Opening of the exhibition “Light in Brazil” by Belgian artist Françoise Schein with urban panels inspired by human rights

Ministry of Tourism, Special Secretariat of Culture
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KDB PARTNERS

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Light in Brazil

Exhibition that marks the reopening of the Paço Imperial travels along its trajectory by Belgian artist Françoise Schein, celebrating 20 years of operation in Brazil with public works on Human Rights

With your Association, Françoise develops artistic-educational works on four continents

From 25 of February to 25 April 2021, free entry

The gigantic tile panels signed by Françoise Schein are impossible to go unnoticed - be it in the gables of buildings just outside the Siqueira Campos subway station, in Copacabana, at Luz station, in São Paulo, or Concorde, in Paris. Everyone has the same theme that Françoise dedicates her life to - Human Rights. The creation process is always done with the participation of students, youth and children, from less favored communities. Through involvement in the creation of the artistic work, students know the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and, supported by educational work, are encouraged to think about it and to relate it to their lives. It will be the first time that Françoise will have a retrospective of her work in the city that has a fundamental importance in her trajectory.

The exhibition was created with four hands by Françoise and her daughter Rio Lohana. The story of the two is intertwined with Françoise's artistic-educational actions in Brazil and illustrates one of the first panels of the exhibition, that tells the exciting story of the adoption of Lohana. For the girl to preserve ties with her family, Françoise came to Rio every year. Today, Lohana signs this exhibition as a curator. Françoise founded Associação Registrire Brasil, an arm of the institution created years before and whose objective is "Enrolling Human Rights in the Cities of the World". Na Register Brasil, Françoise has a team that monitors all phases of the project, formed by several professionals, among them the architect Rita Anderaos and the pedagogue Moema Quintanilha.

Human rights represent the guiding thread of the entire experience of Light in Brazil. It begins with a compliment to utopia, goes through a series of demonstrations that together we can create and amplify our voice through art and, finally, question "And now?”. “There is no right or wrong answer to complex challenges and Françoise knows that there is no one answer either. Therefore, the invitation to thought, the invitation for everyone to understand what they can do to build a more just society”, coma Lohana Schein.

Light in Brazil presents Françoise's trajectory through photos, texts, original drawings, images of several public works in Brazil and in the world, videos, sketches and pieces from the artist's personal collection. The highlight of the exhibition is the work of Estação da Luz, in São Paulo, the first participatory and pedagogical artistic intervention on Human Rights at a subway station in the country, which took ten years to complete and inspired the title of the exhibition. The 16 Luz panels also tell the story of São Paulo, through figurative drawings created by the artist and panels on Human Rights painted by three thousand students from schools on the outskirts of the city. To create historical dashboards, the artist designed an alphabet of hundreds of small screen-printed designs that are repeated over them.

Vidigal's projects, the first in Brazil; da Siqueira Campos, the best known in Rio, that presents a map of 200 m2 of the region with Human Rights letters and images of the history of slavery; the work of the Galeria dos Estados subway station, in Brasília, a commission from the United Nations Development Program, a large 110m2 panel created with the participation of 1,000 young people from the Federal District, in which large blue and green balloons announce issues of global ecology; projects in several cities around the world and 20 participatory public facilities located in disadvantaged communities on the outskirts of Rio, that are part of the project “Enroll Human Rights in 1001 schools", reveal the path taken by Françoise and Inscribe.

André Couto, President of Association Subscribe Brazil, highlights that "the exhibition Light in Brazil presents itself as a double beacon. A point illuminates the path taken by the artist Françoise Schein, from works around the world to those carried out in Brazil, and the other end illuminates the future, a future in which the registration of human rights and full democracy depends on the action of all of us”.

“The work we are doing, slowly more surely, in Brazilian schools and other parts of the world, is the alphabet of life skills and should be the first thing to be taught to billions of young students around the world. So, will not be teaching you in a playful way, creating works of art for the pleasure of beauty for all and for all, the best way to do it?”, questions Françoise Schein.

Light in Brazil sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism, Special Secretariat for Culture and Caixa Seguradora, support from the French Consulate General, Artmyn e Gigascope. Production is by Bertrand Dussauge, da KDB PARTNERS. “After two years of working with my friend Françoise Schein, I am proud to share this retrospective at Paço Imperial, where exposed, right after the opening of the space, in 1986, 350 unpublished prints by Picasso, taking thousands of people to the site ”, comenta Dussauge.

About the Artist

Françoise Schein was born in Belgium, in 1953. Studied Urban Design at Columbia University, in New York, and Architecture, Brussels. He also studied art with Robert Morris at NYU University. Develops large urban works internationally in Europe, United States, South America and Middle East. There are 30 years, Françoise dedicates much of her work to the dissemination of Human Rights in schools and underprivileged neighborhoods. In 1997, she founded the Association, an NGO dedicated to the dissemination of the concepts of citizenship and human rights through innovative participatory works.

Politically engaged and sensitive to the historical evolution of Human Rights, Schein created an ethical and artistic link between cities and countries through the various projects he carried out. All of his works have become local landmarks, contemporary monuments.

Françoise believes in the structural link between delicacy, kindness and beauty. Created a very humane methodology for the pedagogical production of his works, involving the participation of all kinds of people, from the most diverse social classes. Its artistic methodology often involves ceramics as it is easy to use and has a longevity.

It's under the cities, at your subway stations, in the parks and on the walls it shows the text of human rights, from 1948, streaked with images, philosophical and literary texts and cartographies of local culture and history, produced with the active participation of local people.

With the Association Sign up or alone, Françoise Schein produced a large number of monumental works including the Concorde metro stations, about the french revolution, in Paris (1989-90); Saint Gilles, Brussels (1992), on human rights and European borders; Park, in Lisbon (1994), on Human Rights and “Portuguese discoveries around the world in the Middle Ages”; The University, in Stockholm (1998), on human rights and global environmental issues; e a Westhafen, in Berlin (2000), on human rights and migration issues. She also created “The Garden of Human Rights”, at Rhododendrons Park, in Bremen (2001); the facade of the Jewish-Arab Cultural Center, in Haifa, Israel (1993); and the facade of the Ramallah municipal theater, of Palestine – “A city like a tree for human rights” (2009).

Since 2000, starting in Rio de Janeiro and going to several countries in the world – Belgium, France, Israel, Palestine, Germany, England, Portugal, Spain, Uruguay, Haiti – she created a project in permanent growth called “Writing Human Rights in schools and on city walls”.

Em Coventry, in England (2005), Françoise built a large-scale urban art project called “The Time Zone Clock”, a giant floor clock designed from the time zone system, made in stainless steel and lights. Near Paris, at Les Mureaux, she created murmures, a large piece of pottery produced with the participation of residents. In 2016, Brussels, criou Le Grand Banket, a public work of art conceived as a banquet, with the participation of residents.

In your individual artistic projects, Françoise works with multimedia, sculptures, photographs, drawings, artist books and videos. She has already exhibited her work and her collaboration with inscrire in museums in Europe, Brazil and the United States.

More info:

www.francoiseschein.com / www.inscrire.com