It all started with a conversation. On our first visit to Salvador as a collective, we were told a story at the Casa do Boulevard about the social gatherings that took place there in the 1960s. At those events, a collective soup was prepared—one that, according to those who experienced it, nourished not only bodies but also a spirit of experimentation that helped shape what would later become the cultural imaginary of Tropicália.
That moment became, for us, the base broth of this idea—not as a historical record, but as a shared experience that sparked questions: What happens when a project is slowly cooked, in company, from what is remembered and imagined together? From this, Transmigração emerged—not as a traditional exhibition, but as a platform shaped by gestures of listening, movement, and collective making, connecting memory, territory, and presence across Salvador, anchored at Casa do Boulevard.
In Puerto Rico, artist Jochi Melero, also known as the “Soup Wizard,” prepared a caldo santo, shared among many. The pot used for that ritual was later transformed into a pinhole camera, with which Melero travelled across the island capturing images. What was once a cooking vessel became a device for seeing—a container of light, memory, and transformation. This cauldron-camera is now part of the exhibition, serving as both sculpture and visual archive.
In Salvador, the public preparation of the Sopa de Rumores [Soup of Rumours] begins at the São Joaquim Market, where ingredients and utensils are gathered. The cooking is accompanied by a sonic invocation performed by Mima, who wears a garment designed by William Murphy—later exhibited as a textile sculpture—tracing the transition between body, voice, and object.
The project extends through contributions by Michael Linares and Fabián Vélez, who present a phytoacoustic sound installation that translates the electrical signals of plants into sound, and by Pablo Guardiola, whose photographic installation focuses on the Caribbean flora and the act of observing through archival image-making. The tools and materials used—spoons, cloths, pots, textiles—are preserved as activated artifacts, bearing the traces of use and shared experience.
Here, to curate is to call forth memory. Only the cauldron is “cured,” in both the ritual and conceptual sense. The relationships among objects reveal a network where function, symbolism, and presence overlap.
Transmigração is not a static exhibition, but a living framework. It functions as a curatorial methodology: a principle of transformation and resonance that proposes new ways of inhabiting bodies, languages, memories, and territories—still cooking, still becoming.
Information
Address
Pivô Boulevard Boulevard Suiço, 11A Nazaré Salvador BA
Opening Hours
Monday–Saturday: 2:00 pm–7:00 pm
Program
Activation at Pivô Boulevard
Saturday, Sep 06th 2025, 4:00 pm Pivô Boulevard, Boulevard Suiço, 11A, Nazaré Salvador BA
Exhibition Opening
Sunday, Sep 07th 2025, 12:00 pm Pivô Boulevard, Boulevard Suiço, 11A, Nazaré Salvador BA
Pivô
Pivô is an autonomous contemporary art platform founded in 2012, dedicated to artistic exchange, research, and experimentation. At its core, the institution seeks to reflect on artistic practice and advance its understanding as a distinct form of thought and active participation in visual culture, society, and politics—operating as a space for proposing, investigating, exploring, and experimenting. This purpose unfolds through an ongoing program that includes commissioned projects, exhibitions, artist residencies, publications, and public programs, creating conditions for the creation and circulation of ideas in direct collaboration with artists, curators, and publics, both nationally and internationally.
Pivô Copan, the institution’s first venue, is housed within the iconic Copan building in downtown São Paulo, where it has consolidated this experimental and collaborative approach. In 2023, Pivô inaugurated its second venue in Salvador: Pivô Boulevard, situated in the historic Suíço Boulevard mansion, a former gathering place for movements such as Tropicália and Cinema Novo. This multidisciplinary platform reinforces the institution’s commitment to decentralization and the development of cultural networks in dialogue with diverse contexts.
The expansion in Salvador will continue with the opening of Pivô Coaty on Ladeira da Misericórdia, occupying buildings designed by Lina Bo Bardi and João Filgueiras Lima. Across all three venues, Pivô shares a desire to occupy and reclaim historically significant locations, transforming them into vibrant cultural centers that foster artistic dialogue and community engagement. This new chapter reaffirms the commitment to circulating situated knowledge and building diverse cultural ecosystems.
Today, Pivô operates as a network, privileging movement over stability through dynamics of exchange that value differences and specificities. More than physical spaces, it constitutes a dynamic field of artistic dialogue and ongoing investigation that has already welcomed hundreds of artists at different moments in their trajectories.
Beta–Local
Beta-Local is a non-profit organisation founded in 2009 in Puerto Rico. Its mission is to create and sustain dedicated spaces and time for the development of contemporary artistic practices in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. Since its inception, it has operated as an artist-led initiative, cultivating long-term relationships that prioritise the exchange of knowledge, collaboration, and experimentation. Through its programs and projects, Beta-Local has built an active cultural network that seeks to explore and activate artistic practices from local contexts, fostering new forms of production, circulation, and critical reflection, both within and beyond traditional art circuits. Its work articulates a collective vision of artistic practice as a driving force for social and cultural transformation, intertwining experimental pedagogies, research processes, and cross-disciplinary approaches.
OtherNetwork
OtherNetwork is a decentralised cultural institution that connects independent art spaces. At its core are hundreds of projects that are rooted in their local context, responding to the needs of artists directly. We see the term ‘independent’ as fluid and context-specific, and continuously seek to unpack what this means to cultural practitioners in different global localities.
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Credits
An exhibition by ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, curated by Beta-Local and hosted by Pivô Salvador with artworks by Jochi Melero, Fabián Vélez, MIMA, William Murphy, Pablo Guardiola and Michael Linares.
Artists
Jochi Melero, Fabián Vélez, MIMA (feat. Julio Caldas), Pablo Guardiola, Michael Linares, William Murphy
Pivô Team
Founder and Artistic Director
Fernanda Brenner
Executive Director
Carolina de Sá
Institutional Director
Jaqueline Santiago
Program Manager
Ramon Martins
Communication Manager
Aline Valadares
Executive Coordinator - International Projects
Estela Santana
Project Coordinator
Renata Furtado
Pivô Pesquisa Coordinator
Taina Azeredo
Production Coordinator
Cássia Viana
Financial Advisor
Julie Schlossman
Producer
Ivy Almeida
Communications Analyst
Ian Reis
Production Assistant
Lucas Abner, Murilo Silva
Executive Assistant
Mayra Victorino
General Services
Mateus Asipá
Space Maintenance
Francisca Márcia Ferreira de Sousa, Hungria Freitas da Silva
Pivô Partners
Audiovisual
Pedro Marques
Learning Lab Coordinator
Vanessa Orewa
Incentive Laws Consultancy
Clarice Magalhães, Amanda Leones
Legal Consultancy
Caio Mariano Advogados, Montenegro Castelo Advogados associados, Pannunzio Trezza Advogados
Accountants
Quality Contabilidade
Security
Givaldo Silva Visibilidade Segurança
Driver
Iron Andrade
Beta–Local
Curators
Michael Linares, Pablo Guardiola
Directors
Michael Linares, Pablo Guardiola
ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen
Project Management
Nina Frohm
Travelling Exhibition Department
Sabiha Keyif, Nina Frohm, Valerie Hammerbacher, Sabina Klemm, Clea Laade, Alexander Lisewski, Clemens Wildt
OtherNetwork
Board of Directors
Quentin Creuzet, Domitille Debret, Colin Keays, Federico Martelli
Creative Direction
Cookies (Federico Martelli, Alice Grégoire, Clément Périssé)
Research Team
Samantha Modisenyane, Abraham Tettey, Camila Alegría, Matheus dos Reis, Camilo Quiroga
Website Conception & Visual Identity
F451 (Quentin Creuzet, Domitille Debret)
Editor
Colin Keays
Project Management
ifa Visual Arts Department (Nina Frohm)
Translation and Proofreading
Adriana Francisco
OtherNetwork is a collaborative project connecting independent art spaces globally, initiated by Cookies in partnership with ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen.