EXHIBITION | RUY OHTAKE: THE PRODUCTION OF SPACE
Credits: Leo Eloy
On display from February 26th to May 19th, 2019.
An overview of Ruy Ohtake’s work, from recent graduates to current projects, was on display in two exhibitions in São Paulo in 2019. While the Museu da Casa Brasileira, an institution of the Secretariat of Culture and Creative Economy of the State of São Paulo, exhibited around 40 projects built or under construction, curated by Agnaldo Farias, Instituto Tomie Ohtake brought its production as a designer, through approximately 25 pieces selected by curators Fábio Magalhães, Marili Brandão and Priscyla Gomes. Taking place simultaneously, the exhibitions had the mission of deepening two moments (architecture and furniture) that outline unique initiatives and researches, in which the architect focused on a formal inventiveness guided by risk. The last exhibition that put Ohtake’s work in perspective took place in 2008, at FAU-USP to celebrate the college’s 60th anniversary.
The exhibition at the Museu da Casa Brasileira, held in association with the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, in Curitiba, introduced the public to the unique spatial thinking of Ruy Ohtake, one of the main Brazilian architects. Through models, drawings, sketches, photographs and videos, Agnaldo Farias has concentrated his extensive production of almost 60 years in a set of 42 projects.
Credits: Júnior Franzin and Leo Eloy
Among the selected works are urban projects, such as the Tietê Ecological Park (the channeling of the river was one of the biggest urban mistakes made in the city, added to the congested marginals, it transformed the landscape of the river without margin / cit. Ruy Ohtake), preserves the natural course of the river, therefore the banks for the recovery of vegetation, with small centers for sport, leisure, culture and education, enabling a São Paulo of the future by revaluing the river, landscape, ecology and history; Indaiatuba Ecological Park, which recaptures the dignity of the river to which the city turned its back; Educational and Cultural Pole and Residential Condominium of Heliópolis, whose main focus has been the dialogue with residents and where the architect manages to materialize social equality in a scenario of complicated inequality; Tiradentes Express, transport infrastructure, 8 km long yellow route that crosses the city at 15 m above the streets of downtown São Paulo.
Opening
Credits: Junior Franzin
Among the buildings, which also leave the architect’s mark on the urban landscape, are: Hotel Unique, Complexo Aché Cultural, where the Instituto Tomie Ohtake is housed, characterized by a large hall that articulates 8 exhibition rooms and other complements of the institution, in Sao Paulo; Alvorada Hotel, in Brasilia; Embassy of Brazil in Tokyo; and the Pantanal Aquarium, in Mato Grosso do Sul. “Ruy Ohtake’s spatial thinking translates into his unique architecture, a production that faces the country’s difficulties and fights to improve it not only through technical responses, but for the beauty that soothes the eye and feeds the imagination”, completes the curator.
Credits: Disclosure
Media Highlights
Printed
Folha de S. Paulo | O Estado de S. Paulo | Jornal Destak | Jornal do Metrô | O Liberal Americana | Folha de S. Paulo Ilustrada | Guia Divirta-se | A Tribuna de Santos
Online
Federação Nacional dos Arquitetos e Urbanistas | Estadão | Guia da Folha | Revista Museu | A Crítica Campo Grande | Portal da Holanda | Diário de Notícias | Jornal do Oeste | Select
Radio
Radio Cultura
Radio Cultura
Radio Eldorado
About Ruy Ohtake
He graduated from FAU in 1960 and in 1962 he designed the Rosa Okubo house, awarded at the São Paulo Architecture Biennial that year. After nearly six decades of intense performance and many awards, in 2007, he won the Golden Necklace, the highest award from the Institute of Architects in Brazil and was named “Architect of the Year 2009” by the National Federation of Architects. He received the titles of Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of Architecture of Santos and Professor Honoris Causa at the University Braz Cubas. His international recognition has already led him to be part of the select group of guest architects at the 20th Congress of the International Union of Architects (1999), in Beijing, alongside Jean Nouvel and Tadao Ando. In the celebration of FAU-USP’s 60th anniversary, in 2008, he was the architect invited to make an exhibition in the large space designed by his master Vilanova Artigas.
About Agnaldo Farias
One of the most recognized art curators and critics in Brazil, he is currently responsible for the curatorship of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum and Anozero’19 – Bienal de Arte Contemporânea de Coimbra. He headed the 29th Bienal de São Paulo in 2011 and curated for the Museum of Contemporary Art and Instituto Tomie Ohtake, in São Paulo; for the Museum of Modern Art, in Rio de Janeiro; for the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, in Curitiba; and to the Rio Grande do Sul Art Museum; among other spaces. He is also a professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo.
About MCB
The Museu da Casa Brasileira, an institution of the Secretariat of Culture and Creative Economy of the State of São Paulo that celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2020, is dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of the material culture of the Brazilian house, being the only museum in the country specializing in architecture and design. The MCB’s program includes temporary and long-term exhibitions, with an agenda that also includes educational service activities, debates, lectures and publications contextualizing the museum’s vocation for the formation of critical thinking on themes such as architecture, urbanism, housing, economy creative, urban mobility and sustainability. Among its numerous initiatives, the MCB Design Award, the main award in the segment in the country, held since 1986, stand out; and the Casas do Brasil project, to rescue and preserve the memory of the rich diversity of living in the country.
Brazilian House Museum
Av. Brig. Faria Lima, 2705 – Jardim Paulistano
Phone.: +55 (11) 3032.3727
