Curators Germano Dushá, Thiago de Paula Souza, and Ariana Nuala explore Brazil’s transformative heat limit through 130 boundary-pushing works at MAC USP.
Departure of the Gurilouko Troop at the 38th Panorama of Brazilian Art, ‘Mil Graus’, 2024. Photo: Estúdio em Obra.
The 38th Panorama of Brazilian Art: ‘Mil Graus’ is a testament to the transformative power of contemporary art, curated by Germano Dushá, Thiago de Paula Souza, and co-curated by Ariana Nuala. This dynamic trio delves into the metaphor of a “heat limit,” a point of extreme intensity where everything disintegrates and transforms, echoing Brazil’s urgent ecological, cultural, and social challenges. Presented by the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo (MAM) at the Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of São Paulo (MAC USP) due to renovations at MAM’s headquarters, the exhibition showcases over 130 works, including 79 new commissions, by 34 artists from 16 states. Through five thematic axes—General Ecology, Original Territories, Tropical Lead, Body-Devices, and Trances and Crossings—the curators explore Brazil’s interconnected narratives of resistance, transformation, and identity, inviting audiences to engage with art as a tool for reflection and social change.
Melissa de Oliveira, Sucessagem, 2024 and Aquecimento, 2024, at the 38th Panorama of Brazilian Art, ‘Mil Graus’, from the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art. Photo: André Teixeira
ART AFRICA: Could you expand on “limit-heat” as a curatorial concept? How did this idea evolve as a foundation for examining contemporary Brazilian art?
Germano Dushá, Thiago de Paula Souza, and Ariana Nuala: We departed from this idea of an unsurpassable maximum temperature—in which molecular agitation would be so intense that all matter disintegrates—to approach practices connected to radical transformation processes. It can relate to the transmutation of matter or to social, political and even immaterial, spiritual transformation. Naturally, this could lead us to images, symbols, narratives and processes connected to high temperatures, heat, fire and combustion, and they do appear in many forms, but what is essential to our curatorial concept is a broader idea linked to transformative experiences. By taking transformation and transience related to highly intense phenomena as a conceptual foundation, the project proposes an image of a vast mass of heat, an “absolute hot” permeated by a plurality of signs, discourses, and narratives in continuous movement.
The exhibition addresses both ecological and spiritual themes. How do you see these themes interacting in the artworks, especially within the context of Brazil’s critical issues?
The imaginative exercise of this “limit-heat” projects a reality that transcends the limits of the physical world as we know it, provoking radical questions and new understandings by confronting the unknown. To navigate this, we operate guided by continuous transformation and total interconnectivity, which can only be understood through a specific ecological and spiritual vision. This manifests in many ways: intersections and hybridizations, new visualities and meanings from interspecies relationships, and the blend between the organic and the artificial. There are also expressions related to soul experiences, mystical symbolisms, and esoteric practices. Beyond sacred spaces and objects, spirituality can also be found in the telluric mysteries and the magic of the forest, as well as in daily urban life, appearing whenever certain phenomena reach a high degree of ascension and allow for access points between different dimensions. 
Advânio Lessa, Energia, 2015-2024, at the 38th Panorama of Brazilian Art, ‘Mil Graus’, at the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art. Work installed at MAC USP. Courtesy of Gomide&Co. Photo: André Teixeira
The exhibition aims to bypass the limits of language to reveal “universal signs” through regional gestures. Can you give examples of artworks embodying this idea and how they resonate with local and global audiences?
We brought together artists whose practices are deeply rooted in their territories, thus carrying a deep contextual connection. Maria Lira Marques, for example, is a master from Vale do Jequitinhonha, and her work is rooted in many ancestral cultural matrices of Brazil. But what you will find in her pieces are fundamental codes and figures that testify to the movement of life on earth, something that anyone, anywhere in the world, would get and can learn from. Advânio Lessa is a quilombola artist who works with the earth and natural fibres, combining ancestral knowledge from his family with the nature and cultural practices of his city, Lavras Novas. In the interconnection of different local forces, he creates abstract forms that give a second take on organic nature as we know it. His pieces are profoundly grounded on the place they come from, but they offer an experience that transcends any frontier. Zimar, on the other hand, produces strong figures by creating masks. His practice comes from and is essentially connected to a centenary popular festivity of Maranhão, the Bumba Meu Boi. This celebration is complex and extremely rich in terms of narratives and images, with a myriad of singularities.
Nonetheless, his work speaks to a boundless kind of imagination, to a creative force that goes way beyond any local attachment. Anyone, from anywhere, of any age, can relate to it. We are sure that knowing about the contexts of these works adds to the experience. Still, it’s another layer on top of many others that can come without explanation and contextualization.
Installation view of the 38th Panorama of Brazilian Art, ‘Mil Graus’, from the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art. Photo: André Teixeira
With five thematic axes—General Ecology, Original Territories, Tropical Lead, Body-Soundsystem, and Trances and Transitions—how did you balance these areas? Were any of these incredibly challenging or surprising to curate?
Since the beginning of our research, we conceived these conceptual axes as tools to synthesize a relatively broad scope of ideas. They served as modules to help structure our curatorial thinking, guiding us toward practices or materialities that warrant focus. In this sense, the balance between each axle was only natural because we knew that we would have to tap into these points with the same force to get it going the way we wanted. While these conceptual keys were crucial in shaping our approach, we never envisioned the exhibition being spatially divided according to this organizational system, and one of the reasons for this was also the fact that most of the participating artists could be positioned in more than one of them. And, in the end, we always envisioned a more fluid experience for the exhibition. Therefore, they functioned as a curatorial methodology and a means of sharing the evolving framework of our research with the audience.
Ferreira da Silva’s philosophical take on heat and colonial legacies influenced the exhibition. How did this framework inform the selection of artists and works?
A few years ago, we came across Denise’s short essay On heat, published online in Canadian Art. It was one of the first texts we decided to include in the catalogue accompanying the exhibition. In this essay, Denise uses heat—produced by the effects of climate catastrophe—as a non-human element intrinsically tied to human presence on earth. Through this lens, she develops a critique that explores the interconnectedness of the colonial past and the contemporary world. It amazes us how she manages to synthesize over 500 years of philosophical discourse and scientific exploration in such a concise piece. For the Panorama, we adopted heat—whether physical, metaphorical, or even spiritual—as a curatorial compass, and her text played a pivotal role in shaping this concept. We sought a (natural) element that could transcend the confines of identity and challenge the conventional frameworks that often define critical thinking in contemporary art today in Brazil.
Zimar, untitled works, from the Careta de Cazumba series, 2022 – 2024, at the 38th Panorama of Brazilian Art, ‘Mil Graus’, from the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art. Photo: Ruy Teixeira
The title’ Mil Graus’ reflects both intensity and danger. How do the artworks explore these dual interpretations, and how do they reflect the social and political tensions in Brazil?
‘Mil Graus’ is, above all, an image—a curatorial image. If we understand the primary purpose of the Panorama as offering a reflection on contemporary artistic production, our role was to construct and present a provisional landscape. In this sense, we thought high-charged energy would give us the tools to create it.
‘Mil Graus’ represents more than danger—it signifies intensity, risk, and, in a sense, energy transmission. This risk carries a duality akin to attending a street party in a Brazilian metropolis. These gigs reflect the vibrancy and unpredictability of urban life here. It’s not solely about danger but rather the palpable tension and the imminence of something yet to unfold. The works carry this energy in many ways, reflecting the atmosphere under which social and political tensions develop in Brazil.
You mentioned the symbolic image of São Paulo darkened by smoke from the 2019 Amazon fires. How does this environmental catastrophe resonate in the exhibition, and what role does it play in reflecting on Brazil’s current environmental policies?
We are talking about heat and high temperatures in the Brazilian context. Of course, we are extremely sensitive to the environmental catastrophe around us, which has been felt increasingly in everyday life. This episode was significant to us because it established a paradigm of direct reflection between faraway events and the country’s largest megalopolis and created a solid image. The environmental crisis appears in the show in more direct ways, as in the work of Frederico Filippi, which approaches the Arc of Deforestation (a term that refers to the frontier between the Amazon Rainforest and expanding agricultural and industrial activities in Brazil) as an artwork, examining it as a concept, as an image, as a movement, as an intervention, etc. It percolates the exhibition in many other ways, in more indirect and subtle ways. This critical vision plays a fundamental role both on an existential level so that we can rethink the human role and the human agency in the world and on a more practical level, pressing on the political discussions concerning environmental regulation and the boundary of indigenous lands in Brazil.
There is no optimism regarding the ongoing consequences of the epistemic separation between humans and nature and the predatory extractivism on which the Capitalocene is based. This disconnection creates a doomed reality and a loop in which it is easier to imagine our destruction than any other path. From this unavoidable reality arises the possibility of expanding our understanding, unlearning and relearning, considering our interconnectivity to the system and all other beings, to actively and intensely participate in this transformation toward something new, yet unknown and unnamed.
Gabriel Massan, Estúdio em Obra, 2024, at the 38th Panorama of Brazilian Art, ‘Mil Graus’, from the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art. Photo: André Teixeira
Several artists use organic materials, emphasizing transformation and decomposition. How does this choice reflect or challenge contemporary views on environmental and material sustainability?
We engage with artists who draw upon a variety of materials and who are deeply invested in material processes, dealing with the transformation of matter, the action of time and other natural phenomena, and experimenting with manual processes. These practices have been essential to the project, as they reinforce the connection between meaning and materiality in the creation process of their works. Their practices traverse chemical interactions within material arrangements, expanding into political, territorial, and metaphysical contexts. A renewed focus on materiality evokes an almost archaeological approach, revealing often hidden layers that ignite new discussions.
The exhibition seeks to foster public debate. How do you hope viewers will engage with these complex themes, and what role do you see for art in provoking social change?
The exhibition is rooted in the complexity inherent to life, and the curatorial approach centres on the sensory, in which the exchange of energy creates a point of everyday connection between beings and systems. A plurality of artists from different generations and regions work with various mediums, bringing distant poles closer together, highlighting contrasts and elaborating on what can be shared between distinct practices. Significantly, some agents do not even consider themselves artists, such as the spiritual leader Dona Romana, the Akroá-Gamella Indigenous territory, and the Tropa do Guriloko performance group (a Carnival crew from Rio de Janeiro), expanding the depth and reach of our discussions. We hope this Panorama can make us rethink what we consider Brazilian art, shake up conceptions about our image of the country, and propose a critical take on fundamental aspects of our social imaginary. Also, on a broader level, hopefully, it can propose a profound reflection on the human scope in the face of a burning world. 
Marcus Deusdedit, untitled, from the Performance series, 2024. 38th Panorama of Brazilian Art, ‘Mil Graus’, from the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art. Photo: André Teixeira
Can you share more about the exhibition’s idea of artworks as “elements of the same system”? How does this metaphor of energy flow and transformation enrich the viewer’s experience?
The idea of “elements of the same system” in the exhibition is reflected in how the exhibition design was conceived, creating an immersive atmosphere that unites the artworks within a continuous space. Instead of traditional walls or partitions that fragment the view, architect Alberto Rheingantz and the curatorial team designed a space that allows visitors to experience the exhibition as an organic whole. The design goes beyond the architectural structures of the building, fostering an environment in which the artworks “flow” into each other without visual or physical interruptions, establishing an almost energetic connection between them. This approach not only dissolves the visual barrier between the works, proposing total contamination, but also invites the visitor to experience a sensory transformation—a continuous exchange of perceptions and emotions.
The exhibition will be on view until the 26th of January, 2025. For more information, please visit the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo (MAM).
