Ar Livre, Arte Livre: Art, Ecology, and the Commons

The historical narrative of the park’s inception and timeline was well-known and easily accessible. What this curatorial project, born during the last pandemic, aimed to unearth were the connections that landscape architect and urban planner Lota de Macedo Soares (1910-1967) had envisioned when she initiated the “Grupo do Trabalho” to design the park in 1961. She successfully persuaded the city council to dedicate this vast expanse of land (covering 1.2 million sqm2 of reclaimed sea) to be shared by people, wildlife, flora, and cultural practices. The Aterro’s design was founded on three key principles: connecting Nature, Art, and Education.

“Ar Livre, Arte Livre: Art Ecology and the Commons” sought to revive the park’s ability to foster unexpected encounters between individuals, various forms of art, and practicing the commons through contemporary art installations, performances, and workshops centered around the park’s existing iconic urban infrastructure, which the project aimed to highlight as catalysts.

The artist Guga, renowned for his public space interventions, explored the relationship between this piece of land, once covered by the sea, and the nearby body of water. Meanwhile, Zé Tepedino examined the playful dimension of the park by reconfiguring elements of an urban playground. Claudia Casarino and Maria Nepomuceno brought forth the emotional aspect as a significant dimension of the park’s history. Lota’s romantic relationship with the American writer Elisabeth Bishop, along with the complexities of building relationships, desires, and passions, constituted the past and present narratives and emotions to be shared or experienced.

Frekwéncia’s performance, as well as Azizi Cypriano and Yhuri Cruz, who were selected through an open call, addressed the park’s relationship with the African Diaspora and uncovered personal and collective memories, particularly those related to the nearby calabouço. Duo Caroline Valansi and Domingos Guimaraens proposed working collaboratively with the heaps of discarded coconut husks, giving new life to this fruit waste. Traplev punctuated the space with a poetic banner marking the territory while sparking imaginations, complemented by a light flag by Fluxuz_, which illuminated the park during the evening events. Irmãs Brasil‘s catwalk emphasized the importance of bodies and echoed Lota’s vision of creating a park for the people, connecting human cultural practices with the invisible web of mycelium, botanical life, and urban transactions in and around this major landmark of the city of Rio de Janeiro.

This project is the second edition of the Art, Ecology, and the Commons program, which started in 2021 in Beirut, Lebanon. Conceived by TAP (Temporary Art Platform), the project was carried out within the framework of the Franco-German cooperation #JuntesnaCultura, between the Goethe-Institut and the Consulate of France in Rio de Janeiro, with production by Jurubeba Produções.

Curator: Amanda Abi Khalil
Co-curator: Ynaiê Dawson
Guest Curator for Claudia Casarino’s Artwork: Bianca Bernardo
Public Call Jury: Ana Luiza Nobre and Bianca Bernardo
Graphic Design: Paula Dager
Sound: Circular Som Sistema

#UrbanArts #Environment #Ecology #ArtisticIntervention