Page 12 - Studio International - March 1974

XII Bienal de Sao if it does I fear retaliation from the Bienal, From airport to airport the trip was doomed.
either in the form of refusal to pay shipping or On embarking at Kennedy International in
Paulo: a prototype refusal to return the tapes and equipment. The New York I was actually given worthless

forvaudeville very reasons which inevitably hold up its Brazilian cruzeiros at the bank exchange.
publication have transformed this from a Brazilian banks didn't believe my story nor did
simple and brief review of a banal biennial Kennedy upon my return. While I left New
into a critique and a quasi-exposé of an York with video tapes in hand which brought
outrageous situation. my baggage vastly overweight, I was ushered
I feel obliged to write this in order to through without question, yet upon departing
encourage artists and potential exhibition from São Paulo, sans tapes, I was compelled to
organizers to boycott the XIII Bienal, if in fact pay an enormous overweight charge (Brazilian
there is one, for the São Paulo event has long Cr. $2000.00 or US $32.00) which I never
outlived its function and its effectiveness. understood. These small events and
Moreover, its irresponsibility is simply annoyances seemed like secret means of
working toward its own self-destruction. Yet I revenge by the Bienal for my persistence and
was far from alone in the problems I faced, and insistence that the exhibition would take place
my hope is that others who had severe and that the organization would pay for it.
difficulties with the Bienal may read this and To begin in medias res, on 26 September, only
wish to make public their protests as a service nine days prior to the opening, the very day I had
not only to those who might otherwise become planned to leave to install the show, I was
innocently involved in the future, but also to indirectly informed that due to 'technical
those who are genuinely concerned about art in difficulties' (a blanket phrase I would hear often)
Brazil and who oppose the Bienal. Perhaps the exhibition had to be cancelled, though the
the international accumulation of criticisms will Bienal hoped that it might be done at some time
On 5 October 1973, the XII Bienal de São end the debauch and clear the way for the in the future. Between early May when I had
Paulo officially opened. Yet it wasn't until possibility of a positive and serious structure for been invited and the end of September when a
16 October that I was able to launch the video an international art exposition there. fury of cables and phone calls finally stirred the
exhibition I had been invited to organize, Over the past few years the Bienal has been Bienal bureaucracy, there had been a severe
finally introducing the programme that evening increasingly criticized for its antiquated lack of response to my questions and
to an interested audience which included one to structure of national exhibitions and cash award communications. Why didn't I give up ?
three uniformed military police lingering at the giving juries. This time, seemingly in response I probably would have, had I not received over
rear of the installation. The following night I to the urge for change, it inaugurated something the summer two brief cables and a cheque sent
left São Paulo for New York with promises and called 'Art and Communication' which was to be through a misunderstanding of my simple
written assurances that all agreements, such as a supposed exception to their traditional request for a budget increase, and had I not
the return of the tapes and equipment and the schema and a genuine updating. It was within been encouraged by a number of people,
payment of the shipping charges would be this programme that I was recommended to including an official at the Brazilian Embassy,
fulfilled and that 'Video Tapes by 17 American organize a show of video art. In contrast to the who explained that the Bienal was always
Artists' would remain open until the termination national structures under which each country disorganized but came through in the end.
of the Bienal on 2 December. defrays all expenses (excepting transport of In need of vital information, in early August I
I'm not sure who accompanied whom, but works between the exhibition space and contacted the Brazilian Embassy in
the day of my departure I went with a Bienal Brazilian ports of entry and exit), the Bienal Washington, DC, for assistance. But because the
escort to the offices of the American Consulate was to assume complete costs for the show I was Bienal Foundation is not an official organ of the
as I personally watched him hand over a Bienal doing. While I had planned to include work by government, for reasons of protocol that agency
cheque in the form of Brazilian cruzeiros to be European artists, the organization's cut in my could not directly contact it. Instead all cables
changed into US dollars and sent on to me. already modest budget prevented this and I thus had to be sent through the main office of
The sum covered transferring and materials titled the show 'Video Tapes by 17 American Itamaraty (Brazilian Foreign Ministry) in
costs for the video tapes as well as rentals for Artists' as a literal description and not as a Brasilia, and then on to Sao Paulo. By mid-
tapes and equipment and petty cash. This was national gesture, for I was not officially September, when I returned to the US after
done, among other reasons, because of the representing the US in any way. Nor was I two weeks away on other business, the Embassy
bureaucratic delays and difficulties in sending representing a US institution, although the had in all sent six cables on my behalf and
large bank cheques out of the country, as Executive Director erroneously insisted on received no reply. A seventh, this time sent via
elaborate explanations must be provided for all assuming until the day I left that I was with the personal channels from a Brazilian diplomat to a
such manoeuvres. I was assured that the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Yet I friend high in Itamaraty, finally elicited a
conversion would take place rapidly and that I came to realize ironically enough that the response and on 24 September I was informed
-
would receive the cheque in about two weeks. independence which seemed to me to be an through the Embassy that the Bienal was having
Unfortunately, unlike the other agreements, the advantage actually created a more difficult `technical difficulties' with my project and that a
promise to pay shipping charges on the video situation. letter to me would follow — a rather
equipment was made verbally and now I have Had I had the time to devote to extensive extraordinary move at that date considering the
been informed by the American Consulate, in research and investigative reporting during my notoriety of Brazilian mail delays.
care of whom this bill was accidentally sent, stay in Sao Paulo, this would be a full-fledged The Embassy was obviously helpless to
that the Bienal has denied responsibility for this exposé. But as I did not, in order to explain the exert effective pressure and expect some
expense. Apparently because of this the cheque scandal of the irresponsibility and lack of intelligible answer from the Bienal, and in the
is being held up, and I must convince the integrity of the Bienal, I am instead forced meantime I looked elsewhere. Directly and
Consulate that they are not liable and urge them primarily into a log of the predicaments I indirectly, private, governmental and
to send the money on to me. So, although I write encountered in simply attempting to fulfil my institutional sources were contacted. The point
this in November, I know that it may not be agreement and exhibit the show of tapes as I had was made that a number of noted American
able to reach print until February or March, for been invited to do. artists and several New York galleries were

98