Statement 2019
Transcription of the statement for the 21st Biennial
The combination of artistic research, visual education and collaboration underlies what I have come to call “shared authorship.” This format stems from an initial concern of mine with reaching people that are systematically removed from contemporary art circuits. I invite them to participate by contributing drawings (of any kind) so that, using formal instruments of visuality, we can produce together a—so to speak—professional piece of art, by applying the stencil technique to the surfaces.
In 2015 I exhibited at the Lubumbashi Biennial, in Congo. On my last day in the country, Sammy Baloji, one of the founders of Picha, an association that emerge to organize the Biennial, took me to Makwatcha, a farming village where women paint the houses with their hands, drawing everyday objects and situations on the walls. Georges Senga, a photographer and Picha member that took part in the 2015 Biennial, already had this series of images of the Makwatcha walls, which I used to make the prints now exhibited at the 21st Biennial. The idea is to implement this method of shared authorship in the village so that the community may use it for income generation, drawing on their own cultural background.
This type of movement, in which some exchange happens involving various agents and the population, is very common for us at JAMAC. I am currently in Oslo taking part of OsloBiennalen with the project Uma Outra Gramática para Oslo, in partnership with Bruno Oliveira, who is also a JAMAC member. In 2019 we took part of the Somos Muitos, exhibition at Pinacoteca do Estado, in São Paulo, in partnership with the museum’s Extramuros educational project and with the educator Augusto Sampaio. We are setting up at JAMAC, with some difficulty, a production and sales network of our silk-screen printing (and also digital printing) products, with the administrative support of Renata Carvalho. We are setting up a support service for education professionals, Clínica de Educadores , led by Ana Beatriz Domingues (who is also responsible for yoga classes), as well as several other projects such as Ponto de Cultura de Cinema , led by Thais Scabio (a partner filmmaker and JAMAC director), drawing lessons with Lahayda Dreger and dishcloth painting with Izabel Gomes. In the Cidade Ademar district we have as partner a group of cultural agents that for the past four years has been organizing the #CaiuNaRedeÉCultura literature gatherings, with local production and programs for local schools. JAMAC’s network of partners also includes institutions such as MAC-USP, Paço das Artes, Sesc-SP, Casa do Povo and Casa 1.