Bar Somente Hoje

Focusing on the complexities of identities in transit and of diasporic beings, Rebeca Pak (São Paulo, 1992) often employs her own body as an instrument of investigation, relating it to the urban or architectural dimensions of the spaces she traverses. Underlying her experiments there is a continuous investigation in search of a visual synthesis that integrates the aesthetic characteristics of her origins with those of the places with which she gets in contact. A constant attempt to renegotiate references belonging to different cultures. As a consequence, the body of work resulting from the artist's investigations presents itself as a tool for questioning certain paradigms, a generous mechanism that sees its concreteness only when related to other existences.

Bar Somente Hoje (Only Today Bar), as the title suggests, is an ephemeral action that reflects on the imagery of the boteco, a popular type of bar in Brazil. Pak encourages us to inhabit a shared space and time, where food and conviviality become an activator of narratives. In the botecos, important meeting places embedded in the urban fabric of Brazilian cities, public and private intersect, street and bar merge and boundaries become blurred. Historically, they are linked to important Brazilian cultural expressions such as samba, carnival, and many other popular events. In the dispute for the right to the city^[2], the botecos are important allies in community life. Drawing on this path, the artist invites us to relate to a political structure for sociality. A set of beer transport boxes, elements of a lexicon familiar to this environment, become modules that call us to put our bodies together, close to the ground, opening to a space of dialogue and exchange. She thus adds her family gatherings - held on the floor around a traditional Korean low red table - as an important reference to the narrative.

The starting point of the activation is the work Supplimchi de Bacalhau. A recipe that, conceived by the artist, cannot be traced exclusively to one culinary tradition, but to the multiple ones that her life intersects. Starting from three distinct dishes - bacalhau à Gomes de Sá, kimchi and Roman supplì - to create a new one, Pak gives continuity to a process of reflection on the concept of symbolic and cultural contamination in her artistic making. The first dish, a Portuguese way of preparing codfish, is a constant presence at holidays in Brazil and can be found in the most popular traditional restaurants in most cities, as a concrete trace of Portuguese colonialism. Kimchi, the second course, is the most typical fermented side dish in Korean cuisine. The last, the supplì, is a fried rice ball, a very common street food in Rome, the city that welcomed her when she arrived in Italy and now hosts the action.

A series of handwritten signs hanging on the gallery facade seem to be trying to catch the attention of the passers-by, as in many bars, markets, and supermarkets not only in Brazil, to indicate the so-called unmissable bargains or offers not to be missed. "Garanta já o seu!" (get yours now) and "Não perca!" (not to be missed) are some of the characteristic phrases of this universe. Pak invokes a recurring aesthetic in the Brazilian urban landscape through the use of these elements, most often intended to survive for a few days and mostly created by painter-typographers, the cartazistas. The work of José Carlos Oscar, a cartazista from Rio de Janeiro called to collaborate on Bar Somente Hoje, not only reinforces the ephemeral aspect of the action but also ends up challenging a formal and trendy design model in favor of a vernacular aesthetic.

In Pak's incessant seeking of an autonomy of her artistic making, she brings out her understanding of a contemporary condition that does not belong only to herself, but that is shared by individuals in different contexts. And understanding, as Édouard Glissant writes regarding the concept of Relation, "implies the idea of taking with oneself, of extending one's arms to grasp and draw to oneself." Putting into Relation then leads to recognizing that the world exists in the nuances of multiple complexity. Bar Somente Hoje, as an ephemeral intervention and relational action, highlights the artist's interest in navigating these nuances.

Gabriella Rebello Kolandra

^[1] Édouard Glissant, Poetica della Relazione. Poetica III, traduzione di Enrica Restori, Macerata, Quodlibet, 2007

^[2] Henry Lefebvre, Il diritto alla città, traduzione di Cesare Bairati, Padova, Marsilio, 1970

Focusing on the complexities of identities in transit and of diasporic beings, Rebeca Pak (São Paulo, 1992) often employs her own body as an instrument of investigation, relating it to the urban or architectural dimensions of the spaces she traverses. Underlying her experiments there is a continuous investigation in search of a visual synthesis that integrates the aesthetic characteristics of her origins with those of the places with which she gets in contact. A constant attempt to renegotiate references belonging to different cultures. As a consequence, the body of work resulting from the artist's investigations presents itself as a tool for questioning certain paradigms, a generous mechanism that sees its concreteness only when related to other existences.

Bar Somente Hoje (Only Today Bar), as the title suggests, is an ephemeral action that reflects on the imagery of the boteco, a popular type of bar in Brazil. Pak encourages us to inhabit a shared space and time, where food and conviviality become an activator of narratives. In the botecos, important meeting places embedded in the urban fabric of Brazilian cities, public and private intersect, street and bar merge and boundaries become blurred. Historically, they are linked to important Brazilian cultural expressions such as samba, carnival, and many other popular events. In the dispute for the right to the city^[2], the botecos are important allies in community life. Drawing on this path, the artist invites us to relate to a political structure for sociality. A set of beer transport boxes, elements of a lexicon familiar to this environment, become modules that call us to put our bodies together, close to the ground, opening to a space of dialogue and exchange. She thus adds her family gatherings - held on the floor around a traditional Korean low red table - as an important reference to the narrative.

The starting point of the activation is the work Supplimchi de Bacalhau. A recipe that, conceived by the artist, cannot be traced exclusively to one culinary tradition, but to the multiple ones that her life intersects. Starting from three distinct dishes - bacalhau à Gomes de Sá, kimchi and Roman supplì - to create a new one, Pak gives continuity to a process of reflection on the concept of symbolic and cultural contamination in her artistic making. The first dish, a Portuguese way of preparing codfish, is a constant presence at holidays in Brazil and can be found in the most popular traditional restaurants in most cities, as a concrete trace of Portuguese colonialism. Kimchi, the second course, is the most typical fermented side dish in Korean cuisine. The last, the supplì, is a fried rice ball, a very common street food in Rome, the city that welcomed her when she arrived in Italy and now hosts the action.

A series of handwritten signs hanging on the gallery facade seem to be trying to catch the attention of the passers-by, as in many bars, markets, and supermarkets not only in Brazil, to indicate the so-called unmissable bargains or offers not to be missed. "Garanta já o seu!" (get yours now) and "Não perca!" (not to be missed) are some of the characteristic phrases of this universe. Pak invokes a recurring aesthetic in the Brazilian urban landscape through the use of these elements, most often intended to survive for a few days and mostly created by painter-typographers, the cartazistas. The work of José Carlos Oscar, a cartazista from Rio de Janeiro called to collaborate on Bar Somente Hoje, not only reinforces the ephemeral aspect of the action but also ends up challenging a formal and trendy design model in favor of a vernacular aesthetic.

In Pak's incessant seeking of an autonomy of her artistic making, she brings out her understanding of a contemporary condition that does not belong only to herself, but that is shared by individuals in different contexts. And understanding, as Édouard Glissant writes regarding the concept of Relation, "implies the idea of taking with oneself, of extending one's arms to grasp and draw to oneself." Putting into Relation then leads to recognizing that the world exists in the nuances of multiple complexity. Bar Somente Hoje, as an ephemeral intervention and relational action, highlights the artist's interest in navigating these nuances.

Gabriella Rebello Kolandra

^[1] Édouard Glissant, Poetica della Relazione. Poetica III, traduzione di Enrica Restori, Macerata, Quodlibet, 2007

^[2] Henry Lefebvre, Il diritto alla città, traduzione di Cesare Bairati, Padova, Marsilio, 1970