SAO PAULO.- There’s been a radical change in the idea of what public art should be. The city of São Paulo recently declared that they were not to approve any further out-dated public sculptures with the justification that this kind of art belongs to the XIX century, adding nothing to the urban environment. It’s an unexpected yet welcome decision that feeds hope that the public powers will be wisely updating its relationship with art.

It’s in this context of the renewal of art and artistic ideas that the exhibition INSIDE OUT/OUTSIDE IN presents itself as MASP’s further incursions of urban art – artists are once more invited to come into the museum. The 2009/2010 experience surpassed all expectations; there was a strong renewal of a public audience, the younger people adventured first, followed by everyone else. Some people were surprised, others just confirmed what they already knew, and everybody liked what they saw. The fact is that every museum should open itself to the different sensibilities of its time, not only for the ones already established.

This is about creating conditions to re-think and re-realize art in the XXI century. Ideas that were perceived before by just an elite of initiators is now put before a new public. Aspects that were before almost invisible – although one could openly see it on the city walls – with this kind of enterprise is showcased before a strong spotlight. Something is always lost in the process, perhaps that underground feeling, but a lot of other advantages are gained.

The previous exhibition was with Brazilian artists, this one will be with artists from France, USA, Czech Republic and Argentina. What is expected is the same rediscovery and feeling of diversity.

INSIDE OUT/OUTSIDE IN project by the curators (Mariana Martins, Baixo Ribeiro & Eduardo Saretta)

What’s the exhibition: INSIDE OUT/OUTSIDE IN brings together eight foreign artists for a month long residency, where each one will create a site-specific installation, inside and outside the museum, in the city environment.

Mural paintings, sculptures, installations, wheat pasting, maps, photography, film and animations will be the leading mediums used by the artists.
The works will be collaborative and each artist’s work will be in direct dialogue with the others. It will not be a festival or a show of ready made works, but an interdependent production of works inside the same exhibited space.

Concept: The central idea of INSIDE OUT/OUTSIDE IN is to propose to the public the experience of not knowing where the art is. It can be everywhere, under the stairs, behind the canvas or inside a hole; art can be in our living room or in the middle of the road; inside or outside a museum.

The exhibition is an all encompassing experience in itself; we experience the collaborative work, the public participation within various levels, the collective installation, the dialogue with Lina Bo Bardi’s architecture and the urban and human landscape of the city. We experience the dialogue of São Paulo living with Art.