Akinbode Akinbiyi, Ana Hupe, Anita Ekman, Antonio Társis, Ayrson Heráclito, Camila Sposati, Carol Barreto, Cássio Bomfim, Emeka Ogboh, Falke Pisano, Isaac Julien, Jonathan Dotse, Jota Mombaça, Sarojini Lewis, Tatewaki Nio, Yolanda Chois

Curated by Ines Linke and Uriel Bezerra

In partnership with Pivô, Goethe-Institut presents the group show Echoes of the South Atlantic, with the participation of Akinbode Akinbiyi, Ana Hupe, Anita Ekman, Antonio Társis, Ayrson Heráclito, Camila Sposati, Carol Barreto, Cássio Bomfim, Emeka Ogboh, Falke Pisano, Isaac Julien, Jonathan Dotse, Jota Mombaça, Sarojini Lewis, Tatewaki Nio, Yolanda Chois. The exhibition – curated by Ines Linke and Uriel Bezerra – is part of the programme Pivô Welcomes, in which projects previously conceived by artists, curators or cultural producers are co-produced and hosted within Pivô.

In its third edition, the group exhibition, which was originally part of a conference of the same name organised by the Goethe-Institut in Salvador (2018), and later exhibited at Centro Municipal de Arte Hélio Oiticica, in Rio de Janeiro (2018), brings together videos, photographs, sound pieces, posters, objects and performances by an international selection of 16 artists, whose artworks examine the complex relationships between the countries and communities that make-up the South Atlantic. Each artist created a sort of ‘alternative history’ that challenges the region’s official historiography, examining exchanges, investigating relationships, diluting geographical frontiers and outlining present ramifications. The individual perspectives that are implicit in these images, sounds, documents, vestiges, instruments and pieces resonate colonial and post-colonial narratives, diasporas, global migrations and transcultural processes.

Akinbode Akinbiyi (1946) introduces a series of six images from Passageways, Involuntary Narratives and the Sound of Crowded Spaces (2015-2017), which was exhibited for the first time at Documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel in 2017. The sequence of images taken in Kassel, Lagos and Osogbo is displayed in a grid, creating a visual cadence specifically conceived for this exhibition.

Ana Hupe (1983) draws on broad research focused on racism, feminism and migration. The artist creates parallels between the life story of Romana da Conceição, who moved from Salvador to Lagos in 1900, and Okwei Odili, who moved from Lagos to Salvador, in 2018.

À Flor da Terra [Shallow Grave] by Anita Ekman (1985) expands on the performance Tupi Valongo. Cemitério dos Pretos Novos e Velhos Índios [Tupi Valongo. Cemetery of New Blacks and Old Indigenous People] presented at the conference Echoes of the South Atlantic (Goethe-Institut Salvador) in 2018. The performance is in collaboration with group Dyroa Báya and Anani Sanouvi. Through African and Indigenous funeral rituals, the artist examines the historical protagonism of women, looking at the largest cemetery for Africans outside Africa: the archaeological site of the Cemetery of New Blacks in Rio de Janeiro.

Trabuco (2015) by Antônio Társis (1995) examines the violence perpetrated against Black bodies. The artist collects and transforms vestiges of armed conflicts that attest to the historical and daily repression imposed by the Police and the State.

Ayrson Heráclito (1968) presents the diptych video O Sacudimento: a reunião das Margens Atlânticas [The Shake: The Reunion of the Atlantic Margins] (2015), originally exhibited at the 57th Venice Biennial in 2017. The artist shows two recordings of cleansing rituals involving spirits from the time of slavery. These performances took place at Maison des Esclaves, in Gorée, Senegal and at Casa da Torre de Garcia d’Ávila, in Mata de São João, Brazil.  

Camila Sposati (1972) and Falke Pisano (1978) transpose issues of music, dance, history and archaeology to the realm of art. The duo introduces different gazes to colonial images and shows how illustrations of instruments and music traditions affect our current relations and actions.

Carol Barreto presents Coleção Asè [Collection Asè] (2016), which investigates the relationship between fashion and Black-female ancestry. Her work – originally presented as a collaborative performance – draws on the rich textile tradition of Northeast Brazil and is used as a tool against racism.

From his experiences derived from Salve Exú Motoboy [Hail Exú Motoboy] (2016-2018), which encompasses fashion, photography, video and street performance, where the contemporary image of the ‘motoboy’ (term that commonly refers to motorbike delivery drivers in Brazil) is intersected with the archetypes of African religions, Cássio Bomfim (1984) proposes a participative performance using his collection of items in which he presents possibilities of ‘visual incorporation’.

In the sound installation Trading Places (2016), Emeka Ogboh (1977) combines recordings from different markets in and around Lagos, importing the soundscape of this vibrant African metropolis – which is the economic, commercial and cultural capital of Nigeria – to Bahia, Brazil. On Praça do Cacau (Cocoa Square), these sounds are transformed into an outdoor concert, permeating and intersecting the sonorities of São Paulo.

Isaac Julien (1960) creates a visual language that speaks to the documentary elements of cinema. In Territories, he explores the gender, race and sexuality issues that percolated the everyday lives of Black people in Great Britain in the 1980s.

Jonathan Dotse (1988), an AfroCyberPunk artist, presents Pandora (2015-2018), an experimental short-film displayed in 360 degrees and recorded in Accra, Tema and Aburi, in Ghana. The old Greek myth of Pandora is re-imagined in an African context and retold via the possibilities of virtual reality. The narrative takes us on a journey that displaces time and space, raising questions about the use of and access to technology.  

Jota Mombaça (1991) works with performances that deal with issues of violence, resilience and necropolitics, amongst others. The exhibited artwork is the result of a performance carried out in Salvador consisting of an expanded action in which she manufactured hand-crafted knifes.  

Sarojini Lewis (1984) presents the video Searching for Madame Jeanette (2018), inspired in the Madame Jeanette chilli, which is commonly used in the Caribbean and whose name refers to a famous Brazilian prostitute. Could Madame Jeanette have migrated from Salvador to the Caribbean at the beginning of slave labour in Bahia?

Tatewaki Nio (1971) presents a selection of four photographs of a new series titled The Footsteps of the Returnees (2017), produced in Lagos, Nigeria. The artist looks at constructions such as churches, housing developments and commercial buildings in Lagos that were erected by former slaves from colonial Brazil who travelled back to Lagos.

Yolanda Chois (1987) works with communication networks and alternative viewpoints. Her research, which is carried out inter-institutionally in the Global South, deals with the context of contemporary immigration and the effects of colonial narratives. The series of posters Cayendo a la Periferia/Dinámicas de la Migración [Falling to the Periphery/Dynamics of Migration] (2018) was created from conversations with her collaborators.  

In their own unique ways, the artworks that are part of this exhibition belong to a process of de/re-constructing stories that can transform our perception of social, political, economic and cultural development in the Southern Atlantic region, contributing to a revision of the dichotomies embedded in the official historical narratives, with the aim of democratising and decolonising the relationships between Southern Atlantic nations.

More information: ww.goethe.de/brasil/ecos