Jorgge Menna Barreto

Jorgge Menna Barreto, Restauro (32 Bienal of São Paulo), 2016. Photo: Janaina Miranda

Jorgge Menna Barreto, Restauro (32 Bienal of São Paulo), 2016. Photo: Janaina Miranda

Jorgge Menna Barreto, Restauro (32 Bienal of São Paulo), 2016. Photo: Janaina Miranda

Jorgge Menna Barreto, Restauro (Serpentine Galleries), 2017. Photo: Joelson Bugila

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Jorgge Menna Barreto, Ph.D. (b. 1970, Araçatuba, Brazil) is anartist and educator whose practice and research has been dedicated to site-specific art for over 20 years. Menna Barreto approaches site-specificity from a critical and South American perspective, having taught, lectured, and written extensively on the subject; he has participated in multiple art residencies, projects and exhibitions worldwide. In 2016, he took part in the 32nd São Paulo Biennial with his award-winning project Restauro: a restaurant set up to work with a complex system of environmental restoration in collaboration with settlements of Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (MST); the project travelled to the Serpentine Galleries in 2017. In 2020, as a resident at the Jan van Eyck Academie, Netherlands, he launched a periodical called Enzyme in collaboration with his partner Joélson Buggilla. In Geneva, Switzerland, he has collaborated on the MFA in Socially Engaged Art at HEAD - Haute École d’Arts Appliqués, where he is working on a collaboration focused on ecopedagogy. Since 2015, Menna Barreto has been a professor at the Art Department of Rio de Janeiro State University and is now Assistant Professor at the Art Department of UCSC.

Project Description

Jorgge Menna Barreto presents a version of his durational project Environmental Sculpture, culminating in a mural at Bluecoat and a publication. The publication, Enzyme #2: Life Systems (2021), anchors on Menna Barreto’s research-based practice focussing on how our environment is shaped by what we eat and how we live. Bluecoat’s external wall space on Blundell Lane provides the backdrop for mural, Mauvaise Alphabet (2021). Interested in reorienting our relationship with the natural environment, the mural entangles drawings of common weeds found in Liverpool, creating a community of plants which are mostly invisible and many times unwelcome – even though they play a vital role in the ecosystem. Both the publication and the mural are produced in collaboration with other artists and thinkers, including Liverpool John Moores University students and local mural artist, Anna Jane Houghton. 

Commissioned by Liverpool Biennial with support from the British Council and Catherine Petitgas.

The above images are a taster of what’s in store for our LB2021 exhibitions – which are now open! Plan your visit here.