The exhibition brings together some aspects of the extensive research undertaken by José Diniz on the species Paubrasilia echinata – under threat of extinction since the 16th century. Native to the Atlantic Forest biome, this tree is also known as pau-brasil, pau-de-pernambuco, arabutã, ibirapiranga, ibirapitá, ibirapitanga, orabutã, pau-de-tinta, pau-pernambuco e pau-rosado. 

​

Diniz was enchanted by its beauty when he identified some specimens in the neighborhood where he lives during the pandemic. The artist's curiosity led him to research different areas of knowledge in order to identify its characteristics and familiarize himself with the history of the tree that gives its name to his country. His vast interests include: botanical, literary, journalistic and anthropological studies; indigenous, African and European symbols. He appropriates paintings, prints and historical maps; interprets a society marked by the exploitation of human beings and nature; denounces atrocious acts and loses himself in the delicacy of the wind that sways the small leaves and yellow flowers of the imagination.

 

His creative process includes moments of contemplation, combined with hours of research and field trips. An alchemist, he extracts dye from the heartwood of the tree to color fabrics and papers, which he uses in chromatic experiments and to give form to his ideas. His creative freedom creates metaphors of a violent and sublime reality, and speaks about life and death, past and present. His research aims to contribute to reflections on power and also to value and disseminate a set of genuine cultural manifestations, critically promoting some archetypes of Brazilian culture. In the elaborate counter-narratives he constructs, Diniz rescues the profound meaning of our colonial origins.

 

Finally, the artist composes a symphony of images-facts-feelings in a curious metrical harmony. The playful exercise he proposes reverberates and, when observing his work, we are taken beyond the appearance of the facts. Like a haiku poem, the compositions organized in triptychs bring together distinct and autonomous fragments that, organized in a concise way, create poetic meaning in the rhythmic units in which he ventures artistically. When commenting on the poetry of the Japanese poet Bashô, Octavio Paz highlights: “In a deliberately anti-heroic way, Bashô’s poetry calls us to a truly important adventure: that of losing ourselves in the everyday to find the marvelous. A motionless journey, at the end of which we find ourselves: the marvelous is our human truth.” This is how we feel when faced with José Diniz’s work: amazed by the power of the images and symbols revealed in a flash. Like a wave bursting. Like an axe in a tree trunk. Like a scream in the dark.

​

Marcia Mello

Curator

​

biographic text - José Diniz

​

José Diniz (Niterói/Brazil, 1954) has been making a name for himself with an extensive and complex body of work. The formation of a sophisticated visual style began at a very early age, influenced by his father, a painter and geometry teacher, and his grandfather Durval Baptista Pereira, an amateur photographer and one of the founders of the Fluminense Photography Society, which he presided over in 1947. He began painting as a boy, watching his father, José Maria Nogueira, in his studio. As a teenager, he expanded his skills at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, where he studied with Ivan Serpa, and began engraving, gradually including photography in his repertoire. The smell of turpentine and sodium hyposulfite became consolidated in his soul. He began creating installations, videos, and performances, mixing personal and collective memories, revealing a research that was both critical and dreamlike, which dialogues with contemporary artistic production. Restless, he changes support and technique to shape his ideas that give new meaning to historical issues and articulate social, political and environmental aspects of the present day. “Pau Brasil”, his most recent research, continues his work on Brazilian biomes.

​

He often makes his creative process explicit in the handmade books he presents in rich dialogue with the finished work. The photobooks express his reasoning, his creative step-by-step process; they demonstrate his understanding of the themes he dedicates himself to and transform them into complementary, dialectical and original poetic narratives. This revealed and shared journey gives depth to his artistic production as a whole.

​

 

A menudo destaca el proceso creativo en los libros hechos a mano que muestra en un rico diálogo con la obra terminada. Los fotolibros manifiestan el razonamiento, la creatividad paso a paso; demuestran su comprensión de los temas a los que se dedica y se transforman en narrativas poéticas complementarias, dialécticas y originales. Este camino revelado y compartido da espesor al conjunto de su producción artística.

 

Participó en numerosas exposiciones colectivas y realizó exposiciones individuales en Estados Unidos, Argentina, Francia, Brasil, Rusia, Portugal y Uruguay, en reconocidas instituciones: Art Museum of Americas, Casa Roberto Marinho, CdF – Centro de Fotografia de Montevidéo, Blue Sky Gallery, ArtMedia Gallery, Galeria Arcimboldo, Centro Cultural Recoleta, Fondacion Manoel Ortiz, DOC Galeria, Centro Cultural da Justiça Federal, Fundação Iberê Camargo.

 

His works are included in the collection of Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Green Library – Stanford University, Museu de Arte do Rio/MAR, Coleção Joaquim Paiva/Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro/RJ, among other private collections.

​

Márcia Mello

​

Bibliographic text - Márcia Mello

​

Marcia Mello holds a bachelor's degree in Literature from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

She was the director of Galeria Tempo and participated in the implementation of the Photography Department at MAM/RJ, where she worked as a curator and conservator.

She has curated exhibitions at important institutional spaces in France and Brazil. With three published books, she maintains a restoration studio in Rio de Janeiro, where she regularly works on the treatment of public and private photographic collections.

​