This exhibition considers artworks by four contemporary Brazilian artists through their reading from post-colonial and decolonial perspectives. These currents of thought debate the effects of colonialism in different spheres of action, proposing new geopolitics of knowledge. The visual references in the artworks discuss past and present issues that demand a more egalitarian future, which we emphasize, putting into practice historical and social criticism.
1. Evocation of historical violence
These artworks deal with the colonial past and the violence linked to the history of Brazil. The historical narrative tends to privilege hegemonic and dominating views, affecting different fields of knowledge. Culture and its transmission do not exist in isolation from their contexts. The artworks sometimes appropriate symbols or stories associated with colonization, subverting and problematizing the narrative produced in a colonial historical process.
Amerikkka (1991) by Cildo MeirelesFaculty of Arts and Humanities of University of Porto
Meireles invokes two main references in this artwork: the Columbus Egg metaphor and, in its title, the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist terrorist group from the United States.
According to the artist, the artwork demonstrates what happened to the American continent, which, with its troubled and violent colonial history, is still full of inherited prejudices, including racism.
The permanence of structures (2017) by Rosana PaulinoFaculty of Arts and Humanities of University of Porto
With this artwork of appropriation of photographs and illustrations, Rosana Paulino denounces the structures from a historical context of colonization and slavery that continue to subjugate the black population in Brazil.
Paulino subverts the meaning of this photograph, commissioned in the mid-1800s by Louis Agassiz, a Swiss physician, and biologist, who sought to support theories of “race classification” and prove the “white race” as superior, thus justifying the enslavement of
other ethnicities.
Carpet-Style Tilework in Live Flesh (1999) by Adriana VarejãoFaculty of Arts and Humanities of University of Porto
Adriana Varejão explores the “Old World” culture imposed on the “New World”, exposing in an explicit and visceral way the traumas resulting from the process of colonial expansion.
In Carpet-Style Tilework in Live Flesh, Varejão reveals the flesh in the fissure of the painting as a symbol of the colonial violence that endures.
2. Navigations and the "New World"
References to the exploration of the “New World” through navigation are present in several artworks. In this period, stereotypes were created of a world that should be explored and “civilized”. The consequences of this type of thinking can still be seen in Brazilian society. The invasion of territories, the erasure of native cultures and those from the African diaspora, and the abuse suffered within this colonial process, created a desire for historical revision.
Right there (2014) by Flávio CerqueiraFaculty of Arts and Humanities of University of Porto
F. Cerqueira thinks of his artworks as partially complete, hoping that the spectators will enter the narrative and create new meanings. To do so, he uses scenes that involve human beings, issues of race, gender, violence, history, and society, leaving space for interpretation.
Present in Logo Ali is the idea of the sea, of sailing or being at sea, of coming and going, of being lost, of giving up but also of hope and perseverance.
Tap to explore
In Coelacanth provokes seaquakes (2004 - 2008), Adriana Varejão explores the art of Portuguese tiles and the Baroque, creating a calculated disorder through a composition that follows an uncommon visual pattern, using this aesthetic to comment on the colonial violence.
Tap to explore
The title refers to a phrase graffitied in several places in Rio de Janeiro during the 70s. The allusion to the sea and the way the tiles are organized - forming a wave - cite the element that linked Brazil and Portugal during the turbulent maritime explorations.
If necessary, I will tell you Again (2016) by Flávio CerqueiraFaculty of Arts and Humanities of University of Porto
This artwork by Flávio Cerqueira explores new narratives of Brazilian history, given the political tension in which the country found itself, seeking to reflect how Brazil came to be built and the consequences of its foundation and exploration.
The skull is a warning of mortality but also change, the end of an era and a new beginning. The title evokes a feeling of renewal, bringing the possibility of historical revision of a narrative that leaves much human diversity out.
CURATORSHIP: Maria Paula Magalhães Silva under the supervision of Maria Leonor Barbosa Soares, Joana Isabel Fernandes Duarte, and Diana Felícia.
TEXTS: Maria Paula Magalhães Silva with scientific review by Maria Leonor Barbosa Soares, Joana Isabel Fernandes Duarte, Inês de Carvalho Costa and Maria Leonor Botelho.
PRODUCTION: This work results from a project by Maria Paula Magalhães Silva for the master's Degree in Art History, Heritage and Visual Culture (MHAPCV) at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Porto, developed at CITCEM/FLUP during 2020/2021 and approved by the scientific committee in office of the MHAPCV.
PROJECT REPORT: https://repositorio-aberto.up.pt/handle/10216/139724
SPONSORS: CITCEM/FLUP.
TRANSLATION: Maria Paula Magalhães Silva.
TRANSLATION REVIEW: Raquel Viúla (« Financed by FCT - National Foundation for Science and Technology, under the project UIDB/04059/2020»).
