Between the party and the violence

A decade after her first panoramic exhibition, Mal-Entendidos (2014), held at the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo, Rivane Neuenschwander has a retrospective that contributes significantly to the understanding of her artistic project.

Brazil of Fear and Dream: An Overview of the Work of Rivane Neuenschwander , on display at Itaú Cultural in São Paulo until November 2, spans the 30-year career of the Minas Gerais artist. The exhibition presents a variety of formats and themes that, together, tell a lot not only about her, but also about Brazil.

Spread across three floors of the building on Avenida Paulista, the exhibition brings together iconic works such as Behind the Door (2007), The Conversation (2010) and Bataille (2017), as well as previously unseen works.

Among his recent works, the series As Insubmissas (2025) and Perversos, Marcianos, Canibais e Alienados (2025) stand out. In them, Rivane displays figures such as The Communist, The Antifascist, The Faith Magnate and The Ghost Employee, who are, at the same time, people, animals, popular dolls and, why not?, voodoo.

The direct dialogue with Brazil is also evident in the video "Mestre Zenóbio e o Cordão da Bicharada," produced with filmmaker Cao Guimarães. In it, we are transported to a Carnival procession on the Tocantins River, where riverside residents dress up in animal costumes such as macaws, dolphins, and polar bears. Mestre Zenóbio's bloco was created in the early 1970s.

No less striking are the five new paintings added to the Notícias de Jornal series. In them, the red of blood tints symmetrical and colorful environments.

The exhibition's curator, Fabiana Moraes, explains that this set of works represents the "scares that have moved Brazil in the pre- and post-pandemic period."

And what is magical about Rivane's work is that, amid references to violence – whether political, during the dictatorship, or sexual – and to "scares", the audience enters a colorful universe, where the idea of ​​play is present and popular festivals emerge.

Born in Belo Horizonte in 1967, Rivane Neuenschwander has participated in the Venice and São Paulo Biennials and has works in the collections of museums such as Tate Modern (London), Guggenheim (New York), MoMA (New York), TBA21 (Vienna) and Inhotim (Brumadinho).

Composed of videos, sculptures, paintings, installations and drawings, the exhibition at Itaú Cultural makes it clear why the artist achieved the relevance she has today. •

Published in issue no. 1376 of CartaCapital , on August 27, 2025.

This text appears in the print edition of CartaCapital under the title 'Between the party and violence'