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Video, Film and Holography Production House |
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Moyses Baumstein, a biographic resume
Moyses Baumstein, driven by singular curiosity and diligence, worked in many fields: from literary creation to painting, from film making to holography.
With a multidiscipline academic graduation in economics, sociology, mathematics and theater he has typified the real “Renascence Man” joining science with art throughout his accomplishments. Part of his character was the mocking invalidation of pre established
concepts as a means of fulfilling his investigative mind, unyielding in the search of new
forms of expression and in compliance with all sorts of challenges. His artistic and literary production mirrored a personality where the weird and the nonsensical were the essence of his aesthetic sources, the so called “mixture of ontological levels” or, ultimately, the human integrated into the mechanic, the mineral into the organic, but always the aftermath of a good humored and satiric mind. The driving force which guided him throughout his life in the search
for different patterns of visual expressions resulted from the impact of a teenage
reminiscence:
Influenced by that three-dimensional image he had seen when he was a
boy (obtained through the superposition of a plaque of rippled crystal over stripped
images according to a technique called anaglyph) Moyses Baumstein decided to explore
whatever information could be obtained about stereoscopy. He bought books, adapted filters
and started to produce three-dimensional images Along the following years, Moyses Baumstein continued to practice
photography and had an opportunity to specialize after entering the field of the graphic
arts. In 1968, as owner of a graphic industry he obtained the necessary means to continue
his researches on printed surface. In 1981, he became for the first time acquainted with holography, an expression of art so far inadequately explored and restricted mostly to the research laboratories, though with significant creative possibilities. In spite of the scarce information available in Brazil, and accredited to his “renascence” upbringing, Baumstein in a short time incorporated the know-how to produce holograms. His first experiences in holography were carried out in 1982 with the use of makeshift equipment. Notwithstanding, a new perspective had been uncovered and Moyses started the production of holography as a pastime for him and other artists until a workshop that took place in 1983 with the german artist Dieter Jung resulted in the need to improve the production. In 1984 he developed an unheard-of technique for chromatic control in
reflection holograms. The scarcity of resources compelled him to innovate in order to
achieve every day amazing results. Such techniques were ironically christened as
“Puff System of Color Control”. His production increased in number and in quality and later on was headed towards the commercial area. Holographic displays were created for promotional use in expositions and events in addition to several different purposes for the marketing area. Moyses exerted his best efforts to obtain sizes up to 1m X 0,8m and his clients were mostly represented by the marketing department of different companies and advertising agencies. From then on, in Brazil, the commercial holography had evolved into reality. In the commercial and artistic levels a thorough research for this form of expression had begun. The absence of a holographic syntax became a hindrance to the development and acceptance of the new process. Moyses wished that holography were not only a mere technological novelty or a laboratory curiosity and to this end he moved toward artists, poets and performers who had participated in the “Movimento Concretista” namely Augusto de Campos, Décio Pignatari, Júlio Plaza and José Wagner Garcia. Altogether they developed a variety of projects where the concepts of holography intertwined with the concrete poetry as a new expression of language more adequate to three-dimensional environment. Resulting from this meeting, Triluz, the group first exposition was exhibited at the MIS in São Paulo in December 1985, were Baumstein transformed each artist projects into a holography. The collection of works led to several expositions abroad (Portugal and Spain) besides the commercialization of some of the holograms to be incorporated into private collections in the United States, Italy and Switzerland. Idehologia, a second exposition that took place in 1987 at the “Museum of Contemporary Art” (Museu de Arte Contemporânea-MAC) of the University of São Paulo was the climax of other fields of combined researches. The projects became more ambitious and complex, depending on support or sponsorship to become real, a real barrier to new expositions. Moyses carried out researches in the area of holographic films and built a prototype of a holographic kinetoscope with the help of artist José Wagner Garcia, – a device based on the primeval age of cinema when holographic plates with a succession of images visualized through a synchronized system of stroboscopic light and huge plastic lenses. The result made it possible the visualization of the movements of these “tri-dimensional frames” in space. In parallel, Moyses continued to develop a commercial holography and accomplished the printed holography, a technique of mass production which employed a support of metallized polyester which know-how was in possession of less than ten companies in the world. In 1988 he founded the Holobrás, a company aimed at the production and commercialization of printed holograms which in less than a year comprised 45% of the Brazilian market for the printed product. Moyses had even developed a special machinery with a substantial production for the stamping of polyester. However, the moving Brazilian economy of that time increased a big recession and two years late Holobrás had to close down. Therefore, the commercial holographic activity became restricted to the craftsmanship production of holographic displays and to artistic individual work. Moyses accomplishments in holography continued to the end of his life.
It has been his most impressive work in terms of production: summing up the commercial and
artistic holograms (see Commercial Holography Link) he
had produced more than 280 works. His first experiences in film took place at the end of the fifties with
scripts and short productions in 16 mm format, however in face of its significant costs he
headed his activities towards theater. From 1964 to 1967 he wrote and directed a few experimental plays and some TV scripts for the so called "teleteathers" for the Tupi TV and Excelsior TV in São Paulo until his professional activities led him to the graphic and publishing areas. In the seventies, with diffusion of the Super-8, film making became more feasible. In a whole, a down to earth technique of cinematographic filming with a certain degree of quality had appeared promoting a worldwide explosion in the use of this format. Encouraged by Abraão Berman, who had introduced GRIFE, the most famous center of studies and courses on Super-8 films in Brazil, Baumstein set again his mind to write for the cinema. Everywhere, Super-8 festivals were being held to channel peoples enthusiasm for the “new” form of cinema. Moyses’ eagerness produced intensively with the seal of his peculiar sense of humor making him finish more than 20 movie pictures in the period of 6 years. His participation in several festivals made him one of the more awarded S8 filmmakers in Brazil and abroad. Actually, to a certain extend, all his films produced during the
seventies transpired a caustic and critic sense of humor in which the most frequent themes
were about the media, the curse of everyday life, the mass culture and the
"ideological policing". Somehow all dogmas were scrutinized, even those
associated with the sensitive and untouchable political and social issues of that period
of the brazilian history. No excuses for anyone, whether from the right or left... In 1981 the foundation of
VIDECOM
joined by his son Alberto, resulted as an independent production house that made it
possible the continuation of his well humored productions and the experience with new ways
in terms of visual and conceptual programs. He had created and directed many corporate
videos with a different look and original scripts giving a fresh approach to that
kind of production. Some of his more personal productions were headed to alternative TV
programs and Video Festivals were he was awarded in several . In the search for images, drawing had always been a part of his activities. At the end of the fifties he had started his career as a painter with the Catalan Master Juan Ponç with whom he opened the atelier L’Espai in 1960. At the beginning he developed oil painting in canvas, however, drawings with China ink opened way to the expressions of his grotesque universe. Between 1962 and 1967 he exhibited his works in the IX Bienal of São Paulo, at the 1ª Semana Nacional de Artes Plásticas and in the XV Salão Paulista de Arte Moderna. In the meantime, in 1966 he made an exhibition, his first individual
exposition, at the Galeria Seta in São Paulo. As a development to his works, he later
learned the art of metal engraving and etching with artist Gruber. The experiences in the
field of graphic arts and photomechanical allowed him to explore techniques for cooper
photoengraving and to produce a significant number of works until 1972.
During the sixties, and in conjunction with the publisher Jacob Guinsburg, Baumstein founded the Editora Perspectiva as a repercussion of his publishing of several essays on economics and sociology during the academic period. He had an opportunity to share the company of several authors, exceptional minds such as the great german scholar Anatol Rosenfeld. Furthermore he started to exercise his literary talents writing short essays and stories. Jacob Guinsburg experience and influence in the publishing house guided him towards an abrupt professional revision. In 1968, at the head of a group of investors he founded Simbolo SA Indústrias Gráficas definitely establishing his insertion in the graphic/publishing context which conveyed the necessary means for his subsequent accomplishments in the artistic field.
Along the eighties his literary activities had been discontinued for a period when he was invited to write a fortnight column about the Jewish humor (one of his passions). During more than three years he published articles in the "De Moisés a Moysés" a column of the A Resenha Judaica, a newspaper directed for the São Paulo Jewish community.
Exhibits, Plastic Arts and Holography (an
outline): 1966- 1ª Semana Nacional de Artes Plásticas: São Paulo
Filmography (SUPER-8): 1975 -The Operation/Fiction 1976- O Manuscrito/Fiction 1977 - Hipismo/Fiction 1978 - Método Homeopático/Fiction 1979 - João e Maria, uma “Cocochanchada”
Política/Fiction 1980 - Ginástica Latina/Stop motion animation 1981 - Em Busca do Ouro/Fiction Videography (he directed more than 40 corporate, institutional and educational videos between 1982 e 1991 mostly for VIDECOM) 1984 - Pesquisa de Opinião Pública II/Fiction 1985 - Capitão da Meia Noite/Videoclip 1986 - A Sopa/Fiction 1991 - Trilogia do Último Minuto/Fiction Special tribute to his work 1992 - Exposition of Holograms and exhibition of Films and Videos at
the 9th Internacional Festival
VideoBrasil, SESC, São Paulo |
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© Videcom 2004 |
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