Flavio Cerqueira

Cerqueira uniquely explores personal, historical, and sometimes fictional narratives to problematize issues of class, identity, race, and gender. The presence of everyday objects creates tension with the off-scale bronze human figures to blur the boundaries between the sculpture, the architectural space, and the viewer. "Tinha Que Acontecer" (Cabeça de Bandeirante), a 2016 sculpture in bronze weighing 800 kilos, 25 meters in diameter. Flavio decided to turn the founders of São Paulo into anti-heroes. Here he “decapitated” the pioneers from the body of history and one of the heads of São Paulo fell. “It is necessary to analyze the story and tell it again”, observes the sculptor. “Despite the monuments that exist in the city in honor of the pioneers, they were barbarians. They exterminated, enslaved the Indians, and annihilated the quilombos.” Born in 1983 in São Paulo where he lives and works.