ROSÂNGELA RENNÓ: RÍO-MONTEVIDEO
22 JANUARY - 3 APRIL 2016
26 November 2015
Río-Montevideo is the first major UK solo exhibition by acclaimed Brazilian artist
Rosângela Rennó, known for her appropriation and re-contextualisation of archival
and vernacular images. This exhibition originated from the artist’s residency at
Uruguay’s Centro de Fotografía researching their photography collection of the
now defunct communist newspaper El Popular.
Comprising thirty-two images, the project highlights the often overlooked
narratives of everyday protagonists during the 60s and 70s, a time of great social
and political upheavals in Uruguay and throughout Latin America. These include
pictures of boxing and football matches, religious ceremonies, demonstrations and
armed confrontations between the military police and protesters in the central
streets of the capital. By focusing on these visual memories Rennó seeks to address
elements of the phenomena of national amnesia surrounding historical events born out of the censorship imposed by the dictatorial regime of the time.
The images were mainly taken by Aurelio González, chief photographer of El
Popular, and other photojournalists who worked for the newspaper: Hermes Cuña,
Julio Alonso, Eduardo Bonomi, Sergio Pereyra, Héctor Mesa and Aurelio’s son,
Fernando González. Founded in 1957, the newspaper ran through to June 1973
when it was shut down on the eve of the military coup. Foreseeing the paper’s
imminent closure, González hid its entire photographic archive consisting of 48,
626 negatives between the walls of its office building. He was then forced to leave
the country and spent the next twelve years travelling across America and Europe,
raising awareness of the political situation in Uruguay and South America before
finally returning to Uruguay in 1985 following the end of the dictatorship.
On his return González tried to retrieve the negatives but discovered the old office
building had undergone renovations and these could no longer be found. They were
to remain hidden for two more decades until the son of the owner of the building
that previously housed El Popular discovered a canister of negatives. These
eventually reached the Centro de Fotografía who, recognising the importance of the
find, assisted in the recovery of the full archive. Had these films not been hidden,
the archive would almost certainly have been destroyed during the dictatorship’s
rule. Retrieved, they constitute an invaluable visual record of the years of economic
downturn and public unrest preceding the military coup - a period which bears
almost no photographic witness.
For the presentation of Río-Montevideo, Rennó uses twenty slide projectors of
varying formats, models and eras, found in the flea markets of Tristán Narvaja
(Montevideo) and Troca-Troca (Rio de Janeiro). For Rennó these projectors offer a
mechanical analogy to the materiality and endurance of El-Popular’s negatives, a
quality she feels is now lost in an age of digital disposal. The projectors are
operated by visitors who manually trigger individual bulbs to expose each slide. As
a result of these interactions the ever changing sequence of images on the wall
offers viewers new and diverse readings of the events depicted. Also playing in the
space is a classical composition of the famous Communist International anthem.
The overall effect is that of a fragmented history which seeks to interrogate the past
while questioning the relationship between collective national narratives and
recorded facts.
Contd.
Page 2 of 2
Notes for Editors
Rosângela Rennó
Rosângela Rennó (Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 1962) lives and works in Rio de Janeiro. She Studied
Fine Arts at the Guignard College and Architecture at the Federal University of Minas Gerais and
has a doctorate in Arts from the University of São Paulo. The artist has made solo exhibitions at
Brazilian and international institutions as The Appel Foundation (Amsterdam, 1995), The
Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, 1996), Australian Center for Photography (Sydney,
1999), Prefix Institute Contemporary Art (Toronto, 2008), Pharos Center for Contemporary Art
(Nicosia, 2009), Centro de Fotografía (Montevideo, 2011), CAM - Gulbenkian Foundation
(Lisbon, 2012), FotoMuseum (Winterthur, 2012), Fondation Cartier (Paris, 2014). Rosângela
showed her work at group exhibitions as 45th International Venice Biennale (1993), the
Johannesburg Biennial (1997), 2nd Berlin Biennale (2001), 50th International Venice Biennale
(2003), 1st Biennial of New Orleans (2008), 22th and 29th São Paulo Biennials (1994 and 2010),
12th Istanbul Biennial (2011), Palais de Tokio (Paris, 2012). Last Awards: CIFO Grants &
Commissions (2014), Paris Photo - Aperture Foundation Photobook award - Photobook of the
year (2013), ALICE Awards - Political Art (2012).
Aurelio González
Aurelio Gonzalez was born in Morocco in 1931 and moved to Montevideo in 1952, where he
initially took up work in the construction industry. During this time, he became associated with
various Spanish anti-Franco groups and subsequently joined the Communist Party of Uruguay,
taking pictures for their weekly publication. In 1957 he joined the communist national newspaper
El-Popular as its chief photographer where he continued to work until the paper’s closure in 1973
following the country’s military coup. Declared an outlaw by the new dictatorial regime, Gonzalez
decided to hide the newspaper’s archive of nearly 50,000 photographs in the old headquarters of
the newspapers. In 1976, he obtained political asylum in Mexico and spent the next decade
traveling around America and Europe. In 1985 with Uruguay’s transition to democracy Gonzalez
was able to return to the country taking on a new position as photojournalist for La Hora
newspaper. In 2006 in a fortuitous sequence of events, El-Popular’s archive was found and
recognised as a significant national record bearing witness to otherwise undocumented events
from Uruguay’s turbulent years of the 1960s-70s. Gonzalez has been closely involved in restoring
and categorising the archive which is currently housed at El Centro de Fotografía, Montevideo.
The Photographers’ Gallery
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Press information
For further press information and to request images please contact:
Inbal Mizrahi on +44 (0)20 7087 9333 or email [email protected]
ROSÂNGELA RENNÓ: RÍO-MONTEVIDEO
22 JANUARY - 3 APRIL 2016
Image 1
Audience in Independencia Stadium, Montevideo, during
Peñarol Athletics Club soccer play. Unknown date, between
1957 and 1973.
El Popular Private Collection Reproduction
Authorized by Aurelio González and Centro de Fotografía
Image 2
Social protest in 18 de Julio avenue, Montevideo, Uruguay,
1968
El Popular Private Collection Reproduction
Authorized by Aurelio González and Centro de Fotografía
Image 3
Protest of retired people, Montevideo, Uruguay, 1963
El Popular Private Collection Reproduction
Authorized by Aurelio González and Centro de Fotografía
Image 4
Demonstration in favour of communism, Montevideo,
Uruguay, 1964
El Popular Private Collection Reproduction
Authorized by Aurelio González and Centro de Fotografía
Image 5
Man is victim of social conflict. No registration date.
El Popular Private Collection Reproduction
Authorized by Aurelio González and Centro de Fotografía
Image 6
People go to the streets to celebrate with football club,
Montevideo, Uruguay, 1965
El Popular Private Collection Reproduction
Authorized by Aurelio González and Centro de Fotografía
Contd.
Page 3 of 3
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