Wedged between City Hall resources and the Bandeira terminal walkway, in Bela Vista, central region of São Paulo, the Memorial square pays homage to the journalist who lends it its name, , and is the result of a collective construction that has reinvigorated the space over the last 14 years.
One of the creators of this meeting point was Elifas Andreato, a friend of Herzog whose works are scattered around the place. This Sunday (29th), in which he would have turned 80 years old on January 22nd, he will be honored.
As on every last Sunday of the month, the entities that maintain the square – officially administered by the City Hall – organize the meeting Everybody Has to Speak, Sing and Eat!, bringing together journalists, artists, academics and students in an atmosphere of gathering, soiree and celebration.
This time, the gathering celebrates the life and work of Elifas, as the author of some of the most important Brazilian music was called, especially samba artists such as Paulinho da Viola, Martinho da Vila, Clara Nunes and Adoniran Barbosa, but also Elis Regina and Chico Buarque, to name a few among many.
Between 11am and 3pm, there will be a launch of the books “Never Mais”, by Camilo Vannuchi, and “A Parteira Pariu a Repórter”, by Ana Maria Cavalcanti, a presentation by journalist and mandolinist Luis Nassif with the group Nosso Choro and, for lunch, Dona Dudu’s lucky gnocchi. The system, as always, is “those who can pay, those who can’t pay”, with a suggested contribution of R$30.
In addition to the permanent works by Elifas spread throughout the place, his works printed on fabric will compose the ambiance especially for the tribute. The artist’s children, Bento and Laura, will be present.
The small, almost hidden corner on the corner of Rua Santo Antônio and Praça da Bandeira gained a new vocation in 2012, when the then councilor Ítalo Cardoso proposed changing its name, from Praça da Divina Providência to Praça Vladimir Herzog, and spreading works by Elifas on the site.
“So that the square would become a true memorial in defense of press freedom”, as Vlado’s widow, Clarice Herzog, wrote in the presentation of the final report of the City Council’s Truth Commission, which was named after the journalist.
Days after the proposal was endorsed by Herzog’s family, Elifas went to the site with members of the Vladimir Herzog Institute. “Right there, observing the surroundings and scratching the ground with our feet, what will be the memorial was designed”, wrote Clarice in 2012.
Since then, four works by the artist have been installed in the square. On the wall of the Chamber, a ceramic mosaic reproduces the painting “25th of October” – the date of Herzog’s murder, which depicts the torture he suffered.
Next door, on the same wall, there are glass plates with the names of the 1,006 signatories of the manifesto In the Name of Truth, which challenged the Army’s hoax about the journalist’s suicide. In the center of the square, there is a reproduction of the bronze sculpture “Vlado Vitorioso”, designed by Elifas at the request of the UN; and, closer to the stairs leading to the street, a replica of the Vladimir Herzog Trophy, which combines his silhouette with a half-moon and is awarded to journalists who win the homonymous award.
Soon after the artist’s death, in 2022, the square’s maintainers gave it another name, Centro Cultural a Céu Aberto Elifas Andreato.
“It’s a way for the two friends, Vlado and Elifas, to reunite forever. Their life, their work, their memory, their dreams”, summarizes , founder of Oboré, a reference in trade union and community journalism and one of the entities that form the Cultural Collective Associação de Amigos da Praça Vladimir Herzog – in total there are 19, including the Vladimir Herzog and Elifas Andreato institutes.
Alongside Elifas and , Serjão formed the group responsible for leading the reconfiguration of the square. And he worked to ensure that the place is now certified as a point of culture by the Ministry of Culture and as a point of memory by Ibram, the Brazilian Institute of Museums.
It was also Serjão who spearheaded the implementation of the only idea in Elifas’ original plan that until recently had not yet come to fruition, a space with the names of all the journalists who won the Vladimir Herzog Amnesty and Human Rights Award. With adaptations in relation to the sketch conceived in 2012, the , on the sidewalk in front of the square, was inaugurated last October, where bricks with these names began to be placed.
Daughter of Elifas, artist and educator Laura Andreato reports on other actions to celebrate her father’s memory on his 80th birthday. A partnership between the Elifas Andreato Institute and the Belas Artes university will make part of the artist’s collection available to the institution’s students and public consultation. Through the same project, debates were held this month about Elifas’ work with guests such as Tom Zé, Zeca Baleiro, Fátima Guedes and Serjão, among others.
Negotiations are underway to mount an exhibition with works by Elifas and launch one or two books about the artist, says Laura, without giving details.
She highlights the difficulties and particularities of bringing together her father’s creations over the decades. “His final work was a graphic product. So this idea that we see in the original visual arts as having a value, for him it was always something… that wasn’t yet the work, right? All his life he distributed it, gave it as gifts, like most of the covers he made for Martinho [da Vila]for Paulinho [da Viola].”
Shortly before Elifas died, he forwarded a message to Laura that he had received on WhatsApp from someone who had bought his work. “It was a portrait he did for an article that appeared in [revista] Playboy about Geraldo Vandré. An incredible portrait, where his face has a fingerprint instead. And my father asked, ‘how do you have this?’. And the person said: ‘I bought it at a church fair for R$10′”, says the daughter, laughing.
“He was an artist who thought of the final product, his original, as being what came out of the printing press. He thought of the work to be reproduced, distributed. And that, for me, is one of the interesting aspects of my father’s work. Even more so now, that vinyl is making a comeback, people from many generations can get to know his work.”
Elifas Andreato was born in Rolândia, in the interior of Paraná, in 1946 and grew up in a family marked by poverty. He said that his grandfather went crazy after frost destroyed the family’s coffee plantation. He was a child when his father, an alcoholic, abandoned the family. At the age of ten, he sold snacks in brothels in Londrina to help with his household income.
He moved to São Paulo at the age of 13 and went to live in a tenement in Vila Anastácio, where he met a man who got his first permanent job, as an apprentice mechanic at Fiat Lux. He only learned to read and write at the age of 15. Encouraged by factory directors, enchanted by his design, he began creating sets for the company’s dances and parties.
“And there’s a curious story,” says Laura. “The factory owners come from England and think everything is beautiful and say, wow, this boy has talent, let’s fire him and give him some money to start as an artist. And he was a bit of a breadwinner and spends that money quickly and becomes unemployed.”
Shortly afterwards, he would be hired as an intern at Editora Abril, where he would soon become art director and one of the main illustrators and designers in the country.
Working at the factory reinforces the social consciousness that would mark the life of Elifas, a militant against the dictatorship who worked in the alternative press in the 1970s, in newspapers such as Opinião, Argumento and Movimento. One of his first works, as a teenager, was a poster for Fiat Lux to prevent workplace accidents — a hand spread out in red.
The same palm would illustrate one of his latest works, the cover of a book for the Metalworkers Union of Osasco on the same theme – deaths and accidents at work. “It shows Elifas’ commitment, from end to end of life, with the working class”, says Serjão.
