With works of art scattered around Ibirapuera Park, the exhibition proposes a journey that explores the fusion between virtual and physical elements in the landscape
Last month, the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art inaugurated the exhibition “Realities and Simulacras”, which marks a new moment for the institution and the cultural circuit of the city: an opening for the use of technology as a mediator of artistic work. Composed of a set of ten new works in augmented reality, the exhibition covers the surroundings of the museum, in the spaces of the Sculpture Garden, Praça da Paz and the lake region of Ibirapuera Park. On display until December of this year, the initiative is part of the celebrations for the 75 years of MAM-SP history and expands the museum’s activities beyond its territorial limits.
View of the work “Monumento à Resistência dos Povos” (2023), by Coletivo Coletores. Photo: Carla Gil.
“In a world where the expansion of technology has taken over societies, there is no longer any separation between the digital screen and everyday life.“
Curated by Cauê Alves and Marcus Bastos, “Realities and Simulacras” suggests a reflection on the plurality of the concepts of “real” and “fictional”, questioning the apparent opposition between the two terms. In the curators’ view, there is no single or concrete reality, what happens are different realities superimposed on each other, seen from different perspectives. In a world where the expansion of technology has taken hold of societies, there is no longer any separation between the digital screen and everyday life – the real and the simulacrum are in constant friction. In this sense, the title of the exhibition refers to the new scenarios that the digital world provides and which, in turn, intervene in the way people relate to each other, resulting in new representations of the world.
It is a hybrid experience, in which the content is, at the same time, digital, face-to-face and corporal. In an interview given to Artsoul, Marcus Bastos said that the process of researching and preparing the exhibition began earlier this year, in mid-February: “We invited the artists and the MAM team carried out a survey of potential technology suppliers. , and when the final team was defined, we got to work”.
From then on, a series of steps had to be followed: “we started talking to them [os artistas] to decide which projects would be implemented. After the works were conceived, meetings were scheduled between the artists and the development team for the augmented reality platform, made up of three professionals. […] With an initial version of the works implemented, we carried out tests at Parque Ibirapuera, to assess the progress of the works and decide which adjustments were necessary”.
“It is in this overlapping of the digital sphere with the physical world that the innovation of the show takes place. “
For Bastos, curator and researcher in the areas of convergence between audiovisual, design and new media, an exhibition with unpublished works in augmented reality implies a complex situation: “Both the specific place and the digital layer are important. The work cannot be seen only in digital format, on a computer at home, it depends on the environment where it is installed. And it does not only take place with the public visiting the place where the work takes place, as it has an immaterial dimension, which depends on technological mediation to be effective”. It is in this overlapping of the digital sphere with the physical world that the innovation of the show takes place.
Unlike conventional exhibitions, in which the public participates only as an observer of a material work, in this case, to see the works, the visitor needs to access an online platform via browser, via the link mam.org.br/realidades, or via QR Code , by the museum’s signaling totems that are distributed throughout the park. Then, the user must accept some permissions requested by the platform, such as using the camera and current location. From there, the individual can identify himself on the platform map, entering the region where the work is geolocated and clicking on the square that will appear on the screen. “There’s something like hunting Pokémon, you have to go hunting for the work”, joked MAM’s chief curator, Cauê Alves, on the opening morning of the exhibition.
Screenshots of the digital platform created for the exhibition. Screenshot of the digital platform created for the exhibition.
“Realities and Simulacros” brings together works by Coletivo Coletores, Daniel Lima, Dudu Tsuda, Eder Santos, Fernando Velazquez, Giselle Beiguelman, Katia Maciel, Lucas Bambozzi, Paola Barreto and Regina Silveira. They are multimedia artists, who during their professional careers crossed the fields of audiovisual, video art and interactive projects.
In their productions for the show, they explored contemporary themes, which go through historical, cultural or technological language issues. Among the works on display are an enormous soap bubble that floats on the grass with an elasticity that never seems to burst; an organic creature made of plant and mineral materials, calling attention to the planet’s environmental catastrophes; and the replica of the vessel used by Pedro Álvares Cabral during the invasion of America, in 1500, as a criticism of the commemorative monuments of colonization.
“It is the first time that a Brazilian institution presents an exhibition composed entirely of works in augmented reality.“
According to the curators, it is the first time that a Brazilian institution presents an exhibition composed entirely of works in augmented reality. The initiative gives continuity to the museum’s projects that use technology as a means of democratizing modern and contemporary art, such as the “MAM in the City” program, which exhibits works from the institution’s collection in urban furniture and building facades, and the “MAM in Minecraft”, which reproduces the museum’s internal spaces in the videogame environment.
“Realities and Simulacra” allows the public to perceive and experience the close connection between the notions of fictional, factual, fabulatory and corporeal. The route can be taken in different ways, without a specific order, suggesting a closer relationship with the space, as the visitor discovers each work. Understanding the augmented reality tool as a “possibility of interference in the landscape”, the exhibition invites the public to experience other forms of interaction with art and the environment itself.
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Exhibition: Realities and Simulacra
Curatorship: Cauê Alves and Marcus Bastos
Location: Surroundings of the Sculpture Garden, Praça da Paz and the Ibirapuera lakes region. Avenida Pedro Álvares Cabral s/n° – Entrance through gates 1 and 3
Visitation: From July 22 to December 17, 2023