TEATRO GROTTESCO - ESSILA

From André Parente: ‘In 1980, Essila Paraíso invited me to document her solo show, A História da Arte at Galeria ABC in Rio de Janeiro. In the exhibition, Essila parodied the history of art by bringing together hundreds of consumer objects or gadgets that appropriate works of art considered canon in Western culture. Thus, in a Levi’s advertisement, Michelangelo’s David wears jeans. An Egyptian sphinx is the model for a tea mug. Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa appears on the cover of a can of quince jam.

I decided to do more than just record the exhibition and called on artist and curator Fernando Cocchiarale to write the text for the film’s narration, which would be like a pastiche made from countless compendiums and clichés found in art history books. Narrated in a voice-over in the style of traditional film and television documentaries from the 1970s, the text retells the history of art, from cave art to pop art, using the images taken during Essila’s show as a guiding thread.’

Inspired by the spirit of the artist, together with the renowned patisserie Pfatisch (Torino), we have recreated a cake, served to the public during the screening, inspired by the image featured on a postcard found by Saim Demircan (Teatro Grottesco) in Essila Paraíso’s studio. On the back of the postcard, the image credits read: Goya, Francisco – Cake by Margarida Pereira “Don Manuel Osório de Zúñiga”, oil on canvas, Pré-Romanticism.