09/01/2026
An art installation at Hillman Library
by Susy Bielak and Fred Schmalz with Aaron Henderson
July 2026—July 2027
The large-scale watercolor print, “Speculative Nationality Room: Keila (Rio de Janeiro),” from Bielak’s ongoing “Speculative Nationality Room” series, imagines an architectural and cultural space at the intersection of the personal and the national. The series draws upon interviews with individuals, including members of the Pitt community, about their relationships to home and nationality.
The paintings are inspired by the architectural watercolors of Andrey Avinoff, who documented the Nationality Rooms in the early twentieth century.
For more information on the project: https://exhibit.library.pitt.edu/iammade/
Event Talk: “I am made to leave I am made to return”, Wednesday, September 2, 2026, 12:30pm—Hillman Library—Grown Floor/Main Entrance
Event information: https://calendar.pitt.edu/event/i-am-made-to-leave-i-am-made-to-return
Susy Bielak reflects:
“Since I was a child growing up in Pittsburgh, I’ve been drawn to the Nationality Rooms for their richness and complexity. In the Speculative Nationality Room series, I invite people whose relationships to home and nationality are multivalent to imagine a room of their own. The paintings become portraits—not only of people, but of how personal and layered our constructions of home and nationality can be.”
Keila Grinberg writes:
Rio de Janeiro is a country all its own, and Susy Bielak’s painting perfectly captures the special places of comfort where I grew up. From the window, one can see the Corcovado. The other view is the ocean. From my real home window, I couldn’t see the sea, one of my happiest places, but I could see the building’s small soccer field. I grew up playing soccer, going to the beach, reading, writing, listening to music, and dreaming of seeing the world. “Education is an act of love, therefore an act of courage;” Paulo Freire’s mantra, written on the blackboard in the painting in my adult handwriting, serves as a shift to a different time. My ideal classroom is exactly as Susy painted it: sitting on the floor with everyone, I teach and learn that “gente é pra brilhar, não pra morrer de fome.” (people are meant to shine, not to starve).
O Rio de Janeiro é um país inteiro. A pintura de Susy Bielak reproduz profundamente os lugares de conforto onde cresci. Da janela, vê-se o Corcovado (o Redentor, que lindo). O resto (da vista) é mar. Da janela lateral do meu quarto de dormir, eu não via o mar, onde sou muito feliz, mas o campinho de futebol do prédio. Eu cresci jogando bola, indo à praia, lendo, escrevendo, ouvindo música, sonhando em conhecer o mundo. “A educação é um ato de amor, por isso um ato de coragem”; o mantra de Paulo Freire, escrito com minha letra de adulta, é a senha para o deslocamento no tempo. A minha sala de aula ideal é exatamente como Susy pintou. Nela, sentada no chão com todo mundo, ensino e aprendo que gente é pra brilhar, não pra morrer de fome.
Project sponsored by the Nationality Rooms and the University Library Systems at the University of Pittsburgh.
