Fabiana de Barros: Imagens do Interior

22.08 - 17.10.26

FABIANA DE BARROS

Imagens do INterior

Does inner beauty still exist today?
Can inner beauty still find expression 
in the materialistic, cynical world we live in?

At the end of the 19th century, Oscar Wilde published his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray in England. It tells the story of a young man of rare beauty, a member of respectable Victorian society. Dorian sits for a painter and makes a pact with him: the passage of time will never ravage his magnificent face. Instead, its marks will appear on the portrait, which he keeps hidden in his attic, away from the eyes of others. No matter what he does, Dorian will retain the appearance of captivating beauty, while the painted image of his face grows old and hideous. The portrait bears the signs of the depravity concealed within him. Behind this man’s respectable, well-mannered appearance lies a frightening inner self.

Dorian Gray is a male protagonist. Yet in that period, this image of purity, childlike innocence, and vulnerability – inherited from the Romantic tradition – was associated above all with women. Inner beauty was often invoked to describe a woman; men, by contrast, were praised for nobility of soul or for virtues such as honesty, integrity, courage, virility, and authority.

Jung’s idea that “the pleasure of beauty is the pleasure of the objectified self” suggests that beauty is the outward expression of an inner state, perceived as objective and external. Beauty, then, would be purely a psychic condition. Physical appearance would play only a relative role, despite arising from an ideal, reconciled self – one in which the subject feels in harmony with themselves and, by extension, with the world.

Does this definition still hold today, in an age that values aesthetics over morality and outward appearance over virtue? Men and women alike can now achieve the “Dorian Gray effect” through cosmetics, infusions, pills, or surgical procedures that erase the physical toll of aging and a dissolute life. But does this standardization of appearance lead only to a commonplace aesthetic? And if all that remains is a generalized mediocrity, how can inner beauty find outward expression?

Even so, there is still room for a person’s inner character to reveal itself. Rather than invoking inner beauty to describe a woman who is not especially seductive, for example, we are more likely to say that she has beautiful eyes. The eyes are thus regarded as the mirror of the soul. Yet more revealing than the eyes themselves is the gaze – oblique or evasive, direct or candid – which may betray what lies within. Clothing can also serve this purpose, whether cheap or designer, elegant or vulgar, though vulgarity can exist within elegance and elegance within vulgarity. Finally, a person’s demeanor – whether shy, arrogant, frank, hypocritical, and so on – may provide another outward expression of inner character.

According to some, a person’s inner nature reveals itself through a kind of halo that surrounds them and is visible only to a few, particularly sensitive individuals. This halo, known as an aura, is said to take its color from the personality of the person it surrounds. Yellow is its predominant color. In especially wicked individuals, it turns red, while great purity of soul is marked by a brilliant, sunlit yellow. In medieval painting, the white circle surrounding the head is known as an aureole and is attributed to saints, angels, and figures of the Trinity. Aureoles indicate the value of beings along a scale of good and evil.

This brings us to a necessary distinction between the good soul and the beautiful soul. The good soul is shaped by one’s deeds: by acting with integrity or loving one’s neighbor more than oneself, a person attains sainthood and earns an aureole. It belongs to the realm of ethics and is formed through the daily struggle against evil. The beautiful soul, by contrast, is an aesthetic quality that cannot be acquired; it is innate and ever-present. Even so, we must be cultivated if virtue is to reach its fullest expression. In men, the beautiful soul merges with the noble soul, the mark of a certain aristocracy of character.

“A beautiful soul,” Schiller writes, “has no merit beyond its own existence.” It may be found among rich and poor alike. Material prosperity, however, favors its development, since the wealthy have more opportunities to cultivate it. Meanwhile, those in the lower classes, preoccupied with their circumstances, rarely possess or nurture a beautiful inner life.

One extreme form of inner beauty, and one capable of causing harm, is bound up with charisma – the power exerted through personal or social relationships that enables one person to influence others. When a charismatic figure wins the confidence of the masses, a phenomenon characteristic of the 20th century emerges: the leader comes to be seen as a demigod, a spiritual guide. On an individual level, charisma produces fascination. That fascination arises from the charismatic person’s extraordinary self-assurance, which comforts and attracts vulnerable people in search of support. Anyone endowed with this power of fascination can exercise their seductive influence in every sphere, especially the sexual one.

To conclude, if inner beauty exists in our materialistic and cynical world, it must reside in someone as innocent as the protagonist of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot, whose nature compels him always to tell the truth. Should such a person exist, we might include them in Socrates’ prayer: “Give me beauty in the inward soul; and may the outward and inward man be at one.”

Fulvio Salvadori, 2008

Fulvio Salvadori (1937–2021) was an Italian philosopher and writer. He published numerous essays on aesthetics and contemporary art, including Visioni del femminile nella storia e nell’arte (2005) and Scritti sospesi. Visioni estatiche (2020).

In 2008, an artistic happening titled Inner Beauty Contest for an Anthropophagic Picnic was held in Geneva. An advertisement in the local press invited members of the public to nominate someone whose behavior, character, qualities, and other traits might be seen as signs of inner beauty. Ten of those nominated were selected to participate.

The contest followed a structure based on three stages of the anthropophagic ritual: Prelude, Execution, and Treatment of the Corpse.

During the Prelude, each participant took a seat in a chair shaped to resemble a boiling cauldron, encircled by logs that also served as seating for the audience. They then presented themselves in whatever way they chose – by reciting poems, displaying paintings, singing, or using any other form of expression. The aim was to allow their inner beauty to emerge.

During the Execution, the jury questioned each participant about their presentation. In the Treatment of the Corpse, the participants and jury members discussed the inner beauty of the person who had just presented. Following the symbolic logic of the anthropophagic ritual, each participant offered what was most valuable within them, to be “digested” by the others.

At the end of the ceremony, the jury composed of five notable figures – a prominent feminist politician in Geneva; an intellectual then regarded as the most heavily tattooed man in the world; a filmmaker chosen to embody a particular masculine archetype; the head of personnel at Geneva’s hospitals; and a curator – awarded a prize to the person who had revealed the greatest inner beauty.

A point of convergence emerged between the anthropophagic desire to assimilate the virtues of others and the Calvinist tradition. In the encounter between individual and group, relations between the self and the other were evoked in the here and now, giving rise to an ethic of sharing and mutual betterment.

The happening affirmed inner beauty as a fundamental virtue in establishing natural, healthy relationships among human beings. In doing so, it made clear that the forms of power fostered by contemporary societies – appearance, wealth, and exclusion – were unnecessary.

Fabiana de Barros’ practice focuses on public and contextual art, engaging with issues related to cultural exchange and social relations. Since the late 1980s, she has developed urban interventions, performances, installations, video installations, and web-based projects that invite audiences to become active participants in the construction of the work. Among her most emblematic projects is Fiteiro Cultural, initiated in 1998 and developed in different countries, where it takes on distinct forms by fostering encounters, exchange, and collective experiences.

Fabiana de Barros received a BFA from Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (FAAP), São Paulo (1983), and completed postgraduate studies at the École Supérieure d’Art Visuel in Geneva, Switzerland (1991). Her work has been featured in major exhibitions including Pinacoteca de São Paulo (1984); 20th, 24th, and 25th São Paulo Biennials (1989, 1998, 2000); the 8th Havana Biennial (2003, Cuba); the 1st Canary Islands Biennial (2006, Las Palmas, Spain); Fundación Telefónica (2005, Spain); the New Contemporary Art Centre (2005, Greece); the 7th Mercosul Biennial (2009, Porto Alegre, Brazil); the 11th Swiss Sculpture Exhibition (2009, Switzerland); and the Biwako Biennale (2010, Japan), among others. In 2009, she received the Projetáveis Award at the Mercosul Biennial, followed by the Interactivos?’10: Ciencia de Barrio award at Medialab-Prado, Madrid, in 2010. She is the author of Aberto [Open]: Fiteiro Cultural (Edições Sesc, 2017) and co-editor of the Art, Work and Ideal book series published by Edições Sesc. Since the 1980s, Fabiana de Barros has organized numerous artistic exchange initiatives between Switzerland and Brazil. She worked as assistant to artist Geraldo de Barros and, since 1989, has co-directed the Geraldo de Barros Archive with Michel Favre. Together, they have organized major exhibitions dedicated to the artist at institutions including the Ludwig Museum (Germany); Sesc Pompeia, Sesc Pinheiros, and Sesc Belenzinho (Brazil); the Musée de l’Elysée (Switzerland); the Kunst-und Kulturstiftung Opelvillen in Rüsselsheim (Germany); and MAMCO – Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Genève (Switzerland). She also edited the publications Sobras e Fotoformas (Cosac Naify, 2006) and Geraldo de Barros: Isso (Edições Sesc, 2013). Her works are held in important collections, including the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC USP), the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP), AWK Engineering (Switzerland), and the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS).