Yolanda and Edson Queiroz Cultural Complex opens in Fortaleza

The new building, designed by Ceará architect Luiz Deusdará, will have four floors dedicated to the inaugural exhibitions, with works by local, national and international artists, such as Raimundo Cela, Chico da Silva, Tarsila do Amaral, Cândido Portinari, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí.

The museum is located on Avenida Washington Soares, where the old Ceará Convention Center used to be, in the Edson Queiroz neighborhood. The equipment is part of the celebrations of Fortaleza's 300th anniversary and represents the completion of a project designed decades ago by the family that created the Edson Queiroz Foundation.

According to Edson Queiroz Neto, president of GEQ's board of directors, the venture is a legacy from his grandfather, who "believed that education was one of the fundamental pillars for the development of a society."

"The Yolanda and Edson Queiroz Cultural Complex was born with this purpose, bringing people closer to art, culture and knowledge. A space to awaken curiosity, broaden horizons, stimulate new perspectives and create learning opportunities. A place where memory meets the present and inspires the future", said the president.

"We want children to discover art, young people to find new references, families to have meaningful experiences and people from different backgrounds to recognize this place as part of their city", he added.

For Lenise Queiroz Rocha, president of the Edson Queiroz Foundation, the inauguration represents the realization of a dream that began to be built around 50 years ago.

"I think those who came before me always envisioned that this could happen. Today, I feel like I'm accomplishing something not only for those of us in management, but for all of us, for the family, for the parents. In short, they were big dreams," he stated.

Lenise also highlighted the potential of the equipment to strengthen cultural tourism in the capital of Ceará. According to her, the museum represents an opportunity to expand visiting options in the city, traditionally known for its beaches.

"Fortaleza is already very visited, known for its beaches, but now we are going to increase it a little more, with the museum and, soon, the theater and, thus, the culture hub", he commented.

Among the exhibitions open to the public are exhibitions that present the trajectory of Yolanda and Edson Queiroz, the history of collecting in Ceará and works by artists from different parts of the world.

Curator Denise Mattar, responsible for the space dedicated to the couple and the Constelações exhibition, explained that one of the main challenges was bringing together elements capable of telling the story of the two honorees. To do this, she had the help of Yolanda's personal collection, which held documents and objects related to the family's trajectory.

"It was much more difficult to exhibit Edson and Yolanda than the collection. I had to tell the story of two very interesting people, but I didn't have a collection of works of art. I was extremely helped by Mrs. Yolanda, because, as she was a memoirist, she kept everything. I found extraordinary things that made me think about how to make each module fun and interesting, and make you want to come back", he explained.

Denise also highlighted that the four exhibitions were designed to complement each other and present different aspects of Ceará's artistic and cultural production.

"We have a very current exhibition, which is the Biennale; an exhibition about the couple who created all this, Yolanda and Edson; another about collecting in Ceará; and one about the Foundation's important collection, which was created and continues to be implemented today. I think there are four complementary exhibitions that show the wealth of Ceará", he said.

The Biennale mentioned by Denise features around 120 works by artists from Ceará or those who work in Ceará. The curator also highlighted that the structure of the new museum will allow it to receive important exhibitions that previously could not reach the city due to a lack of suitable spaces.

"This is wonderful, because we often fail to bring important and itinerant exhibitions due to a lack of adequate exhibition equipment, which has the necessary technical conditions. And here we have it all", he stated.

Another exhibition presents the strength of collecting in Ceará and establishes connections between local artistic production and international works. The curation was carried out by Max Perlingeiro in partnership with Galciane Neves.

The exhibition brings together works by European, American, Latin American and Asian artists, in addition to highlighting collections maintained by two major universities in Fortaleza and the contribution of collectors who lent works to the exhibition.

According to Max, the proposal was to present the diversity and quality of the works gathered, without establishing a mandatory chronological order for the visit.

"It's an exhibition divided into seven distinct sections. There is no specific chronology of visitation. You have great freedom to see all these works together in one space, with an extremely easy and curious layout to be appreciated", he explained.

The Edson Queiroz Foundation Museum will have free entry and will be open from Tuesday to Friday, from 9am to 7pm. On Saturdays and Sundays, visiting hours will be from 12pm to 6pm.

In addition to the museum, the Cultural Complex project foresees new implementation stages, with libraries, cordel library, restoration laboratories, spaces for preserving collections and common areas. The complex should also have a theater.

The public will be able to stroll through different exhibition spaces, with a different proposal for each floor.

Edson Queiroz Foundation Art Biennial (Foyer - 2nd Floor): with around 120 works, the space features the production of artists from Ceará or those who work in Ceará. Curated by Lucas Dilacerda, the space replaces the traditional Unifor Plástica and is titled "People to come", in reference to the concept of philosopher Gilles Deleuze, stating that art evokes a people capable of resisting the challenges of their time and reflecting on collectivities always under construction.

Yolanda and Edson Space (3rd Floor): the exhibition presents the memory and legacy of the entrepreneurs who created the Edson Queiroz Foundation, covering the meeting between the two founders, the family's trajectory and the development of the companies of the Edson Queiroz Group and the University of Fortaleza. The exhibition follows a sensorial and affective path curated by Denise Mattar and set design by André Scarlazzari.

Writing times: meetings, links and borders between artists from Ceará and the world in the Ceará collections (4th Floor): around 130 pieces curated by Galciani Neves and Max Perlingeiro, bringing together works by names from Ceará, Brazil and the world. The works of Baroque, European Renaissance and contemporary art are from the collections of the Edson Queiroz Foundation, the Art Museum of the Federal University of Ceará (MAUC) and private collections.

Constellations of Art in Brazil (5th Floor): the exhibition has 220 works from the Edson Queiroz Foundation, covering artists from the 17th century to the 21st century and bringing together African, indigenous and European matrices, which formed Brazilian identity. The journey through the trajectory of visual arts in the country is curated by Denise Mattar.

The equipment consolidates a trajectory of valuing art through the Edson Queiroz Foundation, as Adriana Helena points out. Other important moments were the beginning of the Foundation's art collection, in 1982, and the inauguration of the Unifor Cultural Space, in 1988.

The first edition of the Edson Queiroz Foundation Art Biennial, on the first exhibition floor, is also a way of continuing this legacy. This is because it replaces Unifor Plástica, which had 24 editions and began in 1973, the same year Unifor was created.

An artist from Ceará whose work was exhibited at the first Unifor Plástica is also included in the first Biennale: the painter, sculptor, designer and illustrator Hélio Rôla, who turned 90 years old.

According to curator Lucas Dilacerda, this is one of the elements maintained in this transition between Unifor Plástica and Bienal de Arte. The exhibition also preserved the characteristic of contemplating pieces of art from Ceará.

In this first edition, the proposal is to take a look at what ancestral and popular knowledge can teach in times of crisis, such as climate change.

"These people to come do not exist and, at the same time, they exist. It is a paradox. These people will be born and, at the same time, they have already been born, because they are also indigenous peoples, quilombolas, sertanejos, catingueiros. They have already developed technologies on how to survive in extreme situations", points out Lucas.

A permanent exhibition space is dedicated to the memories of Yolanda and Edson Queiroz, founders of several enterprises in Ceará, including the Edson Queiroz Foundation.

With several thematic modules and interactive resources, the idea is to tell the story of the family created from their meeting, also exploring the economic and social impact they had in Ceará.

According to Denise Mattar, curator of the exhibition, the challenge was to rescue important milestones of a family in dialogue with the affective memory of the people of Ceará.

"It's a rich exhibition because it tells a lot about the history of Ceará and works a lot with this affective memory for the people of Ceará", comments the curator.

The scenography features, for example, household appliances and old radio and television equipment to illustrate how the Edson Queiroz Group's businesses were present in the modernization of the state, starting in the 1950s.

The exhibition also includes the family's relationship with works of art, based on the collection of pieces started in the 1980s.