Storefront for Art and Architecture

Letters to the Mayor: São Paulo

July 30th – August 27th, 2016

Pivô Arte e Pesquisa

#letterstothemayor #letterstothemayorsaopaulo @storefrontnyc

Storefront presents Letters to the Mayor: São Paulo as part of the global Letters to the Mayor project. Each iteration presents a collection of letters by more than 100 architects, addressing the most pressing issues facing their city.

Letters to the Mayor: São Paulo invited the following architects to write to Mayor Fernando Haddad:

Participants

23 SUL Arquitetura, Abílio Guerra, Aflalo/Gasperini Arquitetos, Agnaldo Farias, Álvaro Puntoni, Andrade Morettin Arquitetos, Apiacás Arquitetos, AR Arquitetos, Atelier Branco, Carlos Alberto Cerqueira Lemos, Ciro Pirondi, Cristiano Mascaro, Ermínia Maricato, Fortes, Gimenes e Marcondes Ferraz, Francesco Perrotta Bosch, Francisco Spadoni (Spadoni AA), Gabriel Kogan, GTA-MTST, Guilherme Wisnik, Hector Vigliecca (Vigliecca & Associados), Hereñú + Ferroni Arquitetos, IAB (Instituto de Arquitetos do Brasil – Institute of Architects of Brazil), Laura Sobral, Ligia Nobre, Luis Espallargas Gimenez, Marcio Kogan (Studio MK27), Maria Cristina da Silva Leme, Martin Corullon (Metro arquitetos), Milton Braga, Marta Moreira (MMBB), Monica Camargo Junqueira, Regina Meyer, Renato Cymbalista, SIAA – Shundi Iwamizu Arquitetos Associados, Silvio Oksman, Terra e Tuma, Vão Arquitetura, Vera Pallamin

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PROJECT TEAM

Local Curators

Bruno de Almeida and Fernando Falcon

Wallpaper Design

Branco Papel de Parede in collaboration with the artist Lucas Simões

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ABOUT THE CURATORS

Bruno de Almeida, 1987, Brazil. Lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil. Holds a degree in Architecture from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Oporto (FAUP), Portugal. And a Master in Architecture from the Accademia di Architettura della Svizzera Italiana, Mendrisio, Switzerland. Worked as an architectural assistant at Sergison Bates Architects in London, UK. And was a curatorial assistant at the Independent Research Institute of the Fondazione Archivio del Moderno in Mendrisio, Switzerland. Is the founder and curator of SITU (www.projetositu.wordpress.com) a platform of production and artistic research that promotes a discussion about the potential of a dialogue between art, architecture and the city, developed with Galeria Leme, a contemporary art gallery in São Paulo, Brazil.

Fernando Falcon, 1977, Brazil. Lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil. Holds a degree in Architecture from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of São Paulo (FAU USP), Brazil. And, since 2005, is a partner of the architecture office Tacoa Arquitetos (www.tacoa.com.br). Among the office’s projects are the art galleries Fortes Vilaça (2008) and Luisa Strina (2011), the cultural association Pivô (2013), the residential complex Vila Aspicuelta (2013), the competition for the headquarters of MIS-RJ (2009) and the spatial design of exhibitions such as Arte-Vida (2014), 31st Panorama of Brazilian Art (2009) and Casa 7 at Pivô (2015), among others. Tacoa was also part of the selection for the 33rd Panorama of Brazilian Art (2013) e developed the site-specific installation Jardineira (2015) as the core of the exhibition Liga 18 for the gallery Liga DF in Mexico City.

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ABOUT LETTERS TO THE MAYOR

Letters to the Mayor is an itinerant exhibition that displays real letters written by architects to their city mayors. Initiated by Storefront for Art and Architecture in 2014, the project has traveled to more than 15 cities across the globe, including Bogota, Mexico City, Athens, Panama City, Taipei, Mariupol, Madrid, Lisbon, and Buenos Aires, among others. See here for a list of iterations.

Letters to the Mayor invites 100 architects in each city to write a letter to their mayor as a means of bringing innovative ideas and visions of the city closer to the decision-makers, and vice versa.

Throughout history, architects have engaged with this responsibility and the structures of economic, political, and cultural power in different ways and with varying degrees of success. With the rise of globalization and the homogenization of the contemporary city, the role of the architect in the political arena has often been relegated to answering questions that others have asked.

Letters to the Mayor questions this dynamic, and invites local and global architects to deliver their thoughts directly to the desks of elected officials, and simultaneously into the public consciousness.

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SUPPORT

Letters to the Mayor is part of Storefront for Art and Architecture’s initiative Architecture Conflicts, a project with the purpose of identifying pressing issues, ongoing conflicts, and design solutions in relation to the most important urban problems today. Architecture Conflicts is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.