Considerations of the global South and issues involving the curating and artworks of the 19th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil | Southern Panoramas, running in São Paulo until December 6, 2015, are explored in three publications acting as printed platforms for their respective propositions.
The 19th Festival curators—Bernardo José de Souza (Brazil), Bitu Cassundé (Brazil), João Laia (Portugal), Júlia Rebouças (Brazil), and chief curator Solange Farkas (Brazil)—offer in-depth views of the artworks featured in this edition. Southern Panoramas | Guest Artists compiles references on the work of Abdoulaye Konaté (Mali), Gabriel Abrantes (Portugal), Rodrigo Matheus (Brazil), Sônia Gomes (Brazil), and Yto Barrada (Morocco), on display in the exhibit at Sesc Pompeia’s Galpão venue. The publication contains interviews with the artists made by the curators, exploring the artists’ research lines, their connections with the global South and the curatorial themes that run through the exhibition. Pictures of relevant artworks and biographical information shed light on their careers.
Southern Panoramas | Selected Works and Commissioned Projects encompasses works by the 57 global South artists featured in the homonymous shows at Sesc Pompeia and the recently opened Galpão VB. The book gathers essays and reviews of the artworks written by the curators, illustrated with pictures taken at the exhibition space. Shortlisted from among the submissions to a call for entries, the artworks alternately conjure a scenario of crisis, a post-utopian environment ranging beyond human presence, or the possibilities for a new engagement of the individual in the world. On another note, the projects commissioned via a call for entries by young Southern artists reaffirm Videobrasil’s aim of discovering and wagering on relevant art propositions from these regions. Projects by Ting-Ting Cheng (Taiwan), Cristiano Lenhardt (Brazil), Carlos Monroy (Colombia) and Keli-Safia Maksud (Kenya), developed with oversight from the Festival’s curators, mark the opening of Galpão VB, a facility intended to house exhibitions, research, and other Videobrasil Collection activation activities.
The third book, an anthology of essays entitled Southern Panoramas | Readings | Perspectives for Other Geographies of Thought, discusses the notion of a global South, Eurocentric representations and narratives, and their impact in the field of art through theoretical texts and artistic manifestos. Organized by Sabrina Moura, the publication includes contributions from Achille Mbembe, Arjun Appadurai, Artur Barrio, Cildo Meireles, Geeta Kapur, Jean & John Comaroff, Joaquín Torres Garcia, José Rabasa, and Milton Santos, among others.
All three 19th Festival publications are edited by Teté Martinho (Videobrasil’s editorial coordinator), with graphic design by Angela Detanico & Rafael Lain, and design by Carla Castilho & Lia Assumpção | Janela Estúdio.
This year, besides the three 19th Festival books, the publishing partnership between Associação Cultural Videobrasil and Edições Sesc São Paulo comprises a publication celebrating Videobrasil’s 30-year history. Videobrasil: Three Decades of Video, Art, Encounters and Transformations revisits the contents and changes that have marked the Festival’s history, mapping out the developments undergone by video and its flirtations with art as it keeps track of each edition’s highlights. It spans from Videobrasil’s inception in the 1980s as a local initiative intended to foster and discuss Brazilian video, up to the present, where it has established its position as a platform for contemporary art production from the geopolitical South of the world. The publication is organized by Solange Farkas (founder and director of Videobrasil) and Teté Martinho, with contributions from Eduardo de Jesus, Moacir dos Anjos, Gabriel Priolli and Paula Alzugaray, and graphic design by Celso Longo + Daniel Trench.
In Brazil, the publications are available from major bookstores, Sesc São Paulo’s e-store, Sesc São Paulo units, and Galpão VB, which offers the full collection of books, magazines and documentaries produced by Videobrasil and Edições Sesc São Paulo, as well as publications by the publishers Cobogó and CosacNaify. For international orders, please send an email.
