Cultura Negra é celebrada em exposição na Pinacoteca

Black Culture is celebrated in an exhibition at the Pinacoteca

The Black Encyclopedia exhibition illustrates how the center is a hub of experience and resistance of black culture.

About three years ago, I visited the exhibition by Rosana Paulino at the Pinacoteca in São Paulo. She is a Brazilian artist from São Paulo who portrays the experiences of black people through installations, paintings and collages. There were 140 curated works spread across the first floor of the building. I dare say that it was the first solo exhibition by a black Brazilian woman at the Pinacoteca, and taking up this much space is extremely important. From then on, I understood how museums in downtown São Paulo can, and should, value black culture and its narratives.

Although the exhibition was incredible, the most striking thing about that day was that, three years ago, to get to the Pinacoteca, I had to plan 2 hours in advance. In 2018, I still lived in Jd. João XXIII, a peripheral area in the west zone of São Paulo. Since it was a weekend, and certainly a Sunday, to get to the center I did need to do this prior calculation.

Besides going back and forth to the center every day, I liked to set aside the weekends to visit museums, bookstores , SESCs, theaters, and so many other places that could give me other perspectives on culture and blackness.

Ah, the 7545-10!

ions and a possible rental. They were looking for a future apartment , wooden floor, large windows and a possible rental.

Well, at the time I could only plan ahead to count on the beer of the month – and that will be the subject of another text. But today, 3 years after that trip, I live downtown and I dare say that the Pinacoteca is my backyard. Yes. The size of the buildings scares me less, I got used to it, and the streets downtown are nothing new anymore, but like the streets of a neighborhood, you already know who you will meet, where it is safest, what will be offered to you, the best place to ask for a car.

But why am I talking so much about the Pinacoteca and this exhibition about black culture?


Calm down... First, I want to introduce myself better. My name is Isabela, I'm 22 years old and I work in communications. But I'm also a visual artist and a writer, all of that professionally. That kind of young girl who doesn't really care about specialties, you know?

Well, I moved to the center this year, 2021, but I have been living in this territory for about four years, since I gained independence and began to desire more affection, people, experiences, discoveries. It is part of my work to delve into the narratives and orality of black culture.

The fact is that I have always loved downtown . And my passion is closely linked to the constant movement of art, occupations, politics, speeches, and lectures. In just a few streets you will find a registry office, a bar, a museum, an ancient statue, and a small shop selling oriental trinkets. It is a palpable and admirable diversity.

And my turning point was, precisely, visiting the Pinacoteca at these historic moments: when black and indigenous people were placed on the walls of the great Casarão.

The Pinacoteca, located at Luz station, is the first visual art museum in the state of São Paulo, opened in 1905 and became a state museum in 1911. At that time, there were no public halls for art exhibitions. Today, many of the exhibitions are free! Next to Pina is Parque da Luz (one of my favorite parks in SP), which is also a cultural center, as an open-air sculpture museum.

A new path to the center

Last month I woke up feeling great on a Saturday. Happy, despite all the hardships we're going through. And I decided to treat myself to a safe trip around São Paulo. Alone. Just me, myself and me (as our queen Beyoncé says). I turned on my cell phone and went to look for a ticket at the Pinacoteca. It was 9:30 a.m. and there was one for 11:45 a.m. That was it. Three years after what I had been imagining intensely on the bus, it happened. I woke up feeling good, in no rush, had a coffee and got ready, and left home 20 minutes before the entrance time.

It takes about 10 minutes from here to Luz. The transition to this reality was abrupt and quick. I still understand what it's like to get to the places I've always wanted to go, just 10 minutes away.

And this time, the exhibition I went to see was not just of a single black Brazilian woman, which is already important, but of several black artists, and mainly, of several young people. Young people and colleagues, friends from bars, from the street, from work. People I have bumped into many times on the street, at another exhibition, or in some stories on the internet.

People close to me, like me, on the walls of the most important museum of visual art in São Paulo. I then realized that black culture can be one of the many paths for the expression of this youth and for the maintenance of the lives of black people in Brazil.

My youth is on display at the Pinacoteca

Well, I think it was clear how excited I was about this exhibition. Enciclopédia Negra is an exhibition about figures from the black movement, or simply black people, who were important to history. A tangle of non-linear narratives about the black experience, and how these black artists see what they experience, what their ancestors experienced and what is to come.

The exhibition has its origins in the book Enciclopédia Negra - Biographies of Afro-Brazilians , by Flávio Gomes, Jaime Lauriano and Lilia M. Schwarcz, which brings together forgotten and erased stories. It is a living and present rescue of our ancestry: black people. The symbolic value of this movement is almost immeasurable. In the political sense, multiple voices speak, narrate, shout, whisper, sing on the walls of the Pinacoteca, a place that was built but was rarely accessed by the black population. Then, being young and being able to follow the young women of my generation, black women too, composing this collection of works, is extremely important.

And all this, this transformation and this presence, 10 minutes from home. At the exhibition I was able to appreciate the works of Heloisa Hariadne , Micaela Cyrino , Renata Felinto (my former teacher and great master) and Kerolayne dos Kemblin .







Exhibition on Black Culture

Pinacoteca | Enciclopédia NegraFrom 01/05 to 08/11Free admission by booking here . Oh, and if you want to tell me what you thought of the exhibition, you can write to my email: omiobinrin@gmail.com


Did you like this text? On the Citas blog we have many other posts about downtown, culture and the joys and pains of living in SP. Oh, and we have apartments available for rent less than 10 minutes from the art gallery too :)!

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