WESTOPIA
Curated by Parasite 2.0
Nova Milanesi / Villa Vertua
Milan, Italy
2017

MINIATURA: 25 architectes 5 absent
Curated by Marion Bernard
Galeria ART-CADE                                
Marselle, France
2018        

MINIATURA was a collaborative project between Bruna Canepa and Ciro Miguel from 2011 to 2015.



“25 architectes, 5 absents” vient d’ouvrir ses portes à la galerie Art-cade de Marseille. Dessins, maquettes, vidéos et photographies ont été demandés à 30 architectes par l’agence MARiON BERNARD (Manon Gaillet et Sylvain Bérard), commissaire de cette exposition. L’enjeu n’est pas pour eux d’exposer des projets d’architectures mais plutôt de révéler “l’envers du décor”, le processus de création. Leur idée est de montrer comment l’image se construit, comment elle fait le projet ou le représente. L’exposition s’ouvre sur le livre de Valerio Olgiati the images of architects introduisant 44 architectes avec 10 images choisies par chacun. La sélection d’oeuvres relève, à la galerie Art-cade, de la même subjectivité : elle représente avant tout l’architecture dans laquelle croient Manon Gaillet et Sylvain Bérard, celle qui les influence et façonne implicitement l’architecture qu’ils construisent. L’enjeu est double : d’abord rendre compte de ce processus pour les profanes et leur donner les outils de compréhension d’un projet d’architecture. Puis faire réfléchir les architectes eux-mêmes sur la relation qu’entretiennent outils de représentation et projet. Les commissaires tentent de remettre en cause la hiérarchie assouvissant trop souvent l’image au projet. La galerie devient alors le lieu mnémonique de l’agence marseillaise. Comme pour l’aider, par sa matérialisation, à se souvenir de ce corpus de références. Les images prennent tour à tour différents rôles : La coupe de Miniatura “Apartamento de 1km” s’affirme comme projet alors que les “obliques” de l’agence De Vylder Vinck Taillieu ou les collages de vGH Compagny le résument. Dans les coupes de l’atelier Bow-Wow ou les collages de de la série “Idiosyncracities” de Natalie Kwee l’objet génère le projet. Manon Gaillet, Sylvain Bérard et leur équipe nous perdent dans ce flux d’images pour éveiller notre curiosité et nous faire réfléchir. L’un de leur mérite est aussi de nous montrer, jusqu’au 14 avril, cette architecture qui place le processus de création au centre de sa réflexion. 

Les 25 architectes :

51N4E . ADAM NATHANIEL FURMAN . ALDO VAN EYCK . ARQUITECTURA G . ASSEMBLE STUDIO . BEALS + LYON . BOW WOW . DVVT . FALA ATELIER . GRAU . MINIATURA . MONADNOCK . MOS . NATHALIE KWEE . NP2F . OFFICE KGDVS . OFFICE U67 . ONISHIMAKI + HYAKUDAYUKI . PASCAL FLAMMER . POINT SUPREME . VGH COMPANY . TAKAHASHI IPPEI

Les 5 absents :

ANNE HOLTROP . BAS PRINCEN . HERMAN HERTZBERGER . JUNYA ISHIGAMI . VALERIO OLGIATI

DESERTO AMERICANO
Curated by Sol Camacho
A project by Ballon Rouge Collective
São Paulo, Brasil
2018

With the classic tools of an architect, the artist Bruna Canepa combines landscape, geography and time on paper. Through easily recognizable elements of architecture (columns, windows, doors) she traces worlds that leaves the viewer thinking where that place might exist. These places have already been seen, but it is not known whether here or far away… it is not distinguished whether it is present, past or future.

The drawings depict fragments of architectures that are repeated throughout the American continent, pieces of culture (mainly North American) materialized in icons of the urban and suburban landscape context from Arizona to Atacama. A car or a person gives a scale reference to the modernist and neoclassical pillars that support generic roofs and neon signs, to windows that show the distant horizon.

All these elements explore the material and symbolic construction of the continent. The architectural pieces are displaced from their origin to question the physical context in which they are located and also the meaning of the diverse appropriations that take place throughout the territory. ‘Everything is there, I do not invent anything’ says Bruna, describing the drawings she paints in the studio where she works in downtown São Paulo. Right by the Copan Building and the old Hotel Hilton, Bruna sketches in a notebook the preparatory plan of the small elements that later with rotring, airbrush, pen, paint, brush, letterset, white sheets, translucent and colored papers transforms into fascinating architectural landscapes. (Sol Camacho)

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Com as ferramentas básicas de uma arquiteta, a artista Bruna Canepa junta paisagem, geografia e tempo no papel. Através de elementos facilmente reconhecidos e reconhecíveis da arquitetura (colunas, janelas, portas) ela traça mundos que deixam ao espectador pensando onde poderia existir esse lugar. Esses lugares já foram vistos, mas não se sabe se aqui ou mais longe… não se distingue se é presente, passado ou futuro.

​Os desenhos retratam fragmentos de arquiteturas que se repetem ao longo do continente americano, pedaços de cultura (principalmente estadunidense) materializada em ícones do contexto urbano e suburbano da paisagem desde Arizona até Atacama. Um carro ou uma pessoa dão escala aos pilares modernistas e neoclássicos que suportam coberturas e letreiros genéricos, às janelas que mostram o horizonte afastado.

Todos estes elementos exploram a construção material e simbólica do continente. As peças arquitetônicas são deslocadas de seu lugar de origem para questionar o contexto físico onde se encontram e também o significado das diversas apropriações que acontecem ao longo do território. ‘Tudo está aí, não invento nada’ fala Bruna ao descrever os desenhos que preciosamente traça no estúdio onde trabalha no centro de São Paulo. Na sombra do Edifício Copan e o antigo Hilton, Bruna esboça num caderno o plano preparatório dos pequenos elementos que depois com rotring, aerógrafo, caneta, pintura, pincel, letraset, folhas brancas, translúcidas e papéis coloridos transforma em paisagens arquitetônicas fascinantes. (Sol Camacho)

CLUB INAUGURAL
With Carmen Argote, Bruna Canepa, Merve Iseri, Samuel Jablon, Marie Jacotey, Philip Janssens
Ballon Rouge
Brussels, Belgium
2018

ARTISSIMA
Carmen Argote & Bruna Canepa Presented by Ballon Rouge
Torino, Italy
2019

SINGLE-HANDEDLY: Contemporary Architects Draw by Hand
Curated by Warren James and Nalina Moses
Art Omi
Ghent, NY
2020

“Single-Handedly collects original drawings from a group of accomplished contemporary architects who, in an industry dominated by digital technologies, continue to work by hand.

Radically diverse in scale, materials, technique, subject, and spirit, these works overturn preconceived notions of what an architectural drawing is like. Some are dreamy, fiery and avant-garde, and others pragmatic, reductive and nostalgic.

Deeply informed, but nonetheless unconstrained, by traditional architectural drafting techniques, these renderings exploit an unparallelled formal freedom. Each one contains its own world and tells its own story, rooted in personal imagination.

This exhibit gives vibrant testimony to the still-vital craft of hand drawing in architecture.”

This exhibition is co-curated by Warren James, Director, Art Omi: Architecture; and Nalina Moses.

Exhibiting Architects:
Architettura Matassoni, Apologue, Andrew Burdick, Anik Pearson, Anneke Vervoort, Aric Lasher, Ashwin Patel, Bishakh Som, Brad Cloepfil, Preston Scott Cohen, Brian MacKay-Lyons, Bruna Canepa, Chris Dove, Claudio Schneider, Dayton Eugene Egger, Denis Andernach, Eu Jin Lim, Frank Escher, Joyce Rosner, Karolina Kawiaka, Katie Shima, Lars Steffenson, Liesbeth van der Pol, Liz Swanson, Marie-José Van Hee, Nataliya Eliseeva, Pablo Castro, Peter Wilson, Richard Griswold, Rick Gooding, Riet Eeckhout, Sam Picardal, Stefan Davidovici, Tiffany Lin, Tom Ngo, Wendy Evans Joseph, Fernanda Canales, Anna Herringer, Jovi Cruces, Surambika Pradhan, Iza Iacinschi, Jim Taylor and Anne Ma.

Nalina Moses is an architect and writer in New York City. She has completed retail, residential and institutional design and construction projects throughout the world. She has written about design, architecture and aesthetics for numerous online and print publications, and on her blog Drown Me in Beauty. Nalina studied art history at Yale University and architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Single-Handedly, her first book, was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2019.

A.A.A – Antologia de Arte e Arquitetura
Curated by Sol Camacho
Galpão Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel
São Paulo, Brasil
2020

“A exposição AAA – Antologia de Arte e Arquitetura é uma (con)sequência do projeto Exhibit A.A.A., realizado em 2019 em Chicago pela Bergamin & Gomide. Para esse projeto a galeria pensou, junto com a arquiteta Sol Camacho, em apresentar um pequeno “atlas” de arte brasileira – no sentido didático – para o público americano na cidade de Frank Lloyd Wright e Mies Van der Rohe. A forte relação e tradição da cidade com a disciplina de Arquitetura motivou a curadoria de uma seleção de obras mostrando também a estreita ligação que o Brasil tem entre os mundos da Arte e a Arquitetura.

As conexões entre o campo das artes plásticas e a prática de edificar no Brasil só se fizeram mais evidentes com a exposição e cresceu a vontade de expandir este mapa de relações entre disciplinas, algo que se consolida aqui com o convite e parceria da Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel.

De novo com uma curadoria que parte do olhar de uma arquiteta e urbanista se apresenta esta junção de mundos no Galpão, em São Paulo, cidade ícone do patrimônio moderno edificado. 

Neste novo momento, o mapa se apresenta como antologia. Nos afastamos do atlas, com seu impulso totalizador, para apresentar uma seleção baseada em forma e conteúdo, com um recorte que vai além do temporal ou catalográfico, atravessando épocas e discursos. É uma coleção com propósito e autoria.

Com o trabalho de artistas, arquitetos, fotógrafos e designers que compartilham elementos e procedimentos da arquitetura como idioma, a exposição pretende evidenciar a relação entre a construção de espaços e a representação deles. Reunimos representações figurativas de edifícios e obras compostas de materiais usados na construção, mas também experimentos em escala, composição, abstração e geometria, aspectos que compõem a arquitetura e sua representação. O resultado é o uso da arte como reflexão sobre a arquitetura, seu papel social, seus procedimentos e sua história.

Nesta antologia, todas as obras são lidas como arquiteturas. Primeiro, porque demandam uma construção e um projeto. Também, porque demonstram o que é possível quando os objetos, signos e procedimentos da arquitetura são dissociados do imperativo da eficiência, da solução de um problema. Neste sentido, a arquitetura tem algo a aprender com a arte.

Diferentes facetas das arquiteturas estão expostas. Algumas obras lidam com os componentes do objeto construído. São estes os BLOCOS, que aparecem como unidades sólidas que ajudam na modularidade em projetos arquitetônicos e plásticos. As ESTRUTURAS são conjuntos de elementos de suspensão e apoio, explorações dos aspectos tectônicos dos materiais e as próprias imagens das estruturas: colunas e pilares chamando à reflexão sobre a história do trabalho e da arquitetura. Os MUROS se apresentam como barreiras físicas, tão necessárias à arquitetura quanto problemáticas no contexto sociopolítico brasileiro. Por fim, as SUPERFÍCIES, formadas por geometrias que encontram sua maior potência em sua bidimensionalidade, aparecem em obras que tratam de abstração, ângulos e dobras.

Há uma categoria de obras que fala de procedimentos e componentes formais, dissociados da representação de um objeto específico. Uma delas é a SUBTRAÇÃO, uma mesma ação realizada por escultores, fotógrafos e arquitetos, que resulta na conformação de espaços a partir do vazio, e não da matéria construída. A outra é a TRANSPARÊNCIA obtida a partir da delicada manipulação da matéria em tramas e camadas. Por último, aparece a COR, aplicada como expressão pessoal do autor e ferramenta de decodificação do espaço e das superfícies.

No campo da representação de conceitos espaciais que resultam da arquitetura, apresentamos um conjunto de obras que tratam dos INTERIORES. São objetos e imagens que criam e reproduzem espaços definidos, com forte manipulação de textura e cor. Muitos lidam com figuração e familiaridade, ou são os próprios objetos que habitam os interiores. Seu contraponto são as FACHADAS que aparecem em obras que tratam da manifestação exterior da arquitetura e sua relação com o contexto urbano. Elementos como portas e janelas aparecem repetidamente através de diversos tipos de releituras.

O projeto expográfico, parte importante, também, do projeto A.A.A., opera como paisagem abstrata, um território construído em que as obras são posicionadas e relações se estabelecem entre elas. É uma alusão e representação do contexto construído em que cotidianamente nos relacionamos, lugar onde acontecem todas as arquiteturas.”

The exhibition A.A.A – Antologia de Arte e Arquitetura [A.A.A. – Anthology of Art and Architecture] is an outcome and continuation of the Exhibit A.A.A. project, carried out in 2019 in Chicago by Bergamin & Gomide. For this project the gallery conceived, together with architect Sol Camacho, a small “atlas” of Brazilian art, with an educational aim, for the American public in the city of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe. In light of that city’s strong relationship and tradition with the discipline of architecture, the curatorship selected works which also evinced the strong link in Brazil between the worlds of Art and Architecture.

The exhibition spotlighted the connections between the visual arts and the design of buildings in Brazil, thereby encouraging the expansion of this map of relationships between the disciplines, an effort that is strengthened here with the invitation and partnership of Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel.

Once again with a curatorship based on the perspective of an architect and urbanist, this junction of worlds is presented at the Galpão, in São Paulo, an iconic city of modern architectural heritage.

At this new moment, the map is presented as an anthology. We have moved away from the atlas, with its totalizing thrust, to present a group of works based on form and content, with a selection that goes beyond any ordering by time or cataloging, crossing through eras and discourses. It is a collection with purpose and authorship.

With the work of artists, architects, photographers and designers who share a common idiom – the elements and procedures of architecture – the exhibition aims to shed light on the relationship between the construction of spaces and their representation. We have brought together figurative representations of buildings and works composed of construction materials, along with experiments in scale, composition, abstraction and geometry, aspects that compose architecture and its representation. The result is the use of art as a reflection on architecture, its social role, its procedures and its history.

In this anthology, all the artworks are architectures. First, because they demand a construction and a design. Also, because they demonstrate what is possible when the objects, signs and procedures of architecture are detached from the imperative of efficiency, of a solution and of a problem. In this sense, architecture has something to learn from art.

Different facets of the architectures are shown. Some works deal with the components of the constructed object. These are the BLOCKS, which appear as solid units that help in the modularity in architectural and artistic designs. The STRUCTURES are sets of elements of suspension and support, explorations of the tectonic aspects of the materials and the images of the structures: columns and pillars calling for a reflection on the history of work and of architecture. The WALLS are presented as physical barriers, as necessary to architecture as they are problematic in the Brazilian sociopolitical context. Last but not least, the SURFACES, formed by geometries that find their greatest potential in their bidimensionality, appear in works that deal with abstraction, anglings and folds.

There is a category of works exclusively concerned with formal components and procedures, decoupled from the representation of a specific object. One of these is SUBTRACTION, an action carried out by sculptors, photographers and architects alike, which results in the configuration of spaces based on emptiness, rather than on the constructed material. The other is the TRANSPARENCY obtained from the delicate manipulation of the material in weavings and layerings. Finally, COLOR appears, applied as a personal expression of the author and as a tool for decoding the space and the surfaces.

In the field of the representation of spatial concepts that result from architecture, we present a set of objects that have to do with INTERIORS. They are objects and images that create and reproduce defined spaces, with a strong manipulation of texture and color. Many deal with figurativity and familiarity, or are the objects themselves that inhabit the interiors. Their counterpoint is the FAÇADES that appear in structures that deal with the exterior manifestation of architecture and its relationship with the urban context. Elements like doors and windows repeatedly appear through various types of rereadings.

The exhibition design, also an important part of the A.A.A. project, operates as an abstract landscape, a constructed territory in which the works are positioned and relations are established among them. It is an allusion and representation of the constructed context in which we forge relationships on a daily basis, a place where all the architectures take place.”

MODERN ROMANCE
Curated by Helene Dumenil and Nicole O’Rourke
Ballon Rouge
Brussels, Belgium
2020

Exhibition text by Laura Belik

“Ballon Rouge is excited to present Bruna Canepa’s exhibition “Modern Romance”, her first ever solo show outside of her home country, Brazil. Bruna’s work represents her studies and interpretation of three different structures: the “Ruin House”; the “Gas Station House”; and the “Souvenir House.” Sections, facades, isometric perspectives combined with collages bring to life different modes of representation of already-known forms, volumes and spaces that are now being re-shaped, re-scaled, and re-interpreted. While based in real-life references, experiences and expressions, Bruna’s intention is not to simply reproduce their commonality, but to explore their potential in different contexts. She is not looking to translate the world as it is, neither is she playing with the absurd. Her work is not necessarily a proposal for the extraordinary nor an interpretation of the surreal, but ultimately, it aims to connect to our everyday mundane reality – with a different set of curious eyes. Bruna’s constant exercise in trying to understand how we see and represent the built environment, graphically in parts, dictates the aesthetics of her work: isolating elements in a white canvas; drawing objects she’s already acquainted with to better capture their essence are some of the strategies that help her creative process.

Trained as an architect, Bruna’s research and body of work are a response to her questioning of how we interpret different forms of representation of existing structures and what they mean. Recognizable elements are stretched or shrunk, juxtaposed in intriguing ways that might refer to its original form, but not quite. Bruna’s research is an invitation to using different lenses in order to see what has always been there. How can one experience space only through representation? Neither an essay, nor a drawing or a perspective can fully grasp space on its own – but at the same time these expressions are also understood as proposals for three-dimensional practices. Each one of these means are sections of selected representations interpreting a single object in different formats. Bruna’s work contributes to this discussion by helping the viewer to rethink the traditional ways they see the built environment. Bruna’s intention is not necessarily to offer technical solutions or projects to be built, but it is, however, to create architecture.

“Modern Romance” shows Bruna’s continuing path toward understanding the nuances between real and imaginary worlds, high-style architecture and every-day practices. This exhibition brings to light Bruna’s questions and interpretations of the ambiguity that representations of space and architecture through drawing can have. The duality of interpretations in Bruna’s work is visible and much needed. Bruna’s current and previous works such as “As 5 casas” (5 Houses, 2013) or her solo exhibition in São Paulo, “O Deserto Americano” (American Desert, 2018) express this growing conversation she is constantly coming back to, and how this is explicit through her own production  over the years.”

Laura Belik is a PhD Candidate in Architecture at University of California, Berkeley. She holds an MA in Design Studies from Parsons, The New School (New York) and a B.Arch from Escola da Cidade (São Paulo). Laura’s career path flows between academia and curation both in Brazil and the U.S. She has co-curated the exhibitions “Detroit Ponto Morto” (X Biennale of Architecture of São Paulo, 2013), “Futurographies” (New York, 2015/Paris 2016/ Phnon Penh 2016), “Americans on the Road” (Berkeley, 2018), and “About Things Loved: Blackness and Belonging” (BAMPFA/ Berkeley, 2019). Laura has been a lecturer and researcher at UC Berkeley, The New School, Columbia University, and Escola da Cidade.

ARCHITECTURAL DRAWING: Not for Construction
Curated by a83
New York, NY
2021

“Drawing is the principal medium of architecture. If the building is the ultimate effect of architectural drawing then the drawing itself is a means to an end. Alternatively, if the drawing is the product of architectural labor, then the building is a translation of drawings—inevitably an imperfect interpretation, compromised by gravity and contractors. What might it mean, then, to make architectural drawings if not for construction? This exhibition shares answers from four designers: Bruna Canepa, Sean Canty, Adam Charlap Hyman, and Clement Laurencio. Their approaches and concerns differ except for their common commitment to producing works on paper.
      These designers prove that fantastic things can happen when architectural drawing is let loose from its role in guiding construction. The drawings represent nothing but themselves: the line represents a line, and it is always at a scale of 1:1. Unlike digital models, these drawings do not follow the rules of our three-dimensional world. They exploit the liberties of pictorial space, delineating imaginative forms and impossible perspectives. Drawing by hand produces irreducibly real things, a counterpoint to the virtual image. The drawings materialize the decision-making process of design. It is a physically impressive act, as athletic as it is deliberative. Built up on ground, drawings are—like buildings—constructed.”

BRUNA CANEPA: MINIATURE CONSTRUCTION SITES

Can we look at a drawing as a miniature of a construction site? We gather specific tools, use them with their compatible techniques and a recognizable set of materials and, most importantly, we work with our hands (and our bodies) passing rulers, pens and pencils over the page. Drawings are constructions in and of themselves. Drawings are not flat surfaces but three-dimensional things with materiality: thickness, texture, shape, size. A drawing is also a space for decisions, with the potential for experimentation––the surface of the page is imprinted with our trials and errors, rendering a record of the process and our efforts. The three drawings constructed here are just that: a compilation of gestures made with tools guided by a pair of hands and an intent; a succession of actions made material. Their images? Structures and symbols rupturing, constructed with noisy lines and colors on paper.