Brasil and Beyond

So where do we seek inspiration, and where can we find it, unless inspiration herself is our guide. A guide to the pain and the beauty of the world – the experiences that remind us what it means to be alive. When we find her, our hearts open and we allow ourselves to connect to our common humanity. In Brasil and Beyond U.S.-born photographer Bernie DeChant has met her. Theirs is a love affair that traverses the aging beauty of Brasilia’s utopia to the modern isolation of Tokyo’s precise chaos. Trained as a graphic designer, DeChant’s eye seems to effortlessly capture the organic flow and sacred geometry that is his inspiration. In the early 1950’s India’s Prime Minister Nehru proclaimed that the city of Chandigarh was to be “unfettered by the traditions of the past, a symbol of the nation’s faith in the future.” Designed by Le Corbusier, Chandigarh was to reflect the new nation’s modern, progressive outlook. Shortly thereafter, in 1956, Brasílian President Juscelino Kubitschek proclaimed of Niemeyer’s Brasília, “From this central highland, from this lonely place… I see the future of my country.” And a few years later President Kennedy declared, “I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist.” Inspiration, like happiness, is contagious. These leaders knew this as they envisioned entire cities of inspiration. But the utopian dreams find rude awakenings in the reality of day-to-day existence. DeChant captures both the dream and the reality, infecting us with his muse via a cinematic journey of life. Organized into three bodies of work, the exhibition explores deep contrasts and aesthetic similarities in architecture, abstract and human form from DeChant’s travels to Brazil, China, Morocco, Japan and the United States. He inspires us to look closer, to become connected with place, beauty and one another.