I am sitting on the veranda of a grand tropical mansion, the Casa do Lago, in a remote area of northeastern Brazil, about two hours southwest of Recife. It’s a beautiful evening in September, as most evenings here are, and while drinking a glass of wine, I’m attempting to smoke a Cuban cigar and failing to keep it lit while also carrying on a conversation. The conversation is much more interesting than the cigar, as I am interviewing the proprietor of this home, as well as the Usina de Arte that surrounds it, and the nearby town of Vila Santa Terezinha, and most of the land as far as the eye can see in any direction. Ricardo Pessoa de Queiroz is telling me the story of this grand undertaking, a sculpture park and a botanical garden on the grounds of the old sugar mill that is the passion he shares with his wife Bruna, who is also his cousin. It’s the story of family politicians and tycoons that goes back at least ten generations in Brazil on his father’s side, and to 1650 on his mother’s side. Of presidents and governors and assassinations and revolutions. Of land lost and regained. And of art.
When I checked in with Ricardo recently, he shared images of new works arriving at the Usina since my visit: the powerful “Paisagem” (“Landscape”) by Regina Silveira, which was shown at the Bienal de São Paulo last fall, “Nadir #quase uma ilha 02” and “Athar #05” by Túlio Pinto, “Pai” (“Father”) by Saint Clair Cemin and “Campo da Fome” (“Hunger Field”) by Matheus Rocha Pitta, which was being installed when we corresponded.
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