MABE BETHONICO

"Mabe Bethônico and the Collector (I, II, and III)" is the series of exhibitions that inaugurated the Museu de Arte da Pampulha program designed to show its permanent collection. This choice seems somewhat peculiar, since the work does not belong in the permanent collection; however, it is a priority in the institution's acquisition list. So it was left to the complexity of The Collector to raise interrogations in relation to archiving principles and methods, selection and gathering operations, their respective implications in the context of contemporary art institutions. As one of its key notions, The Collector interrogates time. Strictly speaking, the archive-a work in progress since 1997 - has no definite beginning or ending. From an organizational point of view, it may be seen as a work in constant transformation. The most important part of the work consists of searching out, gathering, classifying, and editing images and texts from Brazilian and foreign newspapers. In Mabe Bethônico and the Collector (III), curators and artist selected items connected with the theme of destruction.
After six years, Mabe Bethônico and the collector have gathered approximately 2,800 clippings. Along with the addition of more recent images, the artist started to search through newspapers prior to 1997 to introduce a retroactive conceptual character to the work. So future instances of the archive will go further back into the past and double the length of the timeline involved. But then, the problem arises of ascribing the work a date-it has to have one if it is meant for incorporation into a collection. The choice of an equally ongoing exhibition strategy shown at the museum in its third edition is an attempt to problematize this issue.