Although this work is not tied to any specific exhibition, the artist mentions typical “situations” that appear in Criatividade/ Transformação/ Contínua. This is the title of the work with which he participates in the Salão da Bússola [Salon of the Compass] at the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro in 1969 (MAM-RJ). That salon was a landmark exhibition in Brazilian contemporary art in that it brought together all kinds of experimental art. This text was subsequently reproduced in an article by Frederico Morais, “O lixo é arte” [Garbage is Art], published in the Diário de Notícias, Rio de Janeiro (January 25, 1973). The reason for the quotation marks around the word “situations,” above, is that Barrio was well-known for his approaches in public spaces (both urban and marginal), in a series that he called “Situações.”
Born in Portugal and living in Brazil starting in 1955, Artur Barrio (b. 1945) began writing his “notebook-books”—with notes in his own private language—starting in the late 1960s. His various writings clearly identify certain topics around which his art approach revolves, even assuming material form in his radical conceptual artwork.
[For other texts by Artur Barrio, see in the ICAA digital archive “Se o corpo é o suporte” (doc. no. 1110694); “Fantasias; Fragmentos” (doc. no. 1110600); DOM,...O,,DE...P...PEL” (doc. no. 1110595); “Barrio” (doc. no. 1110491); with the artists Dinah Guimaraens and Lauro Cavalcanti “Mitos Vadios” (doc. no. 1110494); “Cadernoslivros” (doc. no. 1110597); and a publication about the artist published by FUNARTE ? Coleção ABC, Barrio (doc. no. 1111068)].
