Invento | The Revolutions That Invented Us
August 4–October 4, 2015
Oca – Ibirapuera Park
Av. Pedro Álvares Cabral, Gate 3
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 9am–5pm
Free admission
T +11 5082 1777
www.museudacidade.sp.gov.br
Facebook
Up until 1882, ironing clothes was a task that required enormous physical effort, with prolonged contact with soot and frequent skin burns. Created by the American Henry Seeley, the electric iron had such a significant impact on society that in 1935, when household appliances were already popular in the United States, the nation’s housewives considered it the most essential of all, surpassing such revolutionary devices as the refrigerator and the washing machine. Also from the late 19th century, Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulb reigned absolute in public and domestic lighting for decades. But with the emergence of more efficient models, this old appliance has been disappearing from the market.
To tell these and many other stories about inventions developed over the past 150 years, curators Marcello Dantas and Agnaldo Farias selected approximately 35 works from 30 global contemporary artists who interpreted some of the great creations that changed world history and people’s lives. Sponsored by HSBC and with the support of Goethe Institute, the exhibition Invento | The Revolutions That Invented Us, a kind of science museum created by artists, runs from August 5 to October 4 at Oca, in São Paulo’s Ibirapuera Park, with free admission.
“As they incorporate inventions in their works, artists generally think of dysfunctionalizing them, distancing them from their original function and offering a reincarnation in their social sense. The truth of art is not the same as that of history. The machines serve—art is not at our service. By inventing things we, in fact, invent ourselves,” Marcello Dantas affirms. The transforming power of inventions such as the radio, the elevator, the typewriter, and the car is always the guiding thread running through the exhibition. Multidisciplinary and interactive, it features exclusive content on the historical significance of each creation, as well as a bilingual catalog (Portuguese-English) with all the material in the show and a text written by the American historian Joshua Decter.
List of artists and inventions: Amyr Klink (Brazil) interpreting the geodesic dome by Buckminster Fuller (United States); Andy Warhol (United States) interpreting the electric guitar; Bill Viola (United States) interpreting the television; Christian Boltanski (France) interpreting the incandescent light bulb; Christian Marclay (United States) interpreting the telephone; Damián Ortega (Mexico) interpreting the truck and the typewriter; Daniel Arsham (United States) interpreting the payphone; Daniel Canogar (Spain) interpreting the X-ray; Douglas Coupland (Canada) interpreting encryption/computing; Guto Lacaz (Brazil) interpreting the radio; Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller (Canada) interpreting the loudspeaker; Jarbas Lopes (1964) interpreting the automobile; José Damasceno (Brazil) interpreting styrofoam; Jim Campbell (United States) interpreting the LED light bulb; Julian Opie (UK) interpreting the cell phone; Julius von Bismarck (Germany) interpreting concrete; Leandro Erlich (Argentina) interpreting the elevator; Man Ray (United States) interpreting the electric iron; Nam June Paik (Korea) interpreting the television; Nazareth Pacheco (Brazil) interpreting the safety razor; Nelson Leirner (Brazil) interpreting the refrigerator; O Grivo (Brazil) interpreting the automated piano; Olafur Eliasson (Denmark) interpreting solar energy; Panamarenko (Belgium) interpreting the aircraft and hang glider; Paulo Nenflidio (Brazil) interpreting solar energy; Pedro Reyes (Mexico) interpreting psychoanalysis; Pharmacopoeia (UK) interpreting pills; Renata Lucas (Brazil) interpreting electronic surveillance systems; Takahiro Iwasaki (Japan) interpreting the duct tape and the toothbrush; Zilvinas Kempinas (Lithuania) interpreting the fan.
