EXHIBITION | DRAWING THE CITY: BEFORE IT ENDS
Credits: Gui Gomes e Erika de Faria
On display from June 4th to July 31st, 2016.
The remaining constructions of houses and sobrados, formerly typical of the city of São Paulo and now replaced by tall buildings, were revealed in the exhibition ‘Before that acabe’, which brought together drawings by the plastic artist and anthropologist João Galera. The exhibition started the series Drawing the City, carried out by the Museu da Casa Brasileira.
The series intends to present a variety of records of the city of São Paulo from various expressions of drawings made by artists, architects and designers, who observe and analyze the city and represent it through drawings, illustrations and other compositions. “Our idea at the Museum is to offer the public an expressive diversity of different approaches and interpretations of the city, expanding the repertoire of records on the rich urban complexity of São Paulo. There are many good works in this regard, such as drawings by Carla Caffé, Juliana Russo, Paulo Von Poser, among many others”, comments the technical director of the MCB, Giancarlo Latorraca.
Opening of the Show
Credits: Erika de Faria
João Galera’s drawings, in ink on paper, iconographically rescued the houses as the symbol of São Paulo’s resistance against the city’s transformations that occurred with the arrival of buildings and new urban dynamics.
Typology, materials and style vary according to the time of construction of the houses, the neighborhood, the social conditions and also the residents, who transform their homes, creating often unique identities.
Some of the Exhibited Drawings at the Exhibition
Credits: Disclosure
It is through the registration of the facades of the houses that João Galera explores the evidence of the private life contained in them, observing subtle elements such as a vase, a plant, a half-open window or other everyday details. Typical constructive aspects, such as the windows facing the street, the geometry of arches at the entrance, small columns, railings, red shards of floor, reinforce the character of a cultural element that was once common in the city, as an individual record of its residents, marks that they die out in the anonymity of the large complexes built by real estate speculation. In this sense, the survival of the image of these houses takes on a character of resistance and preservation of memory.
Show Production
Production of Drawings
Media Highlights
Printed
Época São Paulo | DCI SP | Folha de São Paulo | O Tempo BH | Estadão | Revista São Paulo | Veja SP | Guia da Folha
Online
Maxpress | Arq Art | Galeria da Arquitetura | Revista Casa e Jardim | Folha de São Paulo | O Tempo | Piracicaba em Festa | O Melhor de Sampa
TV
Veja São Paulo
Jornal da Gazeta, click here
Antena Paulista, click here
Estilo Arte 1, click here
Radio
Veja São Paulo
About the Artist
With a background in anthropology, plastic artist João Galera explores drawing, painting, collage and sewing. Born in Paraná, he intensified his artistic work in Mexico, when he was doing a doctorate in Anthropology in Iberoamerica and studying the Sicuicho indigenous community. João started to draw them, and was asked to make a mural for a preschool. He participated in group and individual exhibitions in Brazil, the United States and Mexico.
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
Tel.: +55 (11) 3032.3727
