By Patricia Canetti, Kassel, July 19, 2007

Finding a definition for Canal is a nearly impossible task... Like any work in process, its definition suffers transformations, together with the work itself. Even if you took as a starting point its working criteria – the focus in the Brazilian contemporary art circuit and the dynamics that, at the same time, gives visibility to its circuit and generates criticism and reflection upon its reflex – we need to analyze it from time to time to know what is going on or what it is becoming in that moment.

A canal that serves the flow of communication to promote its basic functions of navigation and irrigation; to sail in it and/or to be irrigated by it responds to one of the most urgent necessities of our time: the demand for pertinent communication and information that produces new meanings from the confrontation of diverse positions. The bonds that are formed from the established contact between sender and receiver, positions in constant alternation in a digital community, are responsible for the web’s binding. And the relations, built from that, constitute the space of this vehicle-place.

This exchange of information, the informational layer of Canal Contemporâneo, actually, serves as a bait for the construction of our web and allows us to establish the first moment of this work: the vast communication without geographical boundaries. This layer will generate by itself reorganization in the landscape of the art circuit, as well as intervene in the art system itself, from the generated opportunities in the communication in which it operates. From the established communication, which happens little by little, at each one’s time, forming the social real time of this channel, we can observe the generation of the second moment: the political dialogue.

So, what do we have here? Artists, art critics, curators, researchers, educators, teachers, institutions’ managers, gallery owners, art dealers, collectors, sponsors, journalists and art lovers, the actors and agents of the Brazilian contemporary art scene exchanging work, working in the art circuit, for the art system or against it. Sometimes enrolling themselves in battles to be fought together against a common enemy. It could be the closing of a cultural institution, or just its misguidance, censorship in an important art institution or the construction of a private museum with public funding, as it was the case of Guggenheim in Rio de Janeiro. But although we have our big moments with petitions and live manifestations is during our everyday routine with small and furtive ways of dealing with information that we provoke long-lasting changes.

Some examples…

Art salons and awards announcements showing the cost and benefits for the artists of these mechanisms, that are the main way to give visibility to the Brazilian upcoming artistic production and to democratize artists’ access to exhibition venues of art institutions:

www.canalcontemporaneo.art.br/saloesepremios
www.canalcontemporaneo.art.br/saloesepremios/archives/000627.html

Participation in exhibitions with blog works gathering exhibition participants and members from the community like Quebra de padrão.

First edition in Hiper, Santander Cultural (Porto Alegre):
www.canalcontemporaneo.art.br/quebra/archives/000108.html

Second edition in Ocupação, Paço das Artes (São Paulo): www.canalcontemporaneo.art.br/quebra/archives/000421.html