Rediscovering dreams, relearning to dream
Where Dreams Come From. This is the name of Vale Museum’s new exhibition, which Vale Cultural Institute, in partnership with the Espírito Santo State Government, brings to Anchieta Palace. The exhibition, on show from October 2023 to January 2024, presents an unprecedented selection from the Andrea and José Olympio Pereira collection, and invites you to dive into the diversity that characterises Brazilian artistic production.
Its title was inspired by the work of Macuxi artist Jaider Esbell (1979–2021), who is recognised worldwide and who, in Brazil, was nominated for the Pipa Prize, the highest award for contemporary Brazilian art. In this section of the Andrea and José Olympio Pereira collection, which focuses on Brazilian production from the 1940s to the present day, curator Vanda Klabin proposes a free route where there are infinite possibilities. Starting with the exhibition’s guiding phrase, we are invited to weave a dialogue of continuity and rupture in a continuous dialogue with ancestral and contemporary artistic experiences. Wood, plaster, acrylic, oil on canvas, fired and painted clay are part of a network that expands into new questions that lead us to reflect on our origins, against the backdrop of nature and Brazilianness.
Where Dreams Come From is the third exhibition launched in 2023 by Vale Museum, as part of its extramural activities in Espírito Santo. From March to May, the immersive exhibition The Extraordinary World of Leonardo Da Vinci brought more than 60,000 people to the City of Innovation at the Federal Institute of Espírito Santo (IFES). Between May and June, Memories of the Future – A Look at the Collection of the Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute (IHGB) brought together more than 13,000 people at the Anchieta Palace, integrating works by contemporary artists from Espírito Santo into the IHGB’s collection. Alongside the exhibitions, the Vale Museum, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this month, continues its educational activities in state schools, Vale’s Botanical Park and Vale Nature Reserve.
The Museum’s work is linked to that of the Vale Cultural Institute, which since 2020 has organised, coordinated or sponsored more than 600 cultural initiatives in Brazil. In Espírito Santo, the Institute also embraces culture in all its diversity: from the Vale Music programme, which today has more than 982 children and young people enrolled, to the Penha Festival, film festivals and audiovisual training programmes, among dozens of other actions. The initiatives are plural, but they have a singular purpose: to create opportunities for transforming life through culture. In other words, to work in partnership so that more and more people (re)discover their dreams, (re)learn to dream. We hope that, as you browse through the exhibition Where Dreams Come From, you, too, can ask new questions that lead to the creation and realisation of old and new dreams.
Vale Cultural Institute / Vale Museum
Dreams weave our culture
An essential part of the human experience, the ability to dream is intrinsic to our nature. Through dreams, we express our imagination and create new worlds, in a continuous process of symbolic construction that crosses values and beliefs, forms identities, preserves collective memory and inspires us artistically and creatively.
The exhibition Where Dreams Come From promotes an exchange between the imaginary and the real, engaging in a dialogue with the ancestral records of native peoples, Afro-descendants and popular tradition. From these encounters the invisible fabrics that shape our culture are woven. We are made up of intertwinings, we are a network.
Here we have a unique selection from the imposing Andrea and José Olympio Pereira collection, one of the most prominent in the world, focusing on Brazilian production from the 1940s onwards. In all, the collection houses around 2,500 works that express the diversity of our people, each with its own uniqueness, incorporating experiences and knowledge, mythological narratives, religious, profane, dreamlike and philosophical phenomena that permeate our country’s culture.
The works selected for this exhibition offer an unprecedented perspective. Many of the new acquisitions in the collection represent contemporary artists from different regions of Brazil who move through a variety of languages and media, approaching the aesthetic expression of the native peoples and Afro-descendants, giving popular traditions the true status of art. Diversity, in short, is what guides every path travelled in this exhibition space. The multiple voices of our people echo through these walls.
Concomitantly, nature, with its unrivalled grandeur, is an underlying source of inspiration, weaving its representations as creative power in each work. Everything here is charged with the essence of our identity, inhabiting the collective imagination that unites us as a nation and defines us as Brazilian people.
There’s no denying the role of art as an instrument of criticism, whether social or environmental, constantly proposing reflection through its aesthetic language. The environmental agenda, the deforestation of the Brazilian soil, climate agendas and the demarcation of indigenous lands, among other countless crucial and urgent contemporary issues, permeate the contemplative experience of this exhibition.
In addition, the Vale Cultural Institute — sponsor of this exhibition — is giving us another reason to celebrate: the 25th anniversary of Vale Museum. A quarter of a century marked by the promotion of art and culture, education and training activities, the preservation of our heritage, the promotion of access to culture, dialogue, innovation and economic development. Its presence over the years has transformed our landscape and helped strengthen Espírito Santo’s increasingly rich and vibrant identity.
Where Dreams Come From invites you to take a deep dive into the creative imagination of a plural people, to explore the encounters between cultures and different perspectives and discover how dreams shape our history, our art and our existence.
Renato Casagrande
Governor of Espírito Santo State
Different angles, other dialogues
It is a scenario of encounters, stripped of temporal ties or fixed themes, which invites visitors to travel the paths of their own gaze, guided by curiosity and sensitivity.
This itinerary is also permeated by questions, tracing the map of our true historical trajectory. A history that transcends the narrative of the oppressors, embracing multiple voices that are sometimes silenced.
Art, which in its essence does not recognise borders and constantly challenges us to break conventions, sometimes collides with pre-existing barriers, with the divisions that delineate who participates, who can be seen and who is the “other”, who is outside the bounds.
By proposing this section of one of the largest art collections in the world, the Andrea and José Olympio Pereira collection, the exhibition Where Dreams Come From not only presents, but also brings together diverse poetics that instigate us to contemplate different angles and understand other dialogues.
Amidst sensitive experimentation, countless possibilities for construction emerge, permeated by the multiplicity of perspectives and voices, challenging what is pre-established.
This dynamic and dialogical interaction between art and the public makes it possible to build a more inclusive and enriching cultural panorama, capable of expressing the complexity of our identities and human experiences, especially in a country so marked by these dissonances — and at the same time so powerful and diverse.
It is with great enthusiasm that we welcome another important exhibition to Anchieta Palace, in partnership with Vale Museum, which is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary.
With an attentive eye, curator Vanda Klabin builds a bridge between contemporaneity and Brazilian ancestry, provoking us to reflect on identity, stereotypes, hierarchy, history, memory, art and politics.
By bringing these provocations to the fore, Where Dreams Come From points us in new and urgent directions, while at the same time celebrating all this cultural richness.
Fabricio Noronha
Espírito Santo State Secretary of Culture
Where Dreams Come From
Diversity is perhaps what most characterises artistic production in recent years. Multiple artistic experiences can weave a dialogue of continuity or rupture between them. The intimacy of this territory of coexistence gradually creates different visual chords, builds new connections and blends meanings. The aesthetic routes that guided Andrea and José Olympio Pereira’s collection have their germinal territory in contemporary Brazilian art and are intertwined with the recent history of our visual culture. Afro-Brazilian production, so-called popular art and indigenous art, now regarded as marked interpreters of the contemporary scene, belong to the present, not the past, and would have been historically excluded. The recent acquisitions bring a new selection of contemporary artists from different regions of Brazil, who use a variety of languages and media.
Capturing the zeitgeist, the spirit of the time, recentness, is one of the characteristics of the acquisition of Andrea and José Olympio Pereira’s collection, which began in the 1960s and leads us to an immense variety of styles in tune with different poetics, maintaining or translating their differences, kinships and approximations. Different ethnicities, other ways of listening, other narratives, when contemplated, gain extreme vigour and reveal a microcosm directed in favour of a more comprehensive historiography, outside the context of invisibilisation or exclusion. These are unseen territories that point out the disharmonies that have been silenced or neglected by official historiography — a dialogue that is absent from the art circuit in the national art system — and which are now acting in a substantiating way in Brazilian culture.
Nature and its representations as creative power combine the selected works and inhabit the cultural imagination of a nation. Reinvented or fictional landscapes — man’s use of the components of nature’s geography — have been captured in places with a mobile plurality that materialises in various media, techniques and materials, with diverse results and translated into paintings, sculptures, photographs or videos by contemporary artists.
Rethinking our ancestry, manual, spontaneous work — within a solid tradition — is a permanent desire that indicates intercultural dialogue, inclusion and representativeness in the light of a contemporary reading by spotlighting these dissonant conflicts and fissures.
Vanda Klabin
Curator
List of credits
ESPÍRITO SANTO STATE GOVERNMENT
Governor
José Renato Casagrande
Vice-Governor
Ricardo Ferraço
State Secretary of Culture
Fabricio Noronha Fernandes
Subsecretary of Cultural Policies
Carolina Ruas Palomares
Government State Secretary
Maria Emanuela Pedroso
State Secretary of Education
Vitor Amorim de Angelo
Anchieta Palace Exhibition Venue
Áurea Lígia Miranda Bernardi
MEDIATION STAFF
Team Coordinator
Leidyane M. E. Vedova
Educational Team
Alessandro C. S. Oliveira
Alessandro Torrezani
Alexandre M. Rocha
Anderson Patrick F. Alves
Fabiana L. Neres
Gabriel G. Rocha
Greicy Kelly T. dos Santos
Jolie Maria de Oliveira
João Victor Coser
Layane Cristina M. Marques
Luan Daniel C. Soares
Lucas Antonio B. Vieira
Natalia P. Silva
Patricia A. Titonelli
Raoni Iarin C. da Silva
Wesley F. E. Santos
VALE
President
Eduardo Bartolomeo
Executive VP of Sustainability
Malu Paiva
Executive VP of Corporate and Institutional Affairs
Alexandre D’Ambrosio
Executive VP of Finance and Investor Relations
Gustavo Pimenta
Executive VP of Operations
Carlos Medeiros
Executive VP of Personnel
Marina Quental
Executive VP of Projects
Alexandre Pereira
Executive VP of Iron Ore Solutions
Marcello Spinelli
Technical Executive VP
Rafael Bittar
Director of Climate, Nature and Cultural Investment
Hugo Barreto
Director of Pelletizing
Rodrigo Ruggiero
Legal Director
Octavio Bulcão
Facilities Director
Marcelo Barros
VALE CULTURAL INSTITUTE
STRATEGIC COUNCIL
President
Malu Paiva
Vice-President
Flávia Constant
Hugo Barreto
Octavio Bulcão
EXECUTIVE BOARD
Director-President
Hugo Barreto
Luciana Gondim
Gisela Rosa
PROJECTS AND SPONSORSHIP
Marize Mattos
Staff
Ana Beatriz Abreu
Barbara Alves
Elizabete Moreira
Eunice Silva
Fabianne Herrera
Flávia Dratovsky
Jessica Morais
Joana Martins
Luciana Vieira
Maristella Medeiros
Michelle Amorim
Nádia Farias
Neila Souza
Nihara Pereira
Renata Mello
VALE MUSEUM
Director
Claudia Afonso
Associate Curatorial Director
Ronaldo Barbosa
Office Staff
Noyla Nakibar
Fagner Chaves
Bruno Mota
Educational Outreach
Hellen Lugon
Carla Santos
Helton Gomes
Jonathan Schmidel
Jordana Caetano
Rafaela Ribeiro
Weverson Tertuliano
Production
Diester Fernandes
André Leão
VALE – ES
Management of Institutional and Government Relations
Heloisa Oliveira
Vanessa Tavares
Legal
Maurício Vasconcellos
Renata Padilha
Press Office
Elaine Vieira
Ana Beatriz Mauro
Facilities
Elida Rafachine
Fernando Benitez
Real Estate
Stenio Lacerda
Anderson Rezende
EXHIBITION
Curator
Vanda Klabin
General Coordination
Mauro Saraiva
Production
Tisara Arte Produções
Executive Production
Andre Fernandes
Collection Consultancy
Sophia Whately
Exhibition Design
Caio Caruso
Graphic Design
Monomotor
Lighting
Júlio Katona
Photographic Recording
Claraboia Imagem
Video Recording
Molaa Hub Criativo
Installation
KBedim
Press
Meio & Imagem
Social Media
Beatriz Caillaux
Midiarte Comunicação
Museology
Angela de Menezes Freitas
ME
Painting
Adalto Corrêa Santos
English Version
Lobo Pasolini
Portuguese and English Proofreading
Victoria Pianca
Visual Communication
Fábio Souto
Rodrigo Pimentel
Renato Pimentel
Insurance
Chubb
Transport
Millenium
Interns / Mediators
Base Company
Apprentices
Arthur R. T. Santos
Caio Vitor B. dos Santos
Eryonn Carlos S. Gomes
Evellyn C. da Silva
Gabriel Guilherme C. da Silva
Isabelly S. Guimarães
Lucas M. Andrade
ANDREA AND JOSÉ OLYMPIO PEREIRA COLLECTION
Artistas
Acelino Sales Tuin
Adriana Varejão
Afonso Tostes
Ana Prata
Anna Maria Maiolino
Arjan Martins
Aurelino dos Santos
Ayrson Heráclito
Beatriz Milhazes
Bruno 9li
Celeida Tostes
Cildo Meireles
Claudia Andujar
Cleiber Bane – MAHKU
Daiara Tukano
David Adamo
Efrain Almeida
Erika Verzutti
Fernando da Ilha do Ferro
Frans Krajcberg
Gustavo Caboco
Ivens Machado
Jaider Esbell
Janaina Tschäpe
Jonathas de Andrade
José Bezerra
José Damasceno
José Resende
Leda Catunda
Leonilson
Lucas Arruda
Luiz Zerbini
Márcia Falcão
Marina Rheingantz
Miguel Rio Branco
Nelson Felix
Nhô Caboclo
Nuno Ramos
Odires Mlászho
Paulo Nimer Pjota
Paulo Pasta
Pedro Mana – MAHKU
Rivane Neuenschwander & Cao Guimarães
Rodrigo Andrade
Santídio Pereira
Solange Pessoa
Vânia Mignone
Véio
Waltercio Caldas
Thiago Martins de Melo
Fale conosco
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