Saturday, July 4, 2009.

Rosangela Renno is a visual artist and Doctor of Arts from the School of Communication and Arts at USP. Mining, rooted in Rio de Janeiro, is now obligatory reference when it comes to the photographic image and its aftermath. Winner of several international awards, participated in the 22nd and 24th São Paulo Biennial, the 45th and 50th Venice Biennale, the 2nd Berlin Biennial and had solo exhibitions in Amsterdam, Los Angeles and Rio de Janeiro, among others. Notable among his productions "Universal File" (1992 - 2003), "Scar" and "Alias" (1996 - 2003), in which recontextualization of objects through texts and images, mobilized by the look of affection and gives the collector viewer a single inversion in the code that photo, from the reading of texts and iconographic repertoire of the viewer himself is that the image is constructed. Already in "The Last Picture" (2006) the artist invited 43 professional photographers to photograph the Christ Redeemer using mechanical cameras of various formats, the camera plate 9 × 12 cm, the beginning of the twentieth century, until the reflex cameras, for film 35 mm, the 1980s, she collected over the past year. The cameras, used the last time, were sealed. He participated in the interview, conducted in his studio in Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro, researcher, journalist and teacher of photography ECO-UFRJ, Teresa Bastos.

Rosangela Renno at 5 Paraty in Focus.

Photo: Fernando Rabelo.

Rosangela Renno and one of the cameras of the project "The last one."

1 - Its raw materials are the files and inventories and operate it as a collector of "leftovers". In your opinion, which should give the destination file? And as you see the "controlled destruction" of them? (Thinking domestically and institutionally, in the materiality of them).

I think we live the moment to think what we do today and what the file is important to be filed. These are questions that are being developed and thought at the time. Until now still working with paper and film archive. This moment of transition from analog to digital brings several issues. One is to look at the collection and think about what you select to save. The other is the sense of duplication: why digitize? What's the point of doing this (archive) today? There are several artists who are working with the idea file, there is a certain drive at work within him, with him and even the creation of new files. There are artists who are using archival strategy to create new files, thought of as creation, as an artistic practice.

2 - What has changed in his work of artistic creation with the rapid change from analogue photography to digital?

For me it changes nothing. Technically speaking remains the same. I've always used both systems in my work, whenever necessary. In 2006, with the work "The last one" the issue of system change, a paradigm emerged as a theme as an excuse, but then it became something else, it was more a discussion of concept than technique. I'll always including things in my process. I adopt a very economical way to work and it changed nothing for me. The digital system that allows in terms of increased production of the image makes no difference to me because I'm more concerned with thinking about the production than to perform them properly.

510117385 - 5 (2005)

Deise Lane, Zorki, The Last Picture Project (2006)

3 - There is a large expansion of photo blogs in this moment that the Internet has shown a large digital file and allows the circulation and dissemination of images of all kinds, as you see this new possibility of virtual exchange network?

I think this exchange is a natural consequence of the speed of the digital system allows. Scanning allows you to exchange files and also their movement on a monumental scale. In my opinion, the future of archiving may be the very movement of the file. One day all images will stay around and everyone will save everything. 50 000 people will be able to access and hold the images because they will be circulating. Blogs are now the place where information and image focus. Perhaps this is the origin of the new model file.

4 - What have you done today, which his most recent work and concerns are present in his work this time?

My recent concerns are the territory of the narratives, the accounts and this has led me to work more with the video, without compromising the picture. The video looks like a fever that took me around the world and was no different. Everyone today wants to fabricate testimony. People want to tell stories, talk about themselves and share it with others, for various reasons. With the support of the Internet this is possible: blogs, YouTubes, yousendits, etc.. The cameras 24 hours online via the internet, when they began, caused great curiosity. You can question whether it is relevant or not to access such information, but the possibility is that it is brilliant. The ability to access and exchange, it is very cool. What I want to do with my narrative, objectively, such as work, still prefer not to talk because everything is at a preliminary stage of project construction.

5 - What are your expectations about Paraty in Focus?

I'm pretty excited about this meeting in Paraty, because I am very impressed with a certain change of "focus" of the discussions on imaging techniques, especially photography. There is no question over both, the technical details of the photographic medium. Today the discussion is more focused on the concept and it interests me because I'm curious to see where all this is going. The experience of the last seminar I attended here in Rio (It refers to the "Seminar Photography and contemporary artistic thought: convergences, disruptions, displacements," held last April in the Caixa Cultural, in Rio) was impressive. Everyone is trying to understand what is happening, share ideas about what it means shooting today. Already there has been a lever for a deeper discussion of what types and capacities of photographic equipment.

Rogério Reis, Yashica, The Last Picture Project (2006)

Bibliotheca (2002)