Exhibition "JOSECA YANOMAMI: OUR FOREST LAND
Exhibition
- Nome: Exposição "JOSECA YANOMAMI: NOSSA TERRA-FLORESTA"
- Opening: 29 July 2022
- Visiting: until 30 October 2022
Local
- Venue: MASP - Assis Chateaubriand Museum of Art of São Paulo
- Online Event: No
- Address: Avenida Paulista, 1578 - Bela Vista
MASP PRESENTS THE FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION BY JOSECA YANOMAMI
In the year of celebration of the 30th anniversary of the approval of the Yanomami Indigenous Land, the exhibition shows drawings about the cosmology and daily life of this people
29 July to 30 October 2022
The MASP - Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand and the Ministry of Tourism present, from 29 July to 30 October 2022, the exhibition Joseca Yanomami: our land-forestin the first basement of the museum. Curated by Adriano Pedrosa, artistic director of MASP, and David Ribeiro, assistant curator of MASP, the exhibition brings together 93 drawings of characters, scenes, landscapes and phenomena of the Yanomami universe, with reference to the forest, its people, its stories and shamanic songs. This is the first individual exhibition dedicated to the drawings of the artist, presenting an expressive part of his production in the year in which the 30th anniversary of the approval of the Yanomami Indigenous Land is celebrated. The exhibition is sponsored by Bradesco and sponsored by Livelo.
Joseca Yanomami (1971, Uxi u river, Yanomami Indigenous Land) is a visual artist from the Watoriki community of the Yanomami Indigenous Land in Amazonas. Interested in the areas of health and education, he founded the first Yanomami school in his group in the 1990s, encouraging children to learn to write and study languages, a process he had recently experienced. At the time, she participated in the production of numerous bilingual (Yanomami/Portuguese) leaflets for school education and health programmes created by Brazilian NGOs. In the early 2000s, Joseca was the first Yanomami to work in the health sector. At this time, he also began to carve wood animals from the forest, and soon after began to draw pictures illustrating elements and stories of Yanomami life, daily life, context and cosmology.
For the exhibition, drawings from 2011 to 2013 were brought together on the Amazonian forest-land and all the beings that inhabit it, bringing together various elements that make up the cosmology and daily life of its people and refer to the efforts of shamans, leaders and spirits. "Joseca's drawings allow us, from our look and our feeling, to perceive that the diversity that inhabits the forest is also formed by the xapiripë, the spirits that guarantee to all of us, indigenous and non-indigenous alike, the certainty that the sun will rise tomorrow and that the sky will not fall on our heads," reflects curator David Ribeiro.
His productions seek to give body to the chants, dreams and stories narrated by the shamans, a record that, beyond the artistic expression identified at first sight, gives colour and form to the spirits seen only by those who go through the process of becoming a spiritual leader. The majority of the drawings are accompanied by descriptions originally made in Yanomami language by the artist which give an account of the cosmological dimensions present in his visual narrative. The work Urihi xi wãrii tëhë thë urihi huëmaɨ wihi thëã [The shamans hold the earth when it goes into chaos]., from 2011, for example, is concerned with demonstrating the work of land preservation by the shamans, which adds to the environmental conservation carried out by indigenous and traditional peoples. "I didn't study in the city to learn how to draw, I studied only in the forest, where I hunted in the bush. I would draw on the trees, on the beaches, I would draw on the coconut trees and on the young leaves, with charcoal. I would peel the tree and draw on the trunks. I drew relatives, animals, trees, birds, macaws, monkeys, tapirs, fish. When I learnt to draw I would hear the shamans singing and I recorded it in my head to draw later. I draw the spirits. And when I dream, I study a lot, think a lot and draw many drawings of my dream", Joseca Yanomami tells us.
In the year in which the approval of the Yanomami Indigenous Land completes 30 years, the artist's works also express the indigenous struggle against the threats that endanger the Yanomami and the forest-land they inhabit with all its visible and invisible beings, suggesting, even, the importance of non-indigenous people in this battle. "The artistic production of Joseca Yanomami invests itself with the function of reminding us of the part that falls to us, as non-indigenous people, in the defence of the rights of indigenous peoples and, by extension, the rights of the people of the forest," points out David Ribeiro. "The arrival of these drawings at MASP is, therefore, the descent of the xapiripë to a territory that, in receiving them, assumes its commitment to the defence of the forest-land, of all those who inhabit it, and to the healing of the evils caused by the people of the merchandise to the people of the forest", he concludes.
The exhibition also includes the screening of the video SOPRO, by the collective Barreira Y, with support from the Forum of Yanomami and YeK'wana Leadership and the Socio-environmental Institute. The work brings the projection of Joseca Yanomami's drawings, accompanied by Davi Kopenawa Yanomami's speeches, held in 2020 at the national congress, as part of the campaign #foragarimpoforacovid, against garimpo and the spread of Covid-19, as well as other diseases and ills caused on Yanomami land by garimpeiros.
Joseca Yanomami: our land-forest is part of MASP 's biennial programme dedicated to Brazilian Stories (2021-22), on the occasion of the bicentenary of Brazil's independence in 2022. This year, the programme also includes exhibitions by Dalton Paula, Madalena dos Santos Reinbolt (1919-1977), Judith Lauand and Cinthia Marcelle, in addition to Brazilian Stories, a major collective.
ABOUT JOSECA YANOMAMI
Joseca Yanomami is a visual artist born in 1971 on the Uxi u river, and lives in the Watoriki community of the Yanomami Indigenous Land in Amazonas. He has participated in exhibitions at the Cartier Foundation in Paris, Shanghai and Lille, the Tomie Ohtake Institute and the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo, the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, and the Wellcome Foundation in London. His drawings present characters, scenes and landscapes from the Yanomami universe, many of them accompanied by descriptions originally made in Yanomami by the artist and which give an account of the many cosmological dimensions present in his visual narrative.
CATALOGUE
Accompanying the exhibition, a catalogue will be published in bilingual volume (Portuguese/English) with the reproduction of all the works present in the show. The book, organized by Adriano Pedrosa and David Ribeiro, includes texts by Bruce Albert, David Ribeiro, Denilson Baniwa and Patrícia Ferreira Pará Yxapy. Designed by MASP designer Nina Nunes, the publication will be published in hardcover.
SERVICE
JOSECA YANOMAMI: OUR FOREST-LAND
Curatorship: Adriano Pedrosa, artistic director, David Ribeiro, curatorial assistant1st basement
29.07 - 30.10.22MASP - Art Museum of São Paulo Assis ChateaubriandAvenida Paulista, 1578 - Bela Vista 01310-200 São Paulo, SPTelephone: (11) 3149-5959Hours: Tuesdays from 10am to 8pm (free admission until 7pm); Wednesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm (free admission until 5pm); closed on MondaysOnline booking required through the link masp.org.br/ingressosTickets: R$ 50 (admission); R$ 25 (half-entry)