In the beginning, it was nothing. When the pandemic gave its first signs, the world stopped and we were all paralyzed. Nothing is established. But from it, a light was made. The sunlight that rises every day, but also the light propagated by technology, which, like a neural connection, made electricity run through the robotic and human veins of all who lived during this unique moment of humanity on earth. What at first was paralyzed, then, started running and inspiring our inner microcosms - and then our exteriors. Thus, art, culture and creative production were developed in several areas in 2020.
This was also how the Mostra Museu started. If before, it was nothing, it was built from the electrifying creative wave that boosted the Internet during this period and ultimately showed the total brightness of the human mind. Those who considered themselves artists or not, created. And a little of what we saw being born in such a fatal year has come together and now shows its face in a hybrid project, which mixes technology, presence and, of course, art.
Communication and human mobility go hand in hand once again. What begins in the field of ideas is now found at bus stops, subways and trains; in QR Codes and in images that invade our cell phones. Creations that were produced during this fateful year come together and flow into the light.
The choice of works produced by different artists, whether they are related to plastic arts, graphic design, cinema, or animation, was also made by others. All of whom felt the quarantine deep in their skin and survived the 365 days of the 2020 year that has since come to an end. What is controversial, however, is that physically 2020 may be over, but not without leaving a trace of productivity carried out in isolation and that continues. The air that blew so much in 2020 also brought us the creativity to reinvent ourselves. Now, 2021 begins with a uniting of art around the world in a sensitive project that sews this sinuous plot that has created a starting point to our own transformation.
Ana Carolina Ralston
Curator
The Mostra Museu: Arte na Quarentena brings together in an international context, works produced during the isolation period of the Covid-19 pandemic and brings light to the languages of visual arts and music that unfold in different ways within the project.
Para o núcleo de artes visuais, a Mostra recebe as inscrições via convocatória de trabalhos produzidos a partir do dia 12 de março de 2020 – dia que foi decretado estado de calamidade pública pela OMS (Organização Mundial de Saúde), em dois formatos finais: vídeo e imagem – que apresentam em si diferentes linguagens: criações digitais, desenho, design, escultura, fotografia, grafite, gravura, pintura, poesia visual, vídeo arte, colagem, instalação, performance, body art, entre outras manifestações híbridas.
The selection of these works will be done by the curators of the Mostra. The curators are composed of the Brazilian curator Ana Carolina Ralston and The Covid Art Museum, a Spanish platform. The first selection is based on the CAM collection. This selection happens in February, while new works will be able to register for the second stage of selection through an open call (available here) via the links on the exhibition's channels. A second new selection will take place through mid-March.
In all, approximately 200 works will be selected and will take to the streets of the city of São Paulo - Brazil, in an open-air exhibition for the general public. In addition a virtual gallery of the exhibition will be disseminated across the project’s channels which allows for the exhibition to have an international reach.
The music and video clips recorded during the period will also gain the ears of the museum. This time with our national production shining in the spotlight. Artists who are already recognized and new talents from the music scene with an authorial work inspired and produced in this quarantine period will have an invitation from the musical curatorship. Their works will be composed into the soundtrack of the project. This collection will be released in streaming channels, throughout the publication of the Mostra, and via QR Code with the works exhibited in public space.
The project consists of 3 stages: registration and 1st curatorial stage, 2nd curatorial selection and the outdoor exhibition. Sign up and participate!
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* illustrative projection
Ana Carolina Ralston is an art curator and journalist in Brazil and internationally. She worked as art director at Kogan Amaro Gallery with galleries in both São Paulo, Brazil, and Zurich, Switzerland. She was the curator at FAMA museum, in Itu, Brazil from 2018 to 2020.
She is currently editor-in-chief at Moda, a monthly magazine publication about fashion and culture that is part of a well-known newspaper in Brazil, O Estado. She was the senior editor of culture and lifestyle at Vogue Brazil from 2013 until 2018 and responsible for the editions of Harper’s Bazaar Art in 2019.
She has a Master Degree in Cultural Journalism from Columbia New York University in Spain. Currently she is completing a post graduate degree in art, critic and curatorship at PUC-SP.
The Covid Art Museum is the first digital museum to display art created during the coronavirus pandemic. The museum was inaugurated on March 19, three days after the quarantine began in Spain, by Emma Calvo, Irene Llorca and José Guerrero, three creatives who work in the advertising area. The objective of The Covid Art Museum is to collect artistic testimonies about the health crisis, as well as to give visibility and value the works made by artists in their homes, in addition to building connections between people who have the same shared experience.
The works on display on social media have given rise to a pluralist display of what the pandemic means. Each artist brings his own experiences and reflections on this situation. The techniques used in the works are the most varied, including photographs, illustrations, installations, and animations. Today, the project has a digital collection of more than 1,000 works from 120 countries and its founders participate as co-curators of the Mostra Museu: Arte na Quarentena.
