Dialogues with the collection: Candida Höfer

Pinacoteca de São Paulo presents the exhibition “Candida Hofer”

German artist rethinks the use and re-examines the structure of spaces with great historic value through her photographs.

Opening Saturday, February 18th, 2017, at 11 am | Visitation until May 22nd, 2017

As from February 18th, the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, a museum of the Secretariat for Culture of the State of São Paulo, presents three large-scale works by German artist Candida Höfer in the second floor of the building set in the Luz neighborhood, adjacent to the Luz Metro and Railway (CPTM) station. The photographs depict two different cultural spaces in Brazil and one in France, here placed in dialogue with the museum’s 19th century art collection.

The show is part of the exhibition program entitled Diálogos com o acervo (Dialogues with the collection), designed to present works from other institutions and/or contemporary artists and encourage a close dialogue with the Pinacoteca’s collection. The program has presented the collections of the Museu Mariano Procópio (Mariano Procópio Museum), in Juiz de Fora (MG), a selection of paintings and photographs from the Museu Paulista da Universidade de São Paulo (São Paulo City Museum of the University of São Paulo), works by artists Francis Alÿs (Belgium), by Vasco Araújo (Portugal) and by Rodrigo Andrade (Brazil). “By bringing together works from the Pinacoteca’s collection and works from other periods or collections and forging connections between them, the museum challenges the visitor to construct new interpretations. This opens up new possibilities for looking at what is already familiar to us,” explains chief curator Valeria Piccoli.

The show presents photographs from the Räume (Spaces) series, dedicated to the representation of public spaces such as museums, art galleries, libraries and concert halls. These images explore the way that architecture constructs solemn spaces that at once guide and direct the public’s actions, and also contain and control them. “The internal spaces of historical buildings are portrayed by the artist with a degree of critical distance. This will provide an interesting counterpoint for the visitor of the Pinacoteca, who may become aware of the fact that, at that precise moment, they themselves are also standing in one such space, imbued and permeated with significant institutional history,” says Piccoli.

Considered one of the key figures of contemporary photography, Candida Höfer studied at the prestigious Düsseldorf Art Academy. Most importantly, her photographs investigate the structure of public spaces and the means by which architecture can manipulate human experience. At times, her images foregrounds the excess of ornamentation of a particular place and the impact this exerts on the observer; in others, it is the dominance of geometry and its ordering principle, which often goes unnoticed by those who walk around and pass through these spaces. “Höfer’s photographs invite us to reflect on the sensations that these spaces produce in us, and how we are influenced by them.”

Candida Höfer is open for visitation until May 22nd, 2017, housed on the second floor of the Pinacoteca – Praça da Luz, 2. Open Wednesday to Monday, from 10 am to 6 pm – last admission 5:30 pm – and tickets are R$ 6 (full price) and R$ 3 (half-price). Free for children under 10 and adults over 60. On Saturdays, admission is free for all visitors. The Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo is located in front of the Luz Metro and Railway (CPTM) station, and also offers free parking. pinacoteca.org.br – (+55 11) 3324-1000