“A large exhibition of small paintings. A small exhibition of large paintings. A set of shelves from
floor to ceiling with small sculptures (...) A systematic setup, minimizing subjectivity, giving rise
to unforeseeable combinations.” (Oswaldo Corrêa da Costa). The setup of the exhibition “Cadê
o Abre Alas?” was inspired by Roland Barthes’s concept of “The Death of the Author”, where he
argues that the author should disappear at the moment the reader (or the viewer, in this case) is
born, since it is the latter’s reflections that give rise to new ideas. Here, this idea can be unders-
tood as an erasure of the curator’s trace, or else a radical reduction of the curator’s leading role,
in keeping with the contemporary critique of the authority of the “Western white man”.
To put this idea into practice, the curatorial proposal divides the small paintings into three
groups, or “swarms,” consisting of canvases of the same size. Within each swarm, paintings will
be arranged on the wall in gradients from lightest to darkest, or vice versa.
Transferring responsibility to more objective criteria increases the focus on the chromaticity of
the works and generates a collective order, at the same time that each work continues to stand
on its own individually.
