DAQUI

Sound artwork 20'45''

34th Bienal de São Paulo, Brasil

Though it's dark, still I sing

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daqui [From Here], commissioned for the 34th Bienal de São Paulo, is a sound artwork that reconstructs a decisive time and place for experimental art and the freedom of expression in Brazil, by considering the role played by the Museu de Arte Contemporânea of the Universidade de São Paulo (MAC USP) as a key place for radical artistic experimentation in the 1970s, during Brazil’s military dictatorship. At that time, the MAC was housed in the same building where the Bienal de São Paulo is held today. The audio consists of a series of interviews with artists, curators, the institution’s staff, and frequent visitors of the museum, who witnessed the happenings. The reports and arguments are mixed within the space of the Bienal pavilion, establishing connections between their memories and the place itself. The assemblage of sounds constitutes a fragmented collective history, based on personal memories, adding new episodes to a neglected history.