the exhibit and it works well with the theme of [curator] Claire [Tancons]\u2019s exhibit, which is Look for Me All Around You\u2019<\/em>,\u201d the artist told ANBA on the phone from Rio. Lima drew her inspiration from Muslim women and their attire, especially the black veil. She set out to liken Arab-Muslim and Brazilian culture in the freedoms and oppressions that women experience. \u201cSuch is the massive kinship, because we tend to look at the veiled woman and think it\u2019s wrong, but us Westerners and Brazilian women wear a subjective veil, which is sexism, the cult of the body and leanness, gender inequality. That is our veil. We\u2019re in similar conditions,\u201d Lima explained.<\/p>\n

Lima travelled to Sharjah a year ago, upon getting shortlisted for the Biennial. She also spent 15 days there between late February and early March. \u201cThe political issue is always a highly relevant part of an artist\u2019s work, even if subtly so. And the work was welcomed in a good, elegant way. I realized that the people in Sharjah have an interesting kind of diplomacy,\u201d she said. She also said each of the UAE\u2019s emirates have a different social function. \u201cDubai is more open and global; Abu Dhabi is more about money, like Wall Street; and Sharjah is primarily about the arts. You can feel it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Lima\u2019s body of work challenges standard genres like performance, sculpture and painting. She calls her drawings \u2018notes,\u2019 her paintings \u2018architecture\u2019 and her collages \u2018footnotes.\u2019 Her artworks are always \u201csomething else,\u201d a piece in a puzzle for viewers to solve or perceive. Lima was born in Minas Gerais and currently lives and works in Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

The Echo Chamber<\/strong><\/p>\n

In pop culture, the \u2018echo chamber\u2019 designates a news media circuit that\u2019s reinforced by a closed-off network controlled and governed by private sources, governments and corporations. It\u2019s also a metaphor for the historical control of capital and the cultural, social and political systems that dictate its access, production and distribution \u2013 that capital attracts (and ultimately prioritizes) particular images, languages, skills, histories and geographies. An echo chamber may also be a space where sound reverberates, where memory and imagination echo across the surface, through space and time.<\/p>\n

Leaving the Echo Chamber <\/em>does not purport a way out of that context; instead it sets out to discuss different provocations on how one can renegotiate that chamber\u2019s form and function so as to multiply the echoes through space, the vibrations representing the vast forms of human production \u2013 the rituals, beliefs and customs.<\/p>\n

The 14th<\/sup> Sharjah Biennial features a host of never-before-seen works including largescale installations, performance and film. The show is held by the Sharjah Art Foundation. Find out more from the Biennial website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Quick facts <\/strong><\/p>\n

14th<\/sup> Sharjah Biennial
\nSat-Thu, 9am-9pm
\nFri, 4pm-11pm
\nSharjah Art Foundation
\nCorniche St., Sharjah, UAE<\/p>\n

Other Sharjah Biennial venues
\nArts Square:
\n\u2013 Bait Al Serkal
\n\u2013 Bait Obaid Al Shamsi
\n\u2013 Arts Square Courtyard
\n\u2013 Collections Building
\n\u2013 Emirates Fine Art Society
\n\u2013 Sharjah Art Museum<\/p>\n

Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\n

Press Release<\/div>\n
Divulga\u00e7\u00e3o<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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