Romance Postal [Postcard Romance]
Curator Rubens Fernandes Junior
Exhibition from March 21 to April 22, 2017
Notice: The exhixition will be closed on April 14, reopens April 15
In 2017 FASS celebrates its 10 years anniversary and is now called Utopica, presenting the exhibition Romance Postal (Postcard Romance), 49 postcards produced between 1900 and 1915, curated by Rubens Fernandes Junior. Those who visit the show will be able to see images of women, couples, families and objects of romantic iconography with unique post-production treatments: watercolor interventions, high and low reliefs, collages and other increments. Postcards were the first expression of photography in multiple format and large issues. Made to be ephemeral and disposable, they survived when became collectible objects - a milestone of past eras, fashion, design, and photographic studios.
The exhibition also addresses intimacy, highlighting not only the importance of this communication vehicle, which circulated freely and universally, but also drawing attention to some aspects of ciphered romantic communication, which only the interlocutors understood. The postcard was the first initiative that brought some transparency to the world of intimacy, since it was read by all the hands that touched it: mailmen, origin and destination; post office employees and distribution centers; doormen; hostel owners; relatives. At a moment in time when the visibility and transparency of communication determine how much we are recognized inside the different groups in which we socialize, it is interesting to think of the old postcard as an open media, with image and text, now replaced by social media. "Working in the interstices is always something we seek when we invade the intimacy of a correspondence." says Rubens Fernandes Junior. What we want with Postcard Romance is also to see what is not present.
Rubens Fernandes Junior is curator and photography critic, PhD in Communication and Semiotics at PUC-SP, professor and director of the Faculdade de Comunicação da Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (Facom-FAAP). He is curator of the Prêmio Wessel de Fotografia. Cartophile since the beginning of his reserarch on Brazilian photography, Rubens has a collection of postcards and studies the potential of this object as a source of information.