Some of the most well-known buildings in the São Paulo landscape and in major metropolises around the world bear his signature, even if few can precisely define his architectural style. This difficulty, far from being a problem, is part of the enigma and strength of Isay Weinfeld, a creator whose work escapes easy labels and defies rigid classifications. However, reducing him solely to architecture would be a mistake. Over five decades of intense and coherent production, the São Paulo-based architect has built a trajectory that traverses design, visual arts, and cinema with rare fluidity. These multiple fronts of activity will be brought together in Etcétera, the most comprehensive exhibition dedicated to his career, which will occupy the Instituto Tomie Ohtake from March 5 to May 17.
Curated by Agnaldo Farias, with graphic identity by Giovanni Bianco and photographs by Bob Wolfenson, the exhibition is not organized as a conventional retrospective, but as a display of a way of thinking and creating. In his introductory text, Farias observes that architecture does not exactly occupy the top spot in Weinfeld’s intimate hierarchy. Music and cinema come first, and perhaps that is the key to his way of understanding space. "Isay creates architecture without knowing how to draw. He challenged one of the fundamental principles of architecture. In fact, the placement of his first drawing right at the entrance of the exhibition—a little house made in childhood—serves as a message to students: there are paths beyond those foreseen by school curricula," he emphasizes.
In Weinfeld’s work, what stands out is not the technical virtuosity, which he clearly possesses, but the sensitivity to rhythm, atmosphere, and movement—qualities that align his work with cinema and music. The diversity of media in which he works does not fragment his production; on the contrary, it reveals a continuous vision in which architecture, design, cinema, and visual arts are articulated as expressions of the same creative impulse.
