Art and Activism in Latin America – year II (2017)
Undoing queer caravel in the afterlife of colonialism
The particular emergency context of a queer canon in Brazil cannot be conceived apart from an analytical viewpoint concerning the coloniality of knowledge, that underlines what the chilean thinker, performer and activist Hija de Perra once described as a simultaneously colonising of “our third world poor aspiration south-american context” that disturbs the “individuals enchanted by heteronormativity”. If queer colonizes disturbing, it is because it adheres to a historical process in which the foundation of the colonialist political-body project, that predicates the universality of the White european heteronormative subject (its knowledge, politics, performance and anthology), collapses. But what is the point of queer disruptions in the colonized context of the world we know as Brazil (ex-colony, neo-colony, post-colony?) and in what measure, once it proliferates globally, the queer canons do not re-structure the colonial caravels’ logic – serving as support and inscription plan of the ghosts of colonialism on the immediate presence of the collapse of the colony? How to perform and contemplate the genre disobedience and sexual dissents witout reestructuring elitist logics that re-stage the colonial situation? How to deassemble the queer caravel? And how to bring to light the body-politics capable of overcoming life after the death of colonialism and the White, hetero and one genre supremacy, towards other forms of existing, experiencing and making the world.
JOTA MOMBAÇA is a non-binary queer artist, born and raised in the Northeast of Brazil. Writer, performer and a scholar academic around the relations between monstruosity and humanity, kuir studies, decolonial spins, political intersectionality, anti-colonial justice, violence redistribution, visionary fiction and tensions between ethics, aesthetics, arts and politics in the production of knowledge of the globalized South. Current Works are the colaboration with the Politics Imagination Workshop (São Paulo) and the artistic residence together with Capacete 2017 at the 14th Documenta (Athens/Kassel).
The forgotten “Santos” of Brazil.
Jota Mombaça for La Pocha Nostra.
March 2015. Photo: Ramilla Souza
INFO
Public talk with Jota Mombaça part of the activities of Art and Activism in Latin America – year II (2017) Where: Despina When: Tuesday, 8 August Time: 7 pm
Free admission
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ART AND ACTIVISM IN LATIN AMERICA is a project conceived by Despina, with the support from the Dutch organization Prince Claus Fund. The project extends for three years (2016, 2017 and 2018). Each year, a theme guided a series of actions and events, including occupations, workshops, talks, film screenings, exhibitions, public talks with important names from the contemporary artistic + activist thought and a residency programme. For this second edition, the theme is Body. For more information, click here.
Talk with artist and NLS – Jamaica director Deborah Anzinger
Guest curator: Raphael Fonseca
When: 6th July, Thursday at 7 pm
Where: Despina | Largo das Artes
Rua Luis de Camões, 2 – Sobrado
Centro – Rio de Janeiro
Free admission
Art and Activism in Latin America – year II (2017)
INFO
Post-porn Cine Club + talk
(part of the activities of the exhibition “The bodies are the works”) When: 4t July, Tuesday from 7:30 to 10:30 pm Where: Despina
Free admission
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ART AND ACTIVISM IN LATIN AMERICA is a project conceived by Despina, with the support from the Dutch organization Prince Claus Fund. The project extends for three years (2016, 2017 and 2018). Each year, a theme guided a series of actions and events, including occupations, workshops, talks, film screenings, exhibitions, public talks with important names from the contemporary artistic + activist thought and a residency programme. For this second edition, the theme is Body. For more information, click here.
Art and Activism in Latin America – year II (2017)
INFO
Performance / Maiêutica, with Raquel Mützenberg When: Tuesday, 4th July, from 4 to 5 pm Where: Largo São Francisco – Centro
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ART AND ACTIVISM IN LATIN AMERICA is a project conceived by Despina, with the support from the Dutch organization Prince Claus Fund. The project extends for three years (2016, 2017 and 2018). Each year, a theme guided a series of actions and events, including occupations, workshops, talks, film screenings, exhibitions, public talks with important names from the contemporary artistic + activist thought and a residency programme. For this second edition, the theme is Body. For more information, click here.
Opening of the exhibition
“Os corpos são as obras” Curators: Guilherme Altmayer and Pablo León de la Barra Participants: Andiara Ramos, Ana Matheus Abbade, Aleta Valente, Anitta Boa Vida, Bruna Kury, Camila Puni, Carlos Motta, Coletivo Xica Manicongo, Eduardo Kac, Fabiana Faleiros, Fabio Coelho, FROZEN2000, Gabriel Junqueira, Kleper Reis, Lampião da Esquina, Lyz Parayzo, Maurício Magagnin, Matheus Passareli, Nathalia Gonçales, Odaraya Mello, Raquel Mützenberg, Ricardo Càstro, Tertuliana Lustosa, Turma Ok, Uhura Bqueer, Vagner Coelho, Ventura Profana & Jhonatta Vicente, Victor Arruda, Vinicius Rosa, Vítor Franco e Xanayanna Relux. Exhibition continues until 4th August and is part of the activities of the second edition of our Art and Activism in Latin America. Find out more here.
Despina Residency Programme final show with Lyz Parayzo and Rafael Bqueer
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Fina Estirpe DJ Ensemble with dj Frederico Pellachin.
Info
SAARA NIGHTS #16 When: 27th June, Tuesday, 7 pm Where: Despina | Largo das Artes Rua Luis de Camões, 2 – Sobrado Centro – Rio de Janeiro, RJ Free admission
E-flyer (design): Frederico Pellachin Credit of the image in the e-flyer: José Eduardo Zepka
In partnership with Despina, Canadian contemporary art center Diagonale, based in Montreal, has given a full grant to Romeo Gongora to participate in our Residency Programme in Rio de Janeiro.
During the month of November, the artist will develop his research on identity and clothing. One of his first actions will be the coordination of a workshop, whose purpose is to create a collection of clothes for an utopian society.
This admission for this workshop is free and it will be held at Despina (Rua Luis de Camões, 2 – downtown) on Wednesdays and Fridays, on 9, 11, 16 and 18 November, from 3 to 6 pm.
If you are interested in attending, send us an email to cursos@despina.org stating in the subject field “Workshop Romeo Gongora” and on the body of the email state your full name, contact number and a short bio. Applicants from all fields and backgrounds are welcome. Places are limited to 7 participants.
Awaken Dream. New Models of Identity
What would identity look like in a utopian world? A team of participants from Rio de Janeiro will be engaged with the artist to create a clothing collection for a utopian society. Some of the themes those workshops may research are: What is the meaning of ‘identity’ in a new utopian society? How will its new citizens dress? What kind of dress and behaviour code will they have? My participatory approach with the group of people will be based on Augusto Boal’s techniques of ‘Theatre of the Oppressed’, the notion of critical consciousness (as theorized by Paulo Freire), and Orlando Fals Borda’s techniques of participatory action research.
Info
Workshop “Awaken Dream. New Models of Identity” with artist Romeo Gongora When: 9, 11, 16 and 18 November, Wednesdays and Fridays Time: 3 – 6 pm Where: Despina Rua Luis de Camões, 2 – Sobrado – Centro
About the artist
Romeo Gongora is a Canadian-Guatemalan visual artist. His participatory art works employs radical pedagogy to promote socio-political and human awareness. He has collaborated, amongst others, with the Rencontres de Bamako (Mali), CCA – Lagos (Nigeria), Centre of Art Torun (Poland), Festival Belluard (Switzerland), HISK (Belgium), The Office (Berlin) and Open School East (London). In 2007, he took up a two-year residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (Amsterdam). In 2009, Romeo represented Canada as an artist in residence at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin) and at the Acme Studios (London) in 2016.
Commun Commune, workshop, Rethinking motherhood through creation by Camila Vasquez, 2015, Lac Brome (CA), coproduction with 3e Imperial, centre d’art actuel
Despina, Prince Claus Fund, State of Rio de Janeiro Culture Department, Casa França-Brasil, UERJ Arts Institute and Concinnitas Magazine are pleased to invite everyone to the ART AND ACTIVISM IN LATIN AMERICA CONFERENCE, which will bring together artists Jesus Bubu Negrón (Puerto Rico), Crack Rodriguez (El Salvador) and Luciana Magno (Pará, Brazil) for a special talk at Casa França-Brasil next Friday, 21 October, at 6 pm.
This conference aims to discuss art and activism from the perspective of the street as a political arena and territory of cultural resistance through artistic research and the multiple tools used by the three guest artists and activists.
In this moment of worsening political tensions, in Brazil and in the world, the borders between art and activism are increasingly tenuous and the territories of action increasingly shared. In the same way, geographic territories dissolve in the face of questions that cross zones and countries and are established at the heart of discussions about the future of humanity itself. In this sense, building bridges (so that we can look at the other) serves not only to better understand this complex concept of “Latin America”, but also, and especially, to see, through the political trajectories of other countries and regions, with a little more of clarity to our own history and contradictions.
Organized by Alexandre Sá and Despina
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INFO
Conference Art and Activism in Latin America With artists: Jesus Bubu Negrón, Crack Rodriguez and Luciana Magno Mediators: Alexandre Sá, Bernardo José de Souza e Consuelo Bassanesi When: 21 October, Friday Where: Casa França-Brasil (Rua Visconde de Itaboraí, 78 – Centro) Time: 6 pm
Free asdmission
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ART AND ACTIVISM IN LATIN AMERICA is a project conceived by Despina, with the support from the Dutch organization Prince Claus Fund. The project extends for three years (2016, 2017 and 2018). Each year, a theme guided a series of actions and events, including occupations, workshops, talks, film screenings, exhibitions, public talks with important names from the contemporary artistic + activist thought and a residency programme. For this first edition, the theme is Public Space. For more information, click here.
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CREDIT OF THE IMAGE “La Inclinacion” (performance) Crack Rodriguez, El Salvador, 2015 Photo: The Fire Theory
On October 17, 18 and 19, artists in residency Crack Rodriguez, Luciana Magno and Jesus Bubu Negrón will coordinate workshops open to the public at Despina. The goal is to promote inter-cultural dialogue as well as to create networks between artists and the local audience. Follow below more information about each workshop. If you want to participate, send an email to cursos@despina.org + full name and contact phone number. Don’t forget to inform us the workshops you would like to attend.
SUBSCRIPTIONS CLOSED!
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17.10 – Monday THE FANTASTIC WORLD OF POLITICAL AND ELECTORAL MARKETING OR ITS UTOPIA ON THE HEIGHTS Led by Luciana Magno
This workshop invites all participants to take part in a participatory action game that seeks to subvert electoral marketing techniques. Experimental exercises will be carried out to create inventive political discourses (slightly based on the “wonderful world” that marketing people create) with surreal goal developments and unfulfilled campaign strategies for utopian fictional characters. From the discourse elaborated collectively, actions, games and strategies will be devised to take our utopias to the heights.
When: 17 October Time: 2 – 6 pm Where: Despina Number of participants: 10
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18.10 – Tuesday HOW TO FALL FROM A SCHOOL CHAIR? Led by Crack Rodriguez
The purpose of this workshop is to share awareness and “fearlessness” techniques through physical exercises. The idea is to try to reflect on educational spaces, try to teach how to protect ourselves from the symbols that undermine our right to learn and try to materialize the coup that has been modifying government policies aimed at low-income students in Brazil.
When: 18 October Time: 2 – 6 pm Where: Despina Number of participants: 15
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19.10 – Wednesday THE “MEME” AS AN ACTIVISM TOOL Led by Jesus Bubu Negròn
This workshop consists of demonstrating and enacting one of the strategies used by a group of young activists from a community base in Puerto Rico called the PDT Brigade. These young people use the “meme” as a tool for expressing and transmitting positive messages that serve to raise collective self-esteem and promote social and community empowerment through traditional methods and / or techniques of communication. The PDT Brigade is an activist group that operates as a community-based collective. Formed mostly by young people from the neighborhood of Puerta de Tierra, in the capital San Juan, Puerto Rico, their members are against gentrification and work together to rescue their neighborhood, their history and their people. More information: www.brigadapdt.org
When: 19 October Time: 2 – 6 pm Where: Despina Number of participants: 15
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ART AND ACTIVISM IN LATIN AMERICA is a project conceived by Despina, with the support from the Dutch organization Prince Claus Fund. The project extends for three years (2016, 2017 and 2018). Each year, a theme guided a series of actions and events, including occupations, workshops, talks, film screenings, exhibitions, public talks with important names from the contemporary artistic + activist thought and a residency programme. For this first edition, the theme is Public Space. For more information, click here.
ART AND ACTIVISM IN LATIN AMERICA is a project conceived by Despina, with the support from the Dutch organization Prince Claus Fund. The project extended for three years (2016, 2017 and 2018). Each year, a theme guided a series of actions and events, including occupations, workshops, talks, film screenings, exhibitions, public talks with important names from the contemporary artistic + activist thought and a residency programme. For this first edition, the theme was Public Space.
Theme’s presentation by Bernardo José de Souza e Consuelo Bassanesi
The “Anti-Mubarak” protests at Tahrir Plaza, in Egypt, the “Indignados” at Puerta del Sol, in Madrid, the “Occupy Wall Street” at Liberty Plaza, in New York, the “Protest of the Plaza of Celestial Peace”, at Plaza Tiananmen, in Beijing, the “Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo”, in Buenos Aires, the “Ocuppy Cabral”, around the house of the governor of Rio de Janeiro, Sérgio Cabral – the importance of public spaces for political mobilizations is not a recent phenomenon and it takes different formats, however it is always in the streets that social movements shape up and gain weight.
Aditionally, many of the human rights, as freedom of expression, of reunion, information and movement, as well as the right to rest and leisure, depend on the availability of physical public space – its abscence, as well as its control, are detrimental and restrict civil freedom.
The notion of public space – whilst one of common use and possession of all – suffered diverse constructions and restrictions throughout the centuries. The privatization and normatization of such spaces, hinder the use of public spaces for public means, and weaken the access of spaces by different bodies and social demands. In theory, communal spaces and spaces which build up citizenship are inclusive and diverse; in practice, these spaces have their use increasingly controlled, in name of possession, order, law, codes of conduct.
Public manifestations in public spaces, not rarely in Brazil, in Latin America and internationally, terminate with police violence and criminalization of the protesters – see the case of the 23 Brazilian activists arrested on the previous day of the opening of the World Cup in Brazil and subsequently condemned for gang formation and planning of protests.
In this first edition, the theme of the project Art and Activism in Latin America revolved around diverse notions of public spaces, real or virtual: as a political arena where debates, protests and demands emerge and gain shape; as the environment where different cultures and social classes co-exist and colide; as a free zone for leisure and creative expression; as a place where personal and collective beliefs can be expressed and heard by the masses; as a space where knowledge and information can be exchanged; as a domain where civil and individual rights are submitted to disciplinary and control societies; as a territory for cultural resistance where communities should be granted access to means and infrastructure for self-development and organization.
We sought to promote an in-depth debate on the theme, and to develop a series of public actions that sought to defy the very comprehension and use of public space, inviting artists and activists whose practice are situated in the frontiers between art and politics. Equally, we are interested in practices that defy the role of cultural and political institutions, subverting the idea of the art-piece as a construction of material culture destinated to endure and to be exhibited in formal art spaces, destroying the frontier between the interior and the exterior and seeking in the streets the understanding of relevance and limitations of public spaces.
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The selected artists for the residency programme were: Crack Rodriguez (El Salvador), Jesus Bubu Negrón (Puerto Rico) and Luciana Magno(Brazil). The idea was to work in a variety of informal modes of education, such as workshops, public lectures, visits to schools/universities and an exhibition. Participation costs were fully covered by the Prince Claus Fund as part of its Network Partnership Programme, from which Despina is part of. Special guests for this fisrt edition were: Tania Bruguera, Suely Rolnik, Roberto Jacoby and Pablo León de la Barra.
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PROGRAMME
16 September (8 pm)
Talk with Brazilian psychoanalyst SUELY ROLNIK (Check video below)
29 September (8 pm)
Conversation with Argentinian artist ROBERTO JACOBY
17 to 21 October (2 – 6 pm)
Public workshops (free admisson)
21 October (6 pm)
Seminar ART AND ACTIVISM IN LATIN AMERICA at Casa França-Brasil
(in partnership with the Arts Institute of Rio de Janeiro State University – UERJ)
18 October (8 pm)
Talk with Cuban artist TANIA BRUGUERA and Mexican curator PABLO LEÓN DE LA BARRA
28 October (7 pm)
“In the Heat of the Battle” – exhibition opening with artists CRACK RODRIGUEZ, LUCIANA MAGNO and JESUS BUBU NEGRÓN. Click here for more information.
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS IN RESIDENCY
Crack Rodriguez (1980) lives and works in San Salvador, El Salvador. His practice and his actions are intrinsically related to the social context and popular culture, from where he builds strong bonds with the public, who react and /or engage and often become part of his piece, not as a passive spectator but as a catalyst that activates the social context.
Rodriguez is a member of the Fire Theory, San Salvador El Salvador. He has participated in several exhibitions and projects by the Curating Agency, Agency for Spiritual Guest Work, curated by Anne Brand Galvez; “From the Tangible to the Intangible”, 4th Edition Nomadic Center of Contemporary Art “Tropical Interzone” & “The Virtual Residency program” Zurich; “Relocating SAL”, curated by Claire Breukel and Lucas Arevalo Ernst, Hilger Gallery, Vienna; “Peripheral Spectacular”, curated by Eder Castillo, Mexico City & Poporopo Project, Guatemala City & la-embajada.org.; “Documenting Memory”, Art Center / South Florida (USA); “ Performance Festival – acciones en el espacio publico, Tegucigalpa, Honduras; “Landings 5”, Art Museum of the Americas, in Washington DC; “Landings 6 and 7”, Haydee Santamaria Gallery, Casa de las Americas, Havana, Cuba; “Landings 8”, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan. Solo shows include: “Circunstancias de los restos”, Lokkus Arte Contemporáneo, Medellin, Colombia; “Neutropolitan Attack”, Eclectic Arts Festival, FEA, El Salvador.
Jesus Bubu Negrón (1975) lives and works in San Juan, Porto Rico. His work is characterized by minimal interventions, the recontextualization of everyday objects and a relational approximation to artistic production as a revealing act of historical, social and economic proportions. Negrón lives in the neighborhood of Puerta de Tierra, in San Juan, where he is part of the Brigada PDT, a grassroots community organisation for the preservation and wellbeing of the neighborhood, its history and its people.
Upon completion of his first artist residency with M&M Proyectos in 2002 in Puerto Rico, Negron’s work has been displayed in renowned galleries and institutions around the world, both individually and collectively. Some of his most notable collaborations include: AbubuyaKm0 project organised by Kiosko Galeria, Bolivia; The Obscenity of theJungle with Proyectos Ultravioleta for SWAB Barcelona in Spain (2013); the 1st Bienal Tropical in Puerto Rico (2011), where he was awarded the “Golden Pineapple” prize for best artist; Interpretation of the Sonetode las estrellas with Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros in Mexico (2013), curated by Taiyana Pimentel; Trienal Poligráfica in Puerto Rico (2009), curated by Adriano Pedrosa, Julieta González and Jens Hoffmann; Sharjah Biennial in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (2007), curated by Mohammed Kazem, Eva Scharrer and Jonathan Watkins; Whitney Biennial in New York (2006), curated by Chrissie Iles and Phillipe Vergne; the T1 Torino Trienale in Italy (2005), curated by Francesco Bonami and Carolyn Christov–Bakargiev, and Tropical Abstraction at the Steidelijk Bureau Museum in Amsterdam (2005), curated by Ross Gortzak.
His work has been reviewed in major publications such as Flash Art, New York Times, Journal des Arts, LA Times, The Art Newspaper, Art Nexus and Frieze, among others.
Luciana Magno (1987) lives and works between Belem and Fortaleza, Brazil. She is graduated in Visual Arts and Technology of the Image from the University of Amazonia, Belém. She also holds a Master Degree from the Federal University of Pará, in the same city. Her works deal with performance, often directed to photography and video, object and website. Magno’s research focuses on the body and performative actions. She has been interested in political, social and anthropological issues, related to the impact of the development of the Amazon region, in the north of Brazil. The integration of the body to the landscape and the environment is a key and recurrent element in her works, which have been exhibited in various spaces, such as Centro Cultural Banco do Nordeste, Fortaleza (2014); Museu de Arte do Estado do Pará – Art in Pará – Belém (2014) and Museu de Arte do Rio de Janeiro – MAR (2013). She was the winner of the 10th edition of Rede Nacional Funarte Artes Visuais Programme with the project “Telefone Sem Fio”, which crossed the country from north to south through highways and waterways. This project led to a video and an audio file about Brazilian cultural diversity, its history and geography.
Selection Committee (Residency Programme)
Consuelo Bassanesi, Bernardo José de Souza and Pablo León de la Barra
Logo and Graphic Design (publication)
Pablo Ugá
Photos (exhibition opening)
Thiago Pozes
Thanks to
Alexandre Rodolfo de Oliveira, Alexandre Sá, Bernardo Mosqueira, Bertan Selim, Helena Celestino, Leila Lak, Pablo León de la Barra, Prince Claus Fund.
