On Saturday, May 4, I open two new installations: Monumento Nenhum, at Beco do Pinto, and Chacina da Luz, at Solar da Marquesa de Santos. Through these works composed of fragments of monuments, I discuss the loss of memory in public space and the city’s relationship with its historical and cultural heritage.
In my column Ouvir Imagens (click the player above), I told Leila Kyomura, my anchor at Rádio USP, about the installation of Monumento Nenhum and Chacina da Luz. “The installations reproduce the condition of the pieces exactly as they were found in monument storage depots belonging to the São Paulo Municipal Department of Historical Heritage, like a kind of ready made of forgetting.”
The installations Monumento Nenhum and Chacina da Luz
In Monumento Nenhum, I reconstruct the piles of bases, pedestals, and a broken granite column I found at the DPH depot in Canindé. “The pieces weigh almost two tons each and are deeply disturbing,” she explains. The installation odyssey required cranes and a security team. “These enigmatic totems, with few or no traces of their past, challenge us to ask: Where did they come from? Why were they dismantled? And most importantly, what did they support, materially and symbolically, before becoming these piles of bases?”
In the installation Chacina da Luz, the focus is a group of eight sculptures formerly located in Cruz de Malta Lake, inside Jardim da Luz, near the bandstand. “Installed mostly in the nineteenth century, they were toppled and shattered in an act of vandalism in June 2016. The works were collected and stored in the park’s Administrator’s House. The installation presented at Solar da Marquesa de Santos recreates the infernal scene after the crime.”
For more information on the installations Monumento Nenhum and Chacina da Luz, visit the project website and follow them on social media: Facebook and Instagram
Monumento Nenhum and Chacina da Luz. May 4–September 1, 2019.
Rua Roberto Simonsen 136 São Paulo – SP 01017-020. Tuesday–Sunday: 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
Access the playlist featuring all audio recordings of the column Ouvir Imagens broadcast on Rádio USP since March 2018 | Read all transcripts and posts.
Since September 2018, this column has also had a playlist on YouTube!