Artur Barrio
Encyclopedia
Artur Barrio is an artist who lives and works in Rio de Janeiro
, Brazil
. Much of his work consists of installation pieces that create interaction with the public. Barrio engages the viewer as participant in his art, often without their knowledge that it is art in which they are participating. By doing so, the participant can have an experience not removed from life but rather incorporated into it. He wants to encourage contact with all of reality including the discards of life such as garbage. He wants us to recognize that this reality is just as real if we can see past the symbolic meanings we attach to these objects. (Manifesto MUD/MEAT SEWER)
He was born in Porto, Portugal in 1945. In 1952, he spent six months in Angola
“where he discovered the African culture.” He then moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1955, returning to Portugal during the Portuguese revolution in 1974. In 1975 he moved to Paris
and then in 1981 to “Amsterdam with a grant from BBK that is extended until 1984.” Currently, he lives successively in Amsterdam
, Aix-en-Provence
and Rio de Janeiro. Barrio exhibits his work internationally.
(School of Fine Arts), one of the centers of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
. His teachers included Onofre Penteado, Abelardo Zaluar, Mário Barata and Ítalo Campofiorito.
ideas about flow, process and material usage. These influences combined during the late sixties when the counterculture
was at its height. His process, his vision and his materials all meld in a form of Situationist art where his pieces become more than installations but also a part of the reality in which they exist.
In 1970 he created Situação…DEFL…+s+…ruas…Abril…(Unleashing confusion on the streets…Situation) consising of “the placement of five hundred plastic bags containing blood, nails, dung, waste, and other debris in downtown Rio during the peak of the dictatorship’s repression”
At the time of his (Situation T/T1) it was not uncommon for people to disappear. “Autonomous para-police forces (Death Squads) took on the work of “social cleansing”, eliminating delinquents, the marginalized and street children.” His bloody packages question the status of those that have disappeared and bring into focus the “socially apprehensible possibilities of” governments and other institutions.
Portugal was also under an authoritarian dictatorship between 1926 and 1974, during which Barrio returned to Portugal. This nearly bloodless coup led to the creation of a liberal democracy.
Although Barrio rejects art categories we can see that there are several ideas that he embraces that link him to Modernist movement. He was highly influenced by the Fluxus ideas, a group that took its name from the concept of “flow”. The idea that you could use whatever you have at hand to make art reflects the idea of anti-commercial art. His work could also be seen as Neo-Dada in its rejection of the prevailing standards in art. He rejects the standard materials of an artist in favor of perishables. He also often rejected typical spaces, preferring to stage his Situations in public places. There are even influences of process art in the way that Barrio would, almost ritualistically, construct his packages (Situation T/T1). Almost all of the works of Artur Barrio are a form of Installation art
.
Barrio has always pushed the boundaries of what materials can be used in the production of art. He has used salt, the toilet paper coffee grinds, meat, blood, feces and urine.
Barrio has no interest in the preservation of his pieces since the art he is interested in is the experience of creating the art and the experience of interacting with art. To Barrio, the artifacts that are used to create these experiences are not the art and do not need to be preserved. Interest in the transient experience of the work without regard for permanent curation is one of the things that have freed Barrio to use perishable substances in his work. This and the fact that so much of the materials used in creating his works are perishable and decay means that there is very little work of Barrio’s in existence in permanent collections.
and the use of untraditional media in art has become acceptable. Much of the rigid and restricting aspects of the art world that Barrio rejects in his Manifesto has been outgrown by the art world. Barrio would not agree that all the changes he was working towards have come to pass. Nevertheless, we can see that an artist such as Artur Barrio no longer needs to set himself totally at odds with the art world in general. There are now many art establishments that accept and embrace the type of work that Barrio produces.
What I look for is contact with reality in its totalily, everything that is rejected, everything that is set aside because of its contentious character. A contesting which encloses a ra-dical reali-ty, because this reality exists, despite being dissimulated through symbols.
In my work, things are not indicated (represented), but rather lived, and it is necessary to dive into one, toto/ manipulate it. And that is diving into yourself. The work has its own life because it belongs to all of us, because it is our everyday reality, and it is at this point that I give up my categorization as “artist”, because I no longer am. Nor do I need any other label and that, obviously, extends to the work. It cannot be labeled because it does not need to be, nor are there any other words that can categorize it, because it happens that everything and nothing have lost their sense of being.
Therefore, these works, at the moment in which they are placed in squares, streets, etc., automatically become indepen-dent, with their initial author (me) having nothing more to do with the matter, handing that compromise onto the future mani-pulators/ authors of the work; in other words… passers-by, etc.
The work is not recovered as it was created to be left and follow its own trajectory of psychological involvement.
I have already realized work throughout Rio de Janeiro, getting the city involved, as in some of these works I have used more than 500 bags (pieces), spreading them over different points. In that dispersion of deflagrating elements the important thing is that the involvement it total, at all points, at the same time, there being no defined single point, creating poles of energy between the bags.
Belo Horizonte, 20/4/70
Exposições Individuais (Individual expositions)
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. Much of his work consists of installation pieces that create interaction with the public. Barrio engages the viewer as participant in his art, often without their knowledge that it is art in which they are participating. By doing so, the participant can have an experience not removed from life but rather incorporated into it. He wants to encourage contact with all of reality including the discards of life such as garbage. He wants us to recognize that this reality is just as real if we can see past the symbolic meanings we attach to these objects. (Manifesto MUD/MEAT SEWER)
He was born in Porto, Portugal in 1945. In 1952, he spent six months in Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
“where he discovered the African culture.” He then moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1955, returning to Portugal during the Portuguese revolution in 1974. In 1975 he moved to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and then in 1981 to “Amsterdam with a grant from BBK that is extended until 1984.” Currently, he lives successively in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, Aix-en-Provence
Aix-en-Provence
Aix , or Aix-en-Provence to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, is a city-commune in southern France, some north of Marseille. It is in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, of which it is a subprefecture. The population of Aix is...
and Rio de Janeiro. Barrio exhibits his work internationally.
Training
In 1967, Artur Barrio attended the Escola Nacional de Belas ArtesEscola Nacional de Belas Artes
Escola de Belas Artes is one of the centers of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and dates back to colonial times....
(School of Fine Arts), one of the centers of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro is one of the largest federal universities of Brazil, where public universities comprise the majority of the best and most qualified institutions...
. His teachers included Onofre Penteado, Abelardo Zaluar, Mário Barata and Ítalo Campofiorito.
Influences
Artur Barrio is an extreme example of the development of art that took place during his early career. It was a time when barriers within art were being tested and pushed to the breaking point. Barrio expressed his understanding of these artistic forces in his work. We can see the imprint of his time on his work in the content, the materials, and the processes he employs in his work. He makes strong anti-art establishment statements showing a kinship with the Dada artists. He also displays his understanding the FluxusFluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
ideas about flow, process and material usage. These influences combined during the late sixties when the counterculture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
was at its height. His process, his vision and his materials all meld in a form of Situationist art where his pieces become more than installations but also a part of the reality in which they exist.
Description of Style
Artur Barrio is seeking to create an experience. He uses both ephemeral and precarious materials that provoke an extreme sensorial reaction. Items such as coffee grinds overwhelm the nose while blood or meat produce a gut reaction. There is a concrete connection to the body and to food. This all generates a reanalysis of the immediate environment and sparks questions about what could have been the cause of these scenes. Artur Barrio changes the normal familiar surroundings and attempts to transport the visitor (participant), possibly through a little discomfort, to a place where everything needs to be more deeply examined.Social/Political context
For much of Artur Barrio's career, Brazil was in the hand of a military dictatorship after the coup d'état in 1964.In 1970 he created Situação…DEFL…+s+…ruas…Abril…(Unleashing confusion on the streets…Situation) consising of “the placement of five hundred plastic bags containing blood, nails, dung, waste, and other debris in downtown Rio during the peak of the dictatorship’s repression”
At the time of his (Situation T/T1) it was not uncommon for people to disappear. “Autonomous para-police forces (Death Squads) took on the work of “social cleansing”, eliminating delinquents, the marginalized and street children.” His bloody packages question the status of those that have disappeared and bring into focus the “socially apprehensible possibilities of” governments and other institutions.
Portugal was also under an authoritarian dictatorship between 1926 and 1974, during which Barrio returned to Portugal. This nearly bloodless coup led to the creation of a liberal democracy.
Artistic Movements
Artur Barrio himself rejects art categories. In his “MANIFEST: against the art categories, against the salons, against the awards, against the jury, against the art critique” (Rio de Janeiro February 1970), Barrio explains his discontent with the top down view of art imposed by an aesthetic elite. In his view, this elite prescribes the materials necessary to create art. These materials were out of reach to Barrio and much of the population of the Third World at the time. His use of inexpensive materials (garbage, toilet paper and urine) was a rejection of the aesthetic elite and the art world they controlled, including the definitions of art categories, salons, awards, juried shows, and critics.Although Barrio rejects art categories we can see that there are several ideas that he embraces that link him to Modernist movement. He was highly influenced by the Fluxus ideas, a group that took its name from the concept of “flow”. The idea that you could use whatever you have at hand to make art reflects the idea of anti-commercial art. His work could also be seen as Neo-Dada in its rejection of the prevailing standards in art. He rejects the standard materials of an artist in favor of perishables. He also often rejected typical spaces, preferring to stage his Situations in public places. There are even influences of process art in the way that Barrio would, almost ritualistically, construct his packages (Situation T/T1). Almost all of the works of Artur Barrio are a form of Installation art
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
.
Interpretation of Work
Artur Barrio does not see his work as the creation of a finished product. He is an interactive artist; he creates the situation where people interact with and react to artifacts that Barrio has put in place. One of his most well know of such works, Situação T/T1, (Unfolding of the Body Situation), was titled literally as a situation, not just a stagnant piece of art. In this work Barrio constructed "bloody packages" and tied them loosely. He then strategically placed these "blood-stained rags (trouxas ensanguentadas) in a park to provoke public reactions before police arrived."Barrio has always pushed the boundaries of what materials can be used in the production of art. He has used salt, the toilet paper coffee grinds, meat, blood, feces and urine.
Barrio has no interest in the preservation of his pieces since the art he is interested in is the experience of creating the art and the experience of interacting with art. To Barrio, the artifacts that are used to create these experiences are not the art and do not need to be preserved. Interest in the transient experience of the work without regard for permanent curation is one of the things that have freed Barrio to use perishable substances in his work. This and the fact that so much of the materials used in creating his works are perishable and decay means that there is very little work of Barrio’s in existence in permanent collections.
Legacy
Artur Barrio has become more accepting of the greater art community. His work (or replicas created as examples of his work) is now exhibited with increasing frequency. However, his attitude is not the main reason that Artur Barrio is now working within the larger established art community. The greater change was not in Artur Barrio but rather in the art word itself. Barrio still “views curators and institutions … as completely superfluous to requirements for works of art and exhibitions. In his eyes curators are reduced to the role of logistics co-ordinators and as such, the institution in turn becomes no more than a (temporary) channel for his work.” However it is because of the work of Artur Barrio and many artists like him that Conceptual artConceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
and the use of untraditional media in art has become acceptable. Much of the rigid and restricting aspects of the art world that Barrio rejects in his Manifesto has been outgrown by the art world. Barrio would not agree that all the changes he was working towards have come to pass. Nevertheless, we can see that an artist such as Artur Barrio no longer needs to set himself totally at odds with the art world in general. There are now many art establishments that accept and embrace the type of work that Barrio produces.
Manifestos
MUD/MEAT SEWERWhat I look for is contact with reality in its totalily, everything that is rejected, everything that is set aside because of its contentious character. A contesting which encloses a ra-dical reali-ty, because this reality exists, despite being dissimulated through symbols.
In my work, things are not indicated (represented), but rather lived, and it is necessary to dive into one, toto/ manipulate it. And that is diving into yourself. The work has its own life because it belongs to all of us, because it is our everyday reality, and it is at this point that I give up my categorization as “artist”, because I no longer am. Nor do I need any other label and that, obviously, extends to the work. It cannot be labeled because it does not need to be, nor are there any other words that can categorize it, because it happens that everything and nothing have lost their sense of being.
Therefore, these works, at the moment in which they are placed in squares, streets, etc., automatically become indepen-dent, with their initial author (me) having nothing more to do with the matter, handing that compromise onto the future mani-pulators/ authors of the work; in other words… passers-by, etc.
The work is not recovered as it was created to be left and follow its own trajectory of psychological involvement.
I have already realized work throughout Rio de Janeiro, getting the city involved, as in some of these works I have used more than 500 bags (pieces), spreading them over different points. In that dispersion of deflagrating elements the important thing is that the involvement it total, at all points, at the same time, there being no defined single point, creating poles of energy between the bags.
Belo Horizonte, 20/4/70
Artworks
- Interminável, (Interminable) 2005
- Série transportáveis, (Series you transported) 2003
- Idéia Situação, (Idea Situation) 2002
- Uma Extensâo no Tempo (An Extension in the Time) 1995
- A Cancela de Carne (The Gate of Meat) 1994
- N.....S....F....O....A..... (N.....S....F....O....A.....)
- Minha Cabeça Está Vazia/Meus Olhos Estão Cheios, (My Head Is Empty/My Eyes Are Full) 1983
- Livro de Carne, (Book of Meat) 1978-79 LD Haneuse, photographer©
- Situação T/T1, (Situation T/T1) Belo Horizonte 20 April 1970
- De dentro para fora, (Inside out) 1970
Exhibits
Currículo (Resume),Exposições Individuais (Individual expositions)
- “Actions After Actions,” February 8–March 19, 2006, - Goldie Paley GalleryGalleries at MooreMoore College of Art & Design
- “Barrio-Beuys” 2 July – 11 September 2005, - S.M.A.K. Museum of Contemporary Art Belgium
- “The Body in Contemporary Brazilian Art” 2005, - Instituto Itaú Cultural, São Paulo
- Individual: 2005, - Millan gallery Antonio, São Paulo, Brazil.
- Individual: 2005, - Gallery Art 21, - Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
- "Mini-Retrospective of Artur Barrio" 2005, - Frac the Provence-Alps-Côte d´Azur, Marseille, France.
- Individual: 2005, - Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France.
- "Inverted utopias" 2004, - The Museum of finishes Arts, Houston, U.S.A.
- "ART AND SOCIETY - an Controversial Relation" 2003, - Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, S.P, Brasil.
- "Violence and Passion" 2002, - Museum of Modern Art of Rio De Janeiro, R.J, Brazil
- "Violence and Passion" 2002, - Santander Cultural, Porto Alegre, Brasil.
- "Visceral Documents" April 30 to August 24, 2008. Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City.
Exhibition with Other Brazilian Artists
- "Tropicalia - The 60s in Brasilien" 2010, Kunsthalle WienKunsthalle WienThe Kunsthalle Wien is an institution in Vienna for temporary exhibitions of contemporary international art. It opened in 1992, and was originally located on Karlsplatz, in a container-shaped building designed as a temporary site by the Austrian architect Adolf Krischanitz...
, ViennaViennaVienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, AustriaAustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
Sources and further reading
- The New Your Times, Art review “Walking on Coffee, Trying to Get a Fix on a Master of Impermanence” By Roberta Smith , Published: March 3, 2006
- Ramirez, Mari Carman and Olea, Hector. “Inverted Utopias: avant-garde Art in Latin America” New Haven : Yale University Press; [Houston, Tex.] : Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, c2004. ISBN 0300102690
- Lopes, Artur Alípio Barrio de Sousa, 1945- “Artur Barrio : Barrio-Beuys.” Gent, Belgie : Stedelijk Museum loor Actuele Kunst, 2005. ISBN 907567922X
- Havlice, Patricia Pate. “Index to artistic biography” Metuchen, N.J., Scarecrow Press, 1973. ISBN 0810805405
- Salgado, Renata. “Imagem escrita / [coordenacao do projeto, Renata Salgado].” Rio de Janeiro, RJ : Grall, 1999 ISBN 8570380127
- Lopes, Artur Alipio Barrio de Sousa, 1945- “Artur Barrio : Actions after actions” Philadelphia : Goldie Paley Gallery Moore College of Art and Design, c2006. ISBN 1584420553
- "Espaço aberto / espaço fechado : sites for sculpture in Modern Brazil / [with essays by Stephen Feeke ... [et al.] ; texts by artists in the exhibition ; additional contributions by Regina Teixeira de Barros ; catalog edited by Penelope Curtis and Stephen Feeke]." Leeds : Henry Moore Institute, 2006. ISBN 1900081997
- Lopes, Artur Alípio Barrio de Sousa, 1945- “Regist(R)os / Artur Barrio” Porto [Portugal] : Fundação de Serralves, 2000 ISBN 9727390811
- Lopes, Artur Alípio Barrio de Sousa , 1945- "Title Artur Barrio / organização, Ligia Canongia ; [tradućão, Paulo Andrade Lemos]." Ro de Janeiro : Modo edições, 2002 ISBN 8589314014
- Lopes, Artur Alípio Barrio de Sousa , 1945- "Artur Barrio : a metáfora dos fluxos 2000/1968" São Paulo : Paço das Artes ; Rio de Janeiro : Museu de Arte Moderna ; Bahia : Museu de Arte Moderna de Bahia, [2001?]
English External links
- XXIII Bienal Internacional De Sâo Paulo: Artur Barrio
- Case Study Artur Barrio Conservation department - S.M.A.K. Ghentc Case Study Artur Barrio – Interminável 2005
- Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative: Goldie Paley Galley, Moore College of Art & Design
- Foreign Exchange Philadelphia 02.15.06 Artforum Article By William Pym Published: February 15, 2006
- Moore College of Art & Design: New Archive: Moore Welcomes International Symposium Feb 25, 2006
- e-flux S.M.A.K. Museum of Contemporary Art Barrio-Beuys 2 July – 11 September 2005
- the-artists.org
- inside installations
- Walking on Coffee, Trying to Get a Fix on a Master of Impermanence New York Times Article By Roberta Smith Published: March 3, 2006