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Only Anthropophagy Unites Us?

For this issue, we have asked a group of mostly Brazilian artists and thinkers to consider the significance and meaning of Anthropofagia in a contemporary context, on the cusp of the movement’s one hundredth anniversary.

Note from the Translator

Translation is not a neutral activity. What we choose to translate directly impacts the visibility, reach and circulation of ideas. In this sense, translation is an extension of the choices of publishers and editors in the original language.

We are Borg!

One hundred years ago, nourished by the spirit of revolutionary freedom professed in France, artists of modernity evoked an “edible” and primitive future.

a country of anonymous pain no more

brazil. a white man in his gray coat, with a smile full of scorn at the corner of his lips, appeared on an internet video to say “brazilian art of the next decade will be heroic and will be national” in a prophetic tone, he said that the art of the next decade will be “and will be equally imperative, since it is deeply binded to the urgent aspirations of our people, or else it will be nothing.

Ka’aguy Porã

My grandmother was a midwife and her teachings had a great impact on me. They are teachings of indigenous, Guarani women, especially how they take care of children, whether boy or girl.

The Almost-Brazilians

Brazil had already left its days as a colony behind, and was coming into its own as an empire when Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen sent his “Organic Memorial” (1850) to the Guanabara journal. In this piece, he offered advice for improving the development of the nation. His assertions, acerbic in nature, emphasized the provincial character of Brazil.

Anthropophagous Manifesto from the Periphery

A voice shall cry out from the alleyways against the silence punishing us. A beautiful and intelligent people shall rise from the hillsides in a dash against their past. For a clean future for all Brazilians.

ReAnthropophagy

it was first of May of twenty eight/day of the manifesto of hunger of the worker/only anthrophagy unites us, my heart

Claudia Andujar: anthropophagie?, fényképezés, yanõmami!

The contact triggered by colonization of the already inhabited lands of the “New World” incentivized the disintegration of many peoples. It also brought about the establishment of figures of expression and strategies such as anthropophagy.

Attacking the Biennial

Pixação is not like the painting of colorful murals—graffiti—throughout the city. Quite the opposite: we use black ink to challenge the power dynamics in the city and the current social order. The pixador engages in the practice as a response to spatial segregation in the city by writing on any of its surfaces without prior authorization.

At Any Time, Hard Meat

My land has no palm trees, or singing Sabiá birds. In this clearing, there is neither forest nor ownerless dogs at a crossroads.

Plas Ayiti (Neon Project)

Plas Ayiti consists of a bright installation in neon, measuring four and a half by one meters atop the building Nossa Senhora da Luz (Our Lady of Light). At night time, it featured the term Plas Ayiti, which in Haitian Creole means “Haitian Place,” giving visibility to the name that Haitian immigrant refugees used to refer to the plaza where they met as a community.

Antonio Dias and the Kidnapping of Pop Art

Dias devised an aggressive appropriation: he operated a “kidnapping.” Therefore, the struggle was transferred to another terrain. The nationalist combative strategy was replaced with an international one.

Sons of the Nation

We can think of the nation as akin to a narcissistic father figure that hopes to see his image, feats and aspirations reflected in the citizens

The Originality of the Herd of Cannibals

Just like one makes pâté de foie gras, since I was a child I was engulfed in Eurocentrism. Did I choke or did I not choke, that is the question. They did not expect me to become anthropophagous, they imagined a banquet.

I Continue My “Auto-phagy” and Winds Gust Over My Own Ashes

I first wish to make reference to my work process. This is essential commentary. Between the end of the ’90s and the beginning of the next decade, I started to work on the “digital mundane,” which I denominated at that moment “Popular Saints.” This was a type of fantasy that remains present in my current work. The process itself was quite simple.

Cotton Candy in Grandma’s Hair

Dressed in a white coat, with blue eyes and authority the so-called Doctor certified: the woman had a Grandma the Portuguese would round up by lasso, the savage cabocla, a real bugre.

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The Brooklyn Rail

FEB 2021

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