Ocupação Itaú Cultural

Itaú Cultural reaches the tenth edition of the Ocupação project with the exhibition of rio oir by Cildo Meireles, one of the most important and respected Brazilian multimedia artists. Conceived in 1976, the work has been given new dimensions and is executed and exhibited for the first time. 

This publication retraces the trek of the artist and his team through the backlands of Brazil, starting off from the Águas Emendadas National Park in the Central Plateau, which can be seen poetically as the headwaters of the other basins comprised by the work. By capturing the sound of some of Brazil’s main rivers, the artist invites the general public to listen to the waters. Photographs and maps of each location document the paths taken. In an exclusive interview, Cildo Meireles recalls the origin of the project and situates it within his artistic output.

In Brazil, cities have grown in a battle against the natural environment.  This has led to most towns developing with their backs to the rivers, as if they were the backyard of huge houses. Since 2009, with the creation of the Margem project, Itaú Cultural seeks to reflect on, communicate and debate the potential intermediations between contemporary art and urban space, by means of its rivers and banks. The Cildo Meireles Occupation rekindles this reflection and provokes our senses in the direction of the flow of waters, including residual waters.

Memory and prospecting define the Ocupação series, which uses an interdisciplinary model of exhibition, showcasing artists who move between the various forms of expression. Publications such as fanzines, hotsites and magazines increase the general public’s immersion.

Due to the cutting edge nature of the artistic concept, the institute has chosen an exhibition format that has never been done before in the project: the display of a single work, composed of a vinyl record, whose audio can be listened to in the exhibition area created by the project’s curator, Guilherme Wisnik and by the work’s designer Noni Geiger.

 Itaú Cultural