Seventeenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

The paper investigates an exclusion of narratives and imagery that have brought into play the dispossessions and conflicts that marked the history and present of Brazil in the field of images, and, in opposition, recent exhibitions and artistic productions that stand as a counterpoint to this hegemonic perception of life. From works of art present in the exhibitions Museu do Homem do Nordeste (Museum of the Northeastern Man) by artist Jonathas de Andrade and Conflitos (Conflicts: Photography and political violence in Brazil, 1889-1964), we discuss the transit of significations operated within images and the historical resignification that can happen through the articulation of discursive forces in the fields of art, communication and history. In some cases, the curatorships rely on works and documents from distant times, bringing into play images that show themselves as evidence of the construction and naturalization of a colonial episteme and imaginary. Another class of exhibitions brings together works by artists from countries marked by colonization that, through artistic inventions, fictional creations, and above all, performative gestures, confront this mismatch between the lived reality and its sensible equivalents, representing what has sometimes been obliterated of official history.