Odette Eid

On March 26, 2022, Santo Antônio do Pinhal-SP opened an Open Air Museum of Eid's work, as part of the artist's centenary celebrations, which became a permanent public exhibition.

In the year 2017, Eid received an honor from CONSCRE – Parliamentary State Council of Communities of Foreign Roots and Cultures, awarded by the Legislative Assembly of the State of São Paulo – a recognition from the Lebanese community.

Since 2013, her works Mulher que carrega o mundo (Women Who Carries the World) and Pássaros imaginários I, II e III (Imaginary Birds I, II and III) are part of Legislative Assembly of the State of São Paulo Outdoor Sculpture Museum.

Her irreverent creations resulted in her book Minhas Cabeças (My Heads), published in 2008. It also gained her other exhibitions in Brazil, including one at the Art Museum of Bahia and another at Galeria Estação, in São Paulo-SP, Brazil.

Some squares in the city also had the honor of receiving the talented artist's creations, such as [[c:Category:Homenagem_da_Colônia_Líbano-Brasileira_em_Comemoração_dos_500_anos_do_Descobrimento_do_Brasil | the granite and bronze sculpture commissioned by the Lebanese community in Brazil to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the discovery of Brazil, located at Praça Professor Jairo de Almeida Ramos, in the district of Vila Nova Conceição. Since 2008, in this location, you can see the bust of Gibran Khalil Gibran, another great Lebanese artist, produced by Odette Eid in bronze and granite. In 2000, it was the turn of Praça dos Omaguás, in the district of Pinheiros, to receive the sculpture Passaredo made in bronze and granite. That same year, Clube Espéria commissioned the artist to create a work to commemorate its centenary and offer it to the city of São Paulo. Vitória (Victory) is the title of a sculpture in bronze, granite and steel, located at Praça Airton de Abreu.

On the other hand, the dolls created during her second and last phase of work, preserve the humor of the first phase with a touch of insolence and debauchery very close to Brazilian folklore. These works were exhibited for the first time in August 2007, in Cabeças e Reminiscências (Heads and Reminiscences), exhibition held at Espaço Cultural V Centenário, Legislative Assembly of the State of São Paulo, celebrating Folklore Month.

The themes of her aluminum works are of stylized or imaginary flowers and birds, as the ones exhibited in 2005 for the first time in the exhibition Aluminagem, at SESC Ipiranga, in São Paulo–SP. They are currently on display at Parque da Luz Open Air Museum, part of Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo. An animated video "YouTube: Botão de Rosa (Pink Rose) – Odette Haidar Eid" produced with an avatar that communicates through Brazilian sign language, available online, tells a little about the artist's life and work.

In December 2002 at São Bento Metro station, the artist built a nativity scene with dolls measuring 2.40 meters high representing the main characters in the story of the birth of Jesus. It was built out of recycled fabric, old newspapers, construction materials, and the dolls were assembled and decorated with custom jewelry.

In 2000, Eid started to teach sculpture at Studio Amarilis, located on the avenue of the same name, in the district Cidade Jardim, São Paulo. This period marks the beginning of her digital art. In 2007, Odette dared to use flowers, silk, sequin and hats in her exhibition Cabeças e Reminiscências (Heads and Reminiscences), at Espaço Cultural V Centenário, in São Paulo-SP, during the Folklore Month.

The town of Santo Antônio do Pinhal in the State of São Paulo, where the artist had her second Studio, also received two of her works. One is the sculpture Passaredo that since 2000 can be seen at the entrance of the town, and Mãe Lúcia/Mãe Esperança (Mother Lucia/Mother Hope) located at Praça Boulevard Araucária.

In 1995, a decade later, dozens of her works were shown at a solo exhibition at MuBE-Brazilian Museum of Sculpture and Ecology, in São Paulo. At the same time, the book Odette, Escultura – a retrospective of her works was also published. The book featured graphic design by Emilie Chamie, photos by Romulo Fialdini and texts by Paulo Klein, Radha Abramo and Emanoel Araújo.

In 1987 her sculpture Mãe com Filho (Mother with Son), was placed in the entrance hall of Hospital Sírio-Libanês.

Odette’s talent bloomed in 1982 when she created dolls with heads made of epoxy and fabric, using her “savoir faire” in sewing, which she had also learned from her mother. In 1983, these first works resulted in her first exhibition as an artist at Chelsea Art Gallery – São Paulo.

The small dolls created during her first phase (1982) are playful, colorful, surrealistic characters full of humor. They have mouths with heads instead of teeth and ball-shaped bodies with multiple heads and legs.

At the age of 52, Eid was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to undergo a mastectomy that left her right arm with a chronic deficiency. As a result, between 1974 and 1982, Eid traveled to many different places including Lebanon, Middle East, Europe, United States, Japan and China. Eid visited many museums and international collections, which contributed to widen the repertoire for her future creations.

Odette Eid is the artistic name of Odette Haidar Eid (Zahlé, Lebanon, March 7, 1922 – São Paulo, Brazil, July 13, 2019). She was a Lebanese sculptor, who lived in Brazil since 1925.