´Lampione´
beto shwafaty's work at ´lampione´.
wednesday the 25th of may.
19.ooh, in front of elbestr. 20
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'Unpredictable Signs of Revolt'
The work presented at Lampione (Elbestrasse #20) is inspired in a flag originated during a Brazilian revolt in 1817, known as the Pernanbucan Revolt: one of the first known organized attempts to create a (micro) state, to gain freedom from the former colonial oppressions. The symbols in the original flag represented, in metaphorical ways: the energy and strength of the region (the sun), the union of all local citizens (rainbow), as also the sense of belonging of the new free state when participating in what would be the (future) Brazilian federation (the star), and so on...
However, this new flag re-articulates some of the older elements in ways that 'dislocate an idea, a revolutionary imaginary and its symbols', asking what would be to introduce anew such aesthetic constructs in a different contemporary urban zone, one marked by so many contemporary social phenomena and movements. With this new image, the attempt is to think how the abstract and symbolic communication of a flag, and the reading of its basic elements, could be understood in such a new urban context. In this direction we can ask: which are the impacts of this image in urban, public and cognitive realms? Which connections we are able to establish, and how the collision between the ideas, texts and symbols in the flag manage to articulate an imagery related to the idea of revolt? These are some questions triggered by the dislocation and re-articulation of the flag elements, seen at same time as a public and ideological element of communication as also an identitarian element carrier of many histories and meanings.
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Beto Shwafaty (1977. Sao Paulo / Brazil) is a visual artist based in São Paulo that actually resides in Frankfurt. He graduated from Nuova Accademia di Belle Art - Milano, with an M.A. degree in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies (2010) and is now a guest student at Staedelschule. His interests lie in the socio-cultural issues within the sphere of contemporary culture, exploring artistic perspectives that stretches from art to other realms of society. In the last years he had undertaken collaboratively as solo experiences integrating art shows, cultural projects, publications and exhbitions.
www.shwafaty.org
However, this new flag re-articulates some of the older elements in ways that 'dislocate an idea, a revolutionary imaginary and its symbols', asking what would be to introduce anew such aesthetic constructs in a different contemporary urban zone, one marked by so many contemporary social phenomena and movements. With this new image, the attempt is to think how the abstract and symbolic communication of a flag, and the reading of its basic elements, could be understood in such a new urban context. In this direction we can ask: which are the impacts of this image in urban, public and cognitive realms? Which connections we are able to establish, and how the collision between the ideas, texts and symbols in the flag manage to articulate an imagery related to the idea of revolt? These are some questions triggered by the dislocation and re-articulation of the flag elements, seen at same time as a public and ideological element of communication as also an identitarian element carrier of many histories and meanings.
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Beto Shwafaty (1977. Sao Paulo / Brazil) is a visual artist based in São Paulo that actually resides in Frankfurt. He graduated from Nuova Accademia di Belle Art - Milano, with an M.A. degree in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies (2010) and is now a guest student at Staedelschule. His interests lie in the socio-cultural issues within the sphere of contemporary culture, exploring artistic perspectives that stretches from art to other realms of society. In the last years he had undertaken collaboratively as solo experiences integrating art shows, cultural projects, publications and exhbitions.
www.shwafaty.org
