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- Chromatics syntonies, he can build,
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FLÁVIO COHN
GALLERY OWNER
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as he said, that he seeks...
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FABIO MAGALHÃES
TEACHER
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- This is common in the relation
between the artist and his work...
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MANFREDO SOUZANETTO
ARTIST
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- It's actually the color that...
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LUIS DOLINO
ARTIST
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- Rodrigo once had the opportunity
to tell me in a conversation...
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(All talking at the same time)
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CHROMATICS CHORDS
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THE WORK OF RODRIGO DE CASTRO
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- I'll take the mask off a little bit,
it's just us here.
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I felt calls of interest for art,
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I felt when I was younger,
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my father came home, sometimes,
with gouache, brush, paper
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and encouraged me and my sister
to create something
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spread it all over the living room floor.
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What I liked to see was the mix,
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the basic thing,
we mixed one color
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with another and had another color.
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And I got this interest for
colors until adolescence.
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RIO, 1960's
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What happened was like this,
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my father got married
and went to live in Rio de Janeiro,
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and we had lived there until
I was about fifteen,
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when he won the Guggenheim award
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and then we moved
the whole family to New York.
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I had lived there for four years,
I went to high school there,
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And my father found out that
I could go to the Vietnam War
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and with this risk, my father said
that I was going back to Brazil.
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That's why I came back to Brazil,
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I went to live in my grandfather's house,
in Belo Horizonte.
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But I asked for a transfer
to a college in São Paulo,
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and I stayed here,
I got married, I made my life here.
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With daughters Marcela and Manuela.
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With grandson Gael.
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When I started to paint
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I already started thinking
about the colors
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within a geometric structure.
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I didn't start painting landscape
or something like that,
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I've already started
the construction with the color.
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Sometime back in the 80s,
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I got close to some artists in São Paulo,
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and other friendships emerged,
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I got very close to Manfredo,
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that ended up bringing me
closer to Dolino.
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- Rodrigo de Castro is an artist
who uses the geometric language,
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therefore, a first cousin,
we are in the same boat,
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we enjoy the same language,
the same creative purpose,
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from the elements of
a very simplified grammar
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trying to explain something
with our artwork.
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Rodrigo, in addition of being a master
of the composition, the finishing,
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the finesse in the painting
that he has been doing,
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he's also a noteworthy colorist.
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- I believe that my work
and the Rodrigo's work,
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we followed this strand that was triggered
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by the teachings of Weissmann, Guignard
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and Edith Behring at Escola Guignard
in Belo Horizonte.
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We may be the fourth generation
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of a school that lasts,
that influenced and that formed
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the art in Minas Gerais.
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- When you make
the first gesture on the canvas,
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the canvas responds to you
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this dialogue already begins
to change its initial purpose,
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because the creature already exists.
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I would say it's a process,
not a conversion,
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then what is called regret, etc.
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it's a very tense dialogue
between the artist and his canvas.
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- He has a clarity, a syntony,
a very fine clarity.
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and very defined of which is
the universe he explores,
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what are these colors,
how he relates these colors,
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how he matures these colors
so that they become its own,
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because the blue colors
are a universal blue,
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but what makes the blue that he works
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with the relation
he establishes in the painting,
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with the white, with the gray
and the black.
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What chromatics syntonies
he can build, as he said,
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that he looks when he's painting,
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as if it were a chromatic chord,
as if he were playing piano,
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strumming the chords and
suddenly he finds a harmony,
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a chromatic harmony
that has a sound, a vibration
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that makes him identify,
make this composition,
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and that people feel this harmony.
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- But this dialogue exists every day
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until in the end
we have a finished work
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that it must vibrate a chord
that I believe can come out
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of the canvas into the world.
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I go home at the end of the day,
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the canvas sleeps, I sleep,
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when we meet again,
it has things to tell me
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and I have things to observe
and pay attention
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if what I did the day before,
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what the canvas is telling me
is in accordance with what
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I imagined would be
the result of my work.
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And what the canvas tells me
change my original purpose
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because I see that it had
more reason than I was before,
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it got better than I imagined.
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I see the line as, it can
split a space in parts,
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but most of the time,
when I think in the line,
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it will not share a space,
it will create new ones
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and the creation of these spaces
with the line happens with the color.
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- It's that the line tensions the space,
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apparently it's having
a rupture in the space,
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but, actually, it's like being in a room,
let's do a metaphor like this,
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and suddenly a light starts
to illuminate this space,
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so, the line enhances
the space where it is.
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For me, it's a very important
element in your language.
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- Rodrigo has the privilege of color,
he is a great colorist.
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He is a person who leaves
unique and fantastic tracks.
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He can discover the color
of where I don't know.
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- And the colors,
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as they are the raw material of my work,
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they translate,
at least that's what I try,
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so that they can translate my thoughts
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in the most sensitive way possible.
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- What we do as geometric art,
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therefore, based
on principles of mathematics,
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it has a proximity,
an intense kinship with the music.
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And when he talks about a chord,
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he's talking about
an element of the music
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and expressing very well
the path that he traverses to color.
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- And, normally, the painting
has always a history
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of you building
the work from the drawing.
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And, in fact, in Rodrigo's work
is the color that builds the geometry,
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and this is what gives, certainly,
a specificity to his work
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and that I consider a beautiful
contribution to Brazilian art.
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- It was Manfredo who
introduced me to this possibility
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of editing engravings,
images, that are multiple
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and which would allow better access
or greater access to our work,
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and I felt so pleased
with this possibility
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that I wanted, almost unconsciously,
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to thank Manfredo for
this possibility given to me,
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And I approached of Papel Assinado,
Rodrigo de Castro.
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He is editing engravings, albums, books
through this great publishing house.
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- My first experience with engraving
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it happened the first time in 90, 92.
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And it was a completely
different experience
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because the process of making
the engraving on the stone
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it was an experience
that I enjoyed, it was cool.
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Now appeared this opportunity,
something new,
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to make these screen printing series
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which is an experience
that made me very happy.
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- I'm making these prints for Rodrigo,
with great pleasure, a wonderful artist
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and we're making more
than ten images for him,
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and we're going to make more, God willing.
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- The result of my printed work
on that quality of paper,
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I was able to achieve
the color the way I wanted.
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I loved it, I found it spectacular,
much better than I imagined.
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I got a spectacular result there.
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And this gives the artist
the joy of seeing
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his work ready
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and the willingness to take
my work outside of the atelier.
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When painting, art, whatever it is,
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comes in contact with people,
that's when the art is accomplished,
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it's when the art fulfills
its role with the society.
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- As we talk about
artistic identity and brand,
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I think the artist can
create this identity
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when he makes his work stay
in our memory and in the history.
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- I'm happy because I realize
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that we are together
in the same creative boat,
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with this man who has the refinement,
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the fineness of composing,
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of illustrating with a unique,
exclusive color.
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Owner of a language,
Rodrigo de Castro is a master.
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what we may want more?
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DIRECTOR AND SCRIPT
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EDITING AND PHOTOGRAPHY
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SOUNDTRACK
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PRODUCTION
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EXECUTIVE PRODUCTION
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CURATORSHIP
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RESEARCH
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COURTESY IMAGES
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POST-PRODUCTION
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SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
TO SCREEN PRINTERS
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
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TESTMONIALS
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SOUNDS EFECTS
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TRANSLATION
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EXECUTION