ACCESSIBLE RESOURCES IN THE EXHIBITION SPACE INCLUDE SEVERAL AUDIENCES

The accessibility project for Geraldo de Barros – Imaginary, construction and memory, explores the three central points of the exhibition embedded in its title. The starting point for drafting the proposal was the multiplicity of languages and the different paths of experimentation that the artist followed during his artistic path, always taking into account the fundamental and active role that the audience has in artistic creation.

Thus, the three floors of the exhibition area have a tactile map and tactile paving, video guides for the deaf, tactile objects and audio description for blind visitors and people with visual impairments, mediated audio guides, videos in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) and subtitles in Portuguese/English, in addition to safety protocols against Covid-19.

On the first floor, the accessibility mechanisms for this exhibition run through the imagination, photography and Gestalt in Geraldo de Barros. Tactile map and tactile paving guides visitors, who will find audio description tools at three points—one to present the exhibition on that floor and two more for tactile objects and to provide a brief context of the work. Three video guides address the theme of gestalt inspiration Images are something that have to be built, they don't exist alone. Tactile or high relief objects and boards reproduce the works They Are Kissing, oil painting and collage on particleboard 1964, and a collage on paper Untitled, from 1996, 1998 and part of the series Leftovers.

Arriving at the first basement, the context is construction, form and concreteness. There, the visitor will also be guided with a tactile map and tactile paving and will also find three other audio description points. Two video guides develop the themes on this floor, with a special focus on furniture and Formica, which serve as inspiration for concrete art issues to be worked on. Also on this floor, the tactile reproduction of one of the works in the exhibition proposes a composition of geometric shapes, helping to build a figure from its deconstruction.

Further down, in the second basement, accessibility features navigate through Geraldo's memory in history, processes and passion. Between the map and the tactile floor, three more audio descriptions and two audio guides trace the artist's timeline and historical path, as well as his social role and that of a new generation of artists that do not come from the country's economic elite. The theme is The restlessness of the artist's role in society. Tactile objects reproduce a miniature chair he created at UNILABOR and a sofa, idealized by Barros for HOBJETO. The logos designed by the artist for each of the stores will also feature boards in relief, closing the exhibition's accessible visitation.

Itaú Cultural and accessibility
‍Over the past few years, Itaú Cultural has been developing and improving processes and actions in the field of accessibility in order to bring together different audiences, both for its team of employees, as well as its programming. The first action took place in 2012, with the exhibition's video guide in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras)  Lygia Clark: a Retrospective. In the following year, a workgroup was created to discuss this topic. In 2016, with the creation of the Accessibility Committee—currently called the Accessibility Forum—another big step was taken in order to make the Itaú Cultural exhibitions increasingly more accessible.

Since then, more and more showings, exhibitions and events promoted by Itaú Cultural—in person and virtually—contain more tools that increase access to them for all audiences.