Instituto Tomie Ohtake celebrates 50 years of Isay Weinfeld's trajectory

Responsible for some of the most emblematic buildings in São Paulo and other major metropolises, Isay Weinfeld has created a body of work that challenges classifications. The architect, designer, artist, and filmmaker has five decades of career on display in the exhibition Et Cetera, taking place at the Instituto Tomie Ohtake from March 5 to May 17.

Curated by Agnaldo Farias, graphic identity by Giovanni Bianco, and catalog with photos by Bob Wolfenson, Et Cetera brings together about 180 items distributed across two rooms — including models, furniture, films, jewelry, fashion pieces, texts, and documents — to map the journey of Isay Weinfeld since 1973, based on his creative process. As Farias observes, more than an architectural retrospective, the exhibition reveals a thought shaped by music and cinema, perceptible in the attention to rhythm, atmosphere, and continuous dialogue between languages.

Some models subvert the conventional logic of architectural miniatures. A large white cube reveals, at one vertex, the interior of an apartment as if it were sculpted within the volume. In another area, seven iconic staircases — such as the red glass tile one from Fórum on Oscar Freire, the circular steel one from the Chocolate store, and the wooden spiral staircase from Casa Cubo — appear side by side, highlighting how a functional element can transform into a sculptural gesture.

The sensory dimension also stands out: the Hotel Fasano Fazenda Boa Vista seems suspended by cables over a mirror with an organic outline, evoking the lake on the property, while the Instituto Ling in Porto Alegre is presented in a deep blue niche punctuated by lights.

The visual artist appears in works such as Incredulidade (2024), which associates a metal hanger with a wooden crucifix in an ironic tone, and in the photographic series taken with a cellphone over ten years, the basis for the book ISAY W (Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers), with graphic design by Giovanni Bianco. In the images, records of signs, graffiti, animals, and mundane scenes compose a visual inventory of the city.

Among the exhibited objects, the contrast between a cradle and a coffin introduces a symbolic dimension on the cycle of life. Humor reappears in the furniture created for McDonald's, inspired by the shapes of fries and soda cups. In the authorial piece Farmacinha (2010), developed for Dpot, a modular system of boxes allows for multiple combinations of materials and mechanisms.

The relationship between music and architecture also runs through the series IW Filmes (2013–2025), composed of 34 shorts ranging from one to three minutes, each dedicated to a work from the studio and structured around a song chosen by Weinfeld.

Without a fixed style — a stance he proudly embraces — the architect has built around 600 projects over his career. Among them are the Fasano hotels, Casa Cubo, and a residential complex from the Minha Casa, Minha Vida program in front of Minhocão, a blue gradation building with 15 floors, commercial space on the ground floor, cross ventilation, natural lighting, and collective areas on the roof.

His international work includes projects in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Southampton, Lisbon, London, Bogotá, Barcelona, Punta del Este, Monaco, and Belgrade. In Manhattan, he became the first Brazilian since Oscar Niemeyer to design buildings in the city: two residential buildings, one on West 14th Street and another next to the High Line in the Meatpacking District. The most recent, The Elisa (2025), appears in the exhibition as a model that reproduces the block where it is situated.

The attention to collective space also marks Travessa Tim Maia (2010), in Vila Madalena, which requalified three city blocks with new steps, ramps, gardens, and lighting.

By celebrating 50 years of activity, Et Cetera reaffirms a production that is still active and open to the unexpected — a body of work that prefers the expanded territory of "etc." to the rigid boundaries of disciplines.

Service – Isay Weinfeld – Et Cetera

• Instituto Tomie Ohtake. Av. Faria Lima, 201 (entry via Rua Coropé, 88) – Pinheiros, SP

• Phone: (11) 2245-1900

• Tuesday to Sunday, from 11 am to 7 pm (last entry at 6 pm)

• Free entry

• institutotomieohtake.org.br