Sula --
Ready for some good news? Our collective efforts are working. Here's how we know:
Congressional leaders -- you know, the ones trying to dismantle Obamacare -- are realizing that they're not going to get away with stripping health care away from tens of millions of Americans without a fight, so they're starting to change their tune. Just look at the kinds of headlines we started to see last week:
They're trying to shift gears and pretend that they're for "repair" now, because they can feel the pressure from people like you. Crowds of constituents, concerned about the devastating consequences of repeal, are showing up in force in their legislators' districts, while even more are flooding the phone lines. Our voices are not going unnoticed:
But let's be clear: Despite the change in rhetoric, congressional leaders are still trying to dismantle Obamacare -- they just don't it want to sound like they are.
Whether they call it "repeal" or "repair," their intention to gut the law is clear. Right now, that means trying to strip core elements of the law through a special budgetary trick known as reconciliation. This would destroy the health care marketplace, causing millions to lose health coverage, raising costs, and hurting families. While the law can certainly be improved, that's not what they're trying to do.
Changing the words they use is a weaselly attempt to dodge the fact that their plan would take away insurance from tens of millions of people.
But we're here to call a spade a spade -- and we're not going to be distracted or fooled. If we keep the pressure high -- by organizing, by calling, and by showing up -- we can win this fight.
Make sure you're a part of this fight. Join the hundreds of thousands of OFA supporters standing up to defend the progress and protections of Obamacare -- sign the petition and we'll follow up with more ways to take action.
 |
Sula --
Ready for some good news? Our collective efforts are working. Here's how we know:
Congressional leaders -- you know, the ones trying to dismantle Obamacare -- are realizing that they're not going to get away with stripping health care away from tens of millions of Americans without a fight, so they're starting to change their tune. Just look at the kinds of headlines we started to see last week:
They're trying to shift gears and pretend that they're for "repair" now, because they can feel the pressure from people like you. Crowds of constituents, concerned about the devastating consequences of repeal, are showing up in force in their legislators' districts, while even more are flooding the phone lines. Our voices are not going unnoticed:
But let's be clear: Despite the change in rhetoric, congressional leaders are still trying to dismantle Obamacare -- they just don't it want to sound like they are.
Whether they call it "repeal" or "repair," their intention to gut the law is clear. Right now, that means trying to strip core elements of the law through a special budgetary trick known as reconciliation. This would destroy the health care marketplace, causing millions to lose health coverage, raising costs, and hurting families. While the law can certainly be improved, that's not what they're trying to do.
Changing the words they use is a weaselly attempt to dodge the fact that their plan would take away insurance from tens of millions of people.
But we're here to call a spade a spade -- and we're not going to be distracted or fooled. If we keep the pressure high -- by organizing, by calling, and by showing up -- we can win this fight.
Make sure you're a part of this fight. Join the hundreds of thousands of OFA supporters standing up to defend the progress and protections of Obamacare -- sign the petition and we'll follow up with more ways to take action.
SAMICO BETWEEN WORLDS
[RUMORS OF WAR IN TIMES OF PEACE]
Dream Box is pleased to announce Samico Between Worlds [Rumors of War in Times of Peace], a solo exhibition of woodcuts by Brazilian master engraver Gilvan Samico in partnership with Grupo Om.
The exhibition Samico Between Worlds [Rumors of War in Times of Peace] presents to the public of New York City fourteen woodcut pieces produced by the artist Gilvan Samico (1928 - 2013) in the period between 1997 and 2010. Curated by Marcio Harum, the exhibition will run in the Lower East Side from February 4th to March 5th, with an opening reception on Saturday, February 4th, from 12 to 6pm.
Focusing on the metaphysics of Samico’s work, the exhibit introduces the oeuvre of one of the most important Latin American artists, whose career comprises 300 exhibitions in 30 different countries, awards in the Venice Biennale and works acquired by MoMA.
Born in Recife, located in the northeastern region of Brazil, Samico and his artworks have been “rediscovered” after his death in 2013. With various solo and collective exhibitions in Brazil, his woodcuts have been featured in the latest biennials that took place in the country. His work stands out and differs from his peers due to its universal language. Tapping from legends and myths while it reinvents the popular art of his birthplace by adding elements and themes from many other cultures, Samico has achieved, according to himself and art critics, what Jung called “Collective Unconscious,” a kind of common knowledge of legends, imagery and symbols from different cultures that are shared among human beings.
“Some people ask me about my fascination for Egyptian art because they see Egyptian influences in my prints. I’ve got nothing to say [in return], unless it is part of my experience in the collective unconscious. I don’t know. It is as if these old stories keep repeating themselves in [our] genes until they reach me. A certain critic once said that my woodcut pieces are impregnated with these essential symbols of popular culture. I think he is right.” - Samico quoted by Tânia Nogueira in the book Mythology and Cordel.
For Júlia Rebouças, curator of the 32nd São Paulo Art Biennial, where 51 of Samico’s artworks were presented, there has been an enormous repercussion among the Biennial audience, an event that evidenced the contemporaneity of his work: “Samico is very current and his work is very much universal. It had a huge impact on the audience and the international curators.” Reports from the Biennial mediators say: “I gave an approach that I found very interesting and beautiful, which was to ask the [visiting] groups what nationality they thought the artist was from. I think it is an interesting approach when we think that Samico takes us back to the archetypical, “original,” symbolic references that could have been from anywhere in the world, from just any remote past (...). Visitors often associate them to card decks, Egyptian drawings and also religious narratives and feminism.”
Considered one of the icons of the Armorial Movement, an art movement that sought to create Brazilian art that would stem from the indigenous, African and European elements that served as the base for his local culture, Samico adopted a more authorial interpretation of his universe in his latest works, which will be presented in Samico Between Worlds [Rumors of War in Times of Peace]. “Please understand, I don’t do illustration. I am tapping from legends to create a new world,” Samico declared.
The curator Marcio Harum, who has been in charge of the São Paulo Cultural Center curatorship, one of the most important institutions of contemporary art in Brazil, added scheduled tarot reading sessions to the exhibition program as a mean of evidencing the recurring identification of Samico’s work with the aesthetics of tarot cards, and connect it to the practice of the artist’s widow, Célida Samico, who is a ballerina, yoga teacher and tarot reader.
Samico Between Worlds [Rumors of War in Times of Peace] is curated by Marcio Harum and produced by Grupo Om, Dream Box Lab and Juliana Freire.
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Artist: Gilvan Samico
Curator: Marcio Harum
Producers: Grupo Om, Dream Box Lab and Juliana Freire
Art Direction: Gustavo Felipe
Duration: February 4th - March 5th
Hours: Wednesday - Friday, 12 to 6pm
Preview: February 4th, 6 - 9pm
Opening Reception Brunch: February 4th, 12-6pm
Location:
319 Grand Street (corner of Orchard Street), 5th Floor
New York, NY 10002
Directions by Train:
F, M, J, Z to Delancey Street Station
B, D to Grand Street Station
Contact: samico@dreambox.nyc
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SAMICO (1928 - 2013, Recife, Pernambuco) is one of the Brazilian artists whose artworks have been revisited with more intensity at the present time. In 1962, he participated in the XXXI Venice Biennale and, in 2016, in the 32nd São Paulo Art Biennial, among other major exhibitions. An engraver, painter, draftsman, and teacher, Gilvan Samico founded, together with other artists, the Studio Collective of the Modern Art Society of Recife (SAMR) in 1952. He studied woodcut with Lívio Abramo (1903 - 1992) at Escola Artesanato at the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art (MAM/SP) in 1957. One year later, Samico moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he enrolled in an engraving course taught by Oswaldo Goeldi (1895 - 1961) at the School of Fine Arts from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Enba). In 1965, he settled down in Olinda, Pernambuco, and taught woodcut at the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB). In 1968, he traveled to Europe after winning an award from the Salão Nacional de Arte Moderna (SNAM) and lived there for two years. In 1971, he was invited by Ariano Suassuna (1927 - 2014) to join the Armorial Movement, a cultural movement focused on the popular visual culture of the Northeastern region of Brazil. Through cordel literature and the creative use of woodcut, Samico’s artistic creations are marked by the recovery of the Northeastern folk romancero. His engravings are populated by figures from legends and archetypal narratives, as well as fantastic and mythical animals. Samico’s artworks are part of permanent collections at museums such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Museo de Belas Artes da Coruña (Spain), the Museum of Modern Art in Brasilia, the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, the MAMAM in Recife and the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo.
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OS MUTANTES
OS MUTANTES:
When the members of the legendary “Tropicália” band Os Mutantes took the stage before an audience of thousands at the Hollywood bowl a few years back, it seemed one of the greatest secrets in modern music was finally out. The seminal band whose ethereal absurdist pop music had inspired so many prominent musicians since their breakup decades before, were back. This time the world seemed ready. Now this influential band has reemerged with a brand new much anticipated album entitled Haih or Amortecedor on Anti-records.
Those who have not heard the music of Os Mutantes have undoubtedly experienced their influence. During the band’s absence, their records have been passed from musician to musician like cherished gifts, ever inspiring and altering the contemporary musical landscape. Kurt Cobain of Nirvana was tipped to the band by members of the band Red Kross. When Nirvana toured Brazil in 1993, Cobain tried desperately to arrange a meeting with Mutante bassist and singer Arnaldo Baptista. Unable to locate the musician he sent him the following note. “Arnaldo, best wishes to you, and be careful with the system. They swallow you up and spit you out like a maraschino cherry pit.”
The Mutantes’ cut-and-paste, sonic collage approach and their tendency for cultural irony, is an aesthetic now prevalent in modern music. The band has received praise from a growing list of luminaries including the Flaming Lips, David Byrne, Devendra Banhart and Of Montreal. But of any contemporary musician, it is Beck who appears their direct heir. For his part, Beck readily admits a longstanding admiration for the Mutantes, even dedicating his song “Tropicália” from the album Mutations to the band. As he explains, ''Hearing Os Mutantes for the first time was one of those revelatory moments you live for as a musician. When you find something that you have been wanting to hear for years but never thought existed. I made records like 'Odelay' because there was a certain sound and sensibility that I wanted to achieve, and it was eerie to find that they had already done it 30 years ago, in a totally shocking but beautiful and satisfying way. For years it was pretty much the only thing I listened to.”
This admiration by fellow artists is something Mutante founder and singer/guitarist, Sérgio Dias, appreciates. “I think it is really beautiful how our sound caught on with newer generations through the songs of Beck and others,” he explains. These kids were influenced by our music and started to talk to other kids and tell them. And then Beck made Mutations and he was so eloquent about that. I think it is a wonderful portrait of how things happen today.”
Mutantes’ unique otherworldly sound was forged in a time and place of turmoil. San Paulo Brazil of the early sixties was a city and nation under siege. The military had seized power and the authorities were coming down hard on anything resembling descent. It was amidst this precarious backdrop that, in 1964, two teenagers, Arnaldo Baptista and Rita Lee Jones met at a high school band contest. Inspired by a Revolver era Beatles, the two soon drafted Arnaldo’s brother Sergio and formed what would become Os Mutantes.
Soon the band, along with other forward-looking musicians, writers and artists, were taking part in lively discussions that would eventually evolve into a culturally defining movement. With elements of political criticism, prankster humor and an eclectic range of musical styles, Tropicália was born. “In Brazil we were influenced by things like the Beatles and Picasso,” Dias explains. “But we didn’t know what the Beatles were singing about and we didn’t know the history of Picasso. We were in the middle of a very bad situation and we were responding to all of this. We only had bits and pieces of everything and so we formed this image of what rock and roll was supposed to be. Our music is like a patchwork quilt made up of all these different pieces from different places. We put all these elements together and just let them cook in this witches brew and that became our sound.”
It was during Tropicália’s start that the Mutantes recorded their self-titled debut album. As students battled the police and military, the Mutantes recorded an ambitious album merging seductive Brazilian music with the new psychedelic pop of the Beatles and Beach Boys. The end result didn’t so much take a direct political stand as offer a complete aesthetic rejection of the harsh reality surrounding them.
The ruling generals soon regarded the Mutantes as musical emissaries of an emerging counter culture steeped in sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll, and the group’s performances began to get raided. The Mutantes, for their part, seemed to delight in their role as cultural provocateurs: with Dias performing in a Napoleonic military uniform, his brother Baptista in a priest’s cassock and singer Rita Lee appearing in a bridal gown. “Many people were being arrested by the government at that time,” Dias explains. “So we fought back the only way that we knew. They would try to censor our lyrics. But instead of changing the words we would put all sorts of strange noises on top of them. I don’t think they knew how much we were making fun of them.”
By 1969, when the band’s third album “A Divina Comédia ou Ando Meio Desiglado” was recorded, Brazil’s political situation had only further deteriorated. A governmental edict called as AI 5 (Institutional Act 5) resulted in the persecution of intellectuals, artists and activists, the closing of the congress and countless arrests. The crack down was the beginning of the end for the Tropicália movement. Giberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, close friends of the Mutantes and two of the leading forces of Tropicalia, were arrested and exiled. Despite this the Mutantes had their biggest hit with the song “Ando Meio Desiglado”. Propelled by a rocking Motown inspired bass line, the lyrics offered a forthright description of the effects of marijuana. On another song “Desculpe, Babe,” Sérgio’s voice was distorted through a rubber hose connected to a hot chocolate can with a tiny speaker inside, as he sung over melodic Beatlesque guitars.
While performing in Paris, the band recorded an album for Polydor UK. The record was intended to introduce the band to a broader western audience and featured many of their previously recorded songs sung in English. The masters from the session were subsequently lost and the album, “Technicolor,” wouldn’t resurface for nearly three decades. Singer Rita Lee soon left the band to pursue a solo career and eventually it was only leader Sérgio Dias, leading the band until they finally disbanded in 1978.
But in the band’s absence, Mutantes’ standing amongst the rock cognoscente only intensified. In 2000, the lost 1971 album “Technicolor” was located and released to a near euphoric critical response. In 2006 the band finally reunited and performed at London’s Barbican Arts Center. This was followed by triumphant shows throughout North America and the Mutantes being awarded the Brazilian equivalent of a Grammy for best band. “Playing live with this band is so amazing,” Dias says. “I can not describe anything better than maybe going into space. When we were playing at the Pitchfork Festival it was like looking at yourself when you were a kid trying to mumble the words to “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” in English and not understanding the words. There were hardly any Brazilians there but the kids were all singing our songs in Portuguese. It was really beautiful.”
So this acclaimed band who inspired so much now prepares to release Haih or Amortecedor, their first new album in over three decades. On it Sergio Dias has collaborated with two of the founders of Tropicalia, renowned songwriter and multi instrumentalist Tom Ze and Jorge Ben who wrote the band’s first hit Minha Menina. But don’t expect anything like nostalgia from Haih or Amortecedor. The end result is a record that brilliantly updates the band’s legendary “Tropicalia” sound, propelling it out of the sixties and into an uncharted but undeniably exotic future. As expected, the songs utilize a startling assortment of instrumentation, from austere violins to distorted metallic guitars and something called a crazy flute, lending an underlying theatrical power to their genre defying music. The song Bagdad Blues, with its tinkering old piano and seductive horns, conjures an otherworldly cabaret while Querida Querida is modern rock music unlike anything you’ve heard before.“It would be awful to mimic something we had done when we were teenagers,” Dias explains. “When we were making this album we were absolutely vigilant that the ideas were entirely fresh and I think we did a very good job. Everyone who has heard this album say it doesn’t sound like Mutantes - but then it is also pure Mutantes. I really think it is a perfect vision of what Os Mutantes should sound like in the 21st century.”
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