The first project of the partnership was Campos de Preposições (or Field for Prepositions) conceived around the communal areas of SESC Ipiranga.
With conviviality at its heart, Field of Prepositions saw architecture and art collective O Grupo Inteiro invite Elizabeth Wright and Anthony Davies from the Central Saint Martins Art Programme to collaborate. The visiting academics acted as “critical mirrors”, to use Wright’s phrase, providing external voices to a project essentially about the role of place and interaction. Exploring the stories of Ipiranga and its vicinity, the projects ranged from outdoor furniture to encourage Parkour for seniors to contemporary reconsiderations of historic paintings or the tracings of everyday acts.
We were associates to O Grupo Inteiro”, explains Wright, “we were mindful that they had the knowledge. We listened to them. We were tourists. But we had this privileged position to have a dialogue about their lens onto this site.
Carol Tonetti of O Grupo Inteiro commented: “It was really interesting because during the process Brazil was experiencing this political impeachment process. All of a sudden we hear about Brexit – we see the images of parliament. They have different structures but it was the same. It was strange. Somehow, so far, so close. Explaining our city was a way of thinking, it was great to have this reflexive process.”