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The Cesar Papa Collection was established in 2018 to preserve and make accessible the life and work records of the Brazilian artist Cesar Papa (1953-1990) to his family, friends, and researchers. Facilitated by the generous collaboration of his sisters and nieces as well as donations of friends, the project is under the organization of Laura Papa, his grand-niece. Additionally, the Collection comprises a map of remaining artworks from Cesar Papa and respective owners.
The purpose of The Cesar Papa Collection is to organize, preserve, and make accessible records and to collect documentation relevant to the life & work of Cesar Papa, including: a) records related to his personal life (personal documents, photographs); b) letters sent to or from him (on paper, sound recordings, and videotapes); c) artworks, sketches and records from curators, galleries, buyers or individuals related to his work and former exhibitions; d) oral histories; e) location of Papa's remaining artworks and respective owners.
The organizer provides necessary research assistance in order to enrich and enhance the Cesar Papa Collection missions.
The Cesar Papa Collection is a result of 10 years of research, under the organization of Laura Papa, his grand-niece, and is mainly stored in Brasilia, Brazil. The Collection is directly assisted by museologists and archivists from the University of Brasilia – UnB, who guide conservation procedures and provide consultings. Sensitive data is protected, and copyright and privacy issues are respected; basic conservation methods are employed. The artworks so far catalogued in the Collection are distributed in homes in Brasilia and new ones are added accordingly to the owner's authorization to be listed.
The archives comprises nearly 800 items, which are organized in 4 main axes:
A. WORK 218 items e.g: the artist portifolio, photographic slides and negatives from his work and invitations of Papa's exhibitions
B. DOCUMENTS 26 items e.g.: passport, ID, driver's license, diplomas and certificates as well as hospital records
C. PICTURES 517 items
e.g.: photographs, slides, negatives and photo albums
D. LETTERS 20 items – written, recorded and filmed letters
E. ARTWORKS MAP 16 items
– a note from Laura Papa
I first heard about Cesar when I was a child. His stories would follow me until 2010, in University.
With the support of many, a big project started - about memory, about Cesar Papa and also about this Collection. My family has opened cabinets and hearts, allowing myself to gather some mementos during those years, which provided me a solid basis for research during my scientific initiation in Museology and therefore in my Major project in Communication Studies. At that time, I was interested in 1) how the mementos could speak and simultaneously produce gaps, creating a story about a life made of images and silences; 2) how could I develop a portrait of an artist by the mementos I had assembled.
As of beginning 2018, the Cesar Papa Collection would then gain its contours. I began a project to fully describe, index, digitize and preserve the items, as well as looking for systems to open the records and make them fully accessible to the public. By this deep contact with each of the items, in the following year, I went further – letting informations and details of pictures and items take me where they were once produced. I left Brasilia and went to Recife and São Paulo, in Brazil, and then to California and Mexico. Through Dear Cesar, I've documented the journey of meeting the ones who knew Cesar as well as finding places and landscapes 30 years later in order to make the same pictures my great-uncle did.
Cesar Papa's life not only fascinates me and my family, but every soul to whom I've had the opportunity to present the Cesar I was able to know after 10 years of research.
Providing an unparalleled history of the life and work of the Brazilian artist Cesar Papa on a widely available platform, the project features nearly 800 items, illustrated by documents such as photographs, personal correspondences, exhibition and work records, audio and video medias, a repository for oral stories as well as an inventory of Papa's remaining artworks along with a listing of their location and respective owners. The digital archive, which will continue to grow as contributions from inside and outside the family become available, is now accessible here, through Notion.
Assembling this Collection is vital to my family so it is to the longevity of Cesar Papa's work, after all, family archives are generally under the risk of loss – because of storage conditions, or even due to the disposal we all do during the life. After the collection, the majority of items was submitted to conservation procedures, guided by professors of the Faculty of Information Science - UnB.
The complexity of the archives allows a multiple knowledge of Papa's life and work: it is possible to identify and piece together the story of an artist in different production periods, the story of a young man and his quest for personal growth, the story of the "American dream" and the dealing with solitude for a Brazilian immigrant, the story of a hedonist. It is possible, nonetheless, to sense some episodes of Brazil's economy, culture and fashion during the 60's, 70's and 80's through phrases and expressions used in letters and pictures; and due to the contributions in the Oral History Initiative, last and certainly not least, it is possible to build an overview about HIV in both Brazil and California - U.S. during the 80's.
Thanks to the wealth of this material, I could and still can work in several ramifications in this project about Cesar Papa, in different medias and platforms. The texts and multimedia work produced from this research, however, were not included in this fund – they are available throughout this project's website and also as short stories on Instagram. In the Collection, were compiled the documents directly related to Papa: letters sent to or received by him, personal documents, pictures kept or taken by him and items linked to his artistic work.
Facilitating the access to these archives is a personal goal since 2013. Due to its evident role as research material not only to me and my family, it is something that surpasses my possibilities of perspective, investigation or finding. As it once was for me, I hope this Collection is a first step to discover a fascinating being and artist, my great-uncle, Cesar Papa.
RESEARCH ASSISTANCE
I'm more than happy to help, guide any research or share my findings on the Cesar Papa Collection.
Please, do not hesitate in contacting me if: you're having any difficulties or questions, you have more information about people, dates or places, you can share a story about Papa to the Oral History Initiative or own an artwork and want to remain with it, you own any materials or artworks and want to donate.
Laura Papa: [email protected]