Brazil Contemporary
Contemporary art, architecture, visual culture and design

30 May to 23 August 2009

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, the Netherlands Architecture Institute and Nederlands Fotomuseum,
Rotterdam

Netherlands Architecture Institute:
Roundtrip São Paulo

Today, around 50% of the world's population lives in urban areas, and the number of city dwellers is expected to increase in the future. The Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) introduces the public to one of the four largest metropolitan regions in the world: São Paulo.
The NAi asked architects, urban planners and the residents of São Paulo to reflect on their dreams for the city. Those of us living in the Netherlands can ask ourselves the same question. How do we manage our cities, our deprived areas and our public space? Rotterdam and the Netherlands can learn a great deal from São Paulo. The big question is what we, in the densely populated Netherlands, can learn from the example of this vast, dynamic city.

Five cross-cuts of São Paulo
Scenes of the city and its inhabitants, filmed by students of the São Paulo film school, comprise the heart of the exhibition. Surrounded by different video screens, visitors are plunged into the almost unimaginably fast-paced life of the city; tumultuous but irresistibly exciting. The NAi presents five cross-cuts of São Paulo; from the heart of the city to the periphery.
Vale do Anhangabau, Railway zone, Avenida Paulista, Marginal do Pinheiros, Estrada de Itapacerica.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen: Brazilian art now

Brazilian contemporary art is intimately, possibly inevitably, bound up with its past. Helio Oiticica (1937-1980) was one of the most influential artists to emerge from Brazil's highly pluralistic history. With Brazil Contemporary Museum Boijmans Van Boijmans exhibits work of Brazilian artists today with a selection of Oiticica's Bólides (or 'fireballs'), a series of painted boxes and glass containers. All works employ a vigorous visual language, bright palette and distinctive form vocabulary.
bjects and (wall) paintings fill the exhibition spaces, together with film, video and installations. The exhibition shows work of:Hélio Oiticica, Rivane Neuenschwander, Cao Guimaraes, Ernesto Neto, Ricardo Basbaum