Fábrica de Arte Marcos Amaro (FAMA) occupies Itu’s central area, São Paulo’s state countryside, in the same place where a textile factory with historical and cultural relevance operated many years ago. The building houses today FAMA headquarters, that also includes Marcos Amaro’s art collection – an important tool for three-dimensional contemporary art’s spread. The venue displays part of MESCLA’s collection, that also appears on the city avenues and on the rural area of Mairinque’s municipality. All these pieces are incorporated into FAMA’s area, which was designed for production, contemplation, art stimulus and also to exhibit Marcos Amaro’s own artwork.
To Preserve and to foster contemporary artistic memories and experiences in Itu and its surrounding region.
To transform Fábrica São Pedro into an art and culture sustainable territory.
By extracting raw materials from airplanes and neglected materials, and by merging them into oil, paraffin, honey, grease and others, the artist Marcos Amaro drifts between sculptural productions and large dimensions installations. From degradation, he creates artworks that are constantly transforming, becoming a dichotomy of life and art. In a shapeless geometry, Marcos Amaro disrupts contemporary art, by dismantling, aggregating, creating collages with material diversity, from the object’s dematerialization to its redefinition.
In 2013, the artist occupied Galpão IV of the old Fábrica São Pedro, in Itu – a town only one hundred kilometers away from São Paulo. As his production pace increased, the need of a location to house materials arose, so he could finish his creations.
In order to host the artist’s projects and active collectives in the visual arts circuit, Marcos Amaro’s Foundation (FMA) introduces the Art Factory Occupation Statute. Moreover, it promotes contemporary art, especially on São Paulo’s state countryside. In the Biennial, were selected six projects to build the exhibiting schedule for 2018 and 2019. Headed by the curator Ricardo Resende, the judging panel included the guest curators Bitu Cassundé, Douglas de Freitas e Macus de Lontra Costa, that have picked Edith Derdyk, Eduardo Frota, Regina Parra, Rodrigo Sassi, Grupo Empreza and Pola Fernandez in January, 2018.
Fundação Marcos Amaro, seeking to produce multidisciplinary artwork that integrates to several languages, initiated the Artistic Residency Program, an experience guided in experimentation through immersion, research and creation.
Fundação Marcos Amaro (FMA) supports L.O.T.E artistic residency, created in 2011 by the artists and educators Agnus Valente, José Spaniol and Sérgio Romagnolo. In this edition, Marcos Amaro’s Art Factory, FAMA, complimentary welcomed 40 UNESP students, for a six-day artistic immersion. From this experiment, it was born in 2017, the exhibition “Trama e Veio”, that assembled artworks from the selected artists: André Schütz, Gabriel Marcondes Egestos, Luisa Almeida and Sandra Mazzini.
Taking place in Serrinha, Bragança Paulista’s countryside, this year edition of L.O.T.E’s artistic residency focused on nature artistic immersion and backed by Fundação Marcos Amaro, forty-five students experienced a fully equipped workshop installed in the farm to produce and develop collective artwork, throughout an eight-day immersion period. From this endeavor, the students created projects in different platforms: Paintings, photographs, sculptures and videos.
Last year, Fundação Marcos Amaro welcomed the German artist Barbara Hindahl as the first foreign artist resident in Fábrica de Arte Marcos Amaro. Experiencing a thirty-day period of immersion, she produced the artistic installment “Raio Pó Luz”, in the Velhos Galpões Gallery, available for visitation. And for the third year in a roll, FAMA admitted 40 UNESP students, elected through L.O.T.E’s Artistic Residency Program, for an artistic immersive production experience.