The artwork "Nosso Lar - Brasilia" and the Modern Movement: paradise or purgatory?

Abstract

This article deals with the representation of architecture in the 31th São Paulo Biennial of Art, specifically the Dutch artist's work Jonas Staal ‘Nosso Lar - Brasilia’. This proposal intends to create a dialectic reflection between the finitude of modern man and the reason domain in architecture and urbanism. Thus, ripping the veil that covers the social reality and is part of this action, the author's gesture revisits modernity critically and reveals the contradictions that do not appear visibly in the form. What is the legacy of modern design for postmodernity? This is the core of Jonas Staal’s artwork ‘Nosso Lar - Brasilia’ which gives him the position of a 'radical modern' proposing a representation that denies the autonomy of art and architecture, reconfiguring their specificities with economic, political, social issues and creating a strange dialogue with the spiritual work of Francis Xavier ‘Nosso Lar’. This perspective points to the fate of the abstraction of modern ideas in contemporary society. The 31st International Art Biennial of São Paulo took place between 06/09/14 to 07/12/2014 in Ibirapuera Park, it was considered by art critics and press as transgressive as it put into question the issue of ‘conflict’ , clashes still unresolved between different social groups. With the title ‘How (...) things that do not exist’ the exhibition emphasized the translation of political invisibility and social phenomenon that transcends individuality in an urgent need of acting and thinking collectively.