Rochelle Costi's Final Interview: Art as a Mission to Alert
During a video conference in the latter part of the Covid-19 pandemic, artist Rochelle Costi (1961-2022) engaged with researcher Viviane Gueller, who is based in Porto Alegre. Residing in São Paulo's Perdizes neighborhood, Costi characterized her artistic approach as a 'conversation with context.' In the 1980s, she captured images of Porto Alegre's neglected urban areas and co-founded the collective Iconógrafos alongside Paula Trope, Rosângela Rennó, and Rubens Mano. Her installation titled 'Intimidade' was featured at the Centro Municipal de Cultura and the Salão Nacional in 1985. In 2016, she documented market stalls in Guatemala. Costi highlighted her instinctive method, employing photography, video, and found objects to craft narratives that uncover the essence of locations and draw attention to their existence.
Key facts
- Rochelle Costi (1961-2022) gave an interview to Viviane Gueller during the pandemic.
- Costi lived in a house built in 1936 in Perdizes, São Paulo, since 1993.
- She co-founded the collective Iconógrafos with artists including Paula Trope, Rosângela Rennó, and Rubens Mano.
- Iconógrafos exhibited at Parque Lage and MAM in Rio de Janeiro.
- Her installation 'Intimidade' was shown at Centro Municipal de Cultura (Porto Alegre), Funarte, MIS Rio, and Salão Nacional de 1985.
- Paulo Herkenhoff asked her 'Where do you come from?' at an installation.
- In 2016, she created a work in Guatemala photographing market stalls, exhibited at a biennial and Galeria Anita Schwarz.
- Her work 'Dos Estrábicos' used before-and-after photos from an ophthalmologist's office.
- She created a piece at Hospital Matarazzo in São Paulo, using objects from a patient who lived there for decades.
- Costi used video and found objects, emphasizing spontaneity over technical quality.
Entities
Artists
- Rochelle Costi
- Viviane Gueller
- Paula Trope
- Rosângela Rennó
- Rubens Mano
- Jean Guimarães
- Paulo Herkenhoff
- Fernando Limberger
- Lia Menna Barreto
- Celso Fioravante
Institutions
- Iconógrafos
- Parque Lage
- MAM (Museu de Arte Moderna)
- Centro Municipal de Cultura
- Funarte
- MIS (Museu da Imagem e do Som)
- Galeria Anita Schwarz
- Instituto Nacional de Artes Plásticas
- PUC (Pontifícia Universidade Católica)
- Hospital Matarazzo
Locations
- São Paulo
- Brazil
- Perdizes
- Porto Alegre
- Rio de Janeiro
- Curitiba
- Minas Gerais
- Guatemala
- Guatemala City
- Caxias