Abre Alas 18: Openings São Paulo 9 feb | Rio de Janeiro 11 feb
It is with great joy that A Gentil Carioca invites everyone to Abre Alas 18, an exhibition that takes place in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, opening the gallery’s calendar for the year 2023. The selection and curatorship committee is composed by Bruna Costa, Lia Letícia and Vivian Caccuri, who selected 29 artists through the 2022/2023 open call. Artists: Aline Brant, Ana Bia Silva, Ana Mohallem, Andy Villela, Anna Menezes, Alexandre Paes, Ariel Ferreira, Augusto Braz, Benedito Ferreira, Camila Proto, Celo, Clara Luz, Cyshimi, Daiane Lucio, Dariane Martiól, Denis Moreira, Érica Storer, Genietta Varsi, Luiz Sisinno, Mapô, Marina Lattuca, Mônica Coster, Newton Santanna, Rafael Vilarouca, Raphael Medeiros, Rebeca Miguel, Rose Afefé, Vulcanica Pokaropa and Yanaki Herrera.
Imageações* atmosféricas (Atmospheric imaginactions)
“As a living being, each animal and each man takes part, expresses, and articulates this life.”
Emanuele Coccia
We are coming out of a long winter of suspension of fundamental rights, attacks on the democratic state and cultural heritage, and reactionism, and are moving towards the arrival of summer. The relaxing of the body, the yearning for catharsis, and the transformation of public space into a large leisure arena take on another meaning and importance in 2023: pleasure is no longer an escape, but a vital condition.
We know that it is not possible to leap from hell to heaven, from the deepest winter into the peak of summer, but recent times have brought us some hope. Artists, and those who take part in Abre Alas 2023, remain alert. What we have experienced in the last years shows us that it has become almost impossible for a Brazilian artist not to be vigilant.
We share this political atmosphere, imbued, instilled, included in systems that are inseparable. In each of us there is something of all of us. The selection was developed from this mixture of life. It’s not about neutralizing privileges, because that’s not okay, but about making them apparent in that same atmosphere, and trying to reestablish a devolution.
The mixture is not a suspension of differences and identities, but a search for approximations: faced with what emerges from a selection of so many applications, we see confluences that create a common body. Memory and acceleracionisms; ecologies, labour and capital; cosmologies; and the reenchantment of art.
May the atmosphere made possible by these artists of Abre Alas 2023 reinforce the good winds of recovery.
Text by Bruna Costa, Lia Letícia and Vivian Caccuri
* about Imageações (Imaginactions), based on Denise Ferreira da Silva’s thought, see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m3TYD5uZjs
Dear comrades,
The time has come to reap the fruit, cast off our fears, and dress in our most vital fantasies. To enjoy
the carnival as someone who sailed through storms and cracked their lips in an icy winter. An old friend embraces us. More seasoned, more mature, he puts his sash back on, delivered by hands that
colour a country’s diversity. More fertile, warmer, pleasant times have arrived.
The bass drum sets the beat for the parade that struts through time. This year marks the 20th anniversary of A Gentil Carioca. What a life well lived! Our Abre Alas frolics once more at the crossroads of us all. Coming of age with its 18th edition, our long-awaited annual opening retraces paths and summons new faces.
With over 500 submissions, we see that art once again resists, sharp and alive, in several Brazils. We would like to thank everyone who signed up and our magical, female and plural trio, composed of Bruna Costa, Lia Letícia and Vivian Caccuri, who joined forces and started off the samba-enredo for this parade. With their eyes wide open, the trio bound together, with subtle threads, what we present to you today. In Rio or Sampa, it’s a sight to be seen!
A Gentil Carioca
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OPENING | SÃO PAULO
Travessa Gentil | Travessa Dona Paula, 108 - Higienópolis
09 Feb | 5pm - 10pm
Schedule:
To start, DJ Aya Ibeji (@ayaibeji), a multidisciplinary artist from Rio de Janeiro, born in São Gonçalo, with a sound that unravels possibilities through feelings!
We will also have performances by selected artists from Abre Alas 18 at the opening in São Paulo.
The Gentil Costume Contest also takes place in São Paulo! The wind that blows there blows here and this one is worth a night and a half of love at the Joia Rara motel for the winner.
Attention: at 19h there's Vai-Vai, to show that samba is a very good and serious thing in SP.
Here we will also have Becks's support. Beer all night!
Come join us!
OPENING | RIO DE JANEIRO
Gentil Crossroads | Rua Gonçalves Ledo, 17 - Downtown
11 Feb | 6pm - 10pm
Schedule:
Throughout the night, at the crossroads of us all, DJ Galo Preto (@brunobalth), creator of the Rebola project, which proposes a dialogue between contemporary art and Afro-Brazilian-Yoruba culture, and DJ Tata Ogan (@tataogan), researcher of a disco that mixes Afro-Brazilian, Northeastern, African, Latin, MPB and European underground electronic music, they do EVERYTHING in the carrapetas and make everyone dance as soon as 6 pm.
Performances by selected artists from Abre Alas 18 will take place all night.
We will also have our famous Gentil Costume Contest, worth a night and a half of whatever you want and whatever comes at the Meu Cantinho motel for whoever wins!
As part of ArtRio's CIGA Summer program, in a partnership between A Getil Carioca and Solar dos Abacaxis, in the spirit of Carnival, Abre Alas 18 will have a Parade with Reviravolta de Gaia, by the group #florestadecristal and Bateria Balança Mas Não Cai! The gathering takes place at 8:30 pm at Solar dos Abacaxis (Rua do Senado, 48), leaving at 9:00 pm for A Gentil Carioca (Rua Gonçalves Ledo, 17).
Oh, and last but not least, THERE WILL BE BECK'S!
VISITING
A Gentil Carioca | Rio de Janeiro
visits until 08 apr
tuesday to friday | 12pm - 6pm
Saturday | 12pm - 4pm
A Gentil Carioca | São Paulo
visits until March 11
tuesday to friday | 12pm - 6pm
Saturday | 11 am - 5 pm
