Associação Cultural Videobrasil

Tuesday, November 17 at 8pm, will see a special edition of the 19^th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil’s Public Programs at the Reading Room of Galpão VB. Moderated by Ruy Luduvice, a researcher from the Archive and Research Department of Associação Cultural Videobrasil, the panel will feature Sabrina Moura, curator of the Seminar Places and Meanings in Art: Debates from the South, the anthropologist Pedro Cesarino and the researcher Maria Iñigo Clavo.

The meeting will focus on the publication Southern Panoramas | Readings | Perspectives for Other Geographies of Thought. Edited by Sabrina Moura, the book was published in partnership by Edições Sesc São Paulo and Associação Cultural Videobrasil and features a compilation of 17 essays and art manifestos that introduce, champion or challenge the notion of a geopolitical South. Authors include the artists Artur Barrio and Cildo Meireles, the curator Moacir dos Anjos, the philosopher and political scientist Achille Mbembe, the researcher and writer Angela Longoni and the artist Joaquín Torres Garcia, who (literally) turned the world upside down in his work entitled Mapa Invertido [Upside-Down Map, 1943], in which his native Uruguay became the highest point on Earth (to the North) and the USA and Europe lay in the far south of the globe.

Exceptionally on this day, Galpão VB will close at 10pm. The event is free of charge. Pick up your ticket at the venue one hour prior to the event.
 

Panel on the book Southern Panoramas | Readings | Perspectives for Other Geographies of Thought
Featuring Sabrina Moura, Pedro Cesarino and Maria Iñigo Clavo
Moderator: Ruy Luduvice

November 17 (Tuesday) at 8pm
Galpão VB | Av. Imperatriz Leopoldina, 1150, São Paulo, Brazil
videobrasil.org.br/galpaovb

More on the panelists

MARIA IÑIGO CLAVO [Spain] is a researcher and occasionally an artist and curator. She holds a PhD in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid and is currently a professor at the School of Communication and Arts of the University of São Paulo (USP); she has also taught at the European University in Madrid and in the master’s program in Latin American Art Curating at the University of Essex. Presently, she is a postdoctoral researcher for FAPESP (the São Paulo State research support foundation) at USP, covering topics such as multiculturalism, postcolonial theory, migration, alterity and art in Latin America, with an emphasis on Brazilian art.

PEDRO DE NIEMEYER CESARINO [Brazil] holds a degree in Philosophy from the University of São Paulo, and a master’s and a PhD in Social Anthropology from the National Museum/UFRJ. He does research on Indian ethnology, with an emphasis on studies in shamanism, cosmology, oral traditions, translation, and art anthropology. He completed a postdoctoral degree at the Department of Languages of the University of São Paulo (2008-2010). He served as associate professor of Art Anthropology at the Department of Art History of the Federal University of São Paulo. He is currently a professor at the Department of Anthropology of the University of São Paulo, where he conducts research on the Anthropology of Forms of Expression.

RUY LUDUVICE [Brazil] is a researcher at the Collection and Research Department of Associação Cultural Videobrasil. He holds master’s and bachelor degrees in Philosophy from the University of São Paulo, and was an exchange student at the University Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense. He is a member of the Study Group on Contemporary Aesthetics affiliated with the Department of Philosophy of the School of Philosophy, Language and Human Sciences of the University of São Paulo (FFLCH/USP), with which he organized the I Seminar on Art Aesthetics and Critic (2013) and the colloquium A Morte em Obras – Transformações no campo das Artes [Death in Artworks – Transformations in the field of Art, 2014].

SABRINA MOURA [Brazil] is a curator, researcher and a doctoral student in History at the Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences of Unicamp. She holds master’s degrees in Aesthetics and Art History from University Paris VIII and in Cultural Projects Directing from University Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle. She is the curator of the Seminar Places and Meanings in Art: Debates from the South, which is part of the 19^th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil (2015).
 

More on the publication

In the year the entire 19^th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil program and contents focus on issues of the Geopolitical South, a publication featuring essays and art manifestos that discuss said notion will be launched on Saturday (10/10), 2pm at the Sesc Pompeia Theater. Edited by the researcher Sabrina Moura, SOUTHERN PANORAMAS | READINGS, PERSPECTIVES FOR OTHER GEOGRAPHIES OF THOUGHT approaches the South as a place of thought and knowledge production to explore and discuss ideas that question Eurocentric representations and narratives.

The book strives to comprehend how the emergence of a third alternative to the binary Cold War geopolitics (capitalism x communism), since the 1950s, offers us clues for a historical understanding of the notion of South and its connection with the art and culture field. “In a way, this idea revives the notion of a ‘Third World,’ only this time the agency happens from within. Organized as an anthology of texts, the book features collaborations from different disciplinary fields, providing a critical take on the formation of the concept of South; a recent idea, championed and disputed even by artists and intellectuals who, in theory, belong in this very axis,” says Moura, who brought together work by the artists Artur Barrio and Cildo Meireles, the curator Moacir dos Anjos, the philosopher and political scientist Achille Mbembe, the Argentinian researcher and writer Ana Longoni, the Indian critic Geeta Kapur, the artist Joaquín Torres-Garcia – who turned the world upside down (literally) in his Inverted Map of South America (1943), with Uruguay, his native country, becoming the highest point in the world (to the North) and the USA and Europe set in the far South of the globe – among others.

Revisiting essays, documents and historical manifestos, the publication gives an overview of discussions previously unpublished in Portuguese – such as the work of South African anthropologists Jean and John Comaroff in Theories of the South, where they state the need to consider the South as a knowledge-producing field as opposed to a simple string of case studies that must resort to European theoretical tradition for justification.

The publication revisits essays, documents, and historical manifestos to provide an overview of discussions never before released in Portuguese language – such as those offered by South African anthropologists Jean and John Comaroff in “Theory from the South” – building a critical take on the notion of a global South, at turns championing the establishment of a Southern global axis, and at others denying the very concept and the need for it to interpret contemporary issues at a point in time when the center of global power is shifting.

The publication also features English versions of reference texts by Brazilian and Latin American authors – such as “Time-Space Relations in the Underdeveloped World”, written by the geographer Milton Santos in 1976, during his exile in Paris.

“From the demands of non-aligned countries that gain strength during the Cold War, to the emergence of postcolonial thinking and the critique thereof, the publication offers a relevant contribution to the discussions that put Eurocentric representations and narratives to the test,” Sabrina concludes.

Southern Panoramas | Readings | Perspectives for Other Geographies of Thought
Edições Sesc São Paulo & Associação Cultural Videobrasil
2015, 264 pages
portuguese/english
16 x 21.5 x 2 cm
ISBN 978-85-69298-14-4
BRL 70.00
order (Brazil only, for international orders, please send an email)

Edited by
Sabrina Moura

Collaborators
Milton Santos
José Rabasa
Arjun Appadurai
Jean and John Comaroff
Joaquín Torres García
Organization of African Unity
Artur Barrio
Cildo Meireles
Rasheed Araeen
Rede Conceitualismos do Sul
Moacir dos Anjos
Anthony Gardner
Charles Green
Geeta Kapur
Néstor García Canclini
Achille Mbembe
Sasha Huber
Ana Longoni

Graphic design
Angela Detanico & Rafael Lain

Coordination
Teté Martinho

Design
Carla Castilho, Lia Assumpção | Janela Estúdio