Marasmo Cultural, 2017, Felt cutout, 500 x 60 cm.

Sign made with felt cut out and extended on the facade of the Free Atelier of the City Hall of Porto Alegre with words of the painter Iberê Camargo that remits the formation of the institution.

In 1960 on the occasion of his visit to the city of Porto Alegre, Iberê Camargo, a recognized artist back then living in Rio de Janeiro, gave an interview to the local newspaper stating that the city lived a "Cultural Marasmus" duo to the few exhibition spaces and the fragility of the local artistic system. This interview reverberated in the artistic, administrative and political environment and promoted the formation of the Free Atelier as a public space destined for artistic production in the city.

In 2017, Porto Alegre, like most Brazilian cities, suffer the consequences of a serious economic crisis that promotes changes and closure of cultural spaces, in addition to the precariousness of public institutions such as the Free Atelier.

In this way, the phrase of Iberê Camargo is updated as a provocation so that artists and the local artistic community can effectively enter into the debate about the future of cultural institutions in the city, understanding the cultural spaces as public and political places.