Beto Shwafaty / Pernod Ricard Fellowship 2018

Beto Shwafaty pro­duces instal­la­tions, videos and sculp­tural objects using a diverse array of method­olo­gies, such as cura­to­rial thinking, insti­tu­tional strate­gies, crit­i­cism and archival research. His pro­jects are informed by the notions of appro­pri­a­tion, dis­lo­ca­tions and trans­la­tion, gen­er­ating works that are devel­oped over extended periods of time. In his prac­tice, he often focuses on the way his­tor­ical episodes can leave traces on cul­ture and be echoed in objects, spaces and socio­cul­tural struc­tures, which by con­se­quence pro­duce pub­licly shared mean­ings and behav­iors. He is thus inter­ested in sub­jects linked to his­tory, sociopol­i­tics, archi­tec­ture and design, assuming these as nar­ra­tive ele­ments and evi­dences that may inform us on diverse aspects our pre­sent time.

Recent exhi­bi­tions include Condemned to be Modern, Barnsdall Gallery, Los Angeles; Brazil by Multiplication [35th Panorama of Brazilian Art], MAM São Paulo (2017); Contract of Risk, Luisa Strina Gallery, São Paulo; Hablemos de Reparaciones, Prometeogallery, Milano; The Phantom Matrix (Old Structures, New Glories), Situ Project, São Paulo (2016).

An ability to both create and destroy, Installation (25sqm) comprising five elements: a wooden, bamboo and metal curtain, a video (with wooden plynth), a sculpture, a wall drawing and one framed printed image/collage.

Statement

“My pro­ject will entail the retracing of parts of Tarsila do Amaral and Oswald de Andrade’s paths in Paris, being guided by the exchanged let­ters between them and Mario de Andrade. But, avoiding a nos­talgic drive, my aim is not to relive past moments. Instead, I aim to create a hybrid and somehow sur­re­al­istic drift-method­ology by which I will employ fic­tion and doc­u­men­ta­tion to spec­u­late on the influ­ences suf­fered by the couple and the sub­ver­sions gen­er­ated from their expe­ri­ences. In this regard, my strategy to expand this idea is to spec­u­late over unfore­seen (fic­tional) encoun­ters, dia­logues, col­lab­o­ra­tions and col­li­sions, between the ‘couple’ with other actors, con­texts and pro­duc­tions also inspired in past episodes, such as Hegel’s interest in Haitian Revolution when writing The Phenomenology of Spirit, Alain Resnais & Chris Marker’s Les Statues Meurent Aussi (1953), the prepa­ra­tions of Josephine Baker and Le Corbusier trip to Rio de Janeiro (1929), Bracusi’s White Negress sculp­ture (1923), Pierre Fatumbi Verger ethno­graphic photo col­lec­tions at Musée du Quai Branly (1940’s), Breton’s studio wall recon­struc­tion at Pompidou and other cases which can emerge and will be mapped in exchanges with scholars and other col­lab­o­ra­tors – as part of the research pro­cess. These ‘encoun­ters’ will be assumed as pro­duc­tion moments to com­pose nar­ra­tive sequences, scripts or scores. They will be elastic episodes to be artic­u­lated and reartic­u­lated allowing a wide range of fur­ther for­mal­iza­tions: as exhi­bi­tion, text and per­for­mance/talk, as video-essay, col­lec­tion of ephemera and objects and so on… research is a long last pro­cess and works are pro­vi­sional pauses where things may emerge and gain body, utter­ance and agency.”

Beto Shwafaty in the Pernod Ricard studio, March 2018. Image: Mathilde Assier.