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Paulicéia, 2018-2024

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                 Paulicéia is a hybrid work formed by a concrete sculpture constructed with a cut-out facsimile edition of the book “Paulicea Desvairada”, from 1922, by Mário de Andrade (1893-1945); a sculptural and performance action carried out on Rua da Consolação in the center of São Paulo; and a video that records this action.

                 The work problematizes some notions such as the urban mesh and what mobilizes the interests – political, economic, cultural – of social life in a large city. It presents, in its physical evidence, a recurring operation in my production: surfaces transplanted from procedures such as displacements, cuts and assemblies. 
                 
                  The work takes as its material the first book of Brazilian modernist poetry “Paulicea Desvairada”, written by Mário de Andrade between 1920 and 1921, and published in 1992. This book was written in a scenario of changes in a metropolis that was in the process of modernization and urbanization, a period that reveals the process of demographic expansion in the city. The book is marked by the poet's walks through the streets of the whacky “Paulicea” – “desvairada”, in this case, that is, madness –, a São Paulo that developed from contingencies, needs and chance, and which was presented by the poet like a stage. “The injustices and sufferings denounced by the poet on his walk through Paulicea” are revealed in the poems through vicious criticism, in acid and mocking passages such as “Ode to the Bourgeoisie”. In “Paulicea Desvairada”, there is a critical look towards contradictions and complex contrasts present in the modernization process of one of the largest cities in the world, revealing social problems in a burlesque way throughout the 22 poems.

                 “From adversity, we live”, how can we find the poetic in risk and violence? How to dress a violent, harsh and repellent megalopolis with poetry? What is a city full of contrasts and social contradictions disguised as poetry? How to dress the city with poetry? How can we consider the idea of embellishing poetically significant surfaces in this minefield in a state of alert?

                 A diamond present on the cover of the facsimile of the book “Paulicea Desvairada” was cut out and extracted. This diamond refers to the type of pattern present in the harlequin's clothing, which reconstitutes a kind of archetype of the jester character known for the acid and critical social satires he performed. This rhombus, present both on the cover of the book and on the harlequin's clothing, can also be associated with the idea of ​​mosaic, mesh or covering that covers the pavements of large urban centers. The extracted diamond was embedded in the urban fabric of one of the streets in the city of São Paulo mentioned in the text, Rua da Consolação. A video recording was made recording this action.

                 In Paulicéia, a concrete sculpture was built – a material present in the city's vernacular – into which the cut-out book was introduced. The work takes place back and forth, here and there, in the exhibition space and in the “body” of the city, by bringing a physical piece of the book to the urban mesh and by affixing the book to a fragment of the city's mosaic.

Thiago Honório, July 2019.

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