The Demand for Form. O Desejo da Forma

In the late 1950s Brazil entered a phase of unprecedented cultural, social and economic upheaval. Brasília, the new capital, was planned and pounded out of the ground within a few years. The Bossa Nova revolutionized the music scene and Neoconcretismo represented a new artistic positioning in the fine arts - geometrical austerity combined with a touch of playfulness which influenced the new forms in architecture and art.
This exhibition at the Academy of the Arts in Berlin not only highlighted the icons of Brazilian architecture of that period - Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer, two architects who significantly shaped the look of the Brasília - , but also presented the mutual interaction of architecture with the art and cultural scenes. The exhibition illustrated Brazil's pioneering cultural role that didn't merely imitate Western modernity, but established its own unique style of Brazilian modernity, the arrival of which was encouraged by an economically bolstered spirit of renewal. Brazil in the 1950s was an example of the opportunities that resulted from global integration of social, artistic and economic developments, which can function today as a matrix of current developments in India or China.
The exhibition was accompanied by interventions. Contemporary artists from Brazil, new interpretations of Bossa Nova, film presentations and performances of concrete poetry highlighted the connection between Neoconcretismo and contemporary art.

Artistic director: Luis Camillo Osorio (BR)
Curator: Robert Kudielka
Artists: Hércules Barsotti, Carlos Bevilacqua, Roberto Burle Marx, Waltercio Caldas, Aluísio Carvão, Amilcar de Castro,Willys de Castro, Lygia Clark, Lúcio Costa, Milton Dacosta, Iole de Freitas, Marcel Gautherot, Carla Guagliardi, Cao Guimarães, Ferreira Gullar, Pablo Lobato, Rubem Ludolf, Almir Mavignier, Oscar Niemeyer, Hélio Oiticica, Abraham Palatnik, Lygia Pape, Ivan Serpa, Décio Vieira, Franz Weissmann.

Venues and schedule:
Academy of the Arts, Berlin, Hanseatenweg: 3 Sept. - 7 Nov. 2010
Museu de Arte Contemporanea de Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro: Nov. 2010 - 9 Jan. 2011