Bori, by Ayrson Heráclito - The Performance
In the Pinacoteca's collection, the performance Bori (2008), by Ayrson Heráclito, interprets a ritual of religions of African origin in which food is offered to the spiritual head.
Image from the performance of "Bori" by Ayrson HeráclitoPinacoteca de São Paulo
Bori
The ceremony of Bori salutes and strengthens the head. By offering food and flowers, it evokes Oxalá and Yemanjá, a female orixá directly related to the Ori, and therefore considered the "lady of all heads".
Image from the performance of "Bori" by Ayrson HeráclitoPinacoteca de São Paulo
Ori is a divinity that resides in each being, a force connected between their orixá and the power of creation. Ori is a natural force that governs each individual.
Image from the performance of "Bori" by Ayrson HeráclitoPinacoteca de São Paulo
In the work Bori (2008/2022), Ayrson Heráclito adapts the ritual, preserving elements reserved to the context of the terreiros, while cultivating the familiarity of non-initiated people with that repertoire of beliefs and practices.
As an artist and ogã of the Jeje-Mahim nation, Heráclito establishes bridges between art and religion, guided by respect for different regimes of visibility. Based on the interpretation of the rites of religions of African origin, Heráclito's poetics seeks to create healing perspectives for stories of violence.
The performance
It is part of the collection of the Pinacoteca de São Paulo since 2020 and was presented at the Octagon of Pina Luz in August 2022, as a constituent part of the exhibition Ayrson Heráclito: Yorùbáiano, which was on display from April 2 to August 22 at the Pina Estação building.
Nos rituais, primeiramente costumam ser servidos Exú e Pombogira. No Bori de Ayrson Heráclito, não existe a cabeça de Exú, mas ao orixá é oferecido o Padê, uma farinha de mandioca branca crua composta por quatro partes.
The first is prepared with water;
the second, with rum;
the third, with honey;
and the fourth, with palm oil. The Padê of Pombogira, on the other hand, contains one part palm oil and another part honey.
Orixá Ogum
Known as Isú in Yorubá, the yam is offered to various orixás. The root refers to work, to subsistence culture, and to feeding human beings. There are several ways to prepare the food, depending on the energy one wants to activate.
Image from the performance of "Bori" by Ayrson HeráclitoPinacoteca de São Paulo
He can emanate a more aggressive force or help solve a more resistant problem. Yams are usually adorned with spears or toothpicks of Ogum.
Orixá Oxóssi
Oxóssi (or Odé) is connected to corn (axoxó), a food that denotes richness and abundance, a means to obtain abundance and ward off hunger. Along with fruits, this vegetable is one of the main symbols of Odé (hunter).
Image from the performance of "Bori" by Ayrson HeráclitoPinacoteca de São Paulo
The corncobs with the shredded straws evoke prosperity through the protection of this orixá of the expression of life. In the feasts of Oxóssi (Odé), chicken corn is adorned with the cobs and used in the offering and on the head of the orixá.
Orixá Xangô
Xangô is the orixá of justice, of non-partiality. His axe never looks only at one side, but his razor cuts to both sides. Okra is present in many of the saints' dishes, such as the Ibeji's caruru, and is one of the foods offered to Xangô.
Image from the performance of "Bori" by Ayrson HeráclitoPinacoteca de São Paulo
When preparing this dish, one does not ask for justice, but for mercy, since the axe of Xangô cuts both ways.
Trivia:
When we use the word Santo (saint), we are also referring to the orixás, nkisis, or voduns. The expression Santo is a code, since for a long time the practice of religions of African matrix was forbidden.
Orixá Oxumaré
The sweet potato is one of Oxumaré's favorite foods, as is the plantain itself. For the orixás connected to the cycle of life, like Nanã and Yewa, Oxumaré's mother and brother, the food represents rooting and deep relationships with the earth.
Image from the performance of "Bori" by Ayrson HeráclitoPinacoteca de São Paulo
Planted in the soil that covers its uncertain forms, the root vegetable is associated with snakes and the act of slithering.
Orixá Oxum
Kidney beans decorated with eggs are offered to the orixá Oxum, the dish called Omolocum, one of the main foods of this orixá, means child of the sea. Oxum is the mother of sweet waters, orixá considered the first Yalorixá (keyword for Mãe de santo).
Image from the performance of "Bori" by Ayrson HeráclitoPinacoteca de São Paulo
Each bean and also the eggs allude to the ovules, which represent female fertility and birth. Kidney beans are also present in other dishes, such as acarajé, which symbolizes fecundity, prosperity, and abundance.
Kidney beans are present in the dishes of the Yabás (female Orixás). The grain also makes up the base of the dough of Yansã's acarajé, which symbolizes fecundity, prosperity, and abundance.
Orixá Iansã
Acarajé is a small ball made of kidney beans, which goes through a preparation until it becomes a paste, then beaten with onion and salt and fried in dendê oil. Food of the Yabá Yansã, acarajé means fireball.
Its preparation is performed by a daughter of Iansã, whose fertility and warrior strength are believed to be represented in these dumplings.
The preparation of the dough of the acarajé involves several steps, from the hydration of the beans to the washing, peeling, and grinding of the grains. After that, the ingredient reaches the state of flour and goes to a large pot to be beaten with salt and onion.
The movement must be intense and have moments of rest so that the dough grows. The more it is beaten, the more airy will be the dumpling, which will then be fried in dendê oil.
ORIXÁ OXALÁ
White corn, better known as canjica, is the food of Oxalá, the FunFun orixá. Present in all ceremonies, from ebó to initiation, this grain represents calm and purification. It is offered to the orixá only boiled in water, without any other ingredients, and served cold.
ORIXÁ YEMANJÁ
In axé cuisine, grains represent prosperity and fecundity, and it is no wonder that they are present in the food of the female deities. It can be said that Yemanjá is not only the mother of the salt waters, but also of the meeting of the fresh waters.
Image from the performance of "Bori" by Ayrson HeráclitoPinacoteca de São Paulo
Rice and fava beans also denote the fertility and abundance that germinate in flooded lands. When cooked, the white fava bean reaches a mother-of-pearl hue, the coloring alludes to the sea and evokes stories related to Yemanjá.
ORIXÁ TEMPO
Peanuts are present in the food of many orixás: in the caruru offered to Ibeji, in the preparation of sweet potato snake for Oxumaré, in the candy made for Ogum, among others. The food is also offered to the orixá Tempo, also called Kitembo by the Bantu of the Angola nation.
Image from the performance of "Bori" by Ayrson HeráclitoPinacoteca de São Paulo
This entity that appears in different matrices represents the lord of sharpening time, the razor, attributes linked to the people of the straw, more specifically to the children of Nanã, attributed with the knowledge about the cycles of life.
ORIXÁ OSSANHA
Xerém resembles a flour made from broken corn. In Ayrson Heráclito's performance Bori, this food, along with string tobacco, is offered to the head of this orixá. Saint of the woods and healer, Ossanha is associated with the cycle of life.
ORIXÁ NANÃ
The head dedicated to Nanã has black beans, in allusion to the earth, the same black beans that are part of Ogum's feijoada. Nanã also receives white corn, better known as canjica, also dedicated to Oxalá as a symbol of purity and water.
Image from the performance of "Bori" by Ayrson HeráclitoPinacoteca de São Paulo
In addition to these two ingredients, the unburnt popcorn is a votive food offered to the matriarch Nanã, mistress of life and death, entity of the realm of Egum, mother of Omolú and wife of Oxalá. It is no coincidence that the foods of these two orixás are present in Nanã's food.
ORIXÁ OMOLÚ ou OBALUAÊ
Popcorn is considered the old man's rose and represents transmutation, the modification of the body and the wounds, therefore, it symbolizes healing. The story goes that, through the wind, Yansã revealed a beautiful man under the straw robes and transmuted his wounds into popcorn.
The performance Bori (2008) by Ayrson Heráclito is part of the collection of the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, since 2020. Presented at the Octagon in August 2022, as part of the exhibition Ayrson Heráclito: Yorùbáiano at Pina Estação.
His poetics that starts from the rites of religions of African matrix is a way of healing for a history of violence.
Image from the performance of "Bori" by Ayrson HeráclitoPinacoteca de São Paulo
Images by Christina Ruffato
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