Cildo Meireles asked Masp not to include three of his works in the Brazilian Stories exhibition, this year’s largest at the São Paulo Art Museum, which begins in July. The works were to be part of two different sections of the exhibition and were intended by the Board of Trustees.
The works on loan include the 2011 painting “Hole to Play Dishonest Politicians”, “Geographic Mutations: Vertical Border (Yaripo)”, which was created between 1969 and 2015, and a flag produced in 2020 for the “Use Yellow for Democracy”, carried out by this newspaper.
The request, which was recently emailed to the museum, comes after the institution vetoed a series of photographs depicting the landless movement, the MST and indigenous movements in the exhibition.
The veto led to the group “Retomadas” being dissolved by its curators Clarissa Diniz and Sandra Benites. The museum claims that the works were rejected because they were requested after the deadline set by the production and denies that this is related to the content of the photos.
“Social movements, indigenous issues, the struggle for agrarian reform and other manifestations are important issues for me as an artist and a citizen. Therefore, I would be embarrassed to attend this event,” the artist said in the email to the museum.
On the phone, Meireles explains that “usually, in any disagreement between an institution and individuals, my heart is always with the individual.”
The report contacted Masp for comments, but there was no response at the time of publication.
Curator of the two centers where Meireles’ works would be, along with other curators from the museum’s team, Lilia Schwarcz says in a note that she deeply regrets the artist’s departure.
understand crisis
Masp, the country’s main museum, is facing a crisis after the cancellation of an event to launch the book of Guilherme Boulos from PSOL and after the decision by two curators to cancel part of the year’s biggest exhibition at the institution “Historias Brasileiras”.
Earlier this month, Sandra Benites, associate curator, who just resigned after the case, and Clarissa Diniz, the institution’s guest curator, announced they were disbanding the group called “Retomadas.” The reason, they say, was a veto by the museum over a set of MST photos that would form the core of that core.
The museum claims to have received the list of this material from the Board of Trustees a little less than three months before the exhibition’s scheduled opening in July, exceeding the deadlines for completing procedures such as requesting loans of photos and assignment of use of images . It also denies that the action is content censorship.
Read the full note from guest curator Lilia Schwarcz
“Looking back on the case of the resignation of the curators Sandra Benites and Clarissa Diniz from the exhibition ‘Histórias Brasileiras’ and the consequent cancellation of the ‘Retomadas’ section, I was from the beginning in favor of waiting for the production and Masp photos and flexible deadlines so that the heart of this core composed of the six MST photos would remain intact under my control.
However, in my opinion, Masp did not censor the MST issue, but errors in behavior and in essence dialogue between the institution and the curators. The controversy eventually led to Cildo Meireles leaving the group Paisagens, which I deeply regret. I am cocurating this group with Guilherme Giufrida and I would like to point out that two works from our “Landscapes” group have not been included in the exhibition due to the same deadlines. The same thing happened with another core that I’m the cocurator for called Bandeiras e Mapas.
So my role throughout this episode has been to try and bring the museum and the curators closer to the core of “Retomadas” and the curators know that. I think Masp is learning from his mistakes and reinventing his procedures should formulate.”