The Brazil Issue

What’s up with Italians and good taste? Not to mention their cultural awareness, sense of style and charming mannerism, ‘ma que?!’.

Yesterday I went to Paola Colacurcio and Niccolo Sprovieri’s gallery, Progetti, in Rio’s downtown, and after chatting to Paola, this lovely Italian art connoisseur for about two hours, I left her gallery inspired and confident in the future of art in Brazil.

By Jannis Kounellis from the series 'Senza Titolo' at the first Progetti exhibition

Paola was friendly, generous (I got out of there with Jannis Kounellis art book, and Chelpa Ferro’s DVD), and she showed me that it is possible to have a commercial art gallery with profound and exciting works of art.

Progetti is the only international (but also national) art gallery in Rio, although the artworks are not imported; she invites international artists to come over and produce their works here, influenced by the boiling Brazilian culture. In fact it does sound more fascinating to bring artists over and let them produce their work inspired by our beautiful chaos, although I learnt that bringing artworks to Brazil just isn’t a possibility for many; the importing taxes can go up to 40 percent on top of the work’s price, uninviting the cultural exchange.

By Alejandro Somaschini at Progetti

Paola mentioned the difficulties of dealing with culture in a country where education is still limited, but she sees it as a challenge, and the outcome as priceless. Brazil has many people who wants to learn and have a greater cultural involvement, but the opportunities are narrowed. Before Progetti’s first exhibition, who launched their space in 2008 with the works of Jannis Kounellis,  the artist held a talk at Parque Lage where over 500 people showed up. Kounellis is a renowned Italian artist who’s works coined the term ‘Arte Povera’ (Poor Art). His talk was so inspirational that people came up to Paola to thank her for the opportunity and the initiative.

Chelpa Ferro audio installation at Progetti

Chelpa Ferro

Paola has also exposed to me the fact that we must invite international art if we want our art to be invited over. Times are constantly changing and globalization already seems like a last century term, therefore we must take full advantage of technology and allow the cultural barriers to be broken, not only virtually.

Check out Progetti’s website to see more info, exhibitions and so on.

By Alice Galeffi

Tags: Progetti