Website of "Discover the Brazilian Cinema"

The Discover the Brazilian Cinema poster exhibition was presented in Art Scene Gallery in Shanghai from June 15-27, 2007 featuring original posters by 30 Brazilian visual artists and 10 Chinese visual communication students.

The exhibition was curated by Billy Bacon and Bruno Porto on the occasion of the 10th Shanghai International Film Festival, which honored Brazil with a special film selection named Mostra Foco Brasil.

Artists:
André Stolarski
Batman Zavareze
Billy Bacon
Bruno Porto
Claudio Reston ‘Haroldinho’
Daniel Bueno
Eduardo Denne
Felipe Muanis
Manifesto (Guto Lins / Adriana Lins / Fernando Arruda)
Itamar Medeiros
Kako
José Bessa ‘Elesbão’
Leonardo Buggy
Leonardo Eyer
Lilian Granado
Marcello Rosauro
Marcelo Martinez
Marck Al
Mariana Ochs
Orlando Pedroso
Rafael Ferreira
Rafo Castro
Renato Faccini
Ricardo Cunha Lima
Ruth Klotzel
Walter Vasconcelos
Yomar Augusto
Ziraldo

Students (Raffles Design Institute – Shanghai)
‘Allen’ / ‘Gavin’ / ‘Joe’
Irene Kuswardi
‘Jimmy’
‘Sam’
‘Sanal’
Stephen Tedjakusuma
‘Terry’
‘Zoe’

This exhibition, accompanying the Focus on Brazil (the Brazilian film exhibition taking place within this week’s tenth Shanghai International Film Festival) is a true visual carnival. The idea was to take forty designers, artists, illustrators, and photographers spanning all generations and regions of Brazil, and ask them to create an original collection of posters for famous Brazilian films. The collection in turn aims to introduce China, a country with an equally distinctive cultural flavor, to the richness and beauty that Brazilian cinema has to offer.

Ziraldo's poster for "Discover Brazilian Cinema" exhibition

Naturally green and yellow, the colors of the Brazilian flag, are widely incorporated in the designs, which includes interpretations of a projection room light by Shanghai based Itamar Medeiros and São Paulo visual designer André Stolarski. In others, symbols such as classic 1950s 3D effect glasses, tourist sights, film, draft beer glasses, folkloric or movie characters, cameras, and a dragon are all juxtaposed to create a series of reflections on what defines Brazilian film. One of the most arresting design comes from national legend Ziraldo, who has worked as an illustrator, graphic designer, children’s book author, playwright, and talk show host for over 50 years. His poster presents a face with a Mona Lisa smirk and an open eye appearing as the Brazilian flag.

If the sum of all the parts seems to be cobbled together in a rather haphazard fashion, that’s the beauty of it. It’s exactly the mix and clash of colors, ideas, traditions, and artists that makes this collection so striking.

(SH Magazine, June 2007)