Hal Wildson - Re-Utopya" exhibition
Exhibition
- Nome: Exposição “Hal Wildson – Re-Utopya”
- Abertura: 09 de junho 2022
- Visitação: até 30 de julho 2022
Local
- Place: Galeria Movimento
- Online Event: No
- Address: Rua dos Oitis, 15, Gávea, CEP 22451-050, Rio de Janeiro, RJ
Galeria Movimento presents the exhibition
"Hal Wildson - Re-Utopya"
Known primarily for his
work with images created from an extreme typing, the artist and
and poet investigates the history of Brazil, where memory, forgetfulness, identity and
are his tools for thinking about a possible future for the country, and for the
for the Brazilian people, "still in formation". This first major individual exhibition of the
artist, born in 1991 in Vale do Araguaia, a frontier region between
Goiás and Mato Grosso, and currently living in São Paulo, will bring together his
his recent, unpublished work, in various media. National symbols, typewriter, digital
typewriter, digital, first historical records of the Brazilian people are
used in this critical process that makes up his poetics.
Movimento Gallery,
Gávea, Rio de Janeiro
Opening: 9th June
2022, from 18h to 21h
Until: 30 July 2022
Critical text: Divino
Sobral
Free entry
Support:
Becks
A Movement Gallery presents
from 9 June 2022,
from 18h to 21h, the exhibition "Re-Utopya",
with recent and unpublished works by the artist Hal
Wildsonborn in 1991 in Vale do
Araguaia, a border region between Goiás and Mato Grosso, and currently
living in São Paulo. The exhibition is accompanied by a critical text by the curator Divino Sobral.
Although this is Hal Wildson's first solo show, his
work may already sound somehow familiar to the general public. His work "Republic of Inequality - Meritocracy
be praised" (2018-2020) was seen on the national network at the opening of the
special documentary "Mothers of Brazil,
produced by Favela Filmes and KondZilla Filmes, directed by
Kelly Castilho and John Oliveira, and shown by Globo in December. In that
work, images from national archives of Brazilian workers
and records of the artist's childhood are embodied in notes of "zero real".
"real zero" notes.
And a poetic video of him, made during the process of creating the work "Singularities" (2020/2022),
viralized, and reached the mark of more than five
million views on Instagram, being shared also by artists
artists, such as Vik Muniz. The video
posted on his page was accompanied by a short text: "There is in us a
Brazil that is worth believing in! We are a people who are born and meet in the
in the mismatch of its multiplicities, that goes beyond time in the process of
building and making itself. There are in us many of us, Brasis under construction and reconstruction
and reconstruction, and it is because I believe that I make my art a seed of
hope, a hammer that breaks, a brick that builds. Singularity, Brazil, identity". "It was surprising," comments Hal Wildson, "because people from many
countries connected with the poetry of the work. Each one in his own place, but everyone
everyone feels something. I'm talking about being human, about our origin".
The work "Singularities"
will be at the exhibition. It consists of 441
digital of the artist in full size,
collected in the studio, in the marks left during the production of the work. And each
digital mixes with a register
history of the Brazilian people - mestizos, like the artist himself, indigenous,
blacks - from national archives, collected on the internet. "They are portraits of Brazil's
identity of Brazil that help us look at our history," he says. "This
This work arises from this will, this desire to understand where the brazilian people are going. In times of crisis - health crisis
crisis, crisis in democracy, institutional crisis, crisis of symbols - how to rebuild Brazil if the people themselves
no longer recognises itself? If the people themselves do not know that there is the possibility of a future?
a future?"he asks.
NINGUENDUM AND
NINGUENTHING
The artist's inseparable companion for two years is the book "O povo
people: a formation
and the meaning of Brazil"(Companhia das Letras,
1995), by Darcy Ribeiro (1922-1997).
"This work is anchored in this book, and has some of the desire to rescue
the desire of what it is to be a Brazilian people, this people still in training, "says
Wildson. He created the expression "ninguentude",
from the term coined by Darcy in the book - ninguendade - , the quality of the primordial Brazilian, son of European father
European father and indigenous mother. "This first Brazilian had no father and no
mother", explains Wildson. "According to the culture of the original peoples, the one who should take care of
the father, who was in Europe and thought that the mother would be responsible.
responsible. This first Brazilian was born without knowing who he was, on the margin of being someone and
being someone and being nobody. He was neither indigenous
nor European. A being in formation". At fourteen, when his grandmother who raised him died, Hal Wildson saw that
"I had to turn around and study, to get rid of this idea of being fated to be
nobody, this fate. "In this
my story and Darcy Ribeiro's critical view of the history and formation of
formation of Brazil meet: 'how can a child without a father and mother be
someone and flee from ninguendade. Thus
was also the 'first Brazilian': son of 'nobody', fruit of violence",
he says. "The understanding of ninguendade
and the search for identity, through these documents that delimit our history, mark my individual
"The understanding of ninguendade and the search for identity, through these documents that delimit our history, mark my individual journey
artistic research to the extent that art becomes a plan of rewriting and writing of
history and retaking of identity to exist-resisting 'ninguentude'".
RE-UTOPYA
A photograph of a child wrapped
the Brazilian flag in satin which reads "Re-Utopya"
embroidered in the centre, instead of "Order and Progress", welcomes the visitor to the
the visitor to the exhibition. With 100 x 67 cm, the work "Re-Utopya
- Road to Pindorama" (2021), will have
part of the value of its sale reverted to the village Rio Silveiraethnicity Guarani Mbyáin São Sebastião, on the coast of
coast of São Paulo. It was there that the photograph was made, and where the artist had the idea of "Re-Utopya"which appeared to him in a dream
appeared to him in a dream, and runs through all his recent production.
"I created the flag Re-Utopya,
in satin, and I took them there to photograph. Not because they were indigenous, but because
it was the family that welcomed me at that moment. The family I wanted to project this future of BrazilThe godmother and
godfather were making clay dough to touch up the wall. It was a calm day
tranquil day, a tranquil life, dignified, planting, harvesting. I wanted this
feeling. As the idea came about there, I wanted to make the first pictures there",
explains Hal Wildson.
In early 2020 he moved to San Sebastian, and then was
surprised by the pandemic. There he came into contact with the Rio Silveira village, taking
bringing support and food to indigenous families, together with the Brotar Network. Fruit
of a family destroyed by the violent, "coronelista" culture of the
Araguaia Valley, where it was common to have family groups involved in sexual abuse
addictions and abandonment, Hal Wildson felt welcomed in the Tupi-Guarani village, where he
a family - "a godfather, a godmother, godchildren" - and was baptised,
and was baptised, receiving the name "Tupã Mirim". He had already lived with indigenous people in
Araguaia, land of the Xavante people, invaded and victimised by gold mining. "They were
discriminated against, as there was already social neglect in the city. As a
As a child, I didn't know why this was happening. Later I understood that it was because of the
the way the city was structured", he recalls.
TEKO PORÃ AND UBUNTU
In the Tupi-Guarani village of São Sebastião, he dreamed the expression Re-Utopya written in urucum and dendê,
and "of the word and its symbolism I saw a Brazilian flag, but among the stars
was written: tekoporã and ubuntu,
replacing the positivist slogan order in progress". "In short, tekoporã
expresses the living well in the community,
a search for balance in the relationships between people and the environment, capable
to understand it as a living and active being. Ubuntu means 'I am because we
are'. I am human, and human nature implies compassion, sharing
respect, empathy", wrote the artist in December 2021, in the Re-Utopya Manifesto. He then thought that if it
it was no longer possible to erase the country's past, it should be possible to
reinvention.
"MONUMENT
TO INDEPENDENCE" (2020/2022)
Set against a red wall, the installation "Monument to Independence (2020/2022) is composed of five works
which are re-interpretations of flags of Brazil that already existed or remained
projects. "Who is this independence for?", asks the artist. "I recreate these flags with
I recreate these flags with the idea of trying to update this project of Brazil in progress.
What in these last 200 years has Brazil actually fought to become
independent? Freedom came to whom in Brazil? When it became
independence in the last century it was to become a monarchy, and still have
people enslaved, while many countries became independent already as a republic.
a republic. This says a lot about our history. This colonialism
perpetuated in the republic, and helped it become a republic of inequality,
which is also a theme in my work", he says.
"I look back at Brazil's colonial past and see how this project has brought us
to arrive at the Brazil of today. It is this Brazil that has corruption, militias
militias, violence, mining taking away indigenous lands", he stresses. "That is why
I use this symbol of the flags, which is also a metaphor for how, in this moment of identity crisis in
Brazil's identity crisis, raising flags has become a way of trying to fight against
of trying to fight against this past, and who knows, building a more just future.
future.
"RE-FLORESTAR UTOPYA" (POLYPT,
2022)
While in the "Monument to
Independence" the artist reflects on the past, "in this dystopia of our
we are living this past now, colonial", in "Re-FlorestarUtopya"the look is towards the future. "I have the past that
I want to transform, and there is no way to build the better future without looking to the
past. I look at this past and by aiming for the utopian future I create the
Re-Utopya", explains Wildson.
He says he took the "Re-Utopya" flag to the Independence Park
Independence Park, "that place where independence was symbolically proclaimed,
on the banks of the Ipiranga", raised the flag on a tree planted in the Park,
and photographed and filmed throughout the day. He then made ink-based interventions
on the photographs, drawing roots in black and red, "once again
making analogies to teko Porã and Ubuntu,
which are those roots that, who knows, can transform Brazil into a more just country.
country". "Based on these philosophies and not on order and progress," he reaffirms.
AFFLUENT SERIES
In this series, begun last year and produced to date, Hal Wildson
creates four paintings in acrylic on paper, measuring 110 x 110cm, in which the faces of
black and indigenous Brazilians occupy maps of Brazil. "When you think of
independence, the Ipiranga stream becomes this symbolic river, this place of
symbolic water where independence was proclaimed, an analogy of what in fact
was," he observes. "I think how many rivers
streams and waters were not places of resistance in this period, but have been
erased from this history? Our independence, as much as it was proclaimed by a king
proclaimed by a king, a white elite, was also an independence in which
there was much struggle and much resistance. That is why I speak of these tributaries, and I give
name the works of the rivers that fed the villages and quilombos, bringing to light
how the importance of this resistance was also paramount to Brazil's independence
of Brazil. Not only at that time. The construction of an independence that is in
process of being, because the country is not a fair place for all".
The works of this series that will be exhibited are called "Juruena River", "Riacho
Açucena", "Rio Araguaia", e "Rio
Bacaxá".
"SEED OF THE FUTURE (2021/2022)
In the corner of the gallery, Hal Wildson will plant a urucum seedling, and on the wall will be written a verse of his that
on the wall will be written a verse of his, which accompanies many of his works: "It is in memory that we plant the seed of the
future". This work "looks" at all the others exhibited, creating a
connection with all of them. "It is important to look at this ancestral root in order to understand
understand that the construction of a future depends on it. How forgetfulness is a violence. Remembering things is the only way
way of planting the future".says the artist.
"That is why I plant an urucum tree, to bring out the importance of looking at our ancestral past
of looking back to our ancestral past and understanding that the struggle continues, that
history is still being made. If I talk about utopia, there's no way I can't talk about
about original peoples of the land because
it is they who guarantee the future of the earth. How important it is to talk about the
demarcation of indigenous lands in Brazil, because without indigenous lands, without
the indigenous peoples, there is no future, there is no more Brazil".
"ORIGINAL UTOPIA"
(TYPEWRITER), 2021
The largest work ever made by the artist, "Original Utopia" (2021) has
180 x 336 cm, and the image of the crowd
in a demonstration waving flags was made with typewriter typing on 384 sheets of photocopies of pages
of the book "O povo brasileiro: a formação e o sentido do Brasil", from
Darcy Ribeiro. Hal Wildson created the image from several photographs
photographs of demonstrations in Brazil, and points out that also present in
also present in this work the "thought of identity and
of ninguentude".
He states that "forgetfulness is
the worst violence because it takes away your past and also takes away your future".
"Amnesty in Brazil comes with a violence, it forces us to forget the past.
the past. The typewriter comes in as this symbolic object, to speak
the recent past of Brazil, especially the dictatorship, but also for having been for
decades as an instrument to create documents and to create the identities of the
Brazilian people. The process of this object made for writing fits
perfectly to my work, because it succeeds in summing up this question of identity
identity, history, and rewriting. My work also talks about how to
look at the past, and rewrite the possibility of a future".
The laborious process of constructing the works in this series, conceived in
2018, and realized for the first time in 2019, has its "technical intelligence"
coming from the cross stitch embroiderythat the artist
squares that you put together and create images, almost pixels.
creating images, almost like pixels". "To create the works with the typewriter
I do this to the extreme. First I make a kind of mould, where I know
where the red and black will be. All letters. I make a sketch on a piece of paper and
and mark where each area of colour is going to be. As I make several layers, one layer erases the other
erasing the other, which is a metaphor of the historical fact that one layer is
overlapping another, creating a new reality. You erase something and create
You erase something and create a memory based on that erasure, on oblivion, which has a lot to do with the
this poetic language of my work". "To get the intense red or the intense black
black, I create more than eight layers of letters in the same place, until I
until I can fill it in. For example, in one layer I repeat memory, word and forgetfulness. In another I put random letters to fill
In another one I put random letters to fill the empty spaces, and I keep repeating until I
in fact create the colour, the light, the colour, the outline".
He also uses a stamp created with the typography of the machine, to
"deepen certain words, and speed up the creation process".
ABOUT HAL WILDSON
Artist
multimedia artist and poet of mixed race, born in 1991 in Vale do Araguaia
region between Goiás and Mato Grosso, Hal Wildson is known for his
research that involves concepts of writing, identity and the reconstruction of
collective and autobiographical memories, crossed by social and political issues.
political issues. The research on memory and forgetfulness is the basis of a work that
investigates the creation of narrative territories through symbols and documents
used as tools of construction and reconstruction in the personal and collective
collective field.
"I am
instigated by documentary collections, written techniques and materials of
documentation, as I believe that documents are objects that allow the
creation of symbolic narratives of memory, in the personal sphere, creating fictions
existence itself and on a large scale in the fabrication of the history of a
nation, since every memory carries with it the weight of forgetfulness - what are we forgetting to tell?
are we forgetting to tell?"
ABOUT
DIVINO SOBRAL
Divino Sobral was born in Goiânia, in 1966, where he lives and
works as an independent artist and curator. He received the awards of
curator of the Salão Anapolino de Artes (2017) and the Marcantonio Vilaça CNI
SESI SENAI (2015); Art Criticism award at Situações Brasilia Award of
Visual Arts of the DF (2014); Marcantonio Vilaça MinC-Funarte Award (2009).
Between 2011 and 2013 he was director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Goiás. He publishes
regularly publishes texts on Brazilian art in academic journals, books, catalogues and
and newspapers.
Service - Exhibition "Hal Wildson - Re-Utopya
Movimento Gallery, Gávea, Rio de Janeiro
Opening: 9
June 2022, from 6pm to 9pm
Until: 30 July 2022
Free entry
Support: Becks
Rua dos Oitis, 15, Gávea, CEP 22451-050, Rio de Janeiro, RJ