Kicking off the public programs cycle held during the Unerasable Memories – a historic look at the videobrasil collection show, the panel tackles the connections between memory, history and art. The show’s curator Agustín Pérez Rubio leads the debate between some of the featured artists: Aurélio Michiles, Enio Staub, Sebastián Diaz Morales and Jonathas de Andrade, plus the art critic Octavio Zaya, one of the authors invited to write for the show’s catalog. Rubio discusses the choice of artwork, selected through a review of the history of Associação Cultural Videobrasil’s own collection. According to him, through this research work, a thematic thread was extracted from within the thirty-plus-year process of formation of this collection – which started in 1983, with the artworks shortlisted for the 1st Festival. Therefore, this historical perspective is not imposed by the curator’s gaze from outside to within the collection, but he renders it explicit as an existing line of force, culminating in a selection of pieces that focus on both macro- and micro-history. Next, Zaya discusses the connections between history and power, and how they breed specific narratives told from particular perspectives, even though they are presented as being universally valid. Often erected as a foundation to imperialist culture, such unitary versions of historical events can be combatted by art creations that reopen their archives, not to adhere by them, but to manipulate them into transcending the reality these versions present. Zaya believes this procedure could elicit an unblocking of imagination, enabling other possible narrations. Incited by these questionings, each of the panel’s artists comments on the specificities of their works, revealing the idiosyncrasies, potentialities and stalemates these memory retrieval operations based on historical archives and documents originate.

Agustín Pérez Rubio (1972, Valencia, Spain) is a historian, art critic, and curator. He is the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Malba) artistic director and was the director of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC), Spain.

Octavio Zaya (1954, Las Palmas, Spain) is  art critic and curator in New York, associate editor of Atlantica, consulting editor of NKA Journal of Contemporary African Art and correspondent for Flash Art magazine.

Aurélio Michiles (1952, Manaus, Brazil) is a filmmaker and documentarian. He participates in Unerasable Memories exhibition with the work O Sangue da Terra.

Enio Staub (1956, Porto Alegre, Brazil) is a film and television director and screenwriter. He participates in Unerasable Memories exhibition with the work Contestado, A Guerra Desconhecida.

Jonathas de Andrade (1982, Maceió, Brazil) is a visual artist working on photographic language. He participates in Unerasable Memories exhibition with the work Projeto Pacífico.

Sebastián Diaz Morales (1975, Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina) is a visual artist. He works with films, videos and instalallations. He participates in Unerasable Memories exhibition with the work Lucharemos hasta anular la ley.