Today has been quite, walking, antiques shopping/browsing, kilo restaurant and a modern art gallery.
We woke early to have breakfast and then went off to explore some more. Under the MASP (Museum of art in Sao Paulo) there is a Brazilian antiques market every Sunday, this is where we may have purchased some gifts for some family members. We then walked down Avenue Paulista and had another amazing lunch at a different kilo restaurant, this maybe our favourite one. Lots of choice and very tasty. It is within a shopping centre in the food court and it is massive, so much choice as to which food chain you could eat at, even Subway!
We then hopped on the metro back to Ana Rosa, our normal stop and walked to Ibirapuera park where we wander for a while, saw a battle re-enactment and then went to a modern art gallery showing the 30th Biennial de São Paulo exhibition at the Ciccillo Matarazzo pavilion. The Sao Paulo’s art Biennial is the second oldest art Biennial in the world, founded in 1952, the oldest being the Venice Biennial founded in 1895.
“The Biennial’s initial aims are to make contemporary art known in Brazil, push the country’s access to the art scene in other metropolises and further establish São Paulo as an international art centre. The biennial serves to bring Brazilian art closer to an international audience, and vice-versa.”
The exhibition was very large spread out over three open floors, everything is laid out well and nothing is too cramped. The majority of the sculptures were exhibited free standing so that you could walk around and view them from many angles, nothing had cases or was locked away behind glass. The building really added to the exhibition, people are free to roam where ever over the three floors and you are able to see each level when walking around as nothing is closed in. I felt and Grace did too, that this exhibition was really accessible at all levels, something for everyone.
Oh and also on display were some of The Pinacoteca’s collection, we always get excited to see some of their collection out side of the museum.
The exhibition was held in the Ciccillo Matarazzo pavilion, the Biennials founder the Italian-Brazilian industrialist, Ciccillo Matarazzo .
We walked home, finally using the bridge to cross the super busy main roads. When we got home we both collapsed and slept for two hours, when I woke up I thought we had slept all night and it was Monday morning!
I didn’t take many photos from today but I did take this one…a battle re-enactment going on at the park!
And another view of Sao Paulo
I am sending everyone across the ocean a big HELLO, I hope everyone has a happy Monday and a good week as we Start October, this year has flown by quicker than ever!
I’m only going to do a little review of our work as Issy is writing up today’s blog at the same time and not too much has changed!
We started on a massive rubber and bronze sculpture by””Tenor, Sentimental, Album, Gala e Fatal” Frida Baranek. We have to clean it before it goes on display in Rio!
“Tenor, Sentimental, Album, Gala e Fatal” by Frida Baranek
Issy vacuuming the sculpture with a Luz Gonzaga smileMe air compressing the sculpture to shift the dust out.
I carried out the larger fills on my painting using Modostuc. I will write more about the fills on Monday but leave you with a little picture of my painting at the end of the day!
My painting at the end of the day. My fills are nearly finished but need more texture adding. I also need to remove the excess filling material from the painting.
Issy stuck her hand on using Araldite. She also applied a new layer of Agar to try and remove the remaining stains of the mould. I have no pictures of these incidents so you will have to wait until her post in about five minutes! I do however have photos of her with her first Brazilian Sim card!
Issy and Ana with Issy’s first Brazilian phone call!
After work Priscila and Ana very kindly treated us to a night out at Veloso’s! A very popular bar famous for its Coxinhas (like fried chicken croquettes) and Capirinhas (Brazilian fruity cocktails that are usually made with the Brazilian spirit, Cachaca). Issy loved the Coxinhas and shared two plates with Ana and Priscila! Ana order me some Mandioca Fritas instead, which are chips made from a Brazilian root vegetable! They were lovely and dead filling!
We had some crazy cocktail combinations! Starfruit and Basil, Tangerine and Pimento, Caju, Three Citruses, Pomegranate and Lime, Jabuticaba and Mixed Berries…. Mmmm! England needs to up its cocktail game!
We had a nice Pinacoteca gossip! Everybody at work has been so lovely and welcoming! Priscila and Ana took us out for drinks, Teodora has invited us to the beach, Valeria has invited us to stay at her house, Manuel has invited us out for dinner and Diego is taking us dancing on Saturday! The none conservation staff have all started talking to us more! Its great meeting people here!
The days are a little topsy turvy because I had so much to write about for Sunday that I couldn’t finish it last night or the night before so here it is, right after Monday…
Sunday could have been a disaster. We had been planning to visit the Sao Bento monks singing Gregorian hymns at the Sao Bento Monastery at 10am. The great plan involved us leaving by 9.15am so of course we slept through all of our alarms and woke up at 9am disappointed and frantic inside a musty room surrounded by bags of dirty laundry from the day before. There are better ways to wake up.
When we were finally on our way to the tube at 10.05am we were considering writing off the weekend entirely when we decided to go to the MASP instead and turned our rubbish start to the day around!
Our quick overview of the gallery to save you trudging through Wikipedia:
The Sao Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) is a fantastic gallery, that was created in the late 1940s by two wealthy Brazilian business man who built up an incredible collection of European artworks from the 13th c. onwards. Thanks to the WWII chaos on our side of the Atlantic in this period, he managed to get pretty good deals on beautiful pieces by artists including Turner, Gainsborough, Van Gogh, Monet, Dali, and Degas.
The gallery is famous for its fantastic building on Avenida Paulista where it has been situated since 1968. Don’t close your mind to its brutalist structure until you know its story!
We thought it was just an amazing feat of engineering for the sake of being an amazing feat of engineering: a building created out of concrete and glass whose entire body is supported by two lateral beams, leaving 74 metres of open space on the ground floor.
MASP’s brutalist building designed by Lina Bo Bardi. I borrowed this photo from Wikipedia because it was better than mine!
Cool… but its a bit ugly? Think again! The man who donated the plot of land for the building’s location included specific instructions to keep the view of Downtown from Paulista Avenue clear and unobstructed by the building, making the creation of the art museum fairly difficult. 12 years later Bo Bardi’s design was completed and inaugurated by our Queen Elizabeth II herself in 1968!
The view of downtown from MASP! Trip Adviser lent me this photo because the view yesterday was a lot mistier and full of people.
The price to enter all the exhibitions and permanent collection of MASP for students is R$7 or £1.98! Brilliant! While are public collections are free to enter, the student price for a special exhibition is usually at least a few pounds. (The current student price to enter “The Portrait in Vienna Exhibition 1900” at the National Gallery, London is £5.50!)
The exhibitions at the moment include the Photo Biennial 2013, “Gods and Madonnas: The Art of Worship”, “Romanticism: The Art of Enthusiasm” and “Corpus e Restos”, a collection of prints by Lucien Freud. We were really impressed by the range of artworks and I could ramble on forever if I had the time but seeing as MASP’s policy’s have left our experience photoless, it wouldn’t be fair to bombard you with so many words. Instead I’ll give you some thoughts about each exhibition and steal some photos from the net!
Photo Biennial 2013: The first thing that we have to mention is how excited were to see the dynamic interior architecture of the Pinacoteca as a setting for a couple of pieces in a series of sixteen by photographer and ex pro skateboarder, Fabiano Rodriguez.
Self Portrait of Fabiano Rodriguez, taken in the Pinacoteca de Estado de Sao Paulo
We also liked Pedro David’s work, “Suffocation” about the native Brazilian trees that are trapped in the modern Eucalyptus fields. I thought that this series was beautiful, original and made us aware of an industry we had no idea about.
“Suffocation”, David Pedro.
“Gods and Madonnas: The Art of Worship”: This exhibition was an interesting mixture of objects and paintings, focused on the development of art in worship. I have to admit that neither of us spent to long in this exhibition because we have seen a lot of similar art in England, and because it was a little confusing to follow. Issy and I wandered off at this point so I can’t speak for her but my best part was having a look at the restorations on their Greek marble sculptures.
“Romanticism: The Art of Enthusiasm”: Issy was very surprised at the amount of European art in this exhibition. She had visited Monet’s garden at Giverny, lives close to where Constable lived and her family’s company built a village hall in a location near to the setting of one painting by Gainsborough. Although we were aware of Sao Paulo’s importance, we were not expecting to travel so far to see so many paintings that were more connected with us than Brazil. The exhibition has been going since 2010 and connects a 500 year span of art by the themes that developed the genre rather than just chronology i.e. Views from Afar, Landscapes, Portraits, etc.
I wandered around this exhibition listening to Warpaint, who make good music to get lost in colourful paintings to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOFxb0F2F2A
“Corpus e Restos”, a collection of prints by Lucien Freud:Yes, yes we took an eleven hour flight and saw a full exhibition by one of England’s most famous contemporary artists whose works are easily accessed in London. However, this particular exhibition included many pieces we had not previously seen and probably won’t ever again as they’re on load from Caracus, Venezuela and private collections in South America! Also, after seeing the 2012 exhibition of his paintings at the National Gallery and first learning about him through my sister Robina for his use of colour and texture, it was interesting to see an exhibition mainly concerned with his prints. The exhibition also included a selection of photos by Freud’s former assistant, David Dawson. The most famous of these, which most people who have taken an interest in Freud will have seen convey the artist with sitters such as Queen Elizabeth and David Hockney. We were most taken with the photos that we were not familiar with, including one showing a female model, who was sitting for Freud falling over and another of a reflection of Freud and a sitter with a half finished painting, “Female Admirer”, inside his studio.
After we had overdosed on art we had a beast of a lunch. All you can eat buffet? Yes please. I’d like to introduce the world to the idea of sun-dried tomatoes wrapped in aubergine! Also we tried Brazilian baked beans! Lovely jubbly! Issy was chuffed with the desserts and can put a photo of plate up when she’s here.
Free Walking Tour of Paulista Avenue
When we left the MASP we joined the free walking tour of Avenida Paulista, with Rafa, the same enthusiastic guide as last time. We really enjoyed it! My photos aren’t great because it was three hours long so ended up finishing in the dark but here are our highlights anyway!
Our summary of the world’s quickest overview of Brazil’s history: The main periods- Colonial (1500-1815), Imperial (1815-1889). Republic (1889 to present) and included the military dictatorship (1964-1985). Rafa also gave us information on the present government and Brazil’s financial history.
Just to be clear, I think the date that says 1815 should be that but I’m not 100% so I’m sorry if its incorrect! It was an interesting start to the tour nonetheless!
Graffiti Tunnel: There’s graffiti all over Sao Paulo. Some of it is beautiful artwork by internationally famous graffiti artists, some of it just shows you if an area is poorer, more run down and dangerous. The tunnel that was created underneath Paulista Avenue to reduce congestion is covered in decades worth of graffiti art.
Graffiti in the tunnel underneath Avenida Paulista.
The MASP: You already know how great we think this place is but Rafa took us again and told us the history, facts and figures that I gave you earlier.
The ticket office and Sunday market stalls on the ground floor of the MASP. I took this photo myself!
Intuitive fire escaping: Following a terrible fire in a skyscraper on Paulista Ave in the late 1980’s that left over ten people dead, Sao Paulo skyscrapers have to have clear fire evacuation plans. One option is to create bridges in between buildings that are only to be used in emergencies. This sounds sensible but its a strange sight to see for the first time.
Bridges between buildings that are used as fire escapes.
The History of the Matarazzo Family: We learned about the history of Francesco Matarazzo, an Italian who emigrated to Sao Paulo and built a business empire. He created a hospital that closed in the late 1980s/ early 1990s and has been left derelict. Brazilian laws classify the building as historical and therefore its structure cannot be torn down or changed, unfortunately for Matarazzo’s children who wanted to sell the land to a building company. Unable and unwilling to restore the building, they have left it empty. They employ a security company to watch the building but they never enter and it is probably now home to squatters (or ghosts according to Rafa) as the same shutters are always open.
The Old Hospital created by Matarazzo.
When a similar situation occurred a few years later with the Matarazzo children wanting to sell him empty mansion a couple of streets down, a bomb mysteriously went off in the building before it could be classed as a listed historical building. The land was then sold to a construction company who are now building a shopping centre.
The building site where the old Matarazzo mansion once stood.
The Fate of the Five Old Houses of Avenida Paulista: There are five old (pre 1920s) buildings left on the skyscraper filled Avenida Paulista. Due to the same building law that restricted the Matarazzo children from destroying their father’s buildings, these buildings cannot be torn down and have all succumb to different endings.
Building 1: Left derelict and has gone into ruin.
Building 2: Turned into a banking company. The beautiful garden full of grape trees that it was once famous for is now a car park and the building is Avenida Paulista’s annual Christmas grotto for children.
Building 3: A medical building concerned with vaccinations in particular.
Building 4: Became a McDonalds and then a bank.
Building 5: Became a museum that hosts poetry evenings and art exhibitions. The beautiful rose garden of the house is still as it was and open to the public. The happiest ending of the buildings.
1. Derelict3. A medical building concerned with vaccinations in particular.
5. A Museum
We really enjoyed both of the Free Walking Tours that we joined and would really recommend them! Thanks Rafa and Fe!
http://www.saopaulofreewalkingtour.com/
Wally’s not here but we are hidden somewhere in this crowd if you can spot us!
Sorry to everyone who checked the blog over the weekend, we didn’t blog because Saturday especially was a bit of a fail. We had a plan for the weekend to stay in Sao Paulo and visit lots of sites and also do the most important thing, our washing!
We started out positively and the hostel gave us directions to the nearest laundrette, there is apparently only 3 in the whole of Sao Paulo!! We thought it would take around 30/40 mins walk to get there, but how we were wrong, it took us 2 hours and 40 minuets to get there and even then we stopped and asked a police woman who hadn’t heard of it before and a lady in the street who spoke English directed us to it and when we finally found it….it was shut. Both of us took it well and just sighed, opposite the laundrette was a restaurant with two kind men who walked us to another one…that was shut and a dry cleaners anyway. So he pointed us into the direction of the taxis, we met a lovely Portuguese lady who went to the University of Warwick who now lives in Sao Paulo, who helped us direct the taxi driver in the direction of the hostel. The taxi driver was very kind, he didn’t speak English, but offered us beer and checked that the radio station was to our taste! It was also not very expensive to get back and very quick, so we regretted not getting a taxi there in the first place.
A positive note or two, on the way there we walked through Ibirapuera park and saw some of my favourite plants and also brought some super tasty crisps from this stall;
On the way home we did get to see the famous Bandeiras Monument from the taxi;
The Bandeiras Monument
Once back to the hostel, it was really busy as they were hosting a friends birthday party, so we dumped our dirty washing and went off in search of some food. First a beer and crisps at a bar around the corner then off to a very good pizza restaurant, this was most definitely the 30% success. I think this was the best pizza I have ever eaten! We love Sao Paulo pizza!
I am sorry to everyone (Christine especially) that this blog is about food and hygiene, it just seems to be our main topic of conversation and the Brazilian way!!
So today is the day I reveal many things I know everyone has been on tenterhooks waiting to find out the answers…
1.The museum’s packed lunch heater….
One of the museums, packed lunch heaters.
The Pinacoteca has two of these trolleys, that have two shelves both half filled with hot water where everyone puts their lunch to warm up!
The staff at the museum take great care in their lunch, some people even bring their own table mats! Everyone washes their boxes and cutlery up after they have finished eating. We also have not seen one single sandwich everyone eats rice, beans and meat with pudding most people have fruit flavoured jelly.
It is so nice to see that everyone eats properly and takes time out of their day to sit down and socialise with their colleagues.
2. The agar reveal…
The agar – half way through removal
The first removal of agar was very effective on the sculpture, but on some parts it did not pick up the dirt that was in the cracks and the textures on the surface. I applied another layer of agar, just to effected areas, but unfortunately we peeled it off to early for it to have worked properly. So I applied a 3rd coating again only to the effected areas and the results where brilliant!
Mid reveal after the 3rd coat of agar, great results!
But in the heavily textured area around the base the dirt did not get removed so I used swabs of water, that had no effect. Then a toothbrush and nail brush, both with only a little difference, and finally damp swabs of acetone.
Top half before and bottom cleaned with damp acetone swabs to a great outcome!
Anyway, today we have both been carrying on with our projects again, I have tried to remove the left hand again today and to no avail the adhesive does not want to give way, so as it is a very strong bond it is staying put. I have also cleaned in the lettering around the base on the front, the title and on the right hand side, the artists signature with acetone swabs and using dental tools and a scalpel to scrape out the dirt. I also discussed with Valeria (the head of the conservation unit) and Manuel about the best way to fill and re-adhere the right hand.
Valeria, Manuel and I
I have also practiced putting armatures in some terracotta samples, ready for re-attaching the hand to the main sculpture. More on this soon…
Grace has made great progress in removing the varnish from the surface of the oil painting, it looks completely different and so great! Removing the varnish has revealed many beautiful colours.
Grace using the worlds largest microscope on wheels to check that she is not removing any of the originalClose up of the major difference after removing the varnish.
Todays fun facts: We had fresh orange for breakfast, Teodora had a lovely conversation with us to check that we are ok with everything on our placement and asked if there is anything else we would like to do while we are here and we are pleased to report everything is all ok, we went for lunch at a kilogram restaurant without any help from any of our Brazilian friends, the weather has been horrible and rainy just like England and finally our favourite maintenance man, Jolison (you say it: JO-UL-SON) spoke to us in English for the first time quoting song lyrics….we hope. I quote ” baby, I love you” It was rather amusing.
We get excited to go in every morning and really pleased with the outcomes of the day when we leave!
We are just very happy to be here and working on great objects – thank you everyone who has made this possible.
And another view of Sao Paulo
