Structured around the theme “There is always a cup of sea to sail in”, the title of the 29th edition of the São Paulo Bienal, held in 2010, had six terreiros (yards destined to receive Afro-Brazilian religious cults) spread throughout its pavilion. Upon the invitation of the curators Moacir dos Anjos and Agnaldo Farias, Vazio S/A participated in the terreiro “The Other, the Same”, an arena for dance, theatre, and music events that could be rearranged in several ways. Composed of movable trolley modules made out of stacked cardboard, the arena could be prepared as a theatre for shows, isolated from the rest of the exhibition, but could also be expanded (magnifying its space), amalgamated (turning into a maze), shrunk (thus creating lanes, corners, and residual spaces), scattered (diluting its presence to the point of near-invisibility), or simply put to use as benches and chaise lounges for visitor relaxation.
Below is a review of the terreiro published by art critic Paulo Miyada:
“(…) When fragmented and dispersed, however, the terreiro became a labyrinth and an interstitial space, incorporating the entire ground floor of Niemeyer’s project as its courtyard and even using the transparency of the façades to seek mediations with the wider landscape of Ibirapuera Park. From the traditional dwelling suggested by the original concentrated conformation, Carlos’ [Vazio S/A] project, when open, began to evoke a shared dwelling marked by the multiple temporalities of the dissonant uses that could happen simultaneously in each part of the space. I witnessed two moments in which this temporality was explored in an instigating way by the artists invited by the 29th Bienal, always making use of an additional feature of the project: the sound system that could be fed from any part of the yard and from there spread throughout the ground floor.”
In ‘Project and Indeterminacy: the work of Carlos Teixeira’ / ‘Projeto e Indeterminação: a obra de Carlos Teixeira’
Vitruvius online journal, Nov/2011
Photos: Camila Picolo, Carlos Teixeira, Duas Águas, Nelson Kon