THE ILLUSTRATED TRIPPER is an exhibition project by André Caliman.
Team:
Rogério Bealpino – curator of the exhibition
Melina Arins – proofreading and translation
Aluisio Barbosa – catalogue designer
CONTACT:
THE ILLUSTRATED TRIPPER
by André Caliman
NO PLACE WILL BE LIKE HERE
“It was therefore my role, as a foreign witness and as a history painter, to collect accurate and prime data in order to serve an art worthily devoted to save the truth from oblivion.”
(Jean-Baptiste Debret in “A Picturesque and Historic Voyage to Brazil”)
This was the function that Debret sought to fulfill when he came to Brazil in 1816, here staying for 15 years to register with his art the places and peoples of this country, especially in Rio de Janeiro. Had it not been for him and other travelers like Hans Staden, Rugendas and Saint-Hilaire, much would actually have been forgotten about our country. Had it not been for Marco Polo and Columbus, we would not see the world in the same way. And today? Is not everything already registered? Is there not already too much information for our poor brains with little memory? Photos, videos, writings, impressions. Everyone has expressed themselves in some way. Is there anything new left worth trying? Maybe not, but who said that we need to look at everything with the same eyes? Why not review the world from our own perspective, and not just from the other’s one? Not with pride and arrogance, but by understanding that it is the individual who is responsible for building the present. Each one is the protagonist of their own history.
This is where André Caliman introduces us to something different: to take part in his records not as mere spectators, but as living characters of his impressions. André is one more of these art-educated creators, a teacher, an experienced comic book author, with several publications, awards, participations in compilations and an intense work routine in his studio. But that is not what matters here. It is more important to look back at ourselves and at our real role in the facts that constitute the history of the world, be it in the past or in the present. This is what André wants us to do from his point of view. Indeed, it is this outlook that the artist literally shows us when he illustrates dozens of places in Brazil and Europe in an unusual way, setting together in one single plane before and now, former and current, old and new, what was and what is.
André Caliman, in 2014, leaves his studio and begins to travel, somewhat aimlessly, not knowing what exactly to pursue. He starts drawing things as he meets people and undergoes experiences. It is the custom of every traveler. Where he arrives, he draws his clipboard, prepares the paper and the India ink, and distills random traces. As he draws, he reflects on that place where he becomes a character, yet he almost disappears amid the overwhelming presence of the reality that springs from there. Tropeiros and backpackers in Caminho do Itupava; overpasses and skyscrapers in Anchieta and Tibiriçá’s city of São Paulo; Nazi Germans in the peaceful Oradour-sur-Glane; girls with smartphones in the middle of Jack the Ripper’s London; the Temple of Saturn, the Sistine Chapel, street artists and tourists amid the ruins of the Roman Empire; new buildings, asphalt and smoke on the “discovery” beaches in Salvador; settler´s horses, bohemian types and hot pastry stalls in Curitiba’s Largo da Ordem. André seems to wish to “save the truth from oblivion”. And thus he dialogues with the world. In Brazil, he goes through its five regions; and in Europe he stays for a while in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and England. He goes on publishing these illustrations on a website and also inserting in it some written impressions, sort of travel notes, imaginary reveries, fictitious truths. From such material, two volumes are published: one containing the illustrations originating from the excursions through Brazil, and the other with those from the trips through European countries. They become postcards, inciting the reader to interact. In the exhibition we see all this. His drawings, his travel stuff, his notes.
All these places are, at the same time, perennial and mutable. They carry forever the history they staged and they transform every day. Many travelers illustrated their experiences, and each one also left a vacant space at their side for us to look at everything on our own. Nothing is forever, neither what is good nor what is bad. In a while, we will not be the same ourselves and, as André Caliman says, “no place will be like here, not even this place will be itself”.
Rogério Bealpino – curator
To get the catalogue, please click HERE.
or send an e-mail to:
caliman.hq@gmail.com
To have news about the project, go to instagram HERE.
VEJA MAIS DO PROJETO AQUI.
ANDRÉ CALIMAN 