2023-07-23 16:35:00
Collective presents about 50 works by artists from different ethnic groups of the native peoples of Brazil
The Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage (EAV), linked to the State Secretariat for Culture and Creative Economy of Rio de Janeiro (SECEC-RJ), opened this Saturday (22), the free collective exhibition Elas Indígenas. The exhibition brings together 50 works by eight women from indigenous peoples from the north to the south of the country, among them are works by Coletivo Kadiwéu, from Mato Grosso do Sul.
The selected artists are Ana Kariri (Paraíba), Benilda Kadiwéu and Coletivo Kadiwéu (Mato Grosso do Sul), Juliana Guarany (Rio de Janeiro), Mara Kambeba (Amazonas), Tapixi Guajajara (Maranhão), Vãngri Kaingáng (Rio Grande do Sul), Varin Marubo (Amazonas) and We’e’ena Tikuna (Amazonas). The exhibition will be open until the 10th of September.
The exhibition curator and also director of EAV, Alberto Saraiva, considers it “extremely important” to show the work of these artists now. “We chose to present precisely the graphics of these peoples, because these graphics already existed in Brazil as the art of these peoples. And today, through this exhibition, we open a door for these artistic graphics to be inserted in the history of Brazilian art. Because that hasn’t happened yet, clearly. It is necessary to make an effort in this direction”, said the curator to Agência Brasil.
Protagonism
Alberto Saraiva explained that the choice of women and not men for the exhibition is because women have had a very important role in the fight for their peoples. “They gradually entered universities, politics and also art. Most of the women who are here participate in women’s movements in favor of indigenous rights and women’s rights in life, society and politics”.
One of the artists, Varin Marubo, holds a PhD in anthropology and works with the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (Coiab), a non-governmental organization (NGO) that monitors indigenous peoples in the region. “She works with the isolated peoples of the Amazon and it is very important that she, as an indigenous person, play this role with the indigenous peoples”, commented the EAV director.
The exhibition marks the launch of an indigenous art center that EAV is opening, called Permanent Indigenous Actions. “It’s not interesting for the School to just do an exhibition that lasts two months. It is necessary to have a consistent action that causes the insertion of these women and this indigenous knowledge in the pedagogical structure, in the teaching structure of the School”, highlighted Saraiva. Varin Marubo, for example, was invited to teach at EAV. “She became the first indigenous art teacher at EAV and will teach about Marubo people’s graphics. Varin will be the first indigenous teacher on the faculty of Parque Lage”.
Alberto Saraiva hopes that by 2024 there will be an indigenous person giving a course or workshop at the School on indigenous knowledge every month. He already thought of body painting and pigments as the first themes to be addressed. Anthropologists and linguists who are also indigenous will be invited to participate in these activities. “The Elas Indígenas exhibition marks the presence of indigenous peoples at the School”, reiterated Alberto Saraiva.
Choice
The choice of graphics for the show has historical significance, as they predate the arrival of the Portuguese in the country. “And because there is a friction between the European visual tradition that arrives here in Brazil and this visual tradition that already existed here. That is why we are working with graphics and not with other representations, such as landscapes, for example”. The curator clarified that indigenous peoples do not think like those who study, train in art and become an artist.
“They are already artists because, there, everyone participates in this aesthetic construction. It’s in the person’s body, it’s in homes, in basketry, in objects. It’s in everything naturally. It is a different system from the one brought by the European colonizers. It is a non-capitalist system”, emphasized Saraiva. For this reason, she reinforced that the indigenous women who participate in the exhibition “are naturally artists”. She pointed out that the exhibition will promote the insertion of these artists within an artistic system that is capitalist. “With the clarity they have today, they understand this”, concluded the curator.
With Brazil Agency
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