Associação Cultural Videobrasil

Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the land of Juscelino Kubitschek and Chica da Silva, the municipality of Diamantina, where Eustáquio Neves lives and works, is a fountain ofhistory surrounding the headquarters of the artist from the state of Minas Gerais. The mountains, the architecture of city streets, and its past studded with jewels, but alsoconflicts and changes, provide a perfect picture frame for the photographer and video artist’s trade: to probe the human landscape that reinvents itself each day, looking forthe ties that keep the cohesion of the identity, values, and memory of a population. 

Born in Juatuba, forty-five kilometers away from the capital Belo Horizonte, Neves graduated in chemistry in 1980, but his interest in experimenting only flew over the pipettes and then settled down for good in the artistic territory. “In everything that I produce there lies a restlessness that makes me want to break from the traditional model; Ithink that that holds true for all people who do creative work,” he says. 

Outof the passion for experimentation there emerged photographic essays marked by physicaland chemical interventions that move between past and present, such as Boa aparência, about the veiled form of racism found in job advertisements, or Encomendador de almas, in which the photographer transcends palpable aspects to capture the atmosphere impregnated with reminiscences, precepts, and knowledge of the occult that surrounds Seu Crispim, an inhabitant of quilombo do Baú [quilombo is a community established by escaped slaves] whose mission is to commend the souls of the deceased. 

Day-to-day traditions inspired by Africa that remain in use outside of Brazil have alsocaught the artist’s eye. In 1999, Neves was awarded a scholarship at Gasworks Studios, where he undertook a residency with support from Autograph, a London-based association of black photographers.

Developed during that period, the project Navio negreiro was nurtured, among other experiences, by the idiosyncrasies and routine activitiesof the inhabitants of Brixton, an impoverished London neighborhood where the artistclaims to have experienced feelings of familiarity, “a sense of belonging.”  IntheUnited States, new identifications came up. Neves’ attention was caught by the fact that, even in small gestures, he noticed similarities between customs of black communitiesin Brazil and in the United States. 

In Africa, the artist has held solo exhibitions in countries such as Mali, as part of the 5th Rencontres de la Photographie Africaine, in Bamako (2003), and in Mozambique, last year. This year, he developed the video Post No Bill, set in Lagos and inspiredby the recurring “Post no bill” warnings thatplague the Nigerian city. There, he also ministered the video workshop Linha imaginária.  From the onset of his career, Neves states that cinema has always been present in the elaboration of his projects, even when they were in the field of photography. “I take photographs with cinema in mind,” he says. Going from thought to action, he decided to become involved with the moving image in 2005, when he presented Outrosnavios, his first video installation, built from images of his own mother, at the 1st Pan-African Contemporary Art Exhibition, in Salvador. 

In 2007, it was a video, nota photograph, that earned him the Videobrasil WBK Vrije Academie Prize, which consists of a residency at the Dutch organization, and was granted at the 16th International Electronic Art Festival SESC_Videobrasil (2007). The awarded work was Abismovirtual, a reflection on intimacy and digital media. 

In The Hague, where he spenthis studyseason, he developed the Dead Horseproject,which is another video—thistime directly linked to his source of inspiration, cinema. The new work, which is now being concluded, approaches the series of images The Horse in Motion, made by Eadweard Muybridge in the late 19th century, and contemporary box-office hits.