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# New Brazilian TV Series Looks at Country's Contemporary Artists
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/new-brazilian-tv-series-looks-at-countrys-contemporary-artists/
- Published: 2014-04-08T18:49:55.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:47:47.000Z
- Description: Last year, the Brazilian government ruffled a few feathers when it decided that television didn’t count as culture, but a new miniseries by set designer, director, and writer Alberto Renault throws a bit of a monkey wrench into the government’s claim.
- Author: Laura C. Mallonee
- Tags: News, Adriana Varejão, Ernesto Neto, Jonathas de Andrade, Tunga, Vik Muniz, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:03 (2014, 2015, part 1)

![Brazilian artist Adriana Varejão in London. (screen grab via Globo.TV)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/04/screen-shot-2014-04-07-at-6-18-37-pm.png)

Brazilian artist Adriana Varejão in London. (All screen grabs via Globo.TV)

Last year, the Brazilian government ruffled a few feathers when it decided that television didn’t count as culture, which meant workers couldn’t buy cable subscriptions using the [Vale Cultura voucher](https://hyperallergic.com/vale-cultura-and-the-food-for-the-soul-experiment-in-brazil/). But a new miniseries by set designer, director, and writer [Alberto Renault](http://albertorenault.com.br/?ref=hyperallergic.com) throws a bit of a monkey wrench into the government’s claim.

![Screen Shot 2014-04-07 at 6.20.19 PM](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/04/screen-shot-2014-04-07-at-6-20-19-pm.png)

[*Arte Brasileira*,](http://globotv.globo.com/gnt/arte-brasileira/v/arte-brasileira-making-of/3224774/?ref=hyperallergic.com) which premiered March 23 on GNT, is introducing many Brazilians to eight of the country’s preeminent contemporary artists: Beatriz Milhazes, Tunga, Luiz Zerbini, Renata Lucas, Adriana Varejão, Jonathas de Andrade, Ernesto Neto, and Vik Muniz.

“If I can raise the public’s curiosity, to make them interested in the artists and get up and Google them to find out a bit more, I’ll be happy to have launched that spark,” Renault told the Brazilian newspaper [*Globo*](http://oglobo.globo.com/cultura/revista-da-tv/os-cadernos-de-viagem-de-alberto-renault-de-casa-brasileira-em-novo-programa-no-gnt-11666306?ref=hyperallergic.com).

The first episode profiles [Beatriz Milhazes](http://www.artnet.com/artists/beatriz-milhazes/?ref=hyperallergic.com), whose paintings put a baroque spin on the colorful discs of Robert and Sonia Delaunay. Renault accompanies her to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, filled with the decorative art and design that has influenced Milhazes’s work. In the second episode, he strolls through Paris chatting with [Tunga](http://www.tungaoficial.com.br/en/?ref=hyperallergic.com), an artist whose immersive installations, sculptures, video and performances follow in the conceptualist tradition of Lygia Clark.

![Beatriz Milhazes's studio. ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/04/screen-shot-2014-04-07-at-6-20-32-pm.png)

Beatriz Milhazes’s studio.

There’s a lot more walking and talking. Like a Brazilian Robert Hughes, the filmmaker meanders through Venice with [Zerbini](http://www.maxwigram.com/artists/luiz-zerbini/?ref=hyperallergic.com) — his work characterized by modernist grids that overlay cityscapes and lush beach scenes. Renault follows [Lucas](http://www.galerialuisastrina.com.br/artists/renata-lucas.aspx?ref=hyperallergic.com), an artist who stages temporary interventions in built environments, to Berlin, where she explores the artistic possibilities of the city’s urban design. He also strolls with [Varejão](http://www.adrianavarejao.net/home?ref=hyperallergic.com) through Brixton in London, a racially diverse area that partly inspired her fascinating “[Polvo](http://www.victoria-miro.com/exhibitions/445/?ref=hyperallergic.com)” project, which deals with miscegenation (i.e. race mixing).

![Ernesto Neto. ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/04/screen-shot-2014-04-07-at-6-19-07-pm.png)

Ernesto Neto.

Brazilians artists are certainly globetrotters. The series visits [Andrade](http://cargocollective.com/jonathasdeandrade-eng?ref=hyperallergic.com) in Jordan, where the young artist is completing a three-month residency in Amman, then follows him to his exhibition at the Astrup Fearnley in Norway. It finds the textile sculptor Neto and a team team of seamstresses installing his work, [*The Body That Carries Me*](http://ernestoneto.guggenheim-bilbao.es/en/?ref=hyperallergic.com), at the Bilbao Guggenheim in Spain. Finally, it drops in on the photographer and found-object collage artist [Vik Muniz](http://vikmuniz.net/?ref=hyperallergic.com) as he installs a retrospective at the[ Museum of Contemporary Art](http://www.vikmuniz.pe/?ref=hyperallergic.com) in Lima, Peru. The documentary captures the museum staff’s delight as they unpack boxes containing various materials from coins to chocolate bars that Muniz uses in his work.

Renault told *Globo* that he hopes the miniseries will help popularize these remarkable artists by taking them out of the gallery circuit and into the homes of ordinary Brazilians for a few nights. Considering how uninformed Americans can be about art south of the equator, here’s hoping the show will find its way to the U.S. as well.

*The full TV schedule for* Arte Brasileira *is available* [*online*](http://gnt.globo.com/artebrasileira/sobre/?ref=hyperallergic.com)*, and Brazilian cable subscribers can watch the episodes in full (no English subtitles) at* [*muu.globo.com*](http://muu.globo.com/video/beatriz-milhazes/21434/?ref=hyperallergic.com)*.*