Visual artist Renata Lucas, who has been traveling the world with her art, turns the ground in search of history, the past and the future and at the same time takes the ground to walk on. It appropriates the space in which it is located, subverts it, devours it, digests it and transforms it, reincorporating it into itself. And her work does more than that: it demonstrates political potential through an intricate and tangled relationship with space, which resonates and discusses contemporary issues. This is what researcher Luciana Benetti Marques Valio finds in her doctoral thesis, supervised by professor Maria José de Azevedo Marcondes and defended at the Institute of Arts (IA).

Luciana says that Renata Lucas's artistic work is part of contemporary art from the first decade of the 21st century, since the artist's practice discusses current themes such as the transitory, the ephemeral, globalization, instability, nomadism, identity and sociality. These are concepts that not only belong to the field of art, but also to Philosophy, Sociology, History and others.

The author of the thesis analyzed 29 works by the artist, produced between 2001 and 2013, finding in them the possibility of discussing the relationship between artistic intervention and public space.

The research aimed to discuss and problematize the works of Renata Lucas (who, like Luciana, graduated from Unicamp's IA), in order to understand how they are so in tune with the discourse of contemporary art and how they resonate with political potential.

When investigating these works, the doctoral student noticed the evident relationship between the artist's practices and the space in which they are located, as she does not even have a studio. Her interventions are carried out directly in urban spaces and in the institutions where they are carried out.

The artistic work begins with an invitation to the artist to make a proposal. From there, she studies the building's plan; talk to people on the street, in the neighborhood; and investigates the surroundings (the region), with the aim of understanding what this place has to say.

Based on this perception, together with her sensitivity, the artist creates art for that place. “Her task is permeated with a lot of negotiation, of what can and cannot be done”, she says.

At the 53rd Venice Biennale, in 2009, for example, Renata Lucas was invited by the event's curator, Daniel Birnbaum, to show what she knew how to do. The work was built at the entrance to the main pavilion, the Arsenale. It consists of an asphalt road/track over the Giardini Pubblici, as a mark of the future. “It is worth remembering that Venice is a city where its roads are canals and where asphalt is not allowed. It is a city protected by the UN as a historical heritage of humanity”, says Luciana.

So this intervention creates an anachronism: why lay asphalt in a completely historic city, which doesn't even have cars? The most incredible thing, she highlights, is that people walk on the asphalt with such comfort that they don't even notice it, as if the work was always there.

Luciana says that, in this case, “stepping on the asphalt” constitutes an incorporated, impregnated sensation in the body, which people need to think about to recognize that the asphalt in that place would be impossible.

But the image of the asphalt track suddenly leads to a question: “Was it made of gravel?” The artist then leaves part of this gravel visible on the asphalt, “creating an image as if it were rising, as if the future entered Venice”, she describes.

This is all the result of a series of projects that the artist presented to the event's curators. “It’s a bag of projects. The artist made many proposals that could not be executed: 'you can't close a canal, you can't open a swimming pool in the canal, you can't change the facade of the building'”, she informs.

It's a technical debate: how do you do it, how do you put it, can you or can't you change it? Heritage does not authorize it. This step by step was part of the intervention that Renata Lucas named “Venice suitcase”.

To do the work, Renata Lucas even went to live temporarily in Venice. She tried to get to know the city and understand its dynamics. The artist herself realized the difficulty of being a historical heritage site. She saw how this can also have a negative impact and suffer from the consequences of being a tourist city.

It is the artist once again provoking other reflections: what city is this? What do you want with this biennial? This is because Venice has the biennale of art, architecture, literature and music. It is not just an art biennale, but a cultural environment that is created, has repercussions and, therefore, is a very insightful work, says Luciana.

Documenta

Another work by Renata Lucas, evaluated in the researcher's thesis based on its political potential, was presented at Documenta (13), in 2012, in the city of Kassel, Germany, one of the most important contemporary art events in the world.

As it is a five-yearly event, the artist had more time to better experience Kassel, whose history is marked by the bombing that completely destroyed the city during the Second World War, as it was the center of the Third Reich's arms industry, in Hitler's time.

The proposal of Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, curator at Documenta (13), was to address war traumas, including the most recent ones. Because of this, the event extended to cities such as Cairo (Egypt), Kabul (Afghanistan) and Banff (Canada). In this way, questions about the West-East relationship permeated the exhibition: such as the fact that Kassel's trauma was due to the Nazi arms industry and, currently, the city supports itself from the arms trade for wars in the East.

“Documenta brought this to the center of the debate. And precisely Renata Lucas' work is 'arguing' with this city that has been 'flattened'”, she comments. This is the work “Yesterday, quicksands”, the title of the surrealist story by Alberto Giacometti.

The artist used four basements in the city to make her art. They were the basement of the Fridericianum Museum, the basement of the Brothers Grimm's house, the basement of the Kaufhof store and the second basement of the parking lot, under Friedrichsplatz. In the first three basements, the artist built – with plywood sheets and concrete – the base parts of a hypothetical pyramid.

The Documenta event takes place in the central area of ​​the city, with the Fridericianum Museum being the main building of the exhibition, which spreads to other areas of the city, such as other museums, a train station and a large park.

What did Renata Lucas do? She placed a part of what would be the apex of a pyramid in the basement of this Museum, establishing the first discussion in the direction of what Documenta is. In the basement of the house where the Brothers Grimm lived [and the temporary home of the Documenta curator (13)], the artist built what would correspond to one side of the pyramid base. In the basement of the Kaufhof department store, another apex of the base of the pyramid was built.

Thus, “the hypothetical pyramid is incomplete, being marked by its 'fictitious existence' only in the main points of the city, making reference to the event (in the Fridericianum Museum); to the cultural history of the city and Germany (in the house that belonged to the Brothers Grimm); and commerce (in the Kaufhof department store)”.

Renata Lucas offers points for connecting through a mental connection. “You don’t find a pyramid, but rather fragments to complete the whole”, emphasizes the doctoral student.

By the way, she remembers that the underground is very heavily loaded during the war. It is the place where people are buried and it is also the place where they hide. For the mystic, a pyramid – Mayan or Egyptian – condenses life and death.

In addition to these buildings, in the second basement of the parking lot, under Friedrichsplatz, a panel with six surveillance camera monitors was inserted. Only one presented simultaneous images of the location. Others showed films that the artist produced.

These films showed places in the central area of ​​Kassel being invaded by a sandstorm, sweeping across the city, all very slowly. The wind deposited sand on the store windows, on the sidewalks, on the buildings, in the square. They could also be captured by mobile equipment or viewed on televisions displayed in store windows.

The sand was slowly invading everything in an annihilating way. It's a very desolate feeling, which can lead people to ask themselves: is this part of Documenta (13)?, what is the artist referring to?, what trauma is this?, who are these people? “Are they talking about Afghanistan or the German people? After all, that city was destroyed because it produced weapons, but nowadays it sustains itself through the arms trade?” asks the doctoral student. 

The artist assumes that she does not have to provide anything ready-made, that the public is intelligent and that they will try to put together the pieces of the “puzzle”. She is just presenting the issues in a different way. This undeclared political potential of the work, it should be noted, was certainly the object of this research, reports Luciana.

She describes that Renata Lucas's political potential emerges from her work. The artist has participated in the 2006 São Paulo Biennale, the 2008 Sydney Biennale, the 2009 Venice Biennale, the 2011 Istanbul Biennale and the 2012 Kassel Documenta, among other projects in galleries and artistic residencies in abroad and in Brazil.

His career is marked by awards: Ernst Schering Foundation Art Award (Berlin, Germany), Absolut Art Bureau (Stockholm, Sweden), Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts (San Francisco, USA), Dena Foundation Art Award (Paris, France), Prize Pipa and Marco Antonio Vilaça.

Publication

Thesis: “Renata Lucas and public spaces: intricacy and fissure”
Author: Luciana Benetti Marques Valio
Advisor: Maria José de Azevedo Marcondes
Unity: Institute of Arts (IA)
Financing: Capes