Paulo Brusky

Translated from the Portuguese by Adam J. Morris

Brazilian artist Paulo Bruscky started his career, and developed a significant part of it, as the military was solidifying its hold over the country after the coup of 1964. Like many artists of the post-concrete generation, it was only inevitable that Bruscky’s work would reflect the jarring new environment imposed by the military on civil society. The shutting down of humanities courses in universities around the country, as well as the persecution of student and union leaders, for instance, gives a measure of how deep the need for control had become. In 1975, the killing of journalist and playwright Vladimir Herzog during a police interrogation sent out a chilling message that the news media was no longer an independent institution—nor was any kind of communication, for that matter. Despite this paranoid backdrop, Bruscky went on to develop a body of work based largely on the dissemination of messages (postcards, newspapers ads, billboards) and audience participation. More to the point, he managed to do it, for the most part, in his native Recife, a city steeped in tradition and wary of the avant-garde.

Recife, the capital of the state of Pernambuco, the center for sugarcane production during the colonial era, has a convoluted history. In the early 16th century, the city was taken over by the Dutch, who appointed the Count Maurits van Nassau as its governor (1630–1654) in a bid to reign over the entire northeast region. Nassau set up a formidable system during his tenure, implementing most of the city’s early infrastructure. Upon his defeat, the thriving Jewish community that had arrived with him left the city in fear of the Portuguese Inquisition, and eventually settled in New York. Back under control of the Portuguese, the area became synonymous with monoculture—a system that privileged a few landowning families that for over two centuries held the monopoly on sugar trade. Following the 1964 coup, Pernambuco became a hub for students and labor activists who sought to inform peasants about their rights, and the entire area soon became a major focus of military intervention. For Bruscky, born in 1949 into a well-educated family (his father was a photographer whose family emigrated from Belarus in the 1930s, and his mother once ran for city council), art became “the last hope,” as he stoically claimed in a billboard work—an arena for provocation and for exposing the absurdities of the situation.

Se conoce como Mail Art o Arte Postal a las manifestaciones artísticas transportadas por los servicios postales que, en cierta medida, puedan alterar el sentido dispuesto que el creador, correspondiéndole dicha operación a los avatares del medio empleado en la transmisión de los mensajes desde el emisor al receptor

"De la Inocencia a la Libertad", Pintura cuencana del siglo XX, Banco Central del Ecuador, Cuenca, pg.97. "Catálogo de arte contemporáneo", 25 Años, Galeria Madeleine Holleander Guayaquil, pg.19. Catálogo "IX Bienal de Cuenca" Espacios – Tiempos Identitarios, Bienal Internacional de Cuenca, pg. 50-52 PROYECTOS ARTÍSTICOS INDIVIDUALES San Salvador 2007-2008 – Proyecto iconográfico comunitario Grafías 2006-2007 –Intervención urbana, reflejos sobre el Muro de las Conceptas, Cuenca - Ecuador Asepsia 2001 2006¬- Acción artística en la calles de Guayaquil, Quito, Cuenca – Ecuador; Valparaíso Chile. Un recuerdo de Manuel - Documental-arte, Video cartas abiertas/Teatro Sucre, Cuenca. Escribamos Paz 2005 - Proyecto social y artístico / Salón del Pueblo de la Casa de la Cultura, Cuenca / Museo de la Medicina, Cuenca / INC Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Piura, Perú. Calendario Universal 2001 - Instalación en el Bryant Park, Manhattan, New York, EEUU. 121 Honorables y Otras Atrocidades 1999 - Acción – instalación, Alianza Francesa, Cuenca PROYECTOS ARTÍSTICOS COLECTIVOS Quemarte 2002 - Arte Virtual, evento paralelo a la III Bienal de Lima, Lima Perú Merengue sin letra 2002 - Ambientación y Acción, Salón del Pueblo de la Casa de la Cultura, Cuenca. Trilogía de la Mentira Primera parte 1999 - Performance en la calle "OCTAVO MANDAMIENTO", Cuenca. Segunda parte 1999 - Instalación "ELEMENTO RUMIANTE", Salón del Pueblo de la C.C.E. Cuenca. Tercera parte 2000 - Muestra pictórica "SÍNTOMAS", Casa de las Galerías, Cuenca. PRINCIPALES EXPOSICIONES Y PARTICIPACIONES COLECTIVAS 2007 - IX Bienal Internacional de Cuenca, Cuenca - Ecuador 2006 - I Bienal de Performance DEFORMES, Santiago - Chile 2006 - “Políticas al Borde”, Salón del Pueblo de la Casa de la Cultura, Cuenca. 2002 - 10 Novísimos, Salón del Pueblo de la Casa de la Cultura, Cuenca. 2001 - "En la Palma de la Mano" Salón del Pueblo de la Casa de la Cultura, Cuenca, Quito y Guayaquil. 1999 - "Entorno Eterno", Casa de las Galerías, Cuenca. 1998 -"Posvanguardia Cuencana", Banco Central del Ecuador, Cuenca, Quito, Guayaquil. 1997 -"El Arranque", Encuentro Nacional de Arte Alternativo, Galería Madeleine Hollaender, Guayaquil, 1996 - V Salón de Pintura Contemporánea de Integración Latinoamericana, Piura, Perú. ACTIVIDAD LABORAL ACTUAL Profesor de la Universidad Estatal de Cuenca, Facultad de Artes, Escuela de Artes Visuales Realizador audiovisual, Productora Ñukanchik People – Arte y Audiovisuales