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Reading time 6 min

Fernando Sodré performs at Inhotim

Redação Inhotim

Born in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Fernando Sodré is part of renewal movement in country viola. Last year, the artist released his third album, Viola de Ponta Cabeça [Upside-down Viola], in which he shows modern elaborated harmonies, executed with technique and precision. The result is contemporary jazz filled with influences, which he will be presenting at Inhotim this coming Saturday, June 7, at 3 p.m.With musicians Írio Júnior (piano), Esdras Neném (drums) and Enéias Xavier (bass), the viola player will also have Toninho Horta and harmonic player Gabriel Grossi as guests. Inhotim’s Blog has talked to Fernando about the concert and about his relationship with music. Check it out!

 

Inhotim’s blog – You have roots in choro music, but there are also jazz elements to your music.How do you describe what you do?

Fernando Sodré – I can say that what I play is Brazilian instrumental music. My arrangements are influenced by typical Brazilian rhythms and melodies such as choro, northeastern music and traditional music from Minas. I think it’s a mix of all that.I started out playing chorinho and only then jazz, with musician Alvimar Liberato. He introduced me to jazz and, from then on, I started studying it. In the beginning, the language was difficult for me, but I soon fell in love with it and added its elements to my music.

 

IB – In your last album, as well as at Inhotim, you play with important musicians in the Minas Gerais scene. How did it feel to add these names to your work?

FS – Enéias was the greatest responsible for this experience. I had known him for a while and we used to work together every now and then. Once, I was going to perform in Panama and drummer Márcio Bahia, who was going to play in the concert, could not travel with the band. Then, Enéias told me about Esdra (Neném). He played with us and it was a very nice experience. A few people know about this, but before thinking about Viola de Ponta Cabeça I intended to release a solo album. After this trip and other experiences, I changed my mind and decided to invite both of them to form a trio. We added other interesting elements to the recording, such as Irio’s piano and Gabriel Grossi’s harmonica. The result was a very free album, in which each one of us had a lot of autonomy to create within the arrangements proposed.Considering that we did it live, the gathering of influences and sounds was beyond my expectations. When I first listened to the tracks I noticed how well things fitted together.

 

IB – Singer and songwriter Toninho Horta is also in the album and takes part in the performance at Inhotim. Tell us about this experience.

FS – I’ve been a big fan of Toninho Horta for a long time.I have always listened to his music and he was one of my references. Throughout my career, I’ve always wanted to develop some sort of work with him. Through a common friend, I invited him when we were doing Viola de Ponta Cabeça. We sent the material, Toninho listened to it, liked it and agreed to be in the album. As soon as the recording started, he was very willing and engaged with the project. The result was this version of “Party in Olinda”, a track directed by him and that came up quite interesting.

 

IB – About the concert on Saturday, what does it mean for you to perform at a place like Inhotim?

FS – It is truly a fantastic opportunity to be able to play at a place that is respected and acknowledged both in Brazil and abroad such as Inhotim. I think my music dialogs very well with the place and the people there, so, my expectations are huge. I´m hoping it will be a great show. After all, the place’s atmosphere positively influences each track we’ll be playing. We will show a very diversified repertoire, with songs from the last album and from other ones, older ones. In addition to our base formation, Toninho Horta, Gabriel Grossi will also participate.

 

IB – The performance is part of the program for the 10th Environment Week, which is taking place at Inhotim. How do you relate to the environmental issue?

FS – It’s funny you mentioned this, because a lot of my music is created in places far from city centers. Rivers, farms, mountains, that is, places that haven’t undergone major alterations by men. Therefore, nature is a source of inspiration for me. Without it, it’s likely I would find difficulties with my creative process. Weeks such as this one are very important to raise everyone’s awareness about environmental issues.

Reading time 3 min

2014 World Cup at Inhotim

Redação Inhotim

Do you want to visit Inhotim during the World Cup? Then, check out our program for June and July and don’t miss out on anything:

 

Matches’ broadcasting

Those visiting the Institute on match days will not miss out on the Cup. Inhotim will broadcast the matches at the Theater at the Burle Marx Educational Center during the park’s visiting hours: from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Tuesday through Friday and up to 5:30 p.m. on holidays and weekends.

 

Panoramic Tour in English

Between June 14 and July 12, Inhotim’s panoramic tour will also be conducted in English. Perfect for you to take your couchsurfing gringo friends! The idea is to offer an overview of the Institute, emphasizing on the landscaping project and works of art on display in the gardens. The tour leaves at 11 a.m. from the park’s reception, Tuesday through Sunday and holidays. There may be up to 25 visitors in each group and the tour takes 1 hour.

 

Art Theme Tours

If you intend to learn a bit more about the contemporary art world, don’t miss out on the art theme visits. Always focusing on a certain aspect of the collection, they allow for reflections and different ways to look at the works of art. These tours last 1 hour and 30 minutes and take place on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, at 2:30 p.m., leaving from the reception. Check out the themes during the World Cup:

 

June: See, hear, touch! Hyperstimulation in art

Visitors are invited to discuss how new technologies and means of communication change how things are perceived and done in the arts. Based on works by Babette Mangolte and Hélio Oiticica, we can discuss about these transformations in the artistic production in large cities in the 1960s.

 

July: Soundscapes

Have you ever stopped to think how sounds can be learned and changed by technology? In June, we propose you look and listen to our walks throughout the park, our spaces and actions more carefully, based on a reflection on artists such as Janet Cardiff and Doug Aitken.

 

Play for the shirt of your team and take part in our activities, which are free for all visitors! Click here to buy your ticket.

Reading time 4 min

10th Environment Week

Redação Inhotim

Have you heard of ecological footprint? Carbon credit? Environmental innovation? These and other expressions have often come up when it comes to preserving the planet. Researchers all over the world are joining forces to think about ways to reduce man’s impact on the Earth and how to make such practices common to any citizen. Next week, this discussion will take place at Inhotim, with the 10th Environment Week, whose theme this year is People for Climate.

 

From June 1 to 8 Inhotim will host an intense program with innovation workshops, seminars with special guest speakers, environmental education workshops, guided theme visits, games and a botanical exhibit. The activities propose a reflection on environmental preservation and present initiatives related to sustainability.

 

Inhotim’s Blog talked to Joaquim de Araújo Silva, Environment and Botanical Garden Director at the Institute. Check it out!

Inhotim’s Blog – This is the 10th edition of the Environment Week and the 8th to take place at Inhotim. How do you analyze this trajectory?

Joaquim de Araújo – The Environment Week is intended to synchronize global, national and regional themes at Inhotim, and then establish attitudes based on these discussions. Throughout the years, we have found important solution for environmental issues and have reaffirmed the value of Inhotim Botanical Garden in preserving biodiversity. The Environment Week has become a forum to discuss the environmental theme at a real high level.

 

IB – People for Climate is this year’s theme. In which kind of initiative do you believe people can get engaged in order to try to slow down climate changes?

JA – We intend to bring this topic to people’s everyday lives, so that they can reflect on their way of life. Climate change and global warming are closely related to how member of contemporary society live their lives on a daily basis. We want to draw the attention of individuals, and not only of companies, about their consumption patterns and habits. The conscious use of natural resources is essential for us to reverse this scenario. We don’t have a recipe for success, but we must perceive that consuming with common sense is related to the well-being of society as a whole.

 

IB – What has Inhotim been doing to reduce its impact on the environment?

JA – First of all, we know we are responsible for flora and biodiversity conservation and we have increasingly positioned ourselves effectively when it comes to this theme. As a botanical garden, we work with several goals, including research, committing ourselves to the Brazilian reality. Now, when it comes to managing the park itself, we have established the Environmental Management System, whose purpose is to map out and create a more efficient way to operate. The actions include control and monitoring of solid waste produced at Inhotim, reduction of expenses with electric power, improve drinking water use and handling, among others. These are practical ways to ensure the Institute’s excellence in its relationship with its surrounding environment.

Reading time 4 min

Contemporary Music Miniseries

Redação Inhotim

This coming Sunday, May 25, guitars, flutes, percussions and musical sculptures will take over Inhotim to comprise a Contemporary Music Miniseries.  Starting at 3 PM, groups from Minas, Corda Nova, Flutuar Orquestra de Flauta, UFMG Percussion Group and Quarteto Cretinos e Plásticas will perform in the Institute’s gardens, a setting the mixes nature and art in a unique way.  To invite you to experience all this, Inhotim’s Blog has asked each group to tell you what makes their music contemporary.  Check it out!

 

“Percussion might be the most emblematic instrument in Contemporary Music.  This is so because it encompasses a diversified range of sounds and instruments, incorporating everyday objects and other ones invented by the musicians themselves, generating an almost infinite sound material for the composer of contemporary music. But contemporary percussionists are not limited to sound.  Their willingness to experiment allows their music to incorporate materials found in other areas, such as drama, literature, circus, dance, technology. Thus, maybe the most contemporary thing about the work performed by UFMG Percussion Group is the absence of prejudice and the group’s constant interest in expanding the musical language.”  Fernando Rocha, member of the UFMG Percussion Group

 

“Corda Nova has established itself as a representative of its time.  With contemporaneity in our DNA, the group has focused on working with living composers, and so far has taken to stage only works requested specifically for its concerts.  Fresh ink on paper alone does not define the synch of the group with its time:  Corda Nova’s members are immersed and synched with musical production as well as with current thinking, whether by means of extreme artistic proposals or through their academic and humanity background.  This ranges from the group’s insertion into community cultural life in their homeland to experiences with communities which are not well integrated with the Western world.  All of this has been reflected on the group’s production, culminating in creations that often extrapolate the strictly sonorous world towards the plastic and scenic worlds, as well as concepts and poetics that are a possible portrait, a facet of contemporary Brazil.  – Stanley Levi, member of Corda Nova.

 

“Freedom guides the work and aesthetical orientation of Flutuar Orquestra de Flautas, a group that refuses to be attached to a specific artistic current which might limit their spontaneous expression.  This is what grants this group artistic contemporaneity and originality:  boldness in experiencing and creating.  Everything at Flutuar is freedom: the choice of repertoire, the structuring of the arrangements, the action on stage, the easiness of its members, and especially, the joy of playing as a group. ” – Alberto Sampaio, member of Fluturar Orquestra de Flauta.

 

“More than being identified with the modes of production of an era, being contemporary means to be detached from this era, so as to question it in the way you act, play, think, and, in our case, make music.  We, from Cretinos e Plásticas, investigate, explore and interrogate the musical and artistic work at the same time we make our music.  From preparing and producing the instruments, to the poetic construction of the sonorous space by way of improvisation, getting close to other forms of art expressed in the instrument itself, taking ownership of this instrument’s plasticity, what we do is explore and get detached from the way music is made and thought of today.” – Marco Scarassatti, member of Quarteto Cretinos e Plásticas.

Reading time 2 min

Adriana Varejão and History

Redação Inhotim

“My narrative is a web of stories.  Stories about bodies, architecture, Brazil, tattoo, ceramics, old tiles, Portuguese tiles, modern and vulgar tiles, books, maps, painting.

 

And more: a cheap bar in Lapa, a corner of Macau, a swimming pool in Budapest, ruins in Chacahua, a wall in Lisbon, a cloister in Salvador, a Turkish bath in Paris’ 18th district, a delicate Song vase, a sentence in a book, a market in Taxco, a tattooed skin, a black angel in Minas, a shard in Barcelona, India ink in Guilim, a butcher’s shop in Copacabana, a chrysanthemum in Cachoeira, a piece of news in the paper, a mirror in Tlacolula, a bus station restroom, a Chinese bird in Sabará, the sound of an acoustic guitar, a tile in Queluz, jerked beef in Caruarú, a sentence from the past, a painting in New York, votive offerings in Maceió, a shade of red in Madrid, a sento in Kyoto, and more, and more…”

 

Adriana Varejão on how she relates to the word history. 

 

In 2008, Inhotim opened one of its most emblematic pavilions, a milestone of the profound relationship between art, architecture and landscaping in the Institute.  Galeria Adriana Varejão shelters six works by the artist. These works express her array of interests and variety of sources of research.  Inhotim has invited Adriana Varejão to come to Belo Horizonte on May 24 to take part in the Space, Work and History Seminar.  Click here to check out the detailed program for this event.