EAmong the various activities scheduled to mark Unicamp's 40th anniversary, one promises to attract special attention from both the internal community and the general population. A photographic exhibition made up of 40 images, which will open in October, in a location yet to be confirmed, will portray the multiple dimensions of the University. The photographs will be produced by 40 invited people, who will have complete freedom to record events, spaces, people and situations that make up everyday life and, consequently, the history of the institution. The photos will also make up a catalog that will be published by Unicamp.

The best photographs will be published in a catalog

The exhibition is being formatted by the executive committee that makes up the Working Group created by the Rectory to organize the program for Unicamp's 40th anniversary. According to professor Carlos Fernandes, who coordinates this commission, the curatorship of the photographic exhibition will be carried out by Fernando de Tacca, professor at the Department of Multimedia, Media and Communication at the Institute of Arts (IA). He was responsible for inviting the 40 photographers and will later be responsible for selecting the images. Among the guests are photojournalists from Campinas, as well as professors, postgraduate students and employees from Unicamp. “Not all of them are professionals, but everyone has a lot of experience with photography”, explains Tacca.

According to him, photographers will be able to take whatever records they wish, as long as the chosen theme or themes are related to the University. Thus, images of spaces, buildings, human relationships, teaching relationships, etc. can be made. Each guest will take five photographs. Of these, one will be selected to be part of the exhibition and catalogue. “However, the 200 photos produced will be published by Revista Studium”, says the exhibition’s curator, referring to the electronic publication maintained by IA [www.studium.iar.unicamp.br], which adds up to around 100 thousand hits per month.

Professors Fernando de Tacca and Carlos Fernandes, who organize the exhibition: works will be by photojournalists from Campinas and members of the community.

“Our expectation is that the exhibition will cover the multiple readings that these people will make of Unicamp”, adds Tacca. Professor Carlos Fernandes, coordinator of the executive committee, believes that the photographic exhibition will be one of the highlights of Unicamp's anniversary, due to its historical nature. “This is an exhibition that will have relevance over time, as it will surpass the 40-year mark”, he predicts.

Other events – In addition to the photographic exhibition about Unicamp, the executive committee is working to facilitate two other exhibitions as part of the celebrations for the University's 40th anniversary. The first, entitled “Neruda in White and Black”, is an iconographic work designed by Alejandro Canseco-Jerez, professor at the University of Metz, in France. It is made up of 300 images of the Chilean writer and poet Pablo Neruda, whose birth name was Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. In them, Neruda appears in various situations, including accompanied by Brazilian personalities, such as the poet and composer Vinícius de Moraes and the writer Jorge Amado.

The photographic exhibition, according to Carlos Fernandes, is accompanied by texts by Volodia Teitelboim and Alejandro Canseco-Jerez, which talk about Neruda's career. “Along with this exhibition, we will also hold a seminar, which will feature the participation of Professor Canseco-Jerez and researchers from USP and the Institute of Language Studies (IEL) at Unicamp. We haven’t set a date yet, but we want both to happen in November,” he says. The “Neruda in White and Black” exhibition has already toured cities such as Paris, Vichy and Metz, in France, and Havana, in Cuba. The route through Latin America should begin in Brazil.

The second exhibition, scheduled for the end of October, will bring together the collection of the Unicamp Art Gallery, which totals 475 pieces. Among them are 55 works by Geraldo de Barros, one of the exponents of concrete art in Brazil. The proposal, according to Carlos Fernandes, is to divide this collection into three rooms. One of them, organized by professor Geraldo Porto, will have work done by “house professionals”, that is, by students, employees and professors of the University. Another, under the care of professor Marco do Valle, will bring together works by members of the Vanguarda Group, one of the most representative in Campinas. The third will have paintings designed by Geraldo de Barros. The curator of this latest exhibition will be professor Freddy Van Camp, from ESDI-UERJ, one of the initiators of the Unicamp Art Gallery.