Artist Mauro Restiffe in conversation with Rodrigo Moura. Memory Game: the Photographer, the City and the Archive

DISCRIPTION

This public talk is dedicated to the themes of interaction between contexts, the power of photographic “intuition,” and the new documentation.

Mauro Restiffe’s exhibition is the result of his observations of Russia in two different time periods: the late 1990s and the mid-2000s. The Brazilian photographer reveals not only the local history (“what has happened here”), but also the universal condition of memory: the everlasting familiarity and the proximity to ongoing processes.

The combination of poetry and documentation, as well as the similarities between Russian and Brazilian temporalities, will become the main aspects of the artist’s discussion with curator Rodrigo Moura, who has been following Restiffe’s practice for a long time. The speakers will also touch upon Soviet culture’s exceptional photogenic quality.

Moderated by Snejana Krasteva

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS

Mauro Restiffe was born in 1970 in São José do Rio Pardo, Brazil. He lives and works in São Paulo. Recent solo and group exhibitions include: Aichi Triennale 2016, Nagoya City Art Museum (2016); São Paulo, Out of Reach, Instituto Moreira Salles, Rio de Janeiro (2014); Obra, Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (2013); Beyond the Supersquare, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York (2014); 33 Panorama, São Paulo Museum of Modern Art (2014). Restiffe has received grants from the Ministry of Culture, Brasília, and has been awarded the Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award, New York (2001) and the Conrado Wessel Award for photography, São Paulo (2013).

Rodrigo Moura is a curator, editor, and writer. He is the artistic director of Instituto Inhotim (Minas Gerais, Brazil), where he has taken on various positions since 2004 and has played a significant role in acquiring and presenting different works. From 2001 to 2006 as an assistant curator and, later, curator at Museu de Arte da Pampulha (Belo Horizonte, Brazil), Moura contributed to over 20 projects, including personal shows and commissions, while also coordinating the Bolsa Pampulha grant program for young artists. He is a prolific critic, writing on art and culture for international and Brazilian press, and for exhibition catalogues. Moura’s essays are included in Taschen’s ART NOW! Vol. 3, a comprehensive survey of the contemporary art scene and market. As an independent curator, Moura initiated Mirante, Mauro Restiffe’s solo exhibition at the 2009 PhotoEspaña festival of photography and visual arts. He has co-curated a number of other projects.