Beto Shwafaty

Brazil, b. 1977

Beto Shwafaty’s collages form part of his wider project titled Remediations that meditates on the idea of progress and modernization, and is closely identified with the late-modernist aesthetics that emerged in Brazil in the 1950s. Central to the work is how this modernity has been constantly undone and opposed by old colonial structures. The project addresses the multifaceted relations between territorial planning, economics, architecture, ideology, history, and progress as they relate to modernism and colonialism. His interest in designed objects and structures within society emphasise how these materials, which still permeate our everyday lives, can produce shared meanings and behaviours. By exploring the connections between nature, culture, and politics, Remediations draws attention to the ideological uses of visuality, of discourses related to progress, and of communication strategies used as a means of power in specific times and places in Brazil. The project considers the country’s structural problems through different historical periods, and highlights the many ways in which these are manifested discursively or visually.

Beto Shwafaty is an artist, critic, and researcher based in Brazil. He produces installations, videos, and sculptural objects using a diverse array of methodologies, such as curatorial thinking, institutional strategies, criticism, and archival research. Recent solo exhibitions include: Parque Funcional, Complexo Cultural Funarte, Brazil, and Hablemos de Reparaciones, Prometeogallery, Milan, Italy (2017); and Risk Contract, Luisa Strina gallery, São Paulo (2015). In 2013 his docu-fiction photobook, The Life of the Centers, was published that explores historical and urban fluxes of development of three regions of São Paulo. Shwafaty is represented by Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo, and Galeria Prometeo, Milan.

(Text: 38th EVA International catalogue)