SAO PAULO.- Between late August and early October 2014, Galeria Jaqueline Martins presents two exhibitions of works by Equipe3 and Arte/Ação, considered by many critics and curators the undisputed pioneers of ephemeral conceptual art in Brazil. The groups’ highly experimental projects and interventions in the 1970s were forerunners of what later became known as site-specific works. Galeria Jaqueline Martins proudly exhibits works and documentation by the two art collectives at the gallery itself and at the Museu da Cidade de São Paulo / Solar da Marquesa de Santos in the city center.

Also known as Grupo 3 (or Group 3), Equipe3 was established in 1970 by Francisco Iñarra (1947-2009), Lydia Okumura (1948- ), and Genilson Soares (1940-). When in 1974 Okumura moved to New York, Iñarra and Soares developed a parallel collaboration as Arte/Ação (or Art/Action). Both groups participated in several major exhibitions, including national and international editions of the Bienal de São Paulo, carrying out a number of projects that explored the limits of the artistic institution in regards to selection criteria, to presentation and to the artistic object itself.

Among the most relevant projects carried out by Equipe3, are the experiences produced for the Jovem Arte Contemporânea (JAC), a programme of exhibitions held at the Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of São Paulo MAC/USP) between 1967 and 1974, under the direction of the Brazilian historian, art critic and curator Walter Zanini. Their installations at the 12th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo in 1973 explored spatial perception through optical illusions rooted in the architectural space of the building.

Between 1974 and 1979, Arte/Ação developed their spatial practice with works such as the installation Num Espaço Apertado (In a Tight Space) at the Bienal Nacional in 1974. In the series entitled Arte/Ação (which would later be adopted as the name of the group itself), developed from 1975 onwards, they appropriated the work of other artists, including those of Chihiro Shimotani, Giorgio de Chirico, and Marino Marini in the collection of the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC/USP). In Evento com a Pedra Event (Event with the Event Stone), the pair surreptitiously appropriated part of an installation by Shimontani, the Event stone, and took it for a “tour’ around the museum. The appropriation act itself engendered other actions, and unfolded into a number of ‘events’ or ‘happenings’ inside and outside the institutional perimeter.

In another collection of works, carried out at the 14th Bienal Internacional de São Paulo (1977), the group occupied the building designed by Oscar Niemeyer for a period of three months, carrying out sculptural experimentations with the material found in and around the building and its basement area.

Based on the premise that the documentation of the process is intrinsic to the actions themselves, the projects carried out by Arte/Ação and Equipe3 rendered innumerous photographic series, as well as other forms of documentation, as can be seen here.

Curated by Mirtes Marins de Oliveira, the exhibition contra o estado das coisas – anos 70 (against the state of things – 1970s), opening at Galeria Jaqueline Martins on August 28, 2014 at 6pm, and ending on October 4, 2014, is comprised of a series of documents, photographs and installation projects by both Equipe3 and Arte/Ação.

The exhibition Equipe3 1973 – 2014 at the Solar da Marquesa is curated by Isobel Whitelegg and consists of Equipe3’s installation Pontos de Vista (Points of View), conceived for the Bienal Internacional de São Paulo of 1973, as well as photographic documentation of the group’s practice. The show opens on August 30 at 1pm, running until 12 October 2014.

Conceived to mark the occasion of the 31st edition of the Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, these exhibitions, held in two physically distinct spaces, provide an opportunity to assess the relevance of their highly experimental artistic explorations to contem- porary art practice at present.