Performative meeting marks launch of the book “SincrétiKa”, by Massimo Canevacci

The book "SincrétiKa - Ethnographic Explorations of Contemporary Arts", by Anthropologist Massimo Canevacci, from the Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza and a visiting professor at the IEA-USP, will be released during a performative meeting on April 16, at 17 am, at USP’s Tenda Cultural Ortega Y Gasset (an open space on campus). At the event, artist Néle Azevedo will present her project for urban action "Minimum Monument".

According to Canevacci, "the event aims to try an innovative way to present a book that develops an ethnographic research on contemporary arts and therefore it will merge languages ​​and narrative forms in a compositional polyphony." Specialists in art, philosophy and anthropology will present reflections on the work.

Minimum Monument

Azevedo’s project has been presented in cities of different countries and cultures. The work is described in the artist's website as below:

"There are numerous ice sculptures placed to melt in public spaces where they attract the attention of passersby, causing a suspension of their everyday path. Acting in a few minutes, the work subverts the official canons of the memory record in public monuments, reducing the size of the monument to eight inches high, making it mobile and fleeting and honoring ordinary people instead of leaders and heroes. It carries with it a concrete, poetic and political seizure of space, of the body within the city and of the monument in the collective space."

During the launch, the book "SincrétiKa - Ethnographic Explorations of Contemporary Arts" (Studio Nobel, 2013, 296 pages) will be for sale at promotional price. The meeting has been organized by the IEA- USP and by USP’s Tenda Cultural Ortega Y Gasset, linked to PRCEU, Dean of Culture and University Extension.

Photo: Néle Azevedo