Pivô is pleased to present the first issue of Pivô Magazine edited by Camila Bechelany and Fernanda Brenner, produced by Pivô and designed by ps.2 architecture + design. Printed, 80 pages, bilingual (Portuguese / English), annual.

The first issue of Pivô Magazine brings a large reflection on the artistic residency program fostered by Pivô (Pivô Research) since 2013 and the institution’s role in assisting artists and in disseminating content from this program. In addition to the focus on Pivô Research, the magazine also includes different sections with texts by invited authors, mainly from São Paulo. An important part of the publication is devoted to visual and writing essays made by artists. Other content ranges from exhibition critiques, analyses of Pivô’s events and content, curators’ essays, an interview and the color reproduction of a historical work by Sérgio Sister in the “Portfolio” section.

Four visual color essays open and close the publication. They are printed reproductions of works originally created by Eleni Bagaki, Engel Leonardo, Guido Yannitto and Pedro Victor Brandão, who were some of Pivô residents in 2018. The “Pivô Research” section includes two texts that discuss the institution’s particular residency model. Leandro Muniz, former curatorial assistant at Pivô presents the program and discusses the assisted studio practice at the institution as a unique experience. While André Pitol with Leonardo Araujo Beserra present historical references on artistic collaboration and institutional models in Brazil and build a critical analysis on Pivo’s model delving from their experience as the team of critics that assisted the residents in 2018. In the “Self-criticism” section invited author, curator Lívia Benedetti writes about the exhibition Roly-Poly, conceived and produced by the artists Flora Rebollo, Thiago Barbalho and Yuli Yagamata while they were participating in the 2018 program. Yet, in an attempt to expand the content of the exhibitions held in the space of the Pivô, the magazine fetures an interview with artist Letícia Ramos conducted by writer and professor Eduardo Sterzi on the exhibition Universal History of the Earthquakes (02-sept to 27-oct, 2018) and the relations of the artist with History, cinema, photography and literature.

Section “Comparative Criticism” is dedicated to exhibition critics and invited curators Heloisa Espada and Alexandre Araújo Bispo share their gaze on one of the most celebrated and commented exhibitions of 2018, Afro-Atlantic Histories at MASP (Museu de Arte de São Paulo). From the perspective of the two authors, it is possible to have a broader idea of what the exhibition represented for the artistic scene in Brazil. The critic and curator Luiza Proença was invited to contribute to the “Curatorial Questions” section, which is a platform open to discuss specific issues of the curatorial practice. Proença carried out a text in the form of a letter, inviting to the dialogue and reflection on the role of mediation and polyphonic learning in the present time. The section “Artist Writings”, features a text by Frederico Filippi, where he investigates the relations between the geometric forms produced by Amerindian peoples and the geometric forms produced by the Amazon deforestation industry, and how those relates to the issues of dependent underdevelopment and the destructive idea of progress.

Finally, the “Library from Babel” section lists the bibliographic references submitted by the participants at Pivô Research program in 2018 at their application forms. It is a sort of prospective library or yet the point of origin for the year’s production at the residency. From this list of references, critic Tiago Mesquita makes an in – depth reading, raising some hypothesis of analysis about the artists’ formation and their relation with the professional context in which the residency program is inserted. Closing the first issue, the “Portfolio” section, reproduces a drawing of Sérgio Sister made in 1970 when the artist was in prison. While he was imprisoned by the military dictatorship police, Sister produced a series of works that refer to torture and the circumstances experienced under the regime of oppression.

Pivô Magazine

Vol. 1, n. 1, 2019, PORT/ENG/ 80 pages

Edited by Camila Bechelany and Fernanda Brenner

Produced by Pivô Arte e Pesquisa

Paper: Jornal LD 52g/m2 (core) and Color Plus Marfim 240g/m2 (cover)

Printed at Gráfica Cinelândia, São Paulo in March de 2019

1.000 copies

R$20,00 (available at the space’s reception or write to contato@pivo.org.br for shipping inquiries)