Rafael RG (Guarulhos, 1986) works with fiction as a tool for his performances and interventions in public and institutional spaces. Building fiction with acid humour is how he tackles with issues of the art system, its functioning, its agents. They are going to be here in 20 min are banners manufactured in the fashion of popular commerce’s ads placed in abandoned public spaces in the smaller capital of Fortaleza. The banner “Hans Ulrich Obrist will be here in 20 min. Don’t miss him!”  was placed in a space where colours, fonts and fabric communicate more than the name written on it. The intervention appropriated the figure of celebrity curator to comment on the fact that the internationalization of the arts often encounters limits as to how the transfer of an artwork from one place/context to another might render it inoperative.

Fabiana Faleiros (Pelotas, 1980) appropriates elements of popular culture in order to conduct her practice. It is in language that this multiple artist finds the problematic that guide her production as a visual artist, a contemporary poet and an academic. Lady Incentivo is a pun on the federal law that allows the private sector to deduce taxes from the money invested in culture, which is commonly referred to as “Lei de Incentivo” (law of incentive). Fabi Faleiros’ persona Lady Incentivo is a self taught singer, funk song writer and diva that snatches any opportunity to perform in art spaces, events and private parties, and to release her album as she did in 2012 at the Open Mobile Radio of the 30th São Paulo Biennial. Listen: http://soundcloud.com/fabianafaleiros

Jaime Lauriano’s (São Paulo, 1985) practice operates in the transversalities of the production of history. In Impediment, the artist-historian researched two major chapters in Brazilian history, the dictatorship and the victory of the Brazilian football team in the World Cup in Mexico in 1970. Lauriano scrutinized the political propaganda broadcast on television and radio nationwide that year, which combined an overoptimistic patriotism with the feeling of national unity rendered by the success of a football game. In the artist’s findings, the campaign yielded a country not with a political project, but a subject with aspirations, complexes and fears.

Schools:

Visual Art School of Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro.

Parque Lage is a public park where the school is located. The history of the site dates back to the 16th century but it wasn’t until the 1840’s that the sugar mill and surroundings were transformed into a Victorian garden. In 1920, a local businessman bought the land and built the “palazzo romano” in homage to his wife, which houses the school until today. The traditions pertaining to the Visual Art School of Parque Lage goes beyond the history of the place; the school has been operating as an open centre for art education for almost 40 years, training artists, writers and curators with a wide variety of studio based and theoretical courses. The Cavalariça (Stable) is the exhibition space dedicated to showing both students’ renowned artists’ works.

Porto Iracema das Artes, Fortaleza.

Porto Iracema das Artes was founded last year in connection with the Centro Dragão do Mar de Arte e Cultura. The school program is divided in “creative and thinking labs” that encompass all art forms (Music Lab, Theatre and Dance Lab, Cinema Lab, Visual Art Lab). Candidates are selected through review of portfolio and submitted project. The Visual Art Lab offers training for up to 6 students per year, and each invites a curator from any part of the country to accompany his/her developing project throughout the period of the program. In turn, these art professionals offer theoretical workshops open to all students in the school.

Magazines

There is a common denominator that pervades independent art publications in Brazil: they don’t last very long. Important magazines like Malasartes and Vida das Artes were edited from 1975 to 1976 both in Rio de Janeiro; in the 21st century, Revista Número in São Paulo and Tatuí in Recife edited 10 and 13 issues respectively, which had them stand for the bastion of resilience. One straight answer to the puzzle is, of course, funding. Brazil doesn’t have a tradition of art philanthropy, let alone in art publications; the governmental grants are few and highly disputed, which undermine the periodicity of a publication; and the private sector often wants more in exchange than just tax deductions, risking the integrity of the editorial content. Academic art magazines have a different funding structure. Their budget comes from the universities and faculties they are affiliated with. In this realm, the graduate school of arts’ Arte & Ensaios at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, which has been edited since 1993, stands as one of the best – if not the best – art periodicals in the country.