O que é Original? - Marcelo Conrado

Ministério da Cidadania apresenta

O QUE É ORIGINAL? Marcelo Conrado WHAT IS ORIGINAL?

Too much perfection is a mistake Perfeição demais é um erro 2017

Maria José Justino Curadora E o que vem depois?

And what comes next?

2017

ENGLISH VERSION

When the artist Marcelo Conrado asks, “what is original” he makes us wonder about a universe of anonymous information that is all around us, ranging from a random dialog between friends to graffiti, from messages shared in social networks to traditional truck bumper sentences.

It is a pleasure for the Oscar Niemeyer Museum to perform this exhibition, which certainly will spark interesting reflections in each one of us.

Doctor in the art authorship subject, Conrado brings the questioning about the concept of originality on contemporary art to the Museum. However, what actually is art and authorship? What does not belong to anyone belongs to everyone?

For him, the most important thing are not the answers, but each individual reflection sparked by the pieces. For such a goal, the artist presents us pictures collected from image databases, which, after receiving anonymous sentences, make us wonder.

In a fine balance between image and text, he also exhibits his paintings. These, on the other hand, through the influence of several other artists, keep alive the main question that guides his proposal—what is original to you?

Juliana Vellozo Almeida Vosnika Chief Executive Officer Museu Oscar Niemeyer

WHAT IS ORIGINAL? It is impossible to enter into this theme without referring to the reflections of Walter Benjamin when he treats the subject of the artist as creator, of technical reproducibility of art and the concept of aura. For him, the aura is possible only in the unique work, the one that keeps authenticity, which is based on the ritual. Aura is the DNA of art. The possibility of reproduction via new technologies affects the aura, particularly painting. Reproduction techniques, by stripping the object from its veil, alter the function of art. These vicissitudes open the way both for the attempt of art for art and for the exercise of political art.

With the advent of information technology (technologies that Benjamin did not reach), the artist seeks to distance herself from the aura. New symbologies take shape, reaching the identification of art with the concept, in which there is no more place for art for art – art becomes related to politics, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, etc. “Pure” art no longer makes sense.

Conrado suffers from these influxes. But his adventure through art does not mean a passage from visuality (painting) to conceptual art (photos-phrases). Far from it, the poetic and the political purpose coexist in it. The contemplative aesthetic coexists with the permutative: painting, photos, texts, ideas. Conrado balances in two strands.

In painting, he exercises his expression, emotion, subjectivity. But needs to express a desire for rationality, which consumes in the photos/texts. By appropriating symbologies – images and words – builds a trap and imprisons the viewer, who is compelled to reflect. Where are these pictures from?

Somewhere, at the same time, many of them are accessible to everyone, available via the internet or scattered on the street. The authors? Lost in time.

In these photos/phrases Conrado has a precision in the choice. But if there is a selection of phrases and images, this impels us to the question: in the choice does not remain an authorship? In painting there is no doubt, the artist is the author. And in those other experiences, where is the authorship? Who is the creator? And what is original? Conrado believes that, even if he appropriates another work, the artist, in resignifying, can be original. In this way, authorship becomes fluid.

asserts himself as a compassionate being, sensitive to human tragedies, able to share his discoveries and findings.

He took advantage of loose images in life, freed from possession. Everything is available, accessible on social networks or random encounters: random phrases caught somewhere – on trucks, motorcycles, movies, literature, the street or prose with friends.

Everything is a source. With rare exceptions, does not modify them, quotes them literally (photos and phrases) as he finds them, enjoying what can arise from the image and text junction. This confrontation creates disturbance, activates the brain, stimulates sensitivity. But Conrado does not forget the balance between painting and the concept: not only gesture, not just rationality. As Fernando Pessoa recalls: “One must also have no philosophy at all. With philosophy there are no trees, just ideas”.

Reflection and joy. Conrado gives us back the pleasure of feeling and thinking.

Conrado settles on the borders between aesthetic and social, between art and politics.

All of his recent work balances on the idea of ownership, from images to ideas. Dissolution of the object (art) and the creator-consumer relations; appropriation and anonymity; the interaction of the public with the artist’s proposals. Rite of passage: birth and death, entering another dimension. Conrado, like Isis, collecting fragments of human existence,

Maria José Justino Curator

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Capa/cover detalhe/detail Sem título Untitled, 2018/2019 Acrílica e nanquim sobre tela Acrylic and India ink on canvas

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Período expositivo / Exhibition period