Paulo Bruscky (Recife PE 1949)
Paulo Bruscky is a multimedia artist and poet recognized for his pioneering and experimental performance in the field of Brazilian contemporary art. Starting his artistic trajectory in the 1960s, he plunges into the investigations of conceptual art and, from the 1970s onwards, expands his field of work with innovative research in art-xerox. In 1973, Bruscky became one of the first Brazilian artists to engage in the international postal art movement, a decentralized and collaborative artistic practice based on the sending of works by mail, marked by its critical and countercultural character. 1974, launches the Nadaísta Manifesto and organizes, in Recife, two international exhibitions of postal art in the years 1975 and 1976. The second exhibition is censored and closed by the military, which shows the provocative character of its production during the regime dictatorial. Between 1979 and 1982, he made 30 films by artists and video arts, expanding his practice to the audiovisual field. From 1983 onwards, he began to produce video installations, keeping the focus on technological experimentation. In 1980, he innovated once again by creating the Xerox-Film, based on sequences of xerographic images.
Its international projection is consolidated with the conquest of the Guggenheim Exchange in 1981, which allows it to live a year in a new York. In the same year, he participated in the 16th International Biennial of São Paulo with a special room dedicated to postal art. Paulo Bruscky also stands out as an artist's book editor and as an important collector of documents related to contemporary art, including correspondence with members of the Fluxus and Gutai groups, fundamental movements of the 20th century experimental art.
In 2004, his studio is transferred entirely from Recife to São Paulo and rebuilt as one of the special rooms of the 26th São Paulo International Biennial. This initiative reinforces its importance as a central figure of conceptual and experimental art in Brazil, and as an articulator of international creative networks. His work continues to challenge the traditional limits of artistic languages, exploring the media and the expressive possibilities of art as a form of criticism and invention.
Critical Commentary
Paulo Bruscky, at the beginning of his career, works with drawing, Painting and engraving. He later works in performances and in the production of artist books. From the late 1960s onwards, he developed works with media, interventions and proposals in the field of conceptual art. His experiences with postal art, audio art, video art, artdoor and xerography/faxarte, are pointed out as pioneers within discussions about the use of new media in Brazilian art. The dissolution of the borders between artistic languages has been present in the artist's production since the end of the 1960s.
During the 1970s, he works with videos, photolanguages and mail art. It is recognized as one of the most important renovators of the contemporary artistic scene of Recife. Most of the time, especially in Latin America, the content of the work of the period is mainly political. As the art criticism Cristina Freire recalls, postal art constitutes a strategy of freedom in the face of the oppressive political context.
Explores the creative possibilities of Arte-Xerox, creating distortions (which, due to the technology of the time, deregulating the machine itself) and using mirrors and lenses, in addition to the body itself. The question of the body, fundamental in the production of other artists of the period, is also present in experiments with radiographs, electroencephalograms and electrocardiograms.
Some works in Arte-Xerox are gathered in the publication Alto Portrait, from 2001, in which part of his portraits and urban scenes on which he interferes with drawings, captions and stamps, with great irony, questioning society and also the arts system.
Criticism
"For Brazilian artists, in the The 1970s, the experimentation of new media such as Xerox, due to its possibility of quick and easy reproduction, was combined with the scope and universality of postal art. Stamps and postcards are often recreated and distributed in alternative networks.
Often, especially in Latin America, the content of these works, in the difficult years of the 60s and 70s, is eminently political. The postal art was, at that moment, a strategy of freedom in the face of the oppressive political context.
(...) In Brazil, Gabriel Borba, Julio Plaza, Regina Silveira in São Paulo; Paulo Bruscky and Daniel Santiago in Recife; Anna Bella Geiger, Artur Barrio, Regina Vater, in Rio de Janeiro, among many others, feed this wide network of artistic information exchange".
Cristina Freire
FREIRE, Cristina. Marginal. In: Conceptual Art and Conceptualisms: 70's in the MAC USP collection. Texto Walter Zanini, José Teixeira Coelho Netto; Text Martha Wilson; Curatorship and Text Cristina Freire. São Paulo: MAC/USP, 2000.
Individual exhibitions
2001 - Recife PE - Between Art and Dream, at the Malakoff Cultural Observatory
2002 - Recife PE - IMA/GENS, at Galeria Vicente do Rego Monteiro
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Now/now Rio de Janeiro, at the agency now
2003 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The free show Paulo Bruscky, at the Sérgio Porto Cultural Space
2005 - Porto Alegre RS - Projects and Proposals, at the Iberê Camargo Gallery of the Centro Cultural Centra do Gasómetro
2005 - Rio Claro SP - Paulo Bruscky: Visual Poems, at the Sechiisland's Micro Gallery Gallery
2006 - Salvador BA - Caution, Work in Progress 1980 - 2006, at the Pierre Verger Gallery
2007 - Recife PE - of Men, Machines and Dreams, at the Amparo Art Gallery 60
2007 - São Paulo SP - Ars Brevis, at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo - MAC/USP
2008 - Campina Grande PB - Paulo Bruscky, at the Cylinder Gallery
Collective exhibitions
1968 - São Paulo SP - 2nd Young Contemporary Art, at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo - MAC/USP
1969 - Porto Alegre RS - 2nd Young Contemporary Art, at the Rio Grande do Sul Art Museum Ado Malagoni - Margs
1969 - Recife PE - 28th Annual Painting Hall, at the Pernambuco State Museum
1973 - Curitiba PR - 30th Salão Paranaense, at the Guaíra Theater
1973 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 22nd Salon National Modern Art
1976 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st Art Now, at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro - MAM/RJ
1976 - São Paulo SP - Acquisitions and recent donations, at MAC/USP
1977 - São Paulo SP - Visual Poetics, at MAC/USP
1980 - Recife PE - Xeroxarte, at the Pernambuco State Museum - MEPE
1981 - São Paulo SP - 16th São Paulo International Biennial Paulo, at Fundação Bienal
1983 - Recife PE - 36th Salão de Artes Plásticas de Pernambuco, at the Pernambuco State Museum
1983 - Ribeirão Preto SP - Xerografia: Brazilian Sampling, at the USP Campus Gallery
1984 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Interventions in the urban space, at the Sérgio Milliet Gallery of Funarte
1984 - São Paulo SP - 15th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo - MAM/SP
1984 - São Paulo SP - Art Xerox Brasil, at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo
1985 - Niterói RJ - Artist Book Trends in Brazil, at the Art Gallery of the Fluminense Federal University - UFF
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th National Salon of Plastic Arts, at MAM/RJ
1985 - São Paulo SP - Arte Novos Meios/Multimeios: Brasil 70/80, at MAB/FAAP
1985 - São Paulo SP - Artist Book Trends in Brazil, at the São Paulo Cultural Center - CCSP
1986 - Kyoto (Japan) - 7th International Impact Art Festival, at the Kyoto City Museum
1987 - São Paulo SP - Immagic word, at MAC/USP
1988 - São Paulo SP - 1st International Visual Poetry Exhibition of São Paulo, at CCSP
1989 - São Paulo SP - 20th International Biennial of São Paulo, at the Bienal
1991 - São Paulo SP - Project: 100 years of Paulista, at Casa das Rosas
1992 - Madrid (Spain) - Juan Gris. A Technological Look at Fundación de Arte y Tecnologia de Madrid
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - via fax, at the Telephone Museum
1994 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Brasil Século 20th, at the Bienal Foundation
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Situations: Brazilian Arts 70s, at Fundação Casa França-Brasil
2000 - São Paulo SP - Conceptual Art and Conceptualisms: 70's at the MAC/USP collection, at the Art Gallery of SESI
2001 - Campinas SP - (almost) ephemeral art, at Itaú Cultural
2001 - Porto (Portugal) - 2001 Mix + Confrontation, at the Freixo Electric Station
2001 - São Paulo SP - Sergio Motta Award
2001 - São Paulo SP - 27th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
2002 - Austin (United States) - Brazilian Visual Poetry Mexic-Arte Museum
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Caminhos do Contemporânea, at the Paço Imperial
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Panorama de Arte Brasileira, at MAM/RJ
2002 - Salvador BA - 27th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia - MAM/BA
2002 - Austin (United States) Brazilian Visual Poetry, at the Mexic-Arte Museum
2002 - São Paulo SP - 27th Panorama of Current Brazilian Art, at MAM/RJ
2003 - Curitiba PR - Imagética, at Casa Romário Martins
2003 - Recife PE - See again/See the new, at the Museum of Modern Art Aloísiomagalhães - Mamam
2003 - São Paulo SP - The subversion of the media, at Itaú Cultural
2003 - São Paulo SP - Art and society: a controversial relationship, at Itaú Cultural
2004 - Recife PE - Museum of Modern Art Museum Aloísio Magalhães, at Mamam
2004 - São Paulo SP - 26th São Paulo International Biennial, at the Biennial Foundation
2004 - São Paulo SP - Emotional Art. 2.0: Technological differences, at Itaú Cultural
2005 - São Paulo SP - The body in Brazilian contemporary art, at Itaú Cultural
2006 - Recife PE - Art and Neuroscience, at the Pernambuco Convention Center
2006 - Petrópolis RJ - Signs on the track, at the Imperial Museum
2007 - Brasília DF - Jardim do Poder, at the Banco do Brasil Cultural Center - CCBB/DF
2007 - Brasília DF - Tecnopoéticas, at the Cultural Space Marcantonio Vilaça
2007 - São Paulo SP - 70s - Art as a question, at Instituto Tomie Ohtake
2007 - São Paulo SP - Futuro do Presente, at Itaú Cultural
2008 - Madrid (Spain) - Arco, at the Instituto Feira de Madrid
2008 - São Paulo SP - Panorama dos Panoramas, at MAM/SP
Source: Itaú Cultural
