Surface Tension Supplement

Bilingual edition (English / Portuguese). 21 x 27,5 cm (softcover), 72 pages (17 color & 15 b/w ill.). 2009. Edited by Octávio Camargo & Brandon LaBelle. Contributions by Ricardo Basbaum, Alex Cabral, Octávio Camargo, Ken Ehrlich, Jennifer Gabrys, Brandon LaBelle, Margit Leisner, Josina Melo, Rubens Pileggi, Ines Schaber. Extending artistic research and work taking place since 2006 in Curitiba, Brazil, the publication brings together documentation and related texts that aim to elaborate on the question of finding common space. At its core is an engagement with communities from the local favelas that subsist on traversing the city in search of recyclable materials. Occupying this economic margin, a number of informal expressions arise, from the making of hand-built carts to the circulation of urban myths. Originally as an exhibition developed between international and local artists held at Ybakatu Gallery in Curitiba, the publication raises pertinent questions, such as, what are the consequences of an artistic practice aimed at developing commonality, and how might difference and disparity find productive manifestation in built form ? Following the publication of SurfaceTension: Problematics of Site in 2003, SurfaceTension appears regularly as a series of published Supplements (launched 2006) that continues the artistic and philosophical program initiated in the original anthology. The series addresses questions of site-specific art, public and architectural space, and location-based practices, supporting investigations onto public practices through writing, documentation, and field work, while questioning what role such practices can offer in defining contemporary culture.