Centenary of João Vilanova Artigas - on minutiae a universe

Minutiae are details, niceties that indicate a special making! Architectural projects always contain details and details of detail, that Artigas called “minutiae.” His details are the clearest representation of his conduct, made of memories, ideologies, relationships with history, politics and life. They were not always the minutiae, but great acts transformed into concrete, as sculptural stairs that access and dignify the maiden’s room. Minutiae run through his work, instigate the technical quality to the limit through precise calculations involving his art.The residences were their best supports. They went from the floors, sometimes colorful, sometimes strictly geometrical, they rose by nonexistent footers. Sometimes they were invisible to the viewer because they were hidden in the mitigated measures of each ideal door or windows. They stroll through indoor gardens as an extension of rooms, or are present in neoprene which brings together materials, the past and the future.From the orange colored pencils on his projects to the the colors of Gruber, Rebollo, Volpi, traces of a relationship that started in the Santa Helena group, where the technique was in pursuit of art. The architect made school and the school made the architect: wooden schools, concrete schools, schools of ideas.The Artigas minnutiae run through this exhibition held at the birthplace of the architect to give a fitting tribute to the boy João Batista, who enjoyed mathematics and drawing.The work of Artigas is explained in minutiae. by Giceli Portela

This letter, widely quoted in books that tell us the history of Artigas, is the perfect translation of the ideal that the architect passed on to his works. The passage where he defends the architecture as art  is unique:[...] Architecture is construction and art. There is no book that teaches art. It is born within every one and it develops as a set of experiences. Seek a man that can provide your health center with an unquestionably artistic value, not only for the characteristics of an efficient hospital, but also for the perfect planning of the several departments.The artistic value is eternal, huge and inestimable. It is a priceless value and free of wear. Its value, on the opposite, increases with the years as men are educated to recognize it. The artistic value remains in the ruins. As time goes by, there is a material wear, whereas is added to the spiritual.[...]

This building refines the holy ideals of the time: I thought it as the spatialization of democracy in worthy spaces, without entrance doors, because I wanted it as a temple where all activities are lawful.

Artigas, 1984.

But now comes the history lesson of all men of all races, all social ideologies of all time, which insists on telling me that the chapiter also derives from it (which in addition to functionally gathering efforts is functionally ornament too), and the thousand and one Kilimanjaro that infest the most sublime architectures. Which to my taste and racism are the Egyptian, the Florentine Renaissance and the modern home. The legitimate modern house that is. The Ministry of Education and never the Ministry of War; the Esther Building and never the Faculty of Law, and a house by Artigas and never a neo-colonial house.

Mário de Andrade, 1943.

We had in Londrina a wild frontier, which was more the red of the earth than of the revolution, but also with the red of hope that was born for those who abandoned their places of origin and came to Londrina in search of a new life.

Artigas, 1970

What is the nature of the works have I done? To try to feel in some of them the kind of proportion I learned with the people of my land, Parana, with the houses made of wood. The way man relates to the form becomes a language that the artist assumes.

Artigas, 1984.

House is a beautiful image of the beloved Artigas.Peculiar form of knowledge, distinguishes man as a character – a novelty in the universe – that builds to inhabit the planet. Transforms nature, the geographies.Architecture is at the heart of the University, science and art technique at the same time, the success idea for all other schools.This House is an extension of his work. Reflection and a lesson that encourages all of us to continue building the current city to reverse the route of disasters. It should be a happy place because it is always new and attentive to the changes of our time. Paulo Mendes da Rocha, 2004.

It is my half pop, half ironic project, and I love to see it in any angle. There are pieces or tree trunks that support the entire concrete roof structure. How’s that for technical advance! It was hard to discover that it was possible to place reinforced concrete slab on a wooden column and I experienced for the first time, at the beach house of my brother Giocondo. With the emergence of a material called neoprene, it was possible to make that the roof load was distributed in the area of the timber column, and thence to the functions.

The school has a treatment that is, in essence, landscape. The goal was not the implementation of a playground in a square, but to integrate these two aspects: square and park form a homogeneous whole. My project is a reorganization within the republican tradition of the primary school. I gave the large open spaces priority over the classrooms. These do not follow a rigid scheme, on the contrary, they have very irregular shapes, avoiding the conventional solution of square or rectangular rooms.

A small detail, that is worth telling because I always find interesting the judgment of the people in relation to the things I do. If they find it beautiful or ugly.Regarding this bus station, there is an anecdote that enchanted me. The bus enters the Station and people descend directly on the platform, and a lady who was going to Jaú told me that, when the bus entered the station, the driver said: “Will you get off the bus, madam?”And she: “No, I’m going to Jaú.”“But we’re in Jaú.” “Of course not, young man, I know Jaú, and there are no such things there.”Artigas, 1981.

The Brazilian modernist revolution consecrated three principles: the right to aesthetic research, the updating of the Brazilian artistic intelligence and the stabilization of a national creative conscience (Mário de Andrade).Brecheret and Tarsila, constructivists of 1922. Artistic Family of São Paulo, Counterpoint. Portinari, Iberê Camargo, Ivan Serpa, Antônio Dias, Gerchman, Ohtake, Samson Flexor: diversity of languages.The constructivists Sacilotto and Nogueira Lima; the intuitive Volpi.The neo-concretism, from Ferreira Gullar to Lygia Clark and Oiticica, and the popcrete Waldemar Cordeiro. Opinião 65. Cinema Novo. Arena Theater, Oficina. New Brazilian Objectivity: affirmation of the constructive general will and positioning in relation to political, social and ethical issues (MAM-RJ 1967). Tropicália.Brutalism: a choice for the structural truth of the buildings. FAU designed as open space to all trends, all the expressions: “I thought it as the spatialization of democracy in worthy spaces, without entrance doors, because I wanted them as a temple where all activities are lawful” (Artigas). Turbulence zone: republican education, student demonstrations, meetings, ideas, inventions. Architecture, Art and Politics.Brechtian refunctionalization: forms and instrumentsat the service of social change (Benjamin).

Em todo caso, ser arquiteto, meus jovens, é um privilégio que a sociedade nos dá e que eu desempenho como se fosse um segredo, no cantinho de meu escritório, fechado com meus pensamentos e meu desenho.” João Batista Vilanova Artigas