Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Araguaia
Europa
Paraguai
Peru
Flávio de Carvalho
Expedicionário
Expeditioner
Curadoria 09.01-04.03.2018
Amanda Bonan CAIXA Cultural
Renato Rezende São Paulo
Bonan, Amanda; Rezende, Renato (orgs.)
Flávio de Carvalho Expedicionário
Rio de Janeiro: Editora Circuito, 2017 (co-ed.).
ISBN: 978-85-9582-017-3
I. Arte brasileira . 2. Arte contemporânea. 3. Flávio de
Carvalho I. Costa da Mata, Larissa II. Maia, Ana Maria
III. Rezende, Renato IV. Stigger, Veronica
06 Caixa Econômica Federal
07 Um antropólogo Malcomportado
09 Peru
18 Araguaia
42 Amazônia
6-7
Since 1861, CAIXA has been AN ILL-MANNERED ARCHAEOLOGIST
present in the history of every Brazilian,
whether in granting affordable credit, in Flávio de Carvalho
housing financing, in the development of defined himself as an “ill-mannered
cities – through investment in projects for archaeologist” (and also as an “ill-
infrastructure and basic sanitation – or in mannered psychologist”). He affirmed
the execution and administration of social that the “process of archaeological
programs by the federal government. understanding is more or less the same as
As a financial institution, an the process of understanding in art” and
agent of public policies and strategic that “the archaeologist has to penetrate the
partner of the Brazilian State, CAIXA’s successive phases that have shaped the
mission is to be active in the promotion residue; he must be intensely human and
of citizenship and the sustainable feel the palpitation of the soul of man and
development of the country. CAIXA sees in of the civilization which made the residue.”
its task the motivation to be present in all In this way, the exhibition Flávio
moments of Brazilian life, approaching its de Carvalho expeditioner displays and
needs and desires and participating in its discusses “residues” and “traces” left by
achievements. a series of experimental or expeditionary
In this context, nothing more projects by Flávio de Carvalho, to recover
natural for CAIXA than getting close to their power as a specific art form (which
the national culture, providing access to Flávio called “atmospheric”) and to reflect
a wide range of artistic and intellectual on his dialogue not only with the production
manifestations and contributing to the of Hélio Oiticica’s generation, but also
preservation of Brazilian historical heritage. with more contemporary works (in which
Through its programming in the venues of the artist frequently presents himself as a
CAIXA Cultural in seven capitals of the proposer).
country, the institution has, over the last It is important to note that
few among the numerous exhibitions and
decades, made feasible projects that publications over last ten years seeking
promote the intellectual and cultural to recover Flávio de Carvalho and his
education of the population. The Museum relevance today, this is the first that aims to
and the Caixa Gente Arteira Educational privilege the expeditionary aspect of Flávio
Programme complement this effort in the as an aesthetic approach and therefore as
education of the public and in the diffusion an element intrinsic to his work: a kind of
of artistic and cultural knowledge and condition for the existence of the work; or
practices. an immaterial support.
Now, CAIXA sponsors the Divided into areas referring
exhibition Flávio de Carvalho expeditioner, to his travels, all of them treated here
which presents a seminal aspect for as expeditions (which we propose as
the understanding of the work of one an artistic genre, thinking of Flávio de
of the main characters of modern and Carvalho not only as a predecessor of the
contemporary Brazilian art, bringing to São ‘proposer-artist’, but also, more specifically
Paulo an exhibition of the iconographic here, of the artist as an ethnographer), the
and textual material from various journeys exhibition intends to raise discussions that
undertaken by the artist. may shed a new light on the increasingly
With this project, CAIXA ratifies important place that the methods,
its cultural policy, its social commitment procedures and actions of Flávio de
and its purpose of democratising access to Carvalho occupy in the elaboration of a
its venues and to its artistic programming. history of Brazilian art.
In this way, it fulfils its
institutional role of stimulating the diffusion
and exchange of knowledge, contributing
to the appreciation of the Brazilian identity Amanda Bonan and Renato Rezende
as well as to the strengthening, renewal curators
and expansion of the arts in Brazil and the
culture of our people.
8-9
Peru, 1947
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Peru, 1947
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
10-11
Peru, 1947
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Peru, 1947
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
12-13
Peru, 1947
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Peru, 1947
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
14-15
Peru, 1947
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Peru, 1947
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
16-17
Araguaia, 1956
18-19
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
20-21
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
22-23
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
24-25
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
26-27
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
28-29
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
30-31
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
32-33
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
34-35
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
36-37
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
38-39
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Araguaia, 1956
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
40-41
Amazônia, 1958
42-43
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
44-45
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
46-47
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
48-49
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
50-51
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
52-53
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
54-55
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
56-57
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
58-59
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
60-61
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
62-63
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
64-65
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
66-67
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
68-69
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
70-71
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
72-73
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
74-75
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
76-77
Amazônia, 1958
Fundo Flávio de Carvalho
CEDAE/UNICAMP
FLÁVIO DE CARVALHO
EXPEDICIONÁRIO
Renato Rezende
EUROPA (1934)
Inglaterra, França, Bélgica, Itália, Checoslováquia,
Polônia, Hungria, Áustria, Portugal
1 TOLEDO, J. Flávio de 7 “O arqueólogo mal-comportado 11 Nas palavras de Didi- 15 Flávio relata a visita no
Carvalho: o comedor de emoções. tem muito mais probabilidades Huberman, “toda força artigo “Inicia o Peru a construção
São Paulo: Brasiliense; Campinas: de compreender o não tempo, de autenticamente histórica deve de conjuntos residenciais para
Unicamp, 1994, p. 401. viver igualmente a vontade em saber produzir o elemento trabalhadores, ainda inéditos
todas as épocas que examina, anistórico que a contramotiva, no continente sul-americano”,
2 Ibidem, p. 76. desabrochando todas as camadas, assim como toda força de publicado no Diário de S. Paulo em
mesmo as mais profundas da rememoração deve saber produzir 4 de janeiro de 1948.
3 Ibidem, p. 548. sua sensibilidade, e que estão o elemento de esquecimento que
naturalmente alheias e bem a sustenta”. DIDI-HUBERMAN, 16 TOLEDO, J. Flávio de
4 Apesar de Mário Pedrosa afastadas do catecismo científico Georges. A imagem sobrevivente Carvalho: o comedor de emoções.
nunca ter se interessado pelo do seu mundo”. Ibidem, p. 48. – história da arte e tempo nos São Paulo: Brasiliense; Campinas:
trabalho de Flávio de Carvalho, fantasmas segundo Aby Warburg. Unicamp, 1994, p. 392.
seria interessante, novamente, 8 CARVALHO, Flávio de. Ibidem, Tradução de Vera Ribeiro. Rio de
pensar como sua evolução para p. 48. Janeiro: Contraponto/MAR, 2013, 17 CARVALHO, Flávio de.
o “exercício experimental da p. 138. “Flávio de Carvalho vê um erro de
liberdade” acaba encontrando-se 9 “De maneira que, a expressão dialética na questão de considerar
com Flávio em Hélio Oiticica. ‘atmosfera’ de um objeto qualquer 12 CARVALHO, Flávio de. anormais os artistas”. In: MAIA,
é a soma algébrica de todas as CARVALHO, Flávio. Os ossos do Ana Maria; REZENDE, Renato
5 “O problema estético hoje sugestibilidades perceptíveis no mundo. São Paulo: Antiqua, 2005, (org). Flávio de Carvalho. Coleção
não é mais a abstração lírica objeto”. Ibidem, p. 44. pp. 47-48. Encontros. Rio de Janeiro:
cheia de impasses lógicos, mas Azougue, 2015, p. 154.
pertence em grande parte aos 10 De acordo com Didi- 13 “Flávio de Carvalho realizou
domínios da psicopatologia e de Huberman, “a teoria warburguiana intervenções artísticas e autorais, 18 Ibidem, p. 462.
uma ciência que ainda está por se realmente abriu a questão da projetadas para disseminar
criar e que poderia bem se chamar imagem corporal – e de sua sua visão de vanguarda para 19 MAIA, Ana Maria; REZENDE,
psicoetnografia”. CARVALHO, expressividade – para a de audiências de arte ou não. Seu Renato (org). Flávio de Carvalho.
Flávio. “A única arte que presta é a uma obscura dança de tempos trabalho midiático não reportava Coleção Encontros. Rio de
arte anormal”. Diário de S. Paulo, estratificados”. DIDI-HUBERMAN, fatos externos, era, em si, o fato, Janeiro: Azougue, 2015, p. 34.
24/9/1936. Georges. A imagem sobrevivente originava significados.” Apud
– história da arte e tempo nos MAIA, Ana Maria. Arte-veículo. 20 CARVALHO, Flávio. A moda
6 CARVALHO, Flávio. Os ossos fantasmas segundo Aby Warburg. Recife: Aplicação/Circuito: 2015, e o novo homem. Rio de Janeiro:
do mundo. São Paulo: Antiqua, Tradução de Vera Ribeiro. Rio de pp. 117-118. Azougue, 2010, p. 16.
2005, p. 8. Janeiro: Contraponto/MAR, 2013,
p. 296. 14 J. Toledo em seu livro afirma
possuir correspondência entre
Flávio e Negrão de Lima, então
embaixador no Paraguai, que
indica “transações comerciais
misteriosas e aparentemente
espúrias”. Ibidem, p. 362.
FLÁVIO DE CARVALHO NA
SELVA AMAZÔNICA
Veronica Stigger
92-93
A ideia de Flávio de Carvalho era unir arte e
investigação científica: queria, por um lado, estudar os
aspectos etnográficos, psicológicos e artísticos dos índios
com os quais teria contato3 e, por outro, produzir um filme
livremente inspirado na história de Umbelina Valéria, que
seria, como o Diário de S. Paulo definiu na época, uma
espécie de “semidocumentário”: “um film de longa metragem,
em Cinemascope (colorido), que além de documentar o
modo de vida dos selvícolas no seu ‘habitat’ focalizará
o episódio da fuga da ‘deusa’ Umbelina Valéria para a
civilização” – filme que, segundo o mesmo jornal, já tinha
compradores interessados: uma estação de televisão dos
Estados Unidos e a United Press International.4 Em “Grande
aventura nos confins da Amazônia”, publicado no mesmo
Diário de S. Paulo no dia da partida para Manaus, em 28
agosto de 1958, Flávio de Carvalho falou como pretendia
realizar o filme, que não dispunha de um roteiro prévio:
E acrescenta ainda:
[...]
104-105
1 TOLEDO, J. Flávio de 7 Desenvolvo mais 15 CARVALHO, Flávio de. “Na 24 Idem.
Carvalho: comedor de emoções. detalhadamente esse assunto fronteira do perigo”, datiloscrito
São Paulo: Brasiliense; Campinas: no capítulo “A Amazônia: dos inédito, acervo CEDAE/UNICAMP. 25 CARVALHO, Flávio de.
Editora da UNICAMP, 1994, p. 558. viajantes aos modernistas”, do “Na fronteira do perigo”, p. 2,
estudo “A Amazônia de Maria 16 “Percorrerá regiões datiloscrito inédito, acervo CEDAE/
2 Relatório Figueiredo, vol. 23, Martins”, ainda inédito. desconhecidas visitando afluentes UNICAMP.
p. 5. do Rio Negro”, op. cit.; TOLEDO,
8 CARVAJAL, Frei Gaspar de. J., op. cit., p. 564. O autor conta 26 CARVALHO, Flávio de.
3 Conforme TOLEDO, J., Descubrimiento del río de las que Flávio de Carvalho estaria “Conquistadores sedentos de
Flávio de Carvalho estava sob a Amazonas: Relación de Fray levando 15.000 pés de filme lucros levaram moléstias para a
influência das narrativas que lera Gaspar de Carvajal expoliada de virgem colorido, 6.000 em preto- Amazônia”, op. cit.
na History of Brazil, de Robert la obra de José Toribio Medina, e-branco; máquinas fotográficas,
Southey, em que havia citações edición de Sevilla, 1894, por Juan máquina de escrever, rádio- 27 ESTEVES, Norberto.
das descrições de Frei Gaspar de B. Bueno Medina. Bogotá: Prensas telefones, material para desenho e “Ouvindo o missionário, Flávio
Carvajal e dos relatos amazônicos de la Biblioteca Nacional, 1942, pintura, uma pequena farmácia. sonhava com mais um filme seu”.
do Coronel Fawcett para a Royal p. 13. In: Última Hora, São Paulo, 7 jan.
Geographical Society em 1910, de 17 CARVALHO, Flávio de. 1958, p. 5.
Roquette Pinto, Alexandre Ferreira, 9 MORAIS, Raimundo. Na “Grande aventura nos confins da
Pedro Faber Halembeck e de seu planície amazônica. Brasília: Amazônia”. In: Diário de S. Paulo, 28 Idem. Conta ainda Esteves:
amigo Gastão Cruls (Flávio de Senado Federal, 2000, p. 136. São Paulo, 28 ago. 1958, p. 9, 1ª “O primeiro dia de outubro já se
Carvalho: o comedor de emoções, seção. encontrava findando e nada de
op. cit., p. 563). 10 “Percorrerá regiões útil tinha realizado o ‘homem das
desconhecidas visitando afluentes 18 CARVALHO, Flávio de. experiências’. Imaginava cenas
4 “Percorrerá regiões do Rio Negro”, op. cit. “Grande aventura nos confins da fantásticas!!! Cenas que poriam
desconhecidas visitando afluentes Amazônia”, op. cit. Em entrevista por terra tudo que a cinematografia
do Rio Negro”. In: Diário de S. 11 Provavelmente a tribo Nukini ao Diário de S. Paulo em 1° de mundial já fez... Cenas a que o
Paulo, 24 ago 1958, p. 10, 1ª – observação feita pelo mesmo maio de 1958, Flávio já afirmara: mundo iria assistir boquiaberto:
seção. A linha de apoio desta Coutinho. “Há outro aspecto inédito em do ‘rapto de Umbelina’ à da
reportagem deixa clara as nossa expedição que ainda não ‘fuga da maloca’ dos xamataris
intenções científicas da expedição: 12 COUTINHO Jr., Walter Alves. foi comentado. Pela primeira vez e outros grandes momentos da
“Destina-se a estudos etnológicos, Brancos e barbudos na Amazônia. na história da humanidade, serão sétima arte, que a imaginação,
psicológicos e artísticos das Brasília: Unb, 1993, p. 299. utilizados fogos de artifício como quase que supra-real [sic], de
tribos, que serão filmadas em arma psicológica contra os índios Flávio de Carvalho conseguia
cinemascopo – No roteiro da 13 TOLEDO, J. Flávio de selvagens. Será uma verdadeira conceber. Sem falarmos, é lógico,
expedição a tribo dos ‘Aimiris’, Carvalho: o comedor de emoções, inovação na ‘arte guerreira’ no ápice do ‘suspense’ que faria
que já trucidou três expedições op. cit., p. 564. LEITE, Rui àqueles que estão acostumados Hitchekok [sic] chorar de desilusão
idênticas”. Na matéria, precisa Moreira também menciona o a guerrear somente com arco pelo pouco que fez até agora: a
a função de Flávio de Carvalho desenvolvimento desse novo e flecha. Levaremos foguetes fabulosa e grandiloquente ‘Cena
na expedição: “O arquiteto Flávio traje em sua tese de doutorado de três tipos. Um deles, será o do Cipó’, que Flávio somente
de Carvalho (o introdutor da “Flávio de Carvalho (1899- ‘Esputinique’, que sobe à altura não iniciava por não encontrar
arquitetura moderna no Brasil) 1973): entre a experiência e a de 400 metros. Já imaginou, o ‘decor’ apropriado nas matas
chefiará um pequeno grupo experimentação”. São Paulo: na imensidão amazônica, o que circundavam o grande
que desenvolverá atividades Escola de Comunicações e espetáculo do espoucar do fogos descampado”.
científicas, estudando os aspectos Artes da Universidade de São de artifício coloridos, visto por um
etnológicos, psicológicos e Paulo, 1994, p. 119. Quanto ao selvagem...?”. 29 Relato de Flávio de Carvalho
artísticos das tribos visitadas”. equipamento cinematográfico, reproduzido por TOLEDO, J.
segundo J. Toledo, Flávio comprou 9 CARVALHO, Flávio de. Flávio de Carvalho: o comedor de
5 CARVALHO, Flávio de. o que havia de mais sofisticado “Grande aventura nos confins da emoções, op. cit., p. 577.
“Grande aventura nos confins da para filmagem em 16 mm. Entre Amazônia”, op. cit.
Amazônia”. In: Diário de S. Paulo, o material adquirido, constavam 30 Idem, op. cit., p. 577.
São Paulo, 28 ago. 1958, p. 9, 1ª duas câmeras Paillard-Bolex e 11 20 Idem.
seção. objetivas (Flávio de Carvalho: o 31 Idem.
comedor de emoções, op. cit., p. 21 “Percorrerá regiões
6 ESTEVES, Norberto. “Meses 559). desconhecidas visitando afluentes 32 Ibidem, p. 579.
de solidão transformam a do Rio Negro”, op. cit.
‘deusa branca’ numa fera!”. In: 14 J. Toledo conta que Eva 33 Ibidem, p. 581.
Última Hora, 19 dez. 1958. As deveria ser a deusa branca, mas 22 CARVALHO, Flávio de.
reportagens de Esteves foram o Diário de S. Paulo informa que “Conquistadores sedentos de 34 Ibidem, pp. 582-583.
veiculadas em caderno especial, quem seria a deusa branca era lucros levaram moléstias para a
tamanho tabloide, encartado na Olga (cf. TOLEDO, J., Flávio de Amazônia” In: Diário de S. Paulo, 7 35 Ibidem, p. 578.
segunda edição do Última Hora Carvalho: o comedor de emoções, out. 1958, p. 6, 1ª seção.
entre os dias 1° de dezembro de op. cit., p. 566; “Percorrerá regiões 36 Telegrama enviado por Tubal
1958 e 8 de janeiro de 1959. desconhecidas visitando afluentes 23 Idem. Fialho Vianna, sem data, acervo S.
do Rio Negro”, op. cit.). P. I., Museu do Índio.
37 Flávio de Carvalho contribuíra 49 CARVALHO, Flávio de. Os 63 Flávio de Carvalho declarou,
com uma série de doações. ossos do mundo. São Paulo: em conferência na Faculdade de
Antiqua, 2005, pp. 61-62; Arquitetura e Urbanismo da USP,
38 Defesa de Tubal Vianna, CARVALHO, Flávio de. “Ciência e em 1963: “Dizem que não há
Relatório Figueiredo, vol. 23, p. lirismo”. In: Diário de S. Paulo, 10 antropófagos no alto Amazonas,
4-6. set. 1935 [entrevista com Roger mas existem antropófagos, e
Caillois]; TOLEDO, J. Flávio de tivemos contato com diversas
39 RENÉ, Gustavo, “Flávio de Carvalho: o comedor de emoções, tribos que exercem a antropofagia
Carvalho realiza sua Experiência op. cit., p. 756. no alto Amazonas. Os xirianãs são
n° 4”. In: Revista do Globo, uma delas. Os waimiris do contato
Porto Alegre, 20 set. 1958; 50 FREITAS, Valeska. “Flávio anterior também são antropófagos”
LINGUANOTTO, Daniel, “Falhou de Carvalho, leitor dos ‘gráficos (“Flávio de Carvalho por ele
a Experiência nº 4 por causa da da cultura’”. In: MATTAR, Denise mesmo”, op. cit., p. 43).
Deusa Branca”. In: Manchete, Rio (org.) Flávio de Carvalho: 100 anos
de Janeiro, 20 dez. 1958. de um revolucionário romântico, 64 CARVALHO, Flávio de. “Na
op. cit., p. 62. fronteira com o perigo”, datiloscrito
40 Não encontrei ainda menção inédito, acervo CEDAE/UNICAMP.
do próprio Flávio de Carvalho 51 CARVALHO, Flávio de;
a esta incursão pela floresta BRETON, André. “Surrealismo:
amazônica como Experiência n° 4. entrevistando André Breton”. In:
Cultura, ano I, nº 5, São Paulo,
41 Trato mais detalhadamente fev.-mar. 1939, p. 9.
desta experiência no ensaio
“Vacina antropofágica”. In: 52 CLIFFORD, James. “On
CASTRO ROCHA, João Cézar Ethnographic Surrealism”. In: The
de, e RUFFINELLI, Jorge (org.). Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-
Antropofagia hoje? Oswald de Century Ethnography, Literature,
Andrade em cena. São Paulo: É and Art. Cambridge, Mass., and
Realizações, 2011, pp. 601-610. London: Harvard University Press,
2002.
42 CARVALHO, Flávio de. A
origem animal de Deus. São Paulo: 53 Ibidem, p. 118.
Difusão Europeia do Livro, p. 55.
54 Ibidem, p. 120.
43 CARVALHO, Flávio de. “Flávio
de Carvalho por ele mesmo”. In: 55 Ibidem, p. 120.
Flávio de Carvalho. São Paulo:
MAM, 2010, p. 44. 56 FOSTER, Hal. “The Artist
as Ethnographer”. In: The Return
44 CARVALHO, Flávio de. of the Real, Cambridge, Mass.;
“Motim na Amazônia”, datiloscrito London: The MIT Press, 1996, pp.
inédito, acervo CEDAE/UNICAMP. 175 e 180-203, respectivamente.
106-107
UM MIDIÁTICO EM BUSCA DE
“IMPACTO EMOCIONAL NA NAÇÃO
BRASILEIRA”
Ana Maria Maia
1 Lema da presidência de à história do país”, “é um escalão São Paulo, Universidade de São Aquele era um jeito de o artista-
Juscelino Kubitschek, que decisivo desta história” –, rumo à Paulo, 1982, p. 130.) arquiteto advogar em causa
governou o Brasil de 1956 a 1961, asserção central, copiosamente própria. O leitor inventado dizia ser
com o intuito de desenvolver repisada pela historiografia: “O 9 Além de Flávio e Di, Antonio engenheiro e atestava a qualidade
rapidamente alguns setores nosso passado não é fatal, pois Gomide e Carlos Prado também de Efficácia, proposta enviada
produtivos do país. Em apenas nós o refazemos todos os dias. E foram responsáveis pelo CAM. justamente por Flávio de Carvalho
cinco anos, além de construir bem pouco preside ele ao nosso (Cf. TOLEDO, J. Flávio de (Cf. LEITE, Rui Moreira, op. cit.,
Brasília, faria obras de melhoria destino. Somos, pela fatalidade Carvalho: o comedor de emoções. 2004, p. 2).
na energia, nos transportes, na mesma de nossa formação, Campinas: Brasiliense e Editora
alimentação, na indústria de condenados ao moderno”. (Cf. da Universidade Estadual de 14 LEITE, Rui Moreira, op. cit.,
base e na educação. O chamado PEDROSA, Mário. In: “Cidade N Campinas, 1994, p. 131). 2004, p. 4.
“Plano de Metas” embutia no ova: síntese das artes”. Congresso
slogan populista “50 anos em 5” Internacional de Críticos de Arte. 10 LEITE, Rui Moreira. “Flavio 15 No livro Experiência nº 2,
a ambição de retirar o país do LOBO, Maria da Silveira; SEGRE, de Carvalho: media artists avant escrito em 1931 para relatar
subdesenvolvimento ainda naquele Roberto (org.). Rio de Janeiro: la lettre”. In: KAC, Eduardo. A o episódio em que Flávio de
mandato. Docomomo, 2009, p. 29). radical intervention: the Brazilian Carvalho caminhou em uma
contribution to the International procissão religiosa no sentido
2 RIBEIRO, Ana Paula Goulart; 6 No escritório Barros de Oliva, Electronic Art Movement. Projeto contrário aos fiéis, o autor afirma
SACRAMENTO, Igor; ROSO, Flávio de Carvalho ficou de 1923 a especial da revista Leonardo On- que seu objetivo era: “desvendar
Marco. História da televisão no 1925, e no Ramos de Azevedo, de Line, vol. 37, nº 2, 2004. Disponível a alma dos crentes por meio
Brasil: do início aos dias de hoje. 1925 a 1927. em: <http://www.leonardo.info/ de um reagente qualquer que
São Paulo: Contexto, 2010, p. 17. isast/spec.projects/MoreiraLeite/ permitisse estudar a reação nas
7 Brazil Builds: Architecture new moreiraleite.html>. Acesso em: fisionomias, nos gestos, no passo,
3 Francisco Ciccillo Matarazzo, and old é um projeto de 1942, 01/07/2015. no olhar, sentir enfim o pulso do
em São Paulo, e um grupo composto por exposição e livro, ambiente, palpar psiquicamente
presidido por Raymundo Ottoni de com curadoria de Philip Goodwin, 11 Os Salões de Maio ainda a emoção tempestuosa da alma
Castro Maia, no Rio de Janeiro. no Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) contavam com a idealização de coletiva, registrar o escoamento
de Nova York. Com o intuito de Quirino da Silva e uma comissão dessa emoção, provocar a
4 Criado dentro da agenda divulgar a produção arquitetônica formada por Geraldo Ferraz, revolta para ver alguma coisa do
do MAM, o evento se chamava brasileira, principalmente a Paulo de Magalhães, Irene inconsciente”. (CARVALHO, Flávio
inicialmente Bienal do Museu de que desponta no país após a Bojano e Madeleine Roux (Cf. de. Experiência nº 2: uma possível
Arte Moderna de São Paulo. Assim concepção e o início da construção LEITE, Rui Moreira. “Flávio de teoria e uma experiência: realizada
o foi até 1963, quando Ciccillo do edifício do Ministério da Carvalho (1899-1973): entre a sobre uma procissão de Corpus
Matarazzo, patrono e colecionador Educação e da Saúde (1936-1945) experiência e a experimentação”. Christi. Rio de Janeiro: Editora
da instituição, desistiu de continuar no Rio de Janeiro, a mostra reuniu Tese de doutorado. São Paulo, Nau, 2001, p. 16.)
mantendo o museu e doou seu trabalhos de Lúcio Costa, Oscar Universidade de São Paulo, 1994,
acervo para a Universidade de Niemeyer, Affonso Eduardo Reidy, p. 76.). 16 O Teatro Oficina, de José
São Paulo, dando origem ao Rino Levi, Vilanova Artigas, entre Celso Martinez Correia, nasceria
Museu de Arte Contemporânea outros. Após Nova York, Brazil 12 O artista colecionou só em 1958, no Centro Acadêmico
(MAC). Daí por diante, o evento Builds foi exibida, entre 1943 e essas cartas em um álbum que XI de Agosto, do Largo São
bianual passou a ser organizado 1945, em Londres e várias cidades figura atualmente no fundo de Francisco, com a intenção de
de forma autônoma pela Fundação da América do Norte e do Brasil. pesquisa dedicado à sua obra, fazer um novo teatro, crítico
Bienal de São Paulo. (Cf. na Universidade Estadual de ao aburguesamento do Teatro
CHAIMOVICH, Felipe. “O museu 8 Luiz Carlos Daher, em sua Campinas. Brasileiro de Comédia e também
nômade”. In: FABRIS, Annateresa; dissertação sobre a tendência ao nacionalismo do Teatro de
CHAIMOVICH, Felipe; LAGNADO, expressionista da obra plástica 13 Em 1928, enquanto Arena. (Cf. Enciclopédia Itaú
Lisette; OSORIO, Luiz Camillo e arquitetônica de Flávio participava do concurso para Cultural. Disponível em: <http://
(org.), op. cit., pp. 55-62) de Carvalho, alega que nos a nova sede do Palácio do enciclopedia.itaucultural.org.br/
desenhos de bailados o artista Governo de São Paulo, nos grupo112413/teatro-oficina>.
5 Na abertura do Congresso concebe a dança como, a um só quais os concorrentes usavam Acesso em: 1/7/2015.)
Internacional Extraordinário tempo, “síntese” e “estilização”, pseudônimos, Flávio de Carvalho
de Críticos de Arte, que Mário representação e desnaturalização escreveu para o Diário da Noite 17 KAC, Eduardo. In: LEITE, Rui
Pedrosa organizou em 1959 em do movimento vital. (Cf. DAHER, forjando ser um leitor do jornal que Moreira, op. cit., 2004, p. 5.
torno da construção da nova Luiz Carlos. “Flávio de Carvalho: desejava publicar suas impressões
capital brasileira, ele afirmou que arquitetura e expressionismo”. sobre os projetos.
“Brasília não é puro artifício alheio Dissertação de mestrado.
18 CARVALHO, Flávio de. “As 26 Segundo o biógrafo J. Toledo, 32 Em 22/11/1958, a edição
cidades no amanhecer do século “havia caminhões de reportagem latino-americana da Time relatou
e o novo homem”. In: Diário de da incipiente televisão, do cinema, a viagem e uma breve biografia
S. Paulo, coluna “Casa, homem, do radio e de quase todos os de Flávio de Carvalho no texto
paisagem”, 25/12/1955. poderosos jornais da capital, do “Playboy at Work” (Cf. Idem).
Rio e até alguns correspondentes
19 Flávio escreveu cinco textos dos Estados Unidos (Time Life),
relacionados ao tema “O dever da Argentina e da Itália, que
telúrico do homem”. aguardavam impacientes pelo
imponderável desfile que estava
20 CARVALHO, Flávio de. “A por acontecer na conservadora
paisagem sorridente e a floresta ‘capital bandeirante’”. (Cf.
– a descida da árvore – origens TOLEDO, J., op. cit. 1994, p. 561)
do direito de propriedade”. In:
Diário de S. Paulo, coluna “Casa, 27 LEITE, Rui Moreira, op. cit.,
homem, paisagem”, 5/2/1956. 2004, p. 3. Flávio queria ter editado
um livro sobre o assunto, mas
21 CARVALHO, Flávio de. faleceu sem tê-lo feito. A editora
“XI – A paisagem sorridente e Azougue compilou os textos da
a consequência, o homem – a coluna “A moda e o novo homem”
paisagem post-modern e o homem em 2010.
em voo”. In: Diário de S. Paulo,
coluna “Casa, homem, paisagem”, 28 TOLEDO, J., op. cit., 1994,
26/2/1956. p. 517.
Na legenda original,
lê-se: “Quadro
de cerimônia
propiciatória, onde
a árvore substitui
o pênis nas suas
funções. Vemos a
chuva benéfica e
fertilizadora,
resultado do contato
do pênis (árvore) com
o céu ou mulher. No
chão, um homem ereto
exibe o seu desejo
sexual a uma mulher
em atitude de coito.
(Fotos da Expedição
Frobenius à África).”
Flávio de Carvalho, O
mecanismo da emoção
amorosa (1934-1952),
p. 172.
Já entre 1957 e 1958, na série do mundo perdido,
publicada no Diário de S. Paulo, o artista inverte a lógica de
que a floresta poderia ser considerada uma prefiguração
da origem – existente, por exemplo, na literatura do
modernismo brasileiro e na filosofia de Hermann von
Keyserling – propondo o presente e a cidade de Roma
como pontos de partida para a sua reflexão sobre a estética.
Não fortuitamente, como nos indica o título de sua primeira
parte, essa série começou a ser gestada quando o artista
brasileiro seguira, em meados de 1956, para a capital italiana
com o intuito de desfilar o seu traje de verão masculino, o
New Look, e realizar uma exibição de pintura na Galeria
L’Obelisco.10 Como percebe-se nessa série, para Carvalho,
a estética consistiria numa abertura na ordem do visível
e num construto de sensações, memórias e sintomas
arcaicos da espécie que se revela nas formas da arte, nos
comportamentos e nos gestos humanos e das esculturas.
A floresta do mundo perdido traduz-se no momento
antigo de nascimento do culto à árvore e ao herói, mas
também na instância em que as formas vegetais, vivas, se
ramificam e se transformam em templos, construídos por
troncos, que ressurgem nas cidades com o apelo telúrico das
estéticas do gótico e do barroco. Em “A floresta e o Gótico”,11
o oitavo texto da série, Carvalho define o gótico como uma
“reversão filogênica dos antigos santuários da floresta”. Para
ele, esse período da arte é o que melhor “representa a fusão
da vida vegetal e animal da floresta”, ao passo que o barroco
se torna a forma de expressão característica da cidade, ou
seja, da atualidade do autor. O gótico remete, ainda, aos
diversos exemplos de cerimônias da fertilidade trazidos pela
antropologia e de celebrações da primavera, como a da
encenação do encontro entre Dioniso – o primeiro herói e o
primeiro ator – e a ninfa Ariadne:
126-127
1 BATAILLE, Georges. 9 Os mitos foram transcritos 19 ANTELO, Raúl. “Só 28 EINSTEIN, Carl. Negerplastik
“Le langage des fleurs”. In: a partir do volume especial da centros: elipses”. In: Chuy. (escultura negra). Organização
Documents. Paris, n. 3, pp. 160- revista Cahiers d’Art, dedicado à Revista de Estudios Literarios de Liliane Meffre. Tradução de
164, 1929. expedição de Frobeius: “L’Afrique Latinoamericanos. Buenos Aires, Fernando Scheibe e de Inês de
para Leo Frobenius et Henri Beuil”. ano 1, n. 1, pp. 3-15, jul. 2014, Araújo. Florianópolis: Universidade
2 CAILLOIS, Roger. Méduse et Cahiers d’Art, Paris, 5 année, n. p. 3. Federal de Santa Catarina, 2011,
cie. Paris: Gallimard, 1960. 8-9, 1930. pp. 39-40.
20 DOBRIZHOFFER, Martin.
3 EINSTEIN, Carl. “Arbres- 10 STIGGER, Veronica. An Account of the Abipones, An
fétiches du Bénin (1929)”. In: “Flávio de Carvalho: experiências Equestrian People of Paraguay.
______. Les arts de l’Afrique. romanas”. In: Marcelina. Revista London: John Murray, 1822. v. II.
Apresentação e tradução de do Mestrado em Artes Visuais da
Liliane Meffre. Legendas das obras Faculdade Santa Marcelina. Ano 21 DELEUZE, Gilles; GUATTARI,
e notas por Jean-Louis Paudrat. 3, v. 4 (1ª sem. 2010). São Paulo: Felix. Mil platôs: capitalismo e
Paris: Actes Sud, 2015, p. 279. FASM, 2010, pp. 109-128. esquizofrenia. Tradução de Peter
Pal Pelbart. São Paulo: 34, 2005,
4 CARVALHO, Flávio de. O 11 CARVALHO, Flávio de. “VIII - v. 5.
mecanismo da emoção amorosa Os gatos de Roma. A floresta e o
(1934-1952). Datiloscrito inédito. Gótico”. In: Diário de S. Paulo, São 22 Cf. o filósofo alemão
Paulo, 24 fev. 1957. Hermann Graf Keyserling, para
5 O ramo de ouro tornara- quem a árvore genealógica
se conhecido por Flávio de 12 Idem. representa a força telúrica que liga
Carvalho em sua versão o homem à terra. Haveria, ainda,
abreviada (FRAZER, James. 13 CARVALHO, Flávio de. “III um vínculo entre os laços puros
The Golden Bough. A Study in – Os gatos de Roma. As feridas de sangue, a criação de novos
Magic and Religion. London: abertas da arqueologia. O europeu laços familiares (a mescla) e a
Macmillan, 1933). Na sua quer a guerra”. In: Diário de S. defesa das fronteiras territoriais,
biblioteca, localizada no Centro de Paulo, São Paulo, 20 jan. 1957. segundo ele, em suas Meditações
Documentação Cultural Alexandre sul-americanas (KEYSERLING,
Eulálio (CEDAE), da Unicamp, 14 DUQUE, Félix. El cofre de Hermann Graf. Meditaciones
atualmente encontramos esse la nada. Deriva del nihilismo en sudamericanas. Traducción de
volume e Origens da família e la modernidad. Madrid: Abada Luis López-Ballesteros y de Torres.
do clã, em tradução francesa Editores, 2006. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1933).
(FRAZER, James. Les origines
de la famille et du clan. Tradução 15 HEIDEGGER, Martin. 23 HEIDEGGER, Martin.
francesa por Jean de Pange. Paris: Caminhos de floresta. Caminhos de floresta, op. cit., p.
Paul Geuthner, 1922). Coordenação científica da edição 40.
e tradução: Irene Borges Duarte.
6 CARVALHO, Flávio de. “A Lisboa: Fundação Calouste 24 CARVALHO, Flávio de. “VIII -
única arte que presta é a anormal Gulbenkian, 1998, p. 313. Os gatos de Roma. A floresta e o
(1936)”. In: Flávio de Carvalho: Gótico.” In: Diário de S. Paulo, São
100 anos de um revolucionário 16 GROYS, Boris. Introdução Paulo, 24 fev. 1957.
romântico. Curadoria de Denise à antifilosofia. Tradução de
Mattar. Rio de Janeiro: CCBB/ Constantino Luz de Medeiros. São 25 CARVALHO, Flávio de.
MAB-FAAP, 1999, pp. 71-73. Paulo: Edipro, 2013. “IX – Os gatos de Roma. A
simulação, a floresta e o primeiro
7 Publicada originalmente 17 KLEIN, Ernest. A temperamento. A descida da
no Diário de S. Paulo e, Comprehensive Etymological árvore.” In: Diário de S. Paulo, São
posteriormente, reunida pela Dictionary of the English Paulo, 3 mar. 1957.
editora Azougue. CARVALHO, Language. Dealing with the
Flávio de. A moda e o novo Origin of Words and their Sense 26 MEFFRE, Liliane. “Carl
homem. Org. Sergio Cohn e Heyk Development thus Illustrating the Einstein et l’Afrique”. In: EINSTEIN,
Pimenta. Rio de Janeiro: Azougue History of Civilization and Culture. Carl. Les arts de l’Afrique.
Editorial, 2010. Amsterdam, London, New York: Apresentação e tradução de
Elsevier Publishing Company, Liliane Meffre. Legendas das obras
8 Essa série, composta por 65 1967 (V. II – L-Z), p. 1584 Tradução e notas por Jean-Louis Paudrat.
textos, se intitula, inicialmente, “Os nossa. Paris: Actes Sud, 2015, pp. 7-14.
gatos de Roma” (do número I ao
XXIV) e, a partir do número XXIV, 18 DIDI-HUBERMAN, Georges. 27 EINSTEIN, Carl. “Masques
“Notas para a reconstrução de um Atlas. Como llevar el mundo a Bapindi”. In: ______. Les arts de
mundo perdido” (até o número cuestas? Madrid: Museo de Arte l’Afrique, op. cit., p. 290. Tradução
LXV), publicados no Diário de S. Contemporaneo Reina Sofia, 2010. nossa.
Paulo entre 6 de janeiro de 1957 e
21 de setembro de 1958.
English FLÁVIO DE CARVALHO AS AN Carvalho produced in the context EUROPE (1934)
EXPEDITION MEMBER of his travels and, especially, we England, France, Belgium, Italy,
Translations Renato Rezende propose that these expeditions Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary,
can be perceived as actions or Austria, Portugal
Assis Chateaubriand, artistic processes per se, already
a senator, communications contemporary, situating Flávio de Flávio de Carvalho
magnate, owner of Diários Carvalho as a kind of ethnographer returned to Europe to participate
Associados, and friend of Flávio artist. in the International Congress of
de Carvalho, described the artist Educated in Europe, Psychotechnique in Prague, 1934,
as a “subversive in a state of fluent in English and French, where he presented considerations
permanent revolution.”1 In fact, “the free from colonised attitudes on his Experiment No. 2 (1931)
eater of emotions,” as his friend because of his origin, education and theses on sexuality contained
and biographer J. Toledo called and temperament, Flávio de in the still unpublished Mecanismo
him, the “total artist,” according to Carvalho returned to Brazil soon da emoção amorosa [Mechanism
Rui Moreira Leite, the “romantic after the Modern Art Week of of Amorous Emotion]. He travelled
revolutionary,” as he was defined, 1922, and even though he quickly to several countries, interviewed
perhaps without irony, by Le got in touch with the modernist some personalities and published
Corbusier, or even the “ideal
2
group, becoming friends with Di his travel impressions, the essays
cannibal,” for Oswald de Andrade, Cavalcanti, he always kept himself of a member of an expedition
led a troubled and intense life, rather isolated for two decades in the wrong direction (from the
promoting a high degree of (Mário Pedrosa considered him periphery to the metropolis), in
scandal and cultural agitation in an “independent marksman,” a the book Os ossos do mundo,
the still provincial São Paulo of the “talented dilettante”),3 treading published in 1936 and prefaced by
mid-twentieth century, leaving a his own path alone. Although his Gilberto Freyre, who thus begins
multifaceted production. In addition painting is consonant with the spirit his introduction:
to being recognised in life as an of the era in the avant-gardes of
outstanding painter and draftsman, Brazil in the first decades of the Flávio de Carvalho is one of those
with his own language strongly twentieth century, his numerous who by age and circumstance […]
influenced by the European architectural projects, for example, could have been a “modernist”
avant-gardes (especially Fauvism, differ from the enshrinement of in 1923. A modernist like any of
Dadaism and Surrealism), as a modernist architecture, practically the two Andrades, the brunet
talented architect and dynamic transplanted from Europe and and the blond. But he wasn’t. His
and original thinker (when not artificially implemented in Brazil. intellectual generation is different.
rather clumsy in his attempts to In the same way, it does not align He is a legitimate postmodernist:
be taken seriously by scientific itself with nationalistic research, he appeared after “modernism” and
communities), Flávio de Carvalho with the lyrical exaltation of a with another message. Intensely
was also a proposer of experiments local primitivism of the modernists modern, but unconcerned with
[experiências], numbered or from the heroic phase, nor does it the literary “modernism” to whose
not by him, and attitudes and endorse the patriotic regionalism of extremes those two admirable
actions that in his time were the 1930s (in addition, modernism writers went almost to the point of
regarded as strange and with no had been accepted as an official ridicule.6
clear meaning, but today can be language by Vargas, against whom
easily assimilated by Brazilian Flávio de Carvalho had risen, The essayistic
art history and understood as enlisted in the Constitutionalist narratives that compose the book,
the predecessors of a series of Revolution of 1932 with the rank of between fiction and science,
movements and strategies of captain), he later frontally opposed shifting from the strangeness of
artists who follow one another abstractionism (and its uprooted a new world to the old world and
immediately after neoconcretism purity), defended by Mário inverting historical hierarchies, deal
until the contemporary era. It would Pedrosa, for example.4 Flávio with the most varied themes: the
be interesting to clarify the ways of de Carvalho was never distant temperament of the English and of
influence of Flávio de Carvalho on from the body and its drives; he other peoples, the “atmospheric”
Hélio Oiticica, for example, which was interested in bringing art power of fragments and residues,
made it possible, in our opinion, the and science together, but an the use of toilet paper and its
synthesis between a “constructive a-historical science opposed to relationship with civilisation,
will” and a “delirious tradition” in Western scientism. He articulated matriarchy and the image of the
Brazil in the work of the Carioca. his artistic-anthropological Madonna... Defining himself as
For the purposes of thinking around terms with strong an “ill-mannered archaeologist,”7
this essay, however, articulated to Benjaminian resonance such Flávio de Carvalho affirms that
the curatorship of the exhibition as “residue” and “suggestibility,” “the process of archaeological
Flávio de Carvalho Expedicionário, aligning himself to the understanding is more or less
we consider the written and transgressive element defended the same as the process of
iconographic production by ethnographic surrealism, and understanding in art,” and that “the
(photography and film) of Flávio de proposing a “psychoethnography” archaeologist has to penetrate the
as synthesis and method.5 successive phases that have
128-129
shaped the residue, he has to TOWARDS PARAGUAY (1943–44) the two countries, with projects of that allows one to represent the
be intensely human and feel the mutual cooperation in initiatives to entire object. In architecture and
pulsation of the soul of man and The vast universe increase transportation and trade urban planning, models and
of the civilisation that made the of Flávio de Carvalho’s largely relations between them. Whatever drawings, while indispensable,
residue.”8 Indirectly understanding unpublished texts preserved in the motives behind the trip (Assis are always flawed. It is hard to
the art object as a fetish object, or, manuscripts filed in the FC – Chateaubriand always acted on obtain a satisfying architectural
at the limit, waste (or ruin, or just CEDAE/UNICAMP Fund, or lost, the safe side),14 in his writings, result without making a minimum
mere vestige) of a more or less lost according to his main biographers, Flávio de Carvalho developed of three or four volumetric models,
experiment, which when triggered J. Toledo and Rui Moreira Leite, a psycho-ethnographic study of one being always the correction
by sensibility or by chance, creates still lacks more comprehensive South America (an interest that and improvement of the other.
an “atmosphere,”9 Flávio de research and editorial dedication. is also found in the text “Nós, The architect must explore all
Carvalho gets closer, more deeply Mixing together genres, bringing os sul-americanos” [We, South imaginable means in the making of
than we might initially suppose, to to his writing the same gestural Americans], initially part of the his plans and the most important
Freud (the repressed) nervousness of his painting, book project Os ossos do mundo procedure is the capture, by the
and psychoanalysis and, governed by lines of force, we [The Bones of the World], and of architect’s sensitivity, of the forces
unknowingly, to Warburg’s could roughly discern in Flávio, the also unpublished manuscript of the environment, of the values
strategies for setting art history in besides the specific play O bailado Meridiano 55 Sul [Meridian 55 of the landscape, of the individual
motion.10 Always in the footsteps do deus morto [The Dance of South]. values of the objects in isolation
of Nietzsche (whose words were the Dead God], essays and The articles begin in space and of their relation with
used in the epigraph of the essay theoretical or scientific texts more with an ecological speech about the landscape and with the human
“As ruínas do mundo” [The ruins or less indiscernible from what we the forest fires that where already environment and of their relation
of the world]: “History will bring would today call artist’s writings taking place in the region of what with ancestral forces and with
the revelations you deserve”), (the biggest example of which is now known as the state of History and the Future.
Flávio de Carvalho finds Warburg is Experiment No. 2 – a possible Mato Grosso do Sul and in the
in the search for corporeal and theory and an experiment) and vicinity of the Paraná river and PERU (1947)
gestural elements (that is, non- articles published in the press, go on, always under the shadow
metaphysical) that produce a organised in series and subseries of the still recent trauma of the At the end of 1947,
deep critique of historicism.11 For such as “Casa, homem, paisagem” Paraguayan War (images and in order to participate in the
the artist, contemporaneity can [House, Man, Landscape] (1955– military descriptions are abundant 6th Pan-American Congress of
only be experienced by those who 58), “A moda e o novo homem” in those texts, recalling that Architecture, Flávio de Carvalho
maintain a unique relation to the [Fashion and the New Man] (1956) Flávio de Carvalho had the rank set off to Peru, passing through
present, insofar as they adhere to and “Notas para a reconstrução of captain and participated in the Chile and Bolivia. The congress
it through anachronism. For this de um mundo perdido” [Notes Constitutionalist Revolution of itself disappointed him, but his
reason, the archaeological method, for the Reconstruction of a Lost 1932), on the relationship between stay was rich: through contacts
by seeking in everything modern World] (1957–58). The first of the indigenous people and the arranged by his protector and
and current what lies hidden, is these series of articles in the press, Jesuits (who were sadistic and friend Assis Chateaubriand (for
the only way to access our own which Rui Moreira Leite considers masochistic) during the process of whom Flávio brought valuable
time – a time of duration, or at least the worst strategies by an artist of colonisation, folkloric dances from Peruvian objects and paintings,
outside a sense of evolution. Thus, interventions in the media, was
13
Paraguay and ideas for an urban among which were at least one
in “As ruínas do mundo,” Flávio de “Rumo ao Paraguai” [Towards plan for Asunción. In article VII, canvas offered to MASP, newly-
Carvalho was able to affirm that Paraguay], published in Diário de published on October 18, 1943, inaugurated by the tycoon), the
S. Paulo from September 1st, 1943, Flávio says he climbed on the roof artist came in contact with the
to March 15, 1944. of the church of Encarnación to Peruvian elite, dated a beautiful
the notion of time as we understand It was in the company observe the spacial arrangement woman, flirted with another, and
it seems to mean nothing in a of his cousin, Ary Barroso (Ary of the city (the panoramic view met and interviewed important
very sensory archaeological de Rezende Barroso) that Flávio from the top of the hydroplane local figures such as the architect
introspection, and the power to feel de Rezende Carvalho flew he used during the trip was from and future president of the
the past and the species seems in a “geopolitical mission” to the beginning cherished by him country Fernando Belaunde Terry,
to indicate the ability of man to Paraguay, at the service of Diários as something that enabled the with whom he visited and was
live outside time. ‘Feeling the past Associados, owned by his friend conception of unusual relations impressed by the planned working-
and the species’ seems to be Assis Chateaubriand. But there between objects and people on class district under construction on
linked to the idea of suggestibility. were also economic-financial the ground, allowing the privileged the outskirts of Lima.15
A thing is suggestive when it interests, including personal (Flávio observer to somehow encompass Flávio also visited with
carries within itself a great number de Carvalho was an entrepreneur past, present and future in his much interest Cuzco and Machu
of emotions able to affect the notoriously doomed to failure, as J. vision), he continues: Picchu. Although rationalist, having
observers, suggesting the vision Toledo attested and recounted in O as reference the European avant-
and voluptuousness of an entire comedor de emoções [The Eater of The observer within the object gardes, his architecture was always
world. This great accumulation of Emotions], and especially political and the observer far from the permeated by elements, shapes
animistic forces in the object- ones. With the establishment of object offer two different relations and colours that re-interpreted pre-
residue turns it into the only oculus the Estado Novo period, and the one to the other which also differ Colombian architectural elements,
by which man can one day see the ideological identity between Vargas a lot from the relation between as is evident in the project for
past and the species.12 and the Paraguayan government the observer and the object in a the Columbus Lighthouse in
of that time, there was a great drawing. The drawing is unable to the Dominican Republic (1928),
rapprochement between offer in itself an animistic relation with panels inspired by Mayan
mythology, and also in his Every individual possesses a great In the artist’s career, abducted by the indians; partly
farmhouse in Valinhos (1938), number of latent or dormant forces, dance is the first element ethnographic research), taking
whose design recalls the shapes which remain in this state from the to emerge that allows the advantage of an expedition by the
of an Aztec pyramid, as well as cradle to the grave. If one of these understanding of the body as a SPI – Indian Protection Service.
countless other projects, most forces if set in motion by a regent power that overlaps with form, or Thus, using his media presence,
of which remained unrealised, – an unforeseen circumstance, a as transit and exchange, at the he published in 1958 a want ad
such as the University of Music in violent emotion – that may appear, confluence between art and life, looking “urgently, as protagonist of
Guaratinguetá, inspired by Terry’s the individual living a normal life which will then be transformed a colour film shot in the jungles of
neighbouring units. About the visit can be transformed, from one into explicit actions such as the Upper Amazon, for a free and
to these Andean cities, J. Toledo moment to the next, into a new his numbered “experiments, emancipated young woman...” for
wrote: being seeking a different path, for example, which culminated an “important expedition of studies
to tread new terrains, seeking in the New Look mass media and cinematographic in the Upper
In Machu Picchu, impressed by solutions to the new problems they performance, provocations and Amazon region.”
the extraordinary beauty of the may come to face. Each time one events involving society. In their For filming The White
architectural ruins, he makes of these dormant forces frees itself own field of repercussions, these Goddess [A deusa branca] (1958),
observations, takes pictures, from the torpor in which it lay, it experiments become the work Flávio designed special clothes for
makes sketches, measures with awakens the individual and makes itself, ways to use the body as a the actresses and crew members.
accuracy the large stones, inspects them face a completely new world weapon: for Flávio de Carvalho, At that time, he had already built
the smallest spaces between them and gives them a highly magnified the objective world is completely an interesting secondary career
and, from there, intuits another view of things. The desires which organic, and its logic is the norm of (but what was really secondary
work he is beginning to sketch out: for many appear as undoubtedly fetishism. in Flávio de Carvalho?) as a
“Meridiano 55,” in which he would abnormal are no more than the costume designer, like his work
come to also take advantage of the result of a sharper sensibility of for O bailado do deus morto [The
knowledge acquired previously in existing things.17 THE WHITE GODDESS (1958) Dance of the Dead God] (1933), in
his intrepid journey to Paraguay.16 which God is cannibalistically and
In his expedition to In “A cidade do homem industrially devoured/deconstructed
Araguaia, accompanying the nu” [The City of the Naked Man] (and whose masks resemble those
In the photography shooting of the documentary (1930), Flávio de Carvalho writes: used in indigenous rituals). He
albums produced by Flávio de O grande desconhecido [The “It is up to us, people born out of had also completed and promoted
Carvalho during his trip to Peru, Great Unknown], at the invitation the weight of ancient traditions, Experiment No. 3, by walking on
we note the careful study of the of filmmaker Mario Civelli (an to study the dwelling of the naked the streets of São Paulo wearing
geometric shapes, angles and Italian who arrived in Brazil in man, the man of the future, with his New Look outfit, which would
spacial solutions found in Machu 1949, during the construction of no god, no property and no be more appropriate for the man
Picchu. Something noteworthy is the Vera Cruz studios), Flávio de marriage.”19 At that conference, from the tropics, culminating in the
the curious procedure of arranging, Carvalho was deeply interested in the artist defended the planning long series of articles published
on each of the boards, four images the costumes and dances of the of a city laboratory, which would in Diário de São Paulo with the
that constitute a comment on Brazilian natives, as ethnographic free and intensify the experiences general title of “A moda e o novo
recurring architectural elements, research and as an experience of man. This ideal city would unite homem” [Fashion and the New
which perhaps brings him of alterity, if not as a mediator of in a single time and space, the Man].
unsuspectedly closer to Warburg’s impulses or even explicit erotic primitive and the modern. Subverting the order
strategies to set art history in desire, even trying to dance naked For the artist, however, even of classic European expeditions
motion, promoting an opaque among them. J. Toledo writes: before architecture and dance, to the New World and even of
dance between stratified times. the trigger for this curious process modernist expeditions to the
In that vertiginous time of of modernisation was clothing, countryside, Flávio de Carvalho
adventures, drama and new because “clothes are the fashion obscures the relations between
ARAGUAIA (1956) emotions, using his tiny Minox with the strongest influence on subject and object that typified
camera – a great novelty then man, because they are what is those incursions, a mixture of art
Flávio de Carvalho was interested – and his own nose as a tripod, closest to his body and his body is and science, and anticipates and
in dance, in the use of the body as Flávio recorded everything and, still the part of the world that most even overcomes discussions about
an expressive element, in motion. in particular, dance, because interests man.”20 the artist as an ethnographer.
When he wrote about Loïe Fuller’s the Carajá music, as he said Flávio was likewise
Serpentine Dance, in 1926, the – “showed deep and subtle interested in the organic and in
artist already indicated that his differences between ordinary technology, seduced by a kind of
interest in the “primitive” was not singing, for example, which non-linear time glimpsed mainly
at all materialised through form, was monotonously repetitive, from the readings of Nietzsche and
but through the instability caused and indigenous warrior songs, Freud, and instigated both from
by the irruption of other times in which contained polyphonies as a technical/cinematographic and
the present. This irruption of other grandiose as those in a civilised from an expeditionary viewpoint
temporalities and also, as attested opera.”18 (the huge and unknown regions
by movement in dance, of other of Brazil) by the experience
forms of spatiality, takes place in in Araguaia with Civelli. Thus,
the body; in motion; alive: he decided to produce a
semidocumentary (partly fictional,
about a young white woman
130-131
1 TOLEDO, J. Flávio de Carvalho 11 In Didi-Huberman’s words, 19 MAIA, Ana Maria; REZENDE, FLÁVIO DE CARVALHO IN
– o comedor de emoções. São “every authentically historical Renato (ed.). Flávio de Carvalho. THE AMAZON RAINFOREST
Paulo: Brasiliense; Campinas: force must know how to produce Coleção Encontros. Rio de Veronica Stigger
Unicamp, 1994, p. 401. the a-historic element that Janeiro: Azougue, 2015, p. 34.
countermotivates it, as well as On August 28, 1958,
2 Ibidem, p. 76. every force of remembrance must 20 CARVALHO, Flávio. A moda almost two years after marching
know how to produce the element e o novo homem. Rio de Janeiro: with his New Look on the streets
3 Ibidem, p. 548. of forgetfulness that sustains it.” Azougue, 2010, p. 16. of São Paulo, Flávio de Carvalho
DIDI-HUBERMAN, Georges. A embarked on another journey.
4 Although Mário Pedrosa was imagem sobrevivente – história The place was now no longer a
never been interested in Flávio da arte e tempo nos fantasmas city (either São Paulo or Rome,
de Carvalho’s work, it would be segundo Aby Warburg. Translated where he had also presented his
interesting, again, to think of by Vera Ribeiro. Rio de Janeiro: New Look), but a jungle, more
how his evolution towards the Contraponto/MAR, 2013, p. 138. specifically, the Amazon rainforest.
“experimental exercise of freedom” In January of that year, Flávio went
ends up meeting Flávio in Hélio 12 CARVALHO, Flávio de. Os on a journey to the North and N
Oiticica. ossos do mundo. São Paulo: ortheast regions of Brazil, when
Antiqua, 2005, p. 47-48. he read in a newspaper in Natal
5 “The aesthetic problem a story about Umbelina Valéria,
today is no longer that of lyrical 13 “Flávio de Carvalho made 38, a white woman who had been
abstraction full of logical impasses, artistic and authorial interventions abducted at 14 by Indians from
but belongs in large part to the designed to disseminate his avant- the Amazon region.1 According
realms of psychopathology and to garde vision among audiences of to Flávio de Carvalho, the text
a science still to be created and art of not. His mass-media work affirmed that Umbelina remained
which could very well be called did not report external facts. It was in the hands of the Indians for
psychoethnography.” CARVALHO, in itself the fact, it gave origin to 24 years and, between 1956
Flávio de. “A única arte que presta meanings.” Apud MAIA, Ana Maria. and 1957, when the tribe that
é a arte anormal.” Diário de S. Arte-veículo. Recife: Aplicação/ had abducted her started a war
Paulo, Sep 24, 1936. Circuito: 2015, p. 117–118. with a neighbouring tribe, she
took advantage of the turmoil to
6 CARVALHO, Flávio de. Os 14 In his book, J. Toledo claims run away with her four children.
ossos do mundo. São Paulo: to have correspondence between Curious about the story, Flávio
Antiqua, 2005, p. 8. Flávio and Negrão de Lima, de Carvalho went to Manaus to
then ambassador in Paraguay, meet Tubal Fialho Vianna Filho,
7 “The ill-behaved archaeologist which indicates “mysterious and head of the Indian Protection
is much more likely to understand apparently spurious business Service (SPI), who would lead
the non-time, to live equally at ease transactions.” Ibidem, p. 362. a forthcoming expedition to
in all times he examines, unfolding pacify some indigenous tribes
all layers, even the deepest ones 15 Flávio describes the visit in the upper Rio Negro region,
of his sensibility, and which are in the article “Inicia o Peru especially the Waimiri and the
naturally unrelated and far removed a construção de conjuntos Shiriana. Flávio wanted to join the
from the scientific catechism of his residenciais para trabalhadores, expedition, and Tubal accepted his
world.” Ibidem, p. 48. ainda inéditos no continente request. Five years later, in “Flávio
sul-americano” [Peru begins the de Carvalho por ele mesmo,”
8 CARVALHO, Flávio de. Ibidem, construction of housing complexes [Flávio de Carvalho according to
p. 48. for workers, a still new idea in himself] a series of testimonies
South America], published in Diário written in 1963 and collected in
9 “So the term ‘atmosphere’ of de S. Paulo on January 4, 1948. the catalogue of a 2010 exhibition
any object is the algebraic sum of at MAM in São Paulo, the artist
all suggestibilities perceptible in the 16 TOLEDO, J. Flávio de said he had been invited by Tubal
object.” Ibidem, p. 44. Carvalho - o comedor de emoções. Vianna. Tubal, in turn, in volume
São Paulo: Brasiliense; Campinas: 23 of Relatório Figueiredo, said he
10 According to Didi-Huberman, Unicamp, 1994, p. 392. had allowed Flávio do accompany
“the Warburgian theory really the expedition, provided that he
raised the issue of body image 17 CARVALHO, Flávio de. went alone – we shall return to this
– and of its expressiveness – to “Flávio de Carvalho vê um erro de later.2
that of an obscure dance of dialética na questão de considerar Flávio de Carvalho’s
stratified times.” DIDI-HUBERMAN, anormais os artistas”. In: MAIA, idea was to unite art and scientific
Georges. A imagem sobrevivente Ana Maria; REZENDE, Renato research: on the one hand, he
– história da arte e tempo nos (ed.). Flávio de Carvalho. Coleção wanted to study ethnographic
fantasmas segundo Aby Warburg. Encontros. Rio de Janeiro: psychological and artistic aspects
Translated by Vera Ribeiro. Rio de Azougue, 2015, p. 154. of the Indians with whom they
Janeiro: Contraponto/MAR, 2013, would make contact3 and, on the
p. 296. 18 Ibid., p. 462. other hand, make a film freely
inspired by Umbelina Valéria’s him and in one of the articles common. There are accounts of inhabiting a still wild region”.10
story, which was, as the newspaper published in Última Hora by N Europeans meeting Indians with Walter Alves Coutinho Júnior,
Diário de S. Paulo defined it orberto Esteves, a journalist who light hair and blue eyes since in Brancos e barbudos na
at the time, a sort of “semi- accompanied the expedition. In the discovery period.7 The best Amazônia [White Bearded Men
documentary”: “A feature film a conversation with Umbelina known of them is an account by in the Amazon], also mentions
shot in CinemaScope (in colour), herself, Esteves affirms: Frei Gaspar de Carvajar who, in nineteenth-century stories referring
which besides documenting the 1541, accompanied the journey of to white Indians:
ways of life of the forest dwellers The five women Umbelina Francisco de Orellana through the
in their ‘habitat,’ will focus on the confronted in the countryside Amazon region: Among the Remo people11 of the
episode of ‘goddess’ Umberlina belonged to the Namoitere tribe, upper Jaquirana, at the beginning
Valéria’s escape to civilization” – a with which Umbelina lived 22 years, Four Indians came to see the of the century “there were 4 or
film that, according to the same ending up as wife of Tuchaua, Captain and each of them was of 5 very white blue-eyed women
newspaper, already had potential with whom she had two children. such stature that they were one who were said to be daughters
buyers: a television station in the It was precisely at that time that foot taller than the tallest Christian, of Peruvians.” […] The Zaparo
United States and United Press she had the opportunity to make and they were very white and people, described as “savages” by
International.4 In “Grande aventura contact with the Cibrei, who do had very good hair reaching their Alfred Simson in 1886 (Taussig,
nos confins da Amazônia,” also exist, according to her testimonies waist, they were covered in jewels 1993:101), are regarded by
published in Diário de S. Paulo, and other unsuspected witnesses, and clothes; and they brought lots Osculati as white and bearded:
on the day of his departure to and inhabit the headwaters of a of food; and they approached us “The Zaparo... have little beard on
Manaus on August 28, 1958, Flávio large tributary of the Maiá river, in with such humility that we were all their chins and small mustaches;
de Carvalho spoke about how he the upper Rio Negro region, almost amazed at their disposition and their colour is light olivaceous and
intended to make his film without at the border with Colombia and good manners. almost white, large brown eyes,
a script: Venezuela. Umbelina says they are and some even blue” (OSCULATI,
blond and beautiful, of the Nordic They then told the 1854:169).12
The true episode of goddess type (which is Flávio de Carvalho’s captain that they were “vassals
Umbelina Valéria will be favourite type for the actress who of a very great lord, and at his Back in São Paulo,
cinematographically depicted would play the part of Umbelina command they came to see who Flávio de Carvalho devoted himself
in colour, adding to the ever Valéria in real life).6 we were or what we wanted or entirely to the preparations for
unexpected events an ethnographic where we were going” and, after the trip, which was to take place
value of a surrealist process of free Recently, however, I receiving gifts from the European between June and July 1958. He
association of ideas and fishing found in the SPI archives stored in troupe, they went away and never ordered filming equipment and a
the unconscious mind to compose the Museum of the Indian a letter came back: “They are gone,” says special outfit to face the Indians:
the film’s script always bearing in from Tubal Vianna, dated January Carvajal, “and we never again “a duraluminium chestplate lined
mind the epic of goddess Umbelina 28, 1958, in which he mentions this heard about where they lived nor with red velvet, so that the enraged
Valéria, the youngest acquisition tribe precisely in referring to the from where they had come”.8 Indians who decided to shoot
of the Brazilian mythological expedition in question, but does not In 1926, in Na planície arrows at him could hit him... Only
pantheon. […] The double comment on the color of the skin amazônica [In the Amazon Plain], in the chest”.13 He hired Belgian
personality of goddess Umbelina and eyes. The letter says: Raimundo Morais does not photographer Raymond Frajmund
Valéria appears in the film guiding question the existence of blond and as his cinematographer and Eva
the expedition towards unknown blue-eyed Indians: Harms, 19, from Curitiba, and Olga
communities, making use of new Knowing perfectly well about Walewska, 24, from Rio Grande
languages learned during the the interest and goodwill of the The legend made to illuminate do Sul, of Polish origin, to be the
24 years in which she was held board of directors […] in solving and enlarge our ethnology has actresses of his film.14
captive.5 various problems of our Service, created barbaric nations of white In principle, the
I am sure that that Section will be individuals with blue eyes and fair excursion through the jungle
Among the Indians he quick to take measures in order to hair. Coudreau realised that. These would be done in three boats. In
sought to find and study were the equip this Inspectorate of engines types really exist but they are rare the typewritten text “Na fronteira
supposed remnants of a legendary and devices necessary for the and lost; one, two, three in some do perigo” [At the border of the
tribe called Cibrei, of blue-eyed important communications sector, huts of the northern range of the danger], undated, kept at CEDAE,
blond Indians. I was always especially with regard to portable basin, doubtless due to contact Flávio de Carvalho comments that
intrigued by this tribe, because it equipment, of greater urgency at with the French, English and Dutch there were “eight river units”.15 In
seemed to me that the possibility present, since it is the purpose of from the Guianas...9 addition to tons of material for the
of Flávio de Carvalho finding it, this Head to organise under his shooting, including a complete
thus proving its existence, would personal direction an expedition This contact would not laboratory,16 Flávio de Carvalho
create an interesting dramatic of pacification of the Aimiris and have been possible at the time of carried a pendulum refrigerator
counterpoint with the non-Indian Cibrei Indians at the Camanaú and the discoveries... to keep his films and medicines.17
girl, the abducted “goddess” of Cauburis (Rio Negro) rivers, whose The news story of In an article in the newspaper
the film A deusa branca [The departure will probably take place Diário de S. Paulo, which reported Diário de S. Paulo about the
White Goddess]. The name of the in April of this year. on the imminent departure to the last preparations for the trip, it
tribe, moreover, Cibrei or Cibreí, upper Rio Negro region, was stated that, as a protection
was the thing that intrigued me So far, I found no other corroborated Morais’ information: measure, the troupe would have
most, because I had only seen reference to that tribe; mentions “The matter has only now been fireworks “especially made, for
mention of it with regard to Flávio of a supposed tribe with light raised, and recent information psychological effect”, as Flávio
de Carvalho, both in studies about skin and blue eyes are more points out to the probability of the himself points out:
132-133
In order to ease the danger of Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Villa- The vanguard will introduce itself by using terms always in
the expedition, new processes Lobos and Guarnieri. The idea was to the jungles wearing shirts with quotation marks to describe
for contact are planned, using to study the psychological reaction wide red-and-white horizontal him: the “filmmaker”, the “man
fireworks (they are already in of the Indians to Western music.21 stripes, wearing peasant straw hats of experiments”, the “expert
Manaus!), throwing into the hum The first person to ornamented with bright-coloured nutritionist”, the “petticoat-
of the tropical night multicoloured provide information on how the feathers extracted from birds from boy”, the “millionaire” etc. He
luminous shards whose first expedition was going was Flávio the forest and playing several also says of him that “he is
emotive impact would be chimerical de Carvalho himself, in a text instruments, such as harmonicas, not really an eccentric, but
dazzle and desire to welcome the published in Diário de S. Paulo, whistles and trombones... […] This rather an egocentric”.27 In an
white people instead of destroying on October 7, 1958. In it, Flávio approach of the vanguard aims article published on January 7,
them. This psychological weapon, begins by telling of how they found to give a tone of joy and festivity 1959, Esteves says that Flávio
used for the first time in history, will the first Indians, the dreaded to the important event of their first de Carvalho did not dedicate
be of great value.18 Waimiri tribe: contact instead of presenting an himself to the film he should have
aggressive and violent solemnity.25 made nor helped others in daily
And he adds: On a dark night we left Manaus tasks; he was only interested in
on an SPI expedition. We headed They then proceeded being together with his actress:
We wanted to make peaceful use for Camanau, a tributary of Rio to the Demini river, where they “Everybody worked and did
of tear gas grenades but I was not Negro with about ten waterfalls and had contact with the Paquidar something useful, except the
able to get them. I do not know if 240 km in length. Tubal Vian[n] Indians. Flávio believed that filming ‘team,’ because their director was
Tubal Vianna succeeded. This gas a, the head of the expedition, was would intensify there,26 but the first not inspired... Except for love. Only
would be used as a last resort to counting on finding the Waimiri at conflicts between him and the head this feeling made the ‘filmmaker’
avoid an attack with blowpipes, the first waterfalls, and so it was. of the expedition began. This was excited...”28
for example […]. Tear gas can be A vanguard headed by Tubal, with when, according to Flávio, Tubal The greatest victim
exploded from eight to a hundred contact specialists Ataide Vianna began to sabotage him, of Flávio de Carvalho’s account
meters, cancelling the range of Cardoso, Gilberto Pinto and forbidding him from filming. When is Tubal Vianna, whom Flávio
action of blowpipes.19 Raimundo Lima, after incidents they reached the Tototobu river, only praised at the beginning
with the waterfalls, the canoes and they walked towards the Shiriana of the expedition. Right in the
In this same article, many mortal dangers and difficult indians; Flávio continued to argue beginning of his testimony, he
Flavio de Carvalho wrote a brief situations, spectacularly managed with Tubal Vianna. We may never managed to emphasise Tubal’s
summary of the expedition and its to find some Waimiri Indians at the know for sure what happened alcohol addiction: “For a moment I
members. sixth waterfall on September 13. It – the accounts are always too hesitated when, a few days before
was, it seems, a vanguard of the personal and contradictory. It is leaving Manaus, I found the head
In a few days, a small fluvial inflexibly cruel people stationed as known that the expedition travelled, of the expedition totally intoxicated,
squadron containing a handful of sentinels of the primitive kingdom.22 for 70 days, 2,500 kilometres of consequently displaying a little of
people, totalling 23, seeking in the forest, crossed the rivers Negro his true nature”.29 Then he goes on
legendary Amazon many different In his text, Flávio de and its tributaries, and ended in to describe Tubal’s character: “He
thrills, should set out from Manaus. Carvalho affirms that they spent gunshots. Flávio de Carvalho was not very commendable and
The group is heterogeneous and “unforgettable days in a wonderful drew the two guns he carried and sometimes even disgusted me. He
each individual has very different and misunderstood, and above all mutinied in a boat, firing at Tubal was a sadist with a great dictatorial
interests, but one thing brings vilified nature”. He also recounts Vianna. Vianna, in turn, after the tendency”.30 Flávio also described
everybody together: danger. that Tubal Vianna had recorded bullets were over, sent Flávio and Tubal physically: “He was a tiny
The course of command of the “the extraordinary encounter his team – Eva, Olga, Raymond man, with stupid fierce eyes like a
expedition, designed by Tubal with the Waimiri vanguard, their and Norberto – to Barcelos. From forest reptile, inhabitants of a world
Vianna, reaches regions inhabited talk full of sonorous laughter, there, Raymond, Olga and N which seemed to have shrunk
by indigenous nations that never full of the mistrust typical of orberto (who had fallen ill) went to incapacity and who glimpsed
had contact with white people that small kingdom, using a to Manaus and, from Manaus, to fulgently through the shackles of
and this has only recently been tiny sound recorder hidden in São Paulo by plane. Flávio and the prison of their species”.31 In
discovered. his pocket and a microphone Eva went to Salvador, where the addition, Flávio accuses Tubal of
in the button of his shirt”.23 The artist was known for his New Look. being ignorant:
And he compliments artist stresses the importance of The film he intended to make
Tubal Vianna: the fact: “This recording will go remained unfinished, but even so, He did not like to answer questions
down in the history of Brazilian he recorded some documentary about the Indians, because he
Tubal Vianna, an experienced conquests not only because of footage when they were in contact knew nothing about them, despite
contact specialist, expedition head its ethnographic importance but with the Indians. his 25 years of government service
and great organizer, cherishes the also because of its picturesque In Noberto Esteves’s with them. Thus, he forbade
lives of those under his command: and humanist aspect.”24 In an articles published after the end of answers to questions. Due to
he is cautious and wants to reach unpublished typewritten text, in the expedition, and in the account his personal and private contact
his goal, aiming at peaceful which he recounts in more detail “Motim na Amazônia” [Mutiny in with the Indians, he was jealous
relations between the Indians and the adventure in the jungle, he the Amazon], which Flávio sent for because they were fond of us and
white people.2 comments even on the special publication in Life magazine, one deeply disliked him.3
clothes worn by the contact can clearly see the hatred which
Flávio de Carvalho specialists when approaching the emerged during the trip.
He even goes so far as
carried tapes with recordings of Indians: Norberto Esteves makes explicit to say that when they encountered
Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, his resentment regarding the artist a tribe of cannibals he “had much
more to fear from the head of the always behaved with dedication As early as in his first experiment this time to the Bananal island,
expedition – who actually was the and appreciation for his service. (number 2), during a Corpus Christi where he made contact with the
only wild beast we found – than According this reference, “Tubal procession in 1931, it is obvious Carajá Indians, accompanying
from the savage tribes.”33 Fialho Vianna responded to the that, in addition to a provocation Italian film producer Mario
Flávio also did not administrative proceedings for – which, to some extent, brings Civelli during the shooting of
miss the opportunity to direct drunkenness and for disagreement Flávio de Carvalho closer to the the documentary film O grande
caustic criticism against Norberto on a trip to Posto Ajuricaba, when European historical avant-garde desconhecido [The Great
Esteves, whom he called “Father the journalist from São Paulo and movements –, there is a search for Unknown]. In a 1936 text, “A única
Esteves,” describing him as “a an industrialist wanted to shoot knowledge – a search that takes arte que presta é a arte anormal”
fat journalist, as foolish as he is Tubal.” place with no connection to the [The Only Useful Art is Abnormal
obese,”34 and Raymond Frajmund, initial provocation: Experiência Art],47 Flávio even proposed the
who, according to him, although [...] nº 4 would not be realised if the creation of a new science he called
he possessed “a well-defined artist did not provoke the faithful psychoethnography:
inferiority complex,” proved to be “a 17. As a matter of clarification, by keeping his head covered while
ridiculously vain fellow.”35 I hereby inform that on the walking in the opposite direction The aesthetic problem today is
In the official accounts expedition to the upper Rio Negro of the procession. His provocation no longer lyrical abstraction full
of the expedition, which are part region, I agreed that journalist was therefore the trigger for a of logical impasses, but belongs
of the SPI collection, I have so and tropicalist Flávio de Carvalho supposedly scientific investigation in large part to the domains of
far found only one mention of accompanied us on the sine-qua- about a certain phenomenon, psychopathology and of a science
Flávio de Carvalho. In an undated non condition of coming alone the psychological reaction of a that is yet to be created and
telegram, Tubal Vianna says and of obeying all our instructions. crowd to his gesture, basing his which could very well be called
he granted Flávio the honour of It turns out that the creator of research fundamentally on Freud psychoethnography.48
cutting the symbolic ribbon in the “petticoat” was accompanied and Frazer.41 The expedition to
commemoration of the inauguration by a mixed team, that is, two the Amazon fits perfectly into this Flávio de Carvalho’s
of the radio station of Posto women camouflaged as artists, a search for knowledge initiated science would precisely link
Ajuricaba. cameraman and a photographic by Flávio de Carvalho in his ethnography and psychoanalysis.
reporter of Última Hora. I initially experiments. As I mentioned Let us not forget that Flávio also
In this moment of expressed my displeasure, earlier, during that trip, Flávio intended to study the reaction of
lively joy and deep emotion for stressing the importance, the sought to unite art and scientific the Amazonian Indians to fireworks
me, as head of the Inspectorate seriousnessm objectivity and the research: on the one hand, he was and Western music.
of Amazonas, Acre and Rio danger of our mission. But in view going to make a semi-documentary In this regard, Flávio de
Branco and as a Brazilian who of his promises of obedience to our film, on the other, he would study Carvalho was up-to-date with the
has dedicated his life to the guidance and also to the expenses the Indians – some of his notes most advanced ideas of his time.
indigenous cause and who loves he incurred,37 I agreed that he during the expedition were used, When he embarked on a big trip
Brazil, the SPI delivers to the joined our expedition. However, for example, in his last essay “A through Europe, between late 1934
Ajuricaba community its radio the promise was broken and the Origem Animal de Deus” [The and early 1935, he kept in touch
station, which will be headed tropicalist, in disorderly gestures Animal Origin of God].42 and interviewed some exponents of
by radio operator Bernardino and crazy impulses, no longer In this experiment, surrealism, such as André Breton,
Conceição. In fair honour to wanted to follow our cautious Flávio de Carvalho seems to have Man Ray, Raymond Queneau
the press that accompanies the recommendations. Considering taken his investigative inclinations and Roger Caillois, who stayed at
Rio Negro expedition, I ask Dr. this, I was forced to leave him in even more seriously. That is Flávio’s house when he came to
Flávio de Carvalho to declare the the municipality of Barcelos with perhaps why he declared that that São Paulo in 1943,49 in addition
inauguration of PPI-34 station by his team and his paraphernalia, was “the most important epic saga to having become, during that
cutting the symbolic ribbon.36 telling him our expedition was not of my life.”43 It is as an “ethnologist” trip, a representative of Minotaure
a picnic but a group to pacify the that he appears on the list of magazine,50 published between
A longer (and much Waimiri Indians. It was then that members of the expedition, with an 1933 and 1939. It included works
more caustic) comment about the “petticoat” man known even as SPI stamp. It is no coincident that from many of the collaborators
Flávio de Carvalho’s presence a psychopath, shot upwards in a he often refers to his own work on of Documents, edited by Bataille
in the expedition was made by mad gesture of revolt at his failure. the expedition as “ethnographic.”44 between 1929 and 1931, such as
Tubal Vianna in a testimony he This was all that took place. I was Flávio de Carvalho never hid his Michel Leiris. In an interview to
gave to the Relatório Figueiredo not shot.38 deep interest in ethnography: “I Flávio, André Breton explains the
[Figueiredo Report], reproduced have always been interested in relation of surrealism, that is, of
in volume 23, in which he defends § ethnography, art, anthropology art, with the search of knowledge:
himself against the charge of and related subjects, like “Surrealism was, at first, poetic
“misbehaviour” as head of SPI’s The expedition to archaeology.”45 It is not surprising and artistic, and then it became
First Inspectorate. He states: the Amazon became known as that in September 1952 he enrolled psychological. We think surrealism
Experiência nº 4 [Experiment No. in the course “The Origin of Man”, is a process of knowledge.”51
13. With regard to what Gilberto 4].39 The manner in which the taught at the University of São It is impossible to
Pinto de Figue[i]redo Costa newspapers and magazines of the Paulo by Paul Rivet, one of the forget, by the way, the figure of
informed, on sheets 4024, of the period named it40 refers to a term creators of the Institut d’Ethnologie, the “surrealist ethnographer,”
case file, I would like to believe dear to the artist – experiment in France, alongside Lucien described by James Clifford in “On
that there was a misunderstanding –, which designates a way of Lévy-Bruhl and Marcel Mauss46 Ethnographic Surrealism.”52 In this
or misapprehension of that official proceeding that was to a certain – precisely the same year he essay, Clifford shows how in the
who, incidentally, has extent already related to him. embarked on a another expedition; 1920s and 1930s the then incipient
134-135
field of ethnography presents “Ethnography, which shares with 1 TOLEDO, J. Flávio de 7 I elaborate on this subject in
certain interests in common surrealism an abandonment of the Carvalho: o comedor de emoções. the chapter “A Amazônia: dos
with surrealism – understood distinction between high and low São Paulo: Brasiliense; Campinas: viajantes aos modernistas” of
by him in an expanded sense culture, provided both a fund Editora da UNICAMP, 1994, p. 558. the study “A Amazônia de Maria
in order to “circumscribe an of non-Western alternatives and Martins”, still unpublished.
esthetic that values fragments, a prevailing attitude of ironic 2 Relatório Figueiredo, vol. 23,
curious collections. unexpected participant-observation among p. 5. 8 CARVAJAL, Frei Gaspar de.
juxtapositions – which works the hierarchies and meanings of Descubrimiento del río de las
to provoke the manifestation of collective life.” 59 In addition to 3 According to TOLEDO, J., Amazonas: Relación de Fray
extraordinary realities drawn from providing “a style of scientifically Flávio de Carvalho was influenced Gaspar de Carvajal expoliada de
the domains of the erotic, the validated cultural levelling.” 60 In by the narratives he read in History la obra de José Toribio Medina,
exotic, and the unconscious”.53 One sum, he concludes: “Ethnographic of Brazil, by Robert Southey, with edición de Sevilla, 1894, por Juan
of the points in common between surrealism and surrealist citations of the descriptions of Frei B. Bueno Medina. Bogotá: Prensas
ethnography and surrealism is that ethnography were constructs Gaspar de Carvajal and of the de la Biblioteca Nacional, 1942,
both are interested in the Other, an which mocked and remixed the Amazonian accounts of Colonel p. 13.
Other that, for the Paris of the first institutional definitions of art and Fawcett to the Royal Geographical
decades of the twentieth century, science.” 61 Society in 1910, of Roquette 9 MORAIS, Raimundo. Na
was found in Africa, Oceania and Pinto, Alexandre Ferreira, Pedro planície amazônica. Brasília:
America, continents that “provided If, in Europe, the search for the Faber Halembeck and of his friend Senado Federal, 2000, p. 136.
a reservoir of different forms and Other took place outside its own Gastão Cruls (Flávio de Carvalho:
beliefs.”54 According to Clifford, territory – Leiris, for example, o comedor de emoções, cit., p. 10 “Percorrerá regiões
ethnographic surrealism believes went to Africa –, in Brazil this 563). desconhecidas visitando afluentes
that the Other is a “crucial object “prehistorical” or “pre-Oedipus” do Rio Negro”, op. cit.
of modern research”55 – and here Other, to use the already- 4 “Percorrerá regiões
we can recall the observations mentioned terms used by Foster, desconhecidas visitando afluentes 11 Probably the Nukini tribe –
of Hal Foster in an essay that was found in our own lands. do Rio Negro”. In: Diário de S. observation made by Coutinho.
somehow dialogues with Clifford’s “Utopias,” observes Oswald de Paulo, Aug 24, 1958, p. 10, 1st
book, when foster relates the Andrade, “are a consequence of Section. The main thread of 12 COUTINHO Jr., Walter Alves.
interest in the Other with what the discovery of the New World the article makes the scientific Brancos e barbudos na Amazônia,
he calls “primitive fantasy,” that and above all the discovery of the intentions of the expedition Brasília: UNB, 1993, p. 299.
is, the association between the new man, of a different man found very clear: “It is destined to the
“primitive” and an earlier stage in American lands.”62 It was in ethnological, psychological and 13 J. Toledo, Flávio de Carvalho:
either of civilization (a kind of the figure of the cannibal Indian, artistic studies of the tribes and o comedor de emoções, op.
prehistory) or of the individual an inhabitant of the Americas, will be filmed in cinemascope – cit., p. 564. LEITE, Rui Moreira
himself (a “pre-Oedipus”) and, that Oswald found a sort of The itinerary of the expedition also mentions the development
mainly, when he problematizes foreboding image of the future includes the ‘Aimiri’ tribe that of this new outfit in his doctoral
anthropological practice and vision human being, as long as they could already slaughtered three identical thesis “Flávio de Carvalho
in contemporary art.56 Clifford free themselves from the moral, expeditions.” In the article, the (1899-1973): entre a experiência
recalled that it was not by chance religious, political and economic function of Flávio de Carvalho e a experimentação”. Doctoral
that the surrealist magazine constraints of patriarchal societies. is specified: “Architect Flávio de Thesis. São Paulo: Escola
Documents not only had as one of It was no coincidence that Flávio Carvalho (the introducer of modern de Comunicações e Artes da
its subtitles the word “ethnography” de Carvalho, who shared the architecture in Brazil) will lead Universidade de São Paulo, 1994,
– the others were “doctrines”, cannibalistic convictions of his a small group that will develop p. 119). As for the cinematographic
“archaeology” and “fine arts” – but friend Oswald, proposed to study scientific activities, studying equipment, according to J. Toledo,
it also provided interpretations of in his last expedition Indians who the ethnological, psychological Flávio bought cutting-edge
texts and works from ethnographic were, according to him, cannibals.63 and artistic aspects of the tribes equipment for filming in 16 mm,
perspectives. Analysing how this It is somehow in the Indian that visited.” among which were two Paillard-
group of writers linked to Bataille he saw a possibility for the future, Bolex cameras and 11 objective
and to Documents used the term, a possibility for human beings to 5 CARVALHO, Flávio de. lenses (Flávio de Carvalho: o
he reaches the conclusion that resist and survive: “Grande aventura nos confins da comedor de emoções, op. cit., p.
“ethnography” denotes, for them, Amazônia”. In: Diário de S. Paulo, 559).
“a radical questioning of norms”57: The cityman no longer knows São Paulo, Aug 28, 1958, p. 9, 1st
“Examining the word’s uses in a how to be supplied by nature nor Section. 14 J. Toledo tells that Eva
publication like Documents, we does he understand the forces should be the white goddess, but
see how ethnographic evidence that emanate from this telluric 6 ESTEVES, Norberto. “Meses Diário de S. Paulo informs that
and an ethnographic attitude nourishment. In the communion de solidão transformam a ‘deusa the white goddess was Olga (see
could function in the service of a between man and nature, what branca’ numa fera!”. In: Última TOLEDO, J., Flávio de Carvalho:
subversive cultural criticism.”58 And is rustic becomes basic; it is the Hora, Dec 19, 1958. Esteves’ o comedor de emoções, op.
he adds: simple madness of the beginning articles were published in a special cit., p. 566; “Percorrerá Regiões
that provides man with rejuvenating tabloid-size section and included in Desconhecidas Visitando Afluentes
forces and the possibility of the second edition of Última Hora do Rio Negro” cit.).
reestablishing himself and between December 1, 1958, and
continuing to exist.64 January 8, 1959.
15 CARVALHO, Flávio de. “Na 24 Idem. 37 Flávio de Carvalho had 49 CARVALHO, Flávio de.
fronteira do perigo”, unpublished contributed with a series of Os ossos do mundo, São
typewritten text, CEDAE collection, 25 Flávio de Carvalho, “Na donations. Paulo: Antiqua, 2005, pp. 61–2;
UNICAMP. Fronteira do Perigo,” p. 2, CARVALHO, Flávio de. “Ciência
unpublished typewritten text, 38 Tubal Vianna’s defence, e Lirismo”. In: Diário de S. Paulo,
16 “Percorrerá regiões CEDAE collection, UNICAMP. Relatório Figueiredo, vol. 23, pp. Sep 10, 1935 [interview with Roger
desconhecidas visitando afluentes 4–6. Caillois]; TOLEDO, J., Flávio de
do Rio Negro” op. cit.; TOLEDO, 26 CARVALHO, Flávio de. Carvalho: o comedor de emoções,
J. Flávio de Carvalho: o comedor “Conquistadores sedentos de 39 RENÉ, Gustavo. “Flávio de op. cit., p. 756.
de emoções, op. cit., p. 564. lucros levaram moléstias para a Carvalho realiza sua Experiência
Toledo tells that Flávio de Carvalho Amazônia”, op. cit. n° 4”. In: Revista do Globo, 50 FREITAS, Valeska. “Flávio de
would be taking 15,000 feet of Porto Alegre, Sep 20, 1958; Carvalho, leitor dos ‘gráficos da
colour film stock, 6,000 in black 27 ESTEVES, Norberto. LINGUANOTTO, Daniel. “Falhou cultura’”. In: MATTAR, Denise (ed.),
and white; photographic cameras, “Ouvindo o missionário, Flávio a Experiência nº 4 por causa da Flávio de Carvalho: 100 Anos de
a typewriter, radio-telephones, sonhava com mais um filme seu”. deusa branca”. In: Manchete, Rio um Revolucionário Romântico, op.
drawing and painting supplies and In: Última Hora, São Paulo, Jan 7, de Janeiro, Dec 20, 1958. cit., p. 62.
a small pharmacy. 1958, p. 5.
40 I did not yet find any mention 51 CARVALHO, Flávio de;
17 CARVALHO, Flávio de. 28 Idem. Esteves also says: “The by Flávio de Carvalho himself to BRETON, André. “Surrealismo:
“Grande aventura nos confins da first day of October was already this incursion through the Amazon entrevistando André Breton”. In:
Amazônia”. In: Diário de S. Paulo, over and nothing useful had been rainforest as Experiência nº 4 Cultura, a. I, n. 5, São Paulo, Feb–
São Paulo, Aug 28, 1958, p. 9, 1st done by the ‘man of experiments.’ [Experiment n. 4]. Mar 1939, p. 9.
Section. He imagined fantastic scenes!!!
Scenes that would deal a blow on 41 I discuss this experiment 52 CLIFFORD, James. “On
18 CARVALHO, Flávio de. all that the world’s cinematography in more detail in the essay Ethnographic Surrealism”. In: The
“Grande aventura nos confins da has ever done... Scenes that “Vacina antropofágica”. In: Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-
Amazônia”, op. cit. In an interview the world would watch agape: CASTRO ROCHA, João Cézar Century Ethnography, Literature,
to Diário de S. Paulo on May 1, the ‘abduction of Umbelina,’ the de, e RUFFINELLI, Jorge (ed.). and Art. Cambridge, Mass., and
1958, Flávio had already affirmed: ‘escape from the hut,’ the shamans Antropofagia Hoje? Oswald de London: Harvard University Press,
“There is another novel aspect and other great momentos of Andrade em Cena, São Paulo: É 2002.
in our expedition that has not yet the seventh art, that Flávio de Realizações, 2011, pp. 601–10.
been discussed. For the first time Carvalho’s supra-real imagination 53 Ibidem, p. 118.
in human history, fireworks will be could conceive. No to mention, of 42 CARVALHO, Flávio de. A
used as a psychological weapon course, the height of ‘suspense’ origem animal de Deus. São Paulo: 54 Ibidem, p. 120.
against the savage Indians. It will that would make Hitchekok [sic] cry Difusão Europeia do Livro, p. 55.
be a true innovation in the ‘warrior in disappointment for his meagre 55 Ibidem, p. 120.
art’ to those who are accustomed achievements so far: the fabulous 43 CARVALHO, Flávio de. “Flávio
to warfare only with bows and and grandiose ‘Vine Scene,’ which de Carvalho por ele mesmo”. In: 56 FOSTER, Hal. “The Artist
arrows. We will carry three types Flávio did not start to shoot only Flávio de Carvalho. São Paulo: as Ethnographer”. In: The Return
of rockets. One of them will be the because he could not find the MAM, 2010, p. 44. of the Real, Cambridge, Mass.;
‘Esputinique’ [Sputnik], which rises appropriate ‘décor’ in the jungles London: The MIT Press, 1996, pp.
400 metres into the air. Have you surrounding the great open field.” 44 CARVALHO, Flávio de. 175 and 180-203 respectively.
ever imagined, in the Amazonian “Motim na Amazônia”, unpublished
expanse, the spectacle of colourful 29 Flávio de Carvalho’s account typewritten text, CEDAE collection, 57 CLIFFORD, James. “On
fireworks seen by a savage...?” reproduced by TOLEDO, J., UNICAMP. Ethnographic Surrealism”, op. cit.,
Flávio de Carvalho: o comedor de p. 129.
19 CARVALHO, Flávio de. emoções, op. cit., p. 577. 45 CARVALHO, Flávio de. “Flávio
“Grande aventura nos confins da de Carvalho por ele mesmo”, op. 58 Ibidem, p. 130.
Amazônia”, op. cit. 30 Flávio de Carvalho’s account, cit., p. 46.
op. cit., p. 577. 59 Ibidem, p. 130.
20 Idem. 46 TOLEDO, J. Flávio de
31 Idem. Carvalho: o comedor de emoções, 60 Ibidem, p. 131.
21 “Percorrerá regiões op. cit., p. 463.
desconhecidas visitando afluentes 32 Ibidem, p. 579. 61 Ibidem, p. 147.
do Rio Negro”, op. cit. 47 Published in Diário de S.
33 Ibidem, p. 581. Paulo, Sep 24, 1936. 62 ANDRADE, Oswald de. “A
22 CARVALHO, Flávio de. marcha das utopias”. In: A utopia
“Conquistadores Sedentos de 34 Ibidem, pp. 582-83. 48 CARVALHO, Flávio de. “A antropofágica, São Paulo: Globo,
Lucros Levaram Moléstias para a única arte que presta é a arte Secretaria de Estado da Cultura,
Amazônia,” Diário de S. Paulo, Oct 35 Ibidem, p. 578. anormal”. In: Flávio de Carvalho: 1990, p. 163.
7, 1958, p. 6, 1st Section. 100 Anos de um Revolucionário
36 Telegram sent by Tubal Fialho Romântico, Rio de Janeiro: CCBB,
23 Idem. Vianna, undated, SPI collection, 1999, p. 72.
Museu do Índio.
136-137
63 Flávio de Carvalho stated at a A MEDIA ARTIST SEEKING the art-collection-and-exhibition Stigmatised and still
conference at USP’s Architecture “EMOTIONAL IMPACT ON THE modern paradigms after consulting isolated – in a city that still had not
and Urbanism College, in 1963: BRAZILIAN NATION” with the couple Pietro and Lina absorbed the restricted actions of
“They say there are no cannibals Ana Maria Maia Bo Bardi. In addition, the museum the Modern Week, so it remained
in the upper Amazon region, but devoted itself to organising an conservative and provincial –,
there are cannibals, and we have Among illustrations, educational programme of courses Flávio approached newsrooms
had contact with several tribes that anonymous texts, classified ads, and “didactic exhibitions.” that brought together avant-garde
practice cannibalism in the upper letters to the reader and signed These events, as well intellectuals, such as critics Luís
Amazon. The Shiriana people articles, Flávio de Carvalho as the creation of the São Paulo Martins and Geraldo Ferraz
are one of them. The Waimiri featured in the Brazilian press International Art Biennial in 1951,4 and writers and artists linked to
of our previous contact are also promoting avant-garde ideas constituted the urgency that the the modernist movement, such
cannibals” (“Flávio de Carvalho por and eliciting reactions from art circuit shared with the press at as Oswald de Andrade, Mário
Ele Mesmo” cit., p. 43). audiences since the turn of the that moment: an urgency to reach de Andrade and Di Cavalcanti.
1930s. Between 1955 and 1956, (and to some extent control) the In 1928, the latter invited him
64 CARVALHO, Flávio de. he embarked on one of his most masses. On the institutional scale, to illustrate theatre and ballet
“Na fronteira com o perigo,” systematic forays into the press, in there was an anxiety to accelerate performances for Diário da N
unpublished typewritten text, which he articulated his architect’s the pace of development and oite. His drawings of dancers
CEDAE collection, UNICAMP. drawing board and the writing bring Brazil up to a level closer such as Chinita Ullman, Carleto,
of a newspaper column, “Casa, to the world powers, Europe and Loïe Fuller and Josephine Baker
Homem, Paisagem” [House, Man, the United States. This march, contributed to the development
Landscape], in the newspaper according to critic Mário Pedrosa, of the Expressionist trend8 in his
Diário de S. Paulo. In a series of would have “doomed [the country] visual works. In addition, the work
texts and illustrations, the artist, to modernity,”5 that is, guaranteed environment of Diário led to some
architect and cultural operator, modernization, even if disregarding of his main partnerships (like Di
designed ways for a modern popular participation. On the scale Cavalcanti, with whom he kept,
city that would culminate in his of individuals or groups of artists, from 1932 to 1934, the Club of
Experiência Nº 3 [Experiment No. symptoms or oppositions to the Modern Artists – CAM)9 and the
3]. institutional model emerged. Taking perception that the press could
While, in these advantage of their loopholes and continue being a place for his
initiatives dating back to the first risking misunderstanding, these work, a field of experimentation
half of the twentieth century, specific initiatives circumscribed with texts, graphic works and
newspapers and magazines and the modern – in its chronological performance and, above all, an
soon television were all tested as threshold with the contemporary – “arena for public action.”10
part of the public sphere, there in a problematic not only aesthetic, During the 1930s and
were numerous efforts towards the but also ethical and political. Not 1950s, alongside his participation
cosmopolitanization of the main only in museums and galleries, but, in art exhibitions and architectural
cities of Brazil. The real estate of course, also in the mass media. contests, as well as his activity
race to inaugurate Brasília, the Upon returning from as a cultural operator at CAM
new capital city, ratified throughout his studies in England, shortly and in the May Salons [Salões
the country the developmentalist after the Modern Art Week of 1922 de Maio] (1937–1939),11 Flávio
march of the “50 years in 5.”1 The in São Paulo, Flávio de Carvalho maintained his uncomfortable
goal was not only to modernize sought employment and a presence in the city’s affairs
the urban space and lifestyle, but network of interlocutors. Trained in with several publications in
mainly to educate the population to architecture and taking advantage newspapers and magazines. He
keep up with the changes. of the prestige of his aristocratic submitted articles and followed
On September 18, family, he was soon employed by the repercussion of his proposals
1950, the country’s first television traditional firms, such as Barros through readers’ letters sections;12
station, TV Tupi Difusora, was Oliva and Ramos de Azevedo.6 created pseudonyms to talk about
inaugurated in São Paulo. 2
The only four years of his formal himself;13 published objective but
Not surprisingly, Assis career as an architect were short also anecdotal and poetic classified
Chateaubriand, the patron of this but he had many quarrels with his ads. He became a recurring
venture and an industrialist who colleagues. There were conflicts character in social columns, being
owned the media conglomerate between the goals of an untimely mythified, polemicised and even
Diários Associados, also researcher – interested in the ridiculed by several journalists, but
commissioned the foundation of relationship between the social always in the news.
the São Paulo Museum of Art space and other disciplines, such The artist, a forerunner
(MASP) in 1947. With the Modern as ethnology, crowd psychology, of contemporary practices such as
Art Museums of Rio de Janeiro and theatre and fashion – and the performance art by realising his
São Paulo (MAM), opened in 1948, pillars of a constructive knowledge series of Experiments (with three
once again by private patrons,3 still academic, but which would editions: 1931, 1956 and 1958),
and the Art Department of the result, already in the 1940s, in fostered what critic Rui Moreira
Municipal Library of São Paulo the Brazil Builds generation,7 Leite called “interactive situations,”
(1945), MASP adhered to the dominant strand of modern in which he “negotiated the course
architecture in Brazil. of events in real time.”14
The press, like the streets, was defended the underground as an of man.”23 On July 24, the artist This pioneering spirit
attentive to these situations, in “economical solution” and speed turned away from the repertoire asserted itself as a legacy over
which the artist could meet and also as a condition “imposed by the he had been accumulating and the decades. The “electronic
confront the crowd, becoming an desire of the new man,”18 with focused on a theory of fashion, performance,”29 made more than
engine of alterity, being a “social readings that fell within visual presenting a practical proposition, ten years before the first Brazilian
reagent,”15 as Flávio himself defined communication, anthropology and a summer outfit for the man from video art works were created, was
it. biology arguments. the tropics. Rejecting the “trousers, regarded by Kac as “one of the
In 1955, São Paulo’s In the defence of a waistcoat and jacket” scheme first manifestations of avant-garde
cultural scene had already been “telluric duty,”19 already present in from the seventeenth-century that art in the context of television
boosted by three editions of the thesis about The Nude Man’s persisted in the city, he designed and video.”30 Internationally, it
the International Art Biennial, City [A cidade do homem nu] a men’s outfit comprising a skirt, was preceded only by Spatialist
the activities of the modern art (1930), he pondered the symbolic fishnets and a windbreaker with Television, Lucio Fontana’s
museum, of Teatro Brasileiro de and ancestral dimensions that vibrant colours and a wire arming experiment broadcast in Italy in
Comédia (1948), of the film studio characterise the human habitat. to prevent contact between the 1952.
Companhia Cinematográfica Vera In this sense, he argued in his fabric and the skin, allowing Flávio developed,
(1949), of Teatro de Arena (1953),16 February 4 column that “the house ventilation and cooling one’s especially between the late 1920s
besides TV Tupi’s broadcasts. is identified with the mother’s body.24 and the 1960s, a free and broad
Having accumulated rejections of womb and, even more so, with a The novelty was access to the Brazilian press,
architectural projects in contests divine womb when we talk about a already having repercussions in the supported by the friendships
and postulating an increasingly tree.”20 On February 26, he wrote city, but Flávio wanted to promote he cultivated with critics,
fierce opposition to abstractionism that “the tendencies of living beings it even more, so it would perhaps journalists and owners of mass
in art and to modern functionalism become a consequence of the even come to be adopted. Thus, communication outlets, such
in architecture, Flávio began landscape and of the vegetation at on October 18, 1956, he himself as Assis Chateaubriand. The
writing a column in Diário de S. first through intestinal ties – later, in wore the outfit – nicknamed New media success of Experiência
Paulo, “Casa, Homem, Paisagem” the course of rudimentary mental Look, in reference to Christian nº 3 generated an expectation
[House, Man, Landscape], appreciation, the first affective Dior’s fashion collection25 – and for news stories that the artist-
published almost every day in the bonds are formed.”21 walked through the streets of architect would take advantage of
first section of the newspaper. These passages downtown São Paulo. On the way, as a demand two years later, in
The column resembled exemplify the transdisciplinary he visited the Diários Associados 1958. When he began planning
the news coverage of subjects nature of the proposals of Flávio building on Sete de Abril street, his trip to the Amazon to find the
related to urbanism and to the de Carvalho, who saw in the and stood on a table for journalists Shiriana tribe and make the film
demographic growth of the city, column a space for the daily to photograph and interview him. about goddess Umbelina Valéria,
but Eduardo Kac defends its dissemination of his “total art” and The result was a vast coverage Flávio sold news stories about
singularity. of his expressionist humanism, of the case. His Experiência nº 3 the journey before hand and
focused on an “intensification of featured in newspapers all over thus helped pay for it. Thus, his
The key difference is that while ways of life.”22 The column became Brazil, the two main magazines in reports about the mission, and
news coverage represents the the channel for circulation of an circulation at the time, Manchete even the arguments among the
initiative of reporters to interpret idea of anthropomorphic and and O Cruzeiro, as well as team members that motivated its
second-hand facts according to the laboratory city, originating from the publications in Argentina, Italy and cancellation, spread through news
editorial line of the organisations experiences of curious individuals, the United States, including Time pages such as Diário da Noite,
for which they work, Flávio de free from sociocultural taboos. Life magazine.26 The artist-architect Folha da Manhã, O Globo, Jornal
Carvalho made artistic and The March 4 issue, “A grande collected all these press clippings da Bahia,31 and Time magazine,32
authorial interventions planned imaginação do limite vagando and, in a lecture on the subject in among others. Without the results
to disseminate his avant-garde pela rua” [The Great Imagination 1963, affirmed that the material he initially expected, Experiência
vision among the general public. of the Limit Wandering the Street], attested to “the emotional impact nº 4 spawned an original use of
His media work did not report explored the theme of clothing, that [the outfit] had on the Brazilian mass communication once again in
external facts; it was the fact itself, which Flávio believed to be a key nation.”27 Flávio’s work.
originating meanings.17 element of modernisation, even After a trip to Italy,
before architecture and urbanism. Flávio made a second appearance
“House, Man, With this article, another column, in the press wearing his New Look.
Landscape” was formed by texts entitled “A moda e o novo homem” In January 1957 he participated
and, in some cases, illustrations [Fashion and the New Man], was in a television programme on TV
based on which the author born within the column “Casa, Record recorded live in his studio,
designed ways toward a utopian Homem, Paisagem” [House, Man, presented by actors Paulo Autran
city. In little more than twenty Landscape]. and Tônia Carrero. Remembering
editions, published between In about 40 texts, these events, biographer J. Toledo
December 22, 1955, and March published up until November 1956, emphasised that the artist “skilfully
4, 1956, Flávio demonstrated the the artist-architect presented his used printed media and the
bases of his divergence from a studies and ideas on fashion as a novelty of television to promote his
kind of architecture and urbanism structure responsible for a “process inventiveness and ideas, becoming
that restricted the technical of [historical] suggestibility” that the only intellectual of his
knowledge of design and planning. “prognoses catastrophic social time to do so with such mastery
He mixed proposals such as a events, beneficial or not, with the and fuss.”28
road rearrangement in which he intention of ensuring the survival
138-139
1 Slogan of the government of of our formation, doomed to 10 LEITE, Rui Moreira. “Flavio environment, to psychically touch
Juscelino Kubitschek, president modernity.” (See PEDROSA, de Carvalho: media artist avant the tempestuous emotion of the
of Brazil from 1956 to 1961, Mário. In: “Cidade Nova: la lettre”. In: KAC, Eduardo. A collective soul, to perceive the flow
aiming at the quick development síntese das artes”. Congresso radical intervention: the Brazilian of this emotion, to cause revolt
of some productive sectors of Internacional de Críticos de Arte. contribution to the International in order to see something of the
the country. In only five years, LOBO, Maria da Silveira; SEGRE, Electronic Art Movement, unconscious.” (CARVALHO, Flávio
in addition to building Brasília, Roberto (org.). Rio de Janeiro: special project of Leonardo de. Experiência nº 2: uma possível
he developed works to improve Docomomo, 2009, p. 29). On-Line journal, Vol. 37, No. 2, teoria e uma experiência: realizada
energy, transportation, food, basic 2004. Available at: <http://www. sobre uma procissão de Corpus
industry and education. The so- 6 Flávio de Carvalho worked leonardo.info/isast/spec.projects/ Christi. Rio de Janeiro: Editora
called “Plan of Goals” embedded in the Barros de Oliva office from MoreiraLeite/moreiraleite.html>. Nau, 2001, p. 16.)
in the populist slogan “50 years in 1922 to 1925, and in the Ramos de Retrieved July 1, 2015.
5” the ambition to bring an end to Azevedo office from 1925 to 1927. 16 Teatro Oficina, directed by
underdevelopment in the country 11 The May Salons were still José Celso Martinez Correia,
still during his term. 7 Brazil Builds: Architecture new idealised by Quintino da Silva and was born only in 1958, at the XI
and old is a 1942 project, formed a commission formed by Geraldo de Agosto Academic Centre, at
2 RIBEIRO, Ana Paula Goulart; by an exhibition and a book, Ferraz, Paulo de Magalhães, Largo São Francisco, with the
SACRAMENTO, Igor; ROSO, curated by Philip Goodwin, at the Irene Bojano and Madeleine intention of creating a new form of
Marco. História da televisão no Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Roux. (See LEITE, Rui Moreira. theatre, critical of the increasingly
Brasil: do início aos dias de hoje. in New York. In order to promote “Flávio de Carvalho (1899- bourgeois values of Teatro
São Paulo: Contexto, 2010, p. 17. Brazilian architectural production, 1973): entre a experiência e a Brasileiro de Comédia [Brazilian
especially those projects that experimentação”. PhD thesis. São Theatre of Comedy] and of the
3 Francisco Ciccillo Matarazzo emerged in the country after the Paulo, Universidade de São Paulo, nationalism of Teatro de Arena.
in São Paulo and a group presided conception and beginning of the 1994, p. 76.) (See Enciclopédia Itaú Cultural.
over by Raymundo Ottoni de construction of the Ministry of Available at: <http://enciclopedia.
Castro Maia in Rio de Janeiro. Education and Health (1936-1945) 12 The artist collected these itaucultural.org.br/grupo112413/
in Rio de Janeiro, the exhibition letters in a scrapbook that is now teatro-oficina>. Retrieved July 1,
4 Created as part of MAM’s brought together works by Lúcio part of the research fund dedicated 2015.)
programme, the event was initially Costa, Oscar Niemeyer, Affonso to his work, at the State University
called Bienal do Museu de Arte Eduardo Reidy, Rino Levi and of Campinas. 17 KAC, Eduardo. In: LEITE, Rui
Moderna de São Paulo [Biennial Vilanova Artigas, among others. Moreira, op. cit., 2004, p. 5.
of the São Paulo Museum of After New York, Brazil Builds was 13 In 1928, while participating
Modern Art]. And so it was exhibited, between 1943 and 1945, in the contest for the project of 18 CARVALHO, Flávio de. “As
called until 1963, when Ciccillo in London and many cities in North the Government Palace of São cidades no amanhecer do século
Matarazzo, patron and collector of America and Brazil. Paulo, in which all contestants e o novo homem”. Diário de S.
the institution, no longer wanted to used pseudonyms, Flávio de Paulo, “Casa, homem, paisagem”,
maintain the museum and donated 8 Luiz Carlos Daher, in his Carvalho wrote for the newspaper Dec 25, 1955.
its collection to the University of dissertation on the expressionist Diário da Noite pretending to be a
São Paulo, originating the Museum aspects of Flávio de Carvalho’s reader who wanted to publish his 19 Flávio wrote five texts related
of Contemporary Art (MAC). From visual and architectural works, impressions about the projects. to the theme “the telluric duty of
then on, the biannual event was argues that in the drawings of That was a way for the artist- man.”
organised autonomously by the dances the artist conceived architect to be a judge of his
São Paulo Biennial Foundation. dance at one and the same time own cause. The invented reader 20 CARVALHO, Flávio de. “A
(See CHAIMOVICH, Felipe. “O as “synthesis” and “stylisation”, claimed to be an engineer who paisagem sorridente e a floresta
museu nômade” in FABRIS, representation and denaturation of attested to the quality of Efficácia, – a descida da árvore – origens
Annateresa; CHAIMOVICH, Felipe; the vital movement. (See DAHER, a proposal submitted by Flávio de do direito de propriedade”. Diário
LAGNADO, Lisette; OSORIO, Luiz Luiz Carlos. “Flávio de Carvalho: Carvalho (See LEITE, Rui Moreira, de S. Paulo, “Casa, homem,
Camillo (ed.), op. cit., pp. 55–62) arquitetura e expressionismo”. op. cit., 2004, p. 2). paisagem”, Feb 5, 1956.
Master’s dissertation. São Paulo,
5 At the opening of the Universidade de São Paulo, 1982, 14 LEITE, Rui Moreira, op. cit., 21 CARVALHO, Flávio de.
Extraordinary Congress of p. 130.) 2004, p. 4. “XI – A paisagem sorridente e
Art Critics that Mário Pedrosa a consequência, o homem – a
organised in 1959 about the 9 In addition to Flávio and Di, 15 In the book Experiência paisagem post-modern e o homem
construction of the new Brazilian Antonio Gomide and Carlos nº 2, written in 1931 to narrate em voo”. Diário de S. Paulo, “Casa,
capital, he affirmed that “Brasília Prado were also responsible for the episode in which Flávio de homem, paisagem”, Feb 26, 1956.
is not simply an artifice foreign CAM. (See TOLEDO, J. Flávio de Carvalho walked in a religious
to the history of the country,” Carvalho: o comedor de emoções. procession in the opposite 22 At the conference “A cidade
“it is a decisive step of this Campinas: Brasiliense and Editora direction of the believers, the do homem nu” [The Nude Man’s
history” –, towards the central da Universidade Estadual de artist affirms that his goal was: City], presented at the Fifth Pan-
assertion, copiously replayed by Campinas, 1994, p. 131). “to unveil the soul of the believers American Congress of Architecture
historiography: “our past is not by means of any reagent that in July 1930, Flávio defended the
fatal, because we remake it every allowed me to study their reaction long term development plan for a
day. And it barely governs our fate. in their faces, gestures, steps, city-laboratory, where man would
We are, due to the very fatality looks, to feel the pulse of the “intensify” his experiences guided
by a single institution, the “research in TV Continental station, in Rio NEMUS OR SOME NOTES ON a phallic symbol, worshiped as part
centre” (See CARVALHO, Flávio de Janeiro, it was only used by TV THE GENEALOGY OF ART of the cult of fertility.4
de. “Uma tese curiosa”. In: MAIA, Tupi, in São Paulo, in 1959. Larissa Costa da Mata In 1890, Scottish
Ana Maria; REZENDE, Renato anthropologist Sir James Frazer,
(eds.). Flávio de Carvalho. Coleção 31 The newspaper Diário da N From an examination of the from the English social school,
Encontros. Rio de Janeiro: Editora oite published news stories such Teutonic words for ‘temple’ published the first edition of his
Azougue, 2015, pp. 32–41). as “Flávio de Carvalho gives up Grimm has made it probable that book The Golden Bough, formed
his petticoat and travels to the Rio amongst the Germans the oldest by no less than twelve volumes
23 CARVALHO, Flávio de. “Autor Negro region to film the indians” sanctuaries were natural woods. discussing the rituals of celebration
aponta”. In Cohn, Sergio; Pimenta, (March 4, 1958) and “Flávio de However this may be, tree-worship of Spring and plant gods (such as
Heyk (eds.). A moda e novo Carvalho looks for a blonde to star is well attested for all the great Dionysus and Persephone, among
homem. Rio de Janeiro: Editora in ‘Deusa Umbelina’” (April 28, European families of the Aryan others) in many different cultures,
Azougue, 2010, p. 13. 1958); Diário de Notícias published stock. Amongst the Celts the oak- whether in the African and Oceanic
“Flávio de Carvalho: returns from worship of the Druids is familiar to tribes or in Greco-Roman antiquity.
24 CARVALHO, Flávio de. “Nova the indians” (November 19, 1958); every one, and their old word for a The brief reflection in this text is
moda para o novo homem - moda in Folha da Manhã, “The Amazon sanctuary seems to be identical in based precisely on the aspects
de verão para a cidade”. Diário region is no ‘green hell’; the only origin and meaning with the Latin pointed out by his etymological
de S. Paulo, São Paulo, June 24, beasts I saw there are from the nemus, a grove or woodland glade, investigation of the word nemus,
1956. city” (December 5, 1958); O which still survives in the name of which corresponds, as we saw
Globo published “He was looking Nemi. Sacred groves were common in the epigraph, to a dubious
25 Christian Dior’s New Look for blond indians but only found among the ancient Germans, meaning, between the forest, the
was launched in 1947. It is the Shiriana” (November 24, and tree-worship is hardly extinct clearing and the temple, making its
characterised by a skirt falling 1958); Jornal da Bahia reported amongst their descendants at the residual sense of worship emerge
below mid-calf length and a “Flávio de Carvalho returns from present day. (Sir James Frazer, in the origin of the image – a
wasp-waisted suit. It was seen as his adventures with the Shiriana The Golden Bough). double of the word.
a revolution in postwar women’s indians.” The number of articles As is well known,
attire. about that trip is huge and quite As we know, the Flávio de Carvalho was very
diverse. The Flávio de Carvalho metaphor of plants is extremely knowledgeable about James
26 According to biographer J. fund, which has a newspaper rich, as we can see from its Frazer,5 who was mentioned in his
Toledo, “there were news trucks collection on the artist, keeps developments in aesthetics, in texts alongside Sigmund Freud,
from the incipient television, around 70 items related to the anthropological and historical Bronisław Malinowski and Leo
cinema, radio and almost all subject. (Toledo, J., 1994, p. 594). studies and in philosophy. There Frobenius, among others, in order
powerful newspapers of the are, for example, the photographs to reflect on his art within what he
capital, from Rio and even some 32 On November 22, 1958, the of flowers by Karl Blossfeldt, had called “psychoethnography”,
correspondents from the United Latin American edition of Time that so fascinated Georges a hybrid science that sought
States (Time Life), Argentina and magazine described the trip and Bataille, thanks to the power of to expose the wounds of the
Italy, who waited impatiently for published a short biography of Blossfeldt’s images in removing human psyche and carry out
the imponderable parade that Flávio de Carvalho in the text the symbolic character of the an investigation of aesthetics,
was to happen in the conservative “Playboy at Work” (See Idem). corollas of flowers – an element adopting the discoveries of
‘bandeirante capital.’ (See of purity – allowing something psychoanalysis as a method.6
TOLEDO, J., 1994, p. 561) of the order of putrefaction and Traces of this disciplinary hybridism
accident to emerge.1 Or even the can be found in all of his writings
27 LEITE, Rui Moreira, op. cit., insects studied by Roger Caillois, since the 1930s, such as O
2004, p. 3. Flávio wanted to edit practitioners of a mimicry that Mecanismo da emoção amorosa
a book about the subject, but sometimes turned them into dry [The Mechanism of Amorous
he passed away before having branches, grimly merging them Emotion] to the 1950s, like the
done so. The Azougue publishing into the landscape, sometimes series A moda e o novo homem
company compiled the texts of the denoting the terrifying face of [Fashion and the new man] (1956)7
column “A moda e o novo homem” a mask or of another animal.2 and Os gatos de Roma / Notas
[Fashion and the New Man] in Besides, it is worth mentioning para a reconstrução de um mundo
2010. Benin’s sculptures reproduced by perdido [The Cats of Rome / N
Carl Einstein in the Documents otes for the reconstruction of a
28 TOLEDO, J. 1994, p. 517. magazine, some of which consist lost world] (1957-1958).8 His
of “fetish-trees” represented in proximity with the English social
29 KAC, Eduardo. In: LEITE, Rui bronze as an indication of the school of anthropology enabled
Moreira, op. cit., 2004, p. 5. sophistication of the sculptural him to have a freer and more
methods employed by civilizations unruly interpretation of art, since
30 Idem. There is no video considered “primitive” by the he devoted himself to carrying out
recording of the action because in Europeans.3 And also the African an imaginative and poetic form
1956 the Tupi television station still myths illustrated by Flávio de of ethnology, contributing to the
did not use videotape equipment Carvalho in his unpublished book magical association of ideas from
to record live broadcasts. Although O mecanismo da emoção amorosa the cultures studied by Frazer.
that year the technology had [The Mechanism of the Amorous In his unpublished book
already been introduced in Brazil Emotion], which refer to the tree as O mecanismo da emoção amorosa
140-141
[The Mechanism of the Amorous one that best “represents the Maria Rilke’s death. It is worth that is, “to stretch by drawing,”
Emotion], originally about the fusion between plant and animal mentioning that in the belligerent by strength.17 This second
conference presented in Prague life forms of the forest”, while context of World War II, Heidegger etymological suggestion could
at the International Congress of the Baroque becomes a form of saw man as a subject destined also be thought of as a form of
Psychotechnique in 1934, Carvalho expression typical of cities, that is, to the word and open to the deterritorialised knowledge, as
finds in the legends gathered by of the author’s time. The Gothic advent of his own death, while were the lamb livers reproduced
Leo Frobenius during his African also refers to the many examples technology had deprived the world in Warburg’s Atlas Mnemosyne,
expedition,9 like that of Omoroca of fertility ceremonies brought of its sacred character. Then, which make us understand that
or the “woman-origin”, and in ritual by anthropology and to spring according to Félix Duque (2006), templum is also a doorway to the
ceremonies, the representation of celebrations, like the staging of the Heidegger saw a resemblance future, a fragment of space and
the tree as a symbol of virility, as meeting of Dionysus, the first hero between penury and need, since time simultaneously.18
opposed to uterine metaphors – and the first actor – with the nymph both constitute the subject as lack Now, in proposing that
that of the lake – and of the vagina. Ariadne. and as truth.14 For the German the origin be manifested in the flow
This is because, for the author, philosopher, penury was the very of the “primitive” nomad, Flávio
history is marked by moments […] The strange plant forms inability to understand the absence de Carvalho reinforces, as Raúl
of struggle between disparate inhabited by wonderful monsters, of God as lack, so that the mark of Antelo points out in “Só Centros:
elements, the male and female legendary beings and an endless the sacred, turned unrecognisable Elipses” (2014), a post-autonomic
powers, one of which would world, were memories of a time in by terror, could only be pursued perspective of modernity (and
predominate at different moments which the worship was practiced by poets. of modernisms), operating a
in history. in the forest among the howls of Literary creation displacement of the centres of the
Between 1957 and beasts and the song of birds, to the and aesthetics, as Heidegger globe and of thought, which has
1958, in the lost world series, sound of monotonous hymns and demonstrates, are situated in this as a consequence the mobilization
published in Diário de S. Paulo, cries of hysteria, at the fecundating crevice between heaven and earth of the periphery. This idea
the artist reversed the logic that festivals of spring and summer and or in the hollow bosom of space consists in reviewing a series of
the forest could be considered a during the worship of the Queen itself. This hiatus is the place and concepts favoured by the Brazilian
prefiguration of origin – existing, who lay on the altar, giving herself the moment in which the being modernists and by the modernist
for example, in the literature to the hero, before the enchanted is created with the extinction of critics. In this sense, Antelo
of Brazilian modernism and looks of spectators, to magically its authority when and where his situates Flávio de Carvalho next to
in the philosophy of Hermann ensure the fertility of the earth thought is transformed into poetry. another nomad intellectual just like
von Keyserling – proposing the and continuity of the species. “The poet thinks into the place that him, Clarice Lispector:
present and the city of Rome as Eventually the hero became the is determined from that illumination
departing points for his reflection shaman himself.12 of being which has been stamped […] Where Clarice says mirror,
on aesthetics. Not accidentally, as as the realm in which Western one should read centre, head.
the title of the first part of the series Therefore, for Flávio de metaphysics is fulfilled.”15 Thus, Modernism thought its flow
indicates, it began to be conceived Carvalho, the clearing is a place it would no longer be possible to from the centre. It attributed to it
when the Brazilian artist travelled for the emergence of several forms determine a priori criteria for the consistency, dynamism, duration,
to Rome in 1956 to parade wearing of art: architecture, the staging of creation and evaluation of works autonomy. It gave it the name of a
his Summer outfit for men, the New tragic theatre and poetry. Referring of art, conditions that would find street, city, literature. The concepts
Look, and for an exhibition of his to a ritual that would seem devoid justification in a flattened structure of those who dominate, Benjamin
paintings at Galeria L’Obelisco.10 As of meaning in the present, the of time and History. Therefore, used to say, have always been
we see in this series, for Carvalho, clearing assumes many different the Heideggerian clearing would mirrors thanks to which the image
aesthetics was an opening at constitutions like pictures, the provide an open perspective to the of order was born. As we know,
the order of the visible and of a museum and the stage, heralding future.16 from the Cartesian cogito, a strong
construct of archaic sensations, the beginning of art without However, the art that dualism is imposed on the romantic
memories and symptoms of the divinity. In “As feridas abertas was born without its own soil with aesthetics: on the one hand, the
species that reveals itself in artistic da arqueologia. O europeu quer the withdrawal of the (divine) soul, confused with thought; on
forms, in behaviours and gestures a guerra” [The open wounds of foundation, does not do it without the other, the body, which is pure
of humans and sculptures. archaeology. The European wants regretting loss, without seeking movement. This kind of literature in
The forest of the lost war], another text of the series, to reproduce the image of this search of souls to dissect, smash
world translates into the ancient we see that the war impulse that theological essence. If, in fact, and catalog, is extremely common
time of birth of the worship of moved the old continent would we verify the etymology of the under literary autonomy.19
trees and heroes, but also in the be transmuted into the lacerated word nemus (temple or clearing) This displacement
instance in which living plant forms images of the body of Christ by proposed by Grimm, we will see of the centre also belongs to a
branched out and became temples, art, signs of an impulse founded that term certainly evokes a wide subversion of the chronological
made up of tree trunks, that on history, also expressed in the space, from where it should be order in the case of Flávio de
reappear in cities with the telluric advent of empires such as the possible to visualise the firmament, Carvalho, so that the artist will
appeal of the aesthetics of the Roman empire and totalitarian since it is destined to the worship understand the aesthetic emotion
Gothic and the Baroque styles. In States.13 of the gods. Besides, temple, as a gap revealing a submerged
“A Floresta e o Gótico” [The Forest In 1946, Martin “an open space marked out by layer of time, just as the primitive
and the Gothic],11 the eighth text Heidegger anticipated some of the augur for the observation of would dissociate itself, for him,
of the series, Carvalho defines the Flávio de Carvalho’s conclusions the sky, consecrated place”, also from the notion of genesis.
Gothic as a “phylogenetic reversion in his text “What Are Poets For?” derives from temp, “to stretch, The temple can
of the old forest sanctuaries”. For written on the occasion of the strain, extend”, whence also the therefore be expanded through
him, this period of art is the twentieth anniversary of Rainer Lithuanian term Tempiù, tempti, a march, as the “primitive” of
Flávio de Carvalho would do in In addition, it is no imagination (rather than the However, in a counter-revolutionary
his faltering walk after abandoning coincidence that the temples visible) in art, concealed by the reading, he shows that the
the tree, his first abode. In fact, of Antiquity were built so as to veil of dreams in the forest of the organic is always composed of
one of the few indigenous peoples integrate a view of the sky, the lost world, just as in his drawings inorganicity (and vice-versa), of
mentioned in the “Notes for the landscape and vegetation, like the eyes of human figures are a portion of the negative of itself.
reconstruction of a lost world”, the Partenon and the Erecteion pierced and torn by lines of force. This negative element should
the Abipones, is nomadic, as of Athens, both situated on hills, The clearing frees the work and not be understood only as an
can be seen in An Account of the above the horizon. A similar the subject to interpretation, a opposite of itself, but as a refusal
Abipones, an Equestrian People architecture is manifested in notion that involves different to assume a single form, a power
of Paraguay (1822), by Austrian museums, that emerge in the late possibilities of reading and that results from the conflict
missionary Martin Dobrizhofer. 19th century following a structure reproduction of the gestures of between oppositions, as well as
Dobrizhoffer explains that the similar to that of the temple, using others. Thus, the Brazilian artist from another time that pulsates,
South American people that the mimesis of divinity. Therefore, finds, within the forest, the scenery hidden by its own appearance. For
inhabited, among other places, the authenticity of the work of art and condition necessary for the this reason, the forest and the city,
the Chaco peninsula, was often and its revelation of a transient emergence of fiction, art – dance, the “transcendental” Gothic and
persecuted by the Spaniards and truth is due to what it shares with singing, drawing and theatre. the lustful Baroque, men and work,
therefore wandered extensively the temple: the power to make a The interpretation is thought walk together and refuse to allow
in all territories, whenever they god known and of not reflecting by Flávio de Carvalho through the stability of matter.
had the opportunity to attack their an event, a model, but of being the comprehensive notion of German art historian
enemies or to avoid them, crossing the expression of a vision of the simulation, a characteristic that Carl Einstein had a lot in common
valleys and lakes, unstable invisible: made up the poetic even before the with Flávio de Carvalho, namely
surfaces, generally favourable to distinction between sobbing and an anarchist political leaning
escape.20 Standing there, the temple first singing, between song and poetry: and an interest in African plastic
It should be pointed out gives to things their look, and to language as a way to subvert
that the organization around trees men their outlook on themselves. The Hero was the animistic saviour the symbolic link between the
is not necessarily a characteristic This view remains open as long as of man and his worship took place sign and its meaning, the very
of the forest, as it resists in cities, the work is a work, as long as the in the forest, following the ancient thing Carl Einstein considered a
in States, as a way to celebrate god has not fled from it. So it is, too, connection between man and “dictatorship of the visible” imposed
the origin, inasmuch as – as with the sculpture of the god which tree, the hysterical is the eternal on art. Moreover, like the Brazilian
psychoanalysis and philosophy the victor of the athletic games actor that will show the world the intellectual, Carl collected African
attest – the tree harboured the dedicates to him. The work is not a importance of lies in the creation of myths and legends, many of which
spirit of the ancestors of the tribe portrait intended to make it easier to Homo Socius, hysterical simulation were taken from the work of Leo
and of the founders of empires recognize what the god looks like. became the most important Frobenius, which, according Liliane
such as the Roman. As such, It is, rather, a work which allows feature of Theatre and found in the Meffre, were inseparable from the
it refers to the emergence of the god himself to presence and is, forest its shelter par excellence. interpretation of the plastic work in
institutions (the Forum and the therefore, the god himself.23 A sleeping Man dreaming is the his writings.26 Either in Negerplastik
Law, the ground zero) and to being in an ideal state of freedom [Negro Sculpture] and in African
the establishment of organs of As Flávio de Carvalho through which all anguish can Sculpture, or in a text published
power. Rising always toward reminds us, it is a consensus be overcome; it is the plant-man in Documents, a magazine he
the firmament, the tree seeks to among art critics to recognise in who contemplates his future. The co-founded, Carl Einstein was
reach the temple on the hilltop, the gothic a form of manifestation forest already presented in itself interested in the magic potential
so it becomes a synonym of of transcendence in architecture, the appropriate dramatic conditions of African aesthetics, which had
mourning for the past, opposing which can also be seen in temples for the dispersion of images emerged mainly from the need
the movement of the nomad which and museums. Now, Flávio de (asyntaxia) found in the dream to worship the dead, who were
extends, in turn, towards territories Carvalho perceives and refuses the and in the conduct of the Hero. evoked through statues, masks and
with open borders without fact that one of the many possible The play of light and shadow in through the notion of image-soul:
conforming to regulations. In this alternatives for architecture to semi-clarity, the nebula-like shape, “In African art, the notion of
sense, for Gilles Deleuze and Félix coexist with the landscape, on were the appropriate conditions to soul-shadow is very important.
Guattari (2005), the arborescent the one hand, and with paradise, hide shapes and simulate desires, Perhaps there is a relation
model, that of the State, contrasts on the other, is to reach almost and appropriate for the creation of between the graphic style of this
with the rhizomatic one, belonging insurmountable heights to get agglutinations of tree-men, of plant- art and representation of the soul-
to the nomad who seeks, in a closer to the divine. However, his animals, found in primitive Man’s shadow.”27
different way, to occupy a smooth interpretation of these heights is dreams and thoughts, that merged In Negerplastik [Negro
space, that is, a territory that is that Gothic churches are extended with one another.25 Sculpture], a study of African
not regulated by governmental in towers, seeking to expand into sculpture published in 1915, the
institutions, by disciplines, by a the smooth and unmeasurable With sketches of German intellectual regards African
fabricated homogeneity and by a space and thus transmute different human types from the sculptures as “images,” just like the
centralised unit.21 Therefore, the themselves into diverse shapes city and from the forest, Flávio de art of the renaissance or religious
arborescent model is based on such as plants, like that of the tree Carvalho refers to Keyserling’s art. When these sculptures are
hierarchies and family genealogies, in the forgotten history of the hero considerations about the people of transposed from their environment
which enroots Man to the ground worship.24 the new world in South American (unknown to collectors, but
and coincide with a nostalgia for The clearing was the Meditations, seeking to subject the evidenced by the ethnographic
origin.22 element found by Carvalho to development of man to the very collections of museums), they
affirm the predominance of the transmutation of the landscape. become images of a nonexistent
142-143
god and therefore make evident the The artist becomes, in this sense, 1 BATAILLE, Georges. de S. Paulo between January 6,
trace left by him. The reproductions a passive being, insofar as he is “Le langage des fleurs”. In: 1957, and September 21, 1958.
of sculptures, such as arranged the one who opens the doors for Documents. Paris, No. 3, pp.
in Negerplastik, are devoid of the access of being, according 160–64, 1929. 9 The myths were transcribed
accessories and displaced from to Martin Heidegger. Therefore, from the special volume of the
the temple, but do not eliminate reproducing a transcendental will, 2 CAILLOIS, Roger. Méduse et magazine Cahiers d’Art dedicated
the transcendence supposed by in the case of primitive art, does cie. Paris: Gallimard, 1960. to Frobenius’s expedition: “L’Afrique
the tribal religion to which they not mean to merely appropriate par Leo Frobenius et Henri Beuil”.
belong, for in them mythical reality the divine desire, or use it as 3 EINSTEIN, Carl. “Arbres- Cahiers d’Art, Paris, 5 année, n.
surpasses the natural reality: truth – values that would imply fétiches du Bénin (1929) ”. In: 8-9, 1930.
the authority of the executor, a ______. Les arts de l’Afrique.
African art is above all determined notion of authorship as auctoritas Presentation and translation by 10 STIGGER, Veronica. “Flávio
by religion. Sculpted work is –, but to blur the first name of the Liliane Meffre. Subtitles of works de Carvalho: experiências
venerated as it was by the people author in favour of an absolute and notes by Jean-Louis Paudrat. romanas”. In: Marcelina. Revista
of antiquity. The maker fashions his immanence. It is worth noting that Paris: Actes Sud, 2015, p. 279. do Mestrado em Artes Visuais da
work as if it were the divine or its Flávio de Carvalho was interested Faculdade Santa Marcelina. Ano
guardian, which is to say that from in the oak-worship of the Druids 4 CARVALHO, Flávio de. 3, vol. 4 (1 sem. 2010). São Paulo:
the very beginning he is situated and of oak nymphs such as Egeria. O mecanismo da emoção FASM, 2010, Pp. 109–28.
at a distance from the work, which In this way, he misrepresents his amorosa (1934–52). Unpublished
is a god or its container. His work own surname (carvalho means typewritten text. 11 CARVALHO, Flávio de. “VIII -
is adoration at a distance, and oak, in Portuguese) and his family Os gatos de Roma. A floresta e o
so the work is a priori something genealogy, turning his surname 5 Flávio de Carvalho became Gótico”. In: Diário de S. Paulo, São
autonomous, more powerful than into something which ceases to familiar with the short version of Paulo, Feb. 24, 1957.
its maker, particularly since he be a property of himself and of The Golden Bough (Frazer, James.
directs his entire intensity to the his ancestors. He thus evokes the The Golden Bough. A Study in 12 Idem.
work and thus as the weaker being characteristic undecidability of Magic and Religion. London:
he sacrifices himself to it. This work the origin of the sign, in which the Macmillan, 1933). In his library, 13 CARVALHO, Flávio de. “III
must be described as religious predominant meaning of the same located at CEDAE (Alexandre – Os gatos de Roma. As feridas
service. The work is a deity, free sound, the same word, had not yet Eulálio Centre for Cultural abertas da arqueologia. O europeu
and independent of everything been chosen. Documentation), Unicamp, one quer a guerra”. In: Diário de S.
else; both worker and worshipper The forest becomes can currently find this volume and Paulo, São Paulo, Jan. 20, 1957.
are at an immeasurable distance a manifestation of nihilism in a French translation of Origins of
from the work. The latter will never philosophy, which, after the Family and Clan (FRAZER, James. 14 DUQUE, Félix. El cofre de
be mixed up with human events verification of the death of God Les origines de la famille et du la nada. Deriva del nihilismo en
except as something powerful and and his oblivion by Carvalho, clan. la modernidad. Madrid: Abada
distanced. The transcendence of Einstein and Heidegger, allows French translation by Jean de Editores, 2006.
the work is tied to and presupposed the installation of men themselves Pange. Paris: Paul Geuthner,
by the religious. It is created in in the notion of becoming. Carl 1922). 15 HEIDEGGER, Martin. Off
adoration, in terror before God, a Einstein would have evoked in his the Beaten Track. Translated by
terror which is also its effect. The writings the “primitive” as a force 6 CARVALHO, Flávio de. “A Julian Young and Kenneth Haynes.
maker and the worshipper are a capable of subverting the prevailing única arte que presta é a anormal Cambridge: Cambridge University
priori spiritual, which is essentially political and economic order, while (1936)”. In: Flávio de Carvalho. Press, 2002, p. 203.
identical; the effect lies not in the he would think images through 100 anos de um revolucionário
art work but in the posited and a notion of “absolute”, a concept romântico. Curated by Denise 16 GROYS, Boris. Introdução
undisputed godliness. The artist inspired by Soviet politics, and Mattar. Rio de Janeiro: CCBB/ à antifilosofia. Translated by
does not dare compete with God in through the need for a concrete MAB-FAAP, 1999, pp. 71–3. Constantino Luz de Medeiros. São
striving for an effect, this is a sure individual experience. In turn, the Paulo: Edipro, 2013.
given and predetermined. There is Brazilian artist refutes the line of 7 Originally published in Diário
no point in striving to treat the art heredity and sacrifices the figure de S. Paulo and later collected by 17 KLEIN, Ernest. A
work as trying for an effect, since of the hero, so that sign and image the Azougue publishing house. Comprehensive Etymological
the idols are often worshipped in open themselves to an art that CARVALHO, Flávio de. A moda e Dictionary of the English
darkness.28 finds in the body of man a way to o novo homem. Ed. Sergio Cohn Language. Dealing with the
preserve time and memory. This and Heyk Pimenta. Rio de Janeiro: Origin of Words and their Sense
When worship is because the language of art Azougue Editorial, 2010. Development thus Illustrating the
becomes the outstanding value, can have a distinct form, without History of Civilization and Culture.
the artist ceases to be determinant sonority and without names, very 8 The series, consisting of Amsterdam, London, New York:
in the execution of the work, similar to the language of gestures, 65 texts, was initially entitled Elsevier Publishing Company, 1967
because he only manifests a will in which the artist later became “Os gatos de Roma” [The cats (V. II – L-Z), p. 1584.
that is not his own, but of a force so intensely interested, as we can of Rome] (from number I to
that is immanent to him and shared infer from his performances and XXIV) and, from XXIV, “Notas 18 DIDI-HUBERMAN, Georges.
with other beings; he is no less experiments. para a reconstrução de um Atlas. Como llevar el mundo a
important than the figure of the mundo perdido” [Notes for the cuestas? Madrid: Museo de Arte
spectator into which he may come reconstruction of a lost world] (until Contemporaneo Reina Sofia, 2010.
to metamorphose himself. number LXV), published in Diário
19 ANTELO, Raúl. “Só centros: 28 EINSTEIN, Carl. Negro
elipses”. Chuy. Revista de Estudios Sculpture. Translated by Patrick
Literarios Latinoamericanos. Healy. CITY: November Editions,
Buenos Aires, year 1, No. 1, pp. 2016, p. 15.
3–15, July 2014, p. 3.
20 DOBRIZHOFFER, Martin.
An Account of the Abipones, An
Equestrian People of Paraguay.
London: John Murray, 1822. vol. II.
144-145
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