Associação Cultural Videobrasil

The third and final Public Programs panel of the Unerasable memories – a historic look at the Videobrasil Collection exhibition discussed and problematized a current issue, one which exposes aspects made broader by contemporary art production. Thus, in addition to capping off the exhibition’s public debate, “The Renegade Histories: Indigenous and African Memories” offered a contemporary critical review of the social history of Brazil, intermediated by art as a political language capable of reinterpreting the construction of a collective memory by repositioning characters, protagonists, the oppressed and the oppressors. The show’s curator Agustín Pérez Rubio kicked off the meeting with a concise, retroactive overview of the relevance of an exhibit that highlights art’s eminently political perspective, steering the debate towards the matter at hand in the panel that wrapped up a cycle initiated by the first meeting, whose principal question was: how to fight historical amnesia through art? This question outlined the plot that the following speeches constructed. Given the absence of artist and producer Vincent Carelli, Solange Farkas – the director of Associação Cultural Videobrasil – read a letter he sent, underscoring the importance of giving a voice to those who lay at the margins: in this case, the indigenous communities he investigated alongside the anthropologist Dominique Gallois. Next, Rosângela Rennó expounded upon her first video installation, which employs visual language to revisit the first document written after the arrival of Portuguese conquistadors to Brazil. Finally, Ayrson Heráclito, also featured in the exhibit, brings up the oppressive treatment dispensed to black people since slavery days. His speech evidences the plotline translated by the Unerasable Memories – a historic look at the Videobrasil Collection show.

Agustín Pérez Rubio (1972, Valencia, Spain) is a historian, art critic and curator. He is the art director of the Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires (Malba). He was also the director of the Contemporary Art Museum of Castile y León (MUSAC), in Spain.

Vincent Carelli (1953, Paris, Ile de France, France) is an indigenist and a filmmaker. In 1986, he established the NGO Vídeo nas Aldeias (Video in the Villages), which trains native filmmakers. he is featured in the Unerasable memories exhibition with A Arca dos Zo’e (1993).

Rosângela Rennó (1962, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil) is a visual artist with a prolific output in photography. She is featured in the Unerasable memories exhibition with Vera Cruz (2000).

Ayrson Heráclito (1968, Macaúbas, Bahia, Brazil) is a visual artist, curator and professor with an interest in Afro-Brazilian culture. He is featured in the Unerasable memories exhibition with Barrueco (2004).

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