VIVID [RADICAL] MEMORY

Nothing but unknown masterpieces by Alfons Hug (chief curator 26th São Paulo Bienal)

In his studio at 311 Rua Cândido Lacerda, in Recife, Paulo Bruscky has compiled an impressive history of art and the world covering the last 40 years: classics of belles lettres, scientific writings, discourses on aesthetics, treatises. Mountains of newspaper cuttings pile up on the floor, plus letters from colleagues of the Fluxus movement, objects and small sculptures. Neatly numbered files with the initials of the most important art countries contain Bruscky's correspondence with the world of art; it is almost comparable with the Bienal de São Paulo's archive. Recife as the hub of the universe, and the artist a scientist, as in Johannes Vermeeer's "Geographer" of 1669. A library as a bulwark against the world? Or is Bruscky's passion for collecting perhaps also a mute plea to young artists to study, to investigate, to fathom out theories, in short to educate themselves?

Ignored in a corner of the untidy studio lie a dusty easel and several pallets with dried-up blobs of paint. The painter's tools seem strangely out of place in view of the supremacy of the books, objects and concepts. A symbol of the crisis of painting that has been evoked time and again over the last few years. What can painted images still tell us in view of the complexity of the world and the wealth of new media, including Bruscky's Fax and Mail Art?

All the imaginary pictures that have not been painted during the last generation are buried under a mass of paper in Bruscky's treasure trove: nothing but unknown masterpieces, to use Balzac's words. Bruscky's studio personifies two competing models of a philosophy of life. One collects, preserves, sifts through documents, proceeding almost scientifically. The other – the one painted with the brush – separates itself from the torrent of information and creates a new, parallel, sometimes even a contrary world. Whereas the first method has an all-embracing claim on the interpretation of the world and therefore runs the risk of becoming dogmatic, for the second it is enough to record a fleeting instant in the intricate network of human encounters and brighten the shadow that has covered the world.

Painting aims at the full diversity of possible ways of understanding, while science strives to reduce them. Works of art can be open and ambiguous, a scientific study cannot. For this reason, good art will continue to be bad science – and vice versa.

The Bienal will reconstruct Bruscky's studio down to the last detail in São Paulo; in addition to its conceptual value, it also possesses a sculpture-like attraction and a certain melancholy poetry. Furthermore, it moves his hodgepodge of nostalgia to one side for a moment and airs all those imaginary pictures which he and his artist colleagues were unable to paint, indeed not allowed to paint, over the last few years. More than ever before, the art of today is again concerned with the power of creating pictures and less with the ability to collect data. We need have no hesitation in leaving that task to the scientists, those chroniclers of the inadequacy of the real world. The mystery of painting lies in the fact that a tiny brushstroke tears up the veil of the ordinary and brings to light a new world whose mysteries cannot be solved by mathematicians' statistics. "The tiny gap that exists between the picture itself and what it means is the source of my painting" (Luc Tuymans). Every painting, therefore, also has to do with the piece of no man's land that lies where the real world ends and the canvas begins.

International Exhibitions: “The Click Heard the World” (USA/1978); “Multimedias” (Parachute Center for Cultural Affaire/Canada/1976); “Repetition Poem” (New Sound Gallery e Rádio CFRO/FM/Vancouver/Canada/1985); “Latino America Slide Show” (Germany/1987); Installation (St. Pieterstraat/Mildenburg/Holand/1988); Installation (Centro Lavoro Arte/Milan/Italy/1989); “Exposición de Fax art: Juan Gris, una Mirada Tecnológica" (Centro Cultural de Madrid/Fundación de Arte y Tecnología de Madrid/Spain/1992); Rubber stamps individual (Rubber Stamp Art Gallery/San Francisco/USA/1996); “Mistura + Confronto”(Porto/Portugal/2001); “Realites Nouvelles”(Parc Floral Vicenne/Paris/France/2004); guest artist (Florean Museum/Romania/2005); “Territórios Transitórios” (Palais de la Porte Dorée/Paris/France/2005)

National Exhibitions: Individual (Galeria Empetur/Recife/1970); “Arte Agora!/Brasil 70-75" (MAM/RJ/1975);  “Arte - Novos Meios/Multimeios” (Fundação Alvares Penteado/SP/1985); Individual (MAMAM/Recife/1986); “Retrospectiva” (Torre Malakoff/Recife/2001); “Panorama da Arte Brasileira” (MAM/SP/2001/2005); “Panorama Histórico Brasileiro – Anos 70: Trajetórias” (Itaú Cultural/SP/2001); “(Quase) Efêmera Arte” (Galeria Itaú/Campinas/2001); IMA/GENS (Galeria Vicente do Rêgo Monteiro/FUNDAJ/Recife/2002); “Visões: Poéticas Brasil-Espanha” (Conjunto Cultural da Caixa/Brasília/2004); “46º Salão Pernambucano de Artes Plásticas”, (Museu do Estado de Pernambuco/Recife/2004-2005); “Sinais na Pista”(Museu Imperial de Petrópolis/RJ/2006).

Festivals: "The 7th International Impact Art Festival (Kyoto Museum/Japan/1986); Plagiarism Festival (CA/USA/1989); I/II Festival Internacional de Radio Arte (Radio Nacional da Espanha/Madrid/1989-90)

Biennials: Sydney Biennial (Australia/1977); Biennale Alternatives '79 "Third Armpit Show" (Sculputure Centre/Australia/1979); Mail Art Biennial (England/80); International Biennial (Uruguay/81); I Bienal de Cuba (Cuba/1984); 18ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo - Mail Art Room (São Paulo /Brazil/1985), 11th Internationale Poster Biennale (Warszawa/Poland/1986); Bienal de Fotografia (Spain/1987); Bienale Internacionale  Del Livro D'Artista (Museo Artein/Rome/Italy/1987); II Bienal Internacional de Eletrografia y Copy art (Valencia/Spain/1988); XX Bienal Internacional de SP – Electrography Room (SP/1989); I,II e III Bienal Internacional de Poesia Visual y Experimental do México (Mexico/1986/88/90); First International Fax Art Biennial  (Principality of Liechtenstein/1990); 26ª Bienal Internacional de SP – Special Room (SP/2004)

Awards: one of the hundred best artists in Brazil in 1970/1975, 1st place in the Hall of Arts University  (UFES/FUNARTE/1978); Visual Arts Foundation of Guggenheim (NY/USA/1981).

Participation in publications: Atrocity Photograph (United Kingdom/1977); American Photographer (USA/1979);  Photoboothpictures (Germany/1981).

Books: Alto Retrato (Recife: Piratas, 1981); Teste Poético (Udine/Itália: Campanotto, 1982); A Comunicação nas Estradas (Recife: Ed. do Autor, 1986); Abelardo de Todas as Horas (org. with Ronildo Leite - Recife: Prefeitura, 1988); Voz Poética, (Recife: CEPE/UFPE,1997); Vida, Arte, Palavra – perfis de Luís Jardim (Recife: FUNDARPE, 1998); Marchas de Procissão (org.- Recife:CEPE, 1998); (Espetáculos Populares de Pernambuco) (org. with Carlos da Fonte -, Recife: CEPE, 1998); Vicente do Rego Monteiro: Poeta, Tipógrafo, Pintor (Recife: CEPE, 2004); A Poesia Visual e Experimental em Pernambuco (Recife: Fundação de Cultura, 2005); Álbum de Pernambuco de F.H. Carls – 1876 (Recife: Ed. do autor, 2007); Ferreira: Redescobrindo o Paraíso (org. - Recife: CEPE, 2007).

Participation in art institutions: socio-founder and ex-president of the Associação dos Artistas Plásticos Profissionais de Pernambuco (ANPAP); Federação Brasileira de Entidades de Artistas Plásticos Profissionais; socio-founder and directors member of the Clube da Gravura da Paraíba (1984/2004), directors member of the União Brasileira dos Escritores (UBE/Pernambuco); International Association of Art (UNESCO/France).