Galeria Reocupa has just opened in the lobby of Ocupação 9 de Julho. More than 100 families live in Ocupação 9 de Julho, occupying an INSS building that remained closed for around 30 years. Everything there is extremely well organized. Despite its many shortages, the occupation reflects some of the priorities of the MSTC (Downtown Homeless Workers’ Movement), led by the remarkable Carmen Silva, who plays herself in Eliane Caffé’s award-winning film Era o Hotel Cambridge.
In addition to housing, the occupation has a library, a secondhand clothing shop and the Cozinha da Ocupação, a project developed with several activists who not only installed a collective industrial kitchen on the premises but also organize a monthly lunch open to the public and a series of events. Now comes Galeria Reocupa, an art project intended to help establish Ocupação 9 de Julho as a reference point for discussion and reflection on culture, the city and contemporary society.
Management is shared among artists, curators, architects and cultural managers working in partnership with the occupation’s residents. The idea is for Galeria Reocupa to draw together different participants in the art circuit and serve as a tool for building connections between the art world, the occupation’s residents and the population of central São Paulo.
Nelson Félix at Galeria Reocupa
The gallery’s first exhibition is by artist Nelson Félix, who prepared Esquizofrenia da Forma e do Êxtase, a group of sculptures and drawings made specifically for the site. I would point out, however, that visitors to the occupation can also see another exhibition: Mulheres de Bronze, by Virginia de Medeiros, who worked with the women of the occupation on this piece.
Nelson Félix’s works are part of an action he developed across three distinct sites: first at two opposite extremes of the Americas, Ushuaia and Alaska; second at the Ocupação 9 de Julho building; and finally at the São Paulo Biennial pavilion, as part of the international exhibition, presenting a series of seven sculptures.
For the outdoor work, Nelson Félix placed enormous mandacaru cacti in two windows. This appears in a photograph in the exhibition, and during a public conversation on opening day the artist said the cacti also helped him establish an immediate connection with residents. Many were familiar with this cactus, typical of Brazil’s semiarid Northeast yet able to adapt to virtually any environment.
The choice of this plant could not have been more sensitive. Mandacaru grows in the countryside without any tending. Its seed does not choose where to sprout. Its growth depends on the nutrients in the soil where it germinates. It is a beautiful metaphor for this gallery and the history of this occupation. May it flourish!
Esquizofrenia da Forma e do Êxtase. Nelson Félix. Galeria Reocupa. Through February 2.
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