Beginning on July 5, 2022, Sesc (Serviço Social do Comércio) will make the online series Untitled—Conversations in the Sesc Art Collection, which was created by the SescTV crew under the direction of Thais Guisasola, available on its digital platform. The web series, which was created exclusively for the digital medium, will provide the public ten thematic episodes that showcase some of Sesc So Paulo’s collection of visual art for free.
More than 2,500 pieces of modern, contemporary, and popular art created by Brazilian artists of various periods are part of the institutional collection, which provides an essential overview of the country’s artistic output during the past 100 years. The majority of the artworks are available to the public without charge because they are on permanent exhibit in Sesc’s regional offices. The works in the collection are routinely displayed in temporary exhibits as a part of a large initiative that enables the public to interact directly with artworks, enriching readers’ and interpreters’ readings and interpretations as they are positioned in relationships with other works.
The web series’ 20 artworks were chosen for each episode based on topics relating to culture as a lived experience. Two guests answer the question: What does this work inspire in you in each of the 10 episodes, “Fabulations and Cosmologies,” “Movement,” “Resistances,” “Food,” “Light,” “Music,” “Soccer,” “Words,” “Identity,” and “Ancestrality, Possible Bodies.”
Professionals from many fields are invited to participate in the web series and share their perspectives on the chosen artworks. They include individuals from a wide range of disciplines, such as art, philosophy, journalism, and communication, as well as activists like Kat Mirim, Preta Ferreira, and Tifanny Abreu, writers like Daniel Munduruku and Kiusam de Oliveira, and musicians like Antônio Nóbrega, Joo Gordo, and André Abujamra. Their comments offer an unexpectedly wide-ranging and unrestricted view of the Sesc Art Collection.
The artists represented in the selection include Abraham Palatinik, Anna Bella Geiger, Anna Maria Maiolino, Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin De Burca, Carmézia Emiliano, Carmela Gross, Claudia Andujar, Eduardo Coimbra, Felipe Barbosa, José Paulo Oliveira, Lenora de Barros, Mestre Molina, Nelson Leirner, Regina Silveira, Rubens Gerchman, Sidney Amaral, Tatiana Blass, Toninho Guimarães, and Vicente de Melo.
Released in 2020, at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its most dangerous, the Sesc online platform transforms Sesc So Paulo’s actions into the digital language and environment, broadening their appeal and giving them new dimensions while reaffirming the institution’s dedication to a participatory, ongoing, and inclusive educational process.