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220 x 290 cm
Coffe on raw cotton
Photo Courtesy Tatu Cult![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/copy_of_240131_ccbb_269.jpg)
37 x 37 cm each (24 pieces)
PVA and acrylic on raw cotton
Photo Filipe Berndt“It is important to say that for Aimé Césaire négritude, a term that first appeared in the magazine L’Étudiant noir [The Black Student] in 1934, is a concept that is simultaneously literary and political. By reappropriating a racist term from the dominant colonizing language, he intends to promote Africa and its culture. A similar fate runs through the series of small black and red canvases on which André Vargas invents “his” Africanizations of the Brazilian Portuguese language. Mirroring Lélia Gonzalez’s pretuguês [“Blacktuguese”], it is a somewhat surrealistic and random play on words that seeks to trace approximations through sounds: “fomnologia”, “preticado”, “ilêitura”, “caciqnificado”, “perónome”, “sujeitupi”, “pluhaux”. Like the image-filled Creole language, this speech emerges from the slave ship’s hold to honor the linguistic branches that encompassed more than 600 languages forcefully removed from the African continent.”
Excerpt from No Fim da Madrugada, by Lisette Lagnado
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/mg_3081_copy.jpg)
70 x 345 cm (each)
acrylic paint on Oxford fabric
Photo André VargasQuem come quiabo não pega feitiço [Whoever eats okra doesn’t get spells]
The work is in honor of Xangô and the culture of all African-based religions in Brazil.
Evoking the power of okra, the phrase is a popular saying common among the people of axé, which reinforces the power of this vegetable, especially, in protecting those who share the culture.
Okra is of African origin and present in foods used in afro-brazilian rituals, it is much appreciated in Brazilian homes and is dedicated to Xangô, the Orixá of fire, when used in the amalá. Amalá being a ritual food with a variety of uses and ingredients, but it´s base is most often a mix of okra and manioc.
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/5-artistas-de-terreiro.jpg)
73 x 94 cm
Acrylic paint on raw cotton
Painting on raw cotton that stems from a famous ex-voto from the city of La Rochelle that is exposed in the cathedral of San Luis, where the owner of a slave ship thanks the return of his vessel after a long time adrift at sea.
The painting, which paraphrases the old ex-voto, evokes another history and another of the sea´s powers, one much earlier and much greater for black people from before the terrible time of slavery, which is their relationship with the sacred, present in this work through the Orisha Iemanjá, queen of the sea, as well as her boat of offerings.
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ex-voto.jpg)
30 x 20 x 20 cm
Acrylic paint and fabric on rum bottle
Molotov cocktails made with Rum bottles. Rum is an ancient drink which has been used as barter to trade in enslaved blacks.
There is still a French brand that explores in its name and image, the colonial stereotypes of blackness as a racist assumption for using these subjects and thus, metaphorically, hurling the cry (GRITO) left over from the label of this history on the colonizing foundations that still remain standing.
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/grita_1.jpg)
2,25 x 1,53 m
Acrylic paint on fabric
This work reviews a painting exhibited at the Museum of the New World in La Rochelle, “Les mascarades nupitiales”, which portrays enslaved people with dwarfism in the court of Queen Maria, mother of Dom João VI of Portugal, wearing noble clothes in celebration of the wedding of one of these enslaved people.
The idea of this work is to remove these people portrayed in this old painting from this place of imitation of nobility that entertained the court as exotic, picturesque and eccentric things; every European traveler in search of the exotic new world and re-locate them in a place where the ancestry that includes them is the object of worship, painting them as Orixás, so that they live free and in full power of themselves.
The Orixás referenced in this work are, from right to left, starting at the bottom: Ogun (Orixá of War and technology), Exu (Orixá of communication and lord of all paths), Oxum (Queen of the waters of rivers, of beauty and of fertility); above: Xangô (Lord of justice and fire, King of the city of Oyó), Iansã (Queen of lightning and winds and who dominates the rites of passage between life and death) and, at the highest point, Oxalá (Orixá elder and counselor who was entrusted by Olodumarê, the greatest of the orixás, to create the world.
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/gira_novo_mundo.jpg)
74 x 63 cm
Acrylic paint on Burlington fabric
The intrinsic relationships of words that are formally very close, such as “Île” in French and “Ilê” in Yoruba, create complex narratives for understanding the world. Ilê, in Yoruba means house and in Afro-Brazilian religions it is this word that we use to indicate the temples where the cults take place.
The Ilê, or the house, is the space of the sacred, but, surrounded by persecution from all sides, because Afro-diasporic religions are targets of demonization, violence and prejudice in every part of the world, it resists as an island of welcome and peace.
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ile_ile.jpg)
86 x 162 cm
Acrylic paint on Burlington fabric
The formal game between the most common of French greetings, ça va, and one of the most popular religious greetings of African origin in Brazil, saravá, is the poetry produced by blurring the borders of language to lead us to a healthy hybridity of encounters between cultures.
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/carava.jpg)
33 x 36 x 28 cm
Laser and acrylic engraving on wooden bench
This work is a small white wooden bench, similar to the benches used by the Pretos Velhos [the old blacks], which carries a phrase that guides the research I was able to carry out in La Rochelle. Pretos Velhos are Umbanda entities, evolved disembodied spirits of enslaved black people who return to the world to advise us and bless us against bad energies.
A religious greeting made in the presence of these entities in Umbanda: “Adorei as almas! [I loved the souls!]”, might, in part, have as a possible origin, the modification of a command that made use of the French word “doré”.
It was the bridging of these words that made it possible for me to cross the Atlantic and connect with this terrible period in human history – responding by acknowledging my ancestry – with the profound spell of historical revisions.
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66 x 72 cm
Acrylic paint on Burlington fabric
The map of the Atlantic Ocean painted in red on a black Burlington fabric is the mark of the violence of the period of enslavement that will spread across the entire coast that this ocean bathes.
The phrase, in Portuguese, plays with the meaning of the name of another ocean, the Pacific, to reinforce the historical identity of the Atlantic as a space of pain and affliction during the period of slavery.
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71 x 98 cm
Sewing on fabric
Bandeira de duas faces em preto e branco (cores do yin e yang da filosofia oriental, mas também cores que simbolizam os pretos velhos nas umbandas brasileiras) onde a palavra francesa “noir” tem seu significado repensado através de correspondências formais e sonoras com palavras do português. “No ir” em português é como estar no caminho e “No ar” é como ascender, ir aos céus. E, dessa maneira, partindo de outras premissas para traduções mais poéticas do que literais, perceber o caminho de ascendência da negritude nos espaços de poder.
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/no_ir_no_ar.jpg)
75cm x 7m
Acrylic paint on Burlington fabric
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/l_esperance_c_est_une_douleur.jpg)
3,3m x 1m
Acrylic paint on Burlington fabric
The plant, which in France is known by the name “Langue de belle-mère”, in Portuguese is called “Espada de São Jorge” [Saint George’s Sword], or, as we see in the cults of religions of African origin in Brazil, “Espada de Ogum” [Ogun’s Sword] and it is generally used in homes as an amulet, a plant that is capable of removing energy from the house, because it has the strength of the holy warrior and the general Orisha.
São Jorge and Ogum are syncretized in Umbanda, the most popular syncretic religion that emerged in the early 20th century in Rio de Janeiro, which makes the feast of the Catholic saint one of the most frequented and ecumenical in the city of Rio de Janeiro.
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/quebrando_quebranto_da_beira_do_mar.jpg)
171 x 192 cm
Pencil and coffee on raw cotton
In this work, the objects evoke the presence of the invisible. It is possible to imagine, by the arrangement of the paintings, the body of two people sitting on the benches and using the objects that orbit them. They are objects of religious use by the pretos velhos, but which refer, as it should be, to the culture and customs of the enslaved black peoples in Brazil.
The work is done with raw cotton rags, pencil and coffee. With that, Vargas elaborates a construction that makes use of some of the most recognized commodities of the period of slavery in Brazilian lands – coffee, cotton and sugar – and, not by chance, products that tell the story of his ancestors who were forced to work in mills that had these plantations.
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/sarava_meus_pretos_velhos_sarava_meus_ancestrais.jpg)
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280 x 200 cm
PVA on Oxford fabric
Photo Filipe Berndt“Work composed of banners with phrases in which the burning of old sugar cane mills in Rio de Janeiro is proposed as a way to purge the spectre of colonial relations from the territorial dictates of the city, in a projection of the past that recounts the history of our resistance” – André Vargas
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/31_foto_filipe_berndt.jpg)
75 x 30 x 25 cm
Painting on fire extinguisher shelter, candle and glass of water Photo Vermelho “Small chapel painted inside a fire extinguisher safebox, where elements coexist that are at first glance contrary - a glass of water and a lit candle - in the search for strength and faith to put out the fires of everyday life” – André Vargas![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/1.jpg)
34 x 112 x 112 cm
16 wooden axes Photo Filipe Berndt “This is a work in honor of the Orisha Xangô, whose weapon is the oxê, a kind of doublebladed ax, but it is also a tribute to the popular Saint John - associated with Xangô in the Umbandas in Rio de Janeiro - honored in the June festivals and to whom the bonfire is dedicated as part of these festivities.” – André Vargas![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/19_foto_filipe_berndt.jpg)
50 x 70 cm
Nylon e missangas Photo Filipe Berndt In the colors of the guides of Xangô, Orixá ruled by fire, this work marks the poetry of the dexterity of the orixá with its element in a phrase that synthesizes all its power.![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/29_foto_filipe_berndt.jpg)
50 x 70 cm
Nylon e missangas Photo Filipe Berndt In the colors of the guides of Xangô, Orixá ruled by fire, this work marks the poetry of the dexterity of the orixá with its element in a phrase that synthesizes all its power.![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/30_foto_filipe_berndt.jpg)
280 x 223 cm
Oxford fabric flag and bamboo Photo Filipe Berndt “From the colors of the Orisha Exu, lord of the crossroads, of the paths, of the fairs, of the streets, guardian of the houses’ entrances and responsible for communication, to the colors of the anarchist-syndicalist movement, the agenda is only one: the claim and dispute of the street as a stage for the production of a Brazilianness that takes place at the crossroads of the struggles” – André Vargas![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/15_foto_filipe_berndt.jpg)
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/13_foto_filipe_berndt.jpg)
83 x 96 cm
PVA on raw cotton
Photo Filipe Berndt“The pepper plant, in addition to being used as an amulet against evil eye in homes, can also be used to bless. The phrase present in this work is an excerpt from a charm made to cure headaches” – André Vargas
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/14_foto_filipe_berndt.jpg)
40 x 40 cm
PVA and acrylic paint on canvas Photo Filipe Berndt “Based on the aesthetics of the Prophet Gentileza, an artist and popular figure from the Rio de Janeiro streets, where he painted his prophecies in the 90s, the work presents a non-pacifist panorama of action and reaction in contrast to the tone set by the prophet, playing with the manifold meanings of the word “flame” – André Vargas![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/27_foto_filipe_berndt.jpg)
150 x 215 cm
PVA paint on Oxford fabric Photo Filipe Berndt “In the swing of popular expressions, the seriousness of “bringing everything to fire and iron” (Brazilian popular expression that means taking everything too seriously, or to the extreme) is combined with the domains of the blacksmith Orisha who uses these same materials (iron and fire) to exercise his role as a builder of tools, weapons and other technologies” – André Vargas![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/18_foto_filipe_berndt.jpg)
11 x 575 cm
Galvanized steel Photo Filipe Berndt “Withdrawn from the domains of optics, the phrase seen in this work is, conceptually, about the color black, but becomes something like a prescription and a mantra of “blackening” that goes from the artist’s production to the spectator’s optics, claiming other readings of the world, insurgents regarding this relation of alterities” – André Amorim![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/34_foto_filipe_berndt.jpg)
32 x 58 x 10 cm
Seven glass bottles, cachaça and cloth Photo Filipe Berndt “Seven bottles of Exu’s marafo (a type of moonshine) made from Molotov cocktails demonstrate that the fight and the dispute that take place on the street owe reverence to the lord of this domain” – André Vargas![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/10_foto_filipe_berndt.jpg)
94 x 67 cm
Gouache on Kraft paper Photo Filipe Berndt “A sequence from the “Povo” (“People”) series, made in the fragments and the mysteries of absences that make up the images and names of Umbanda (Afro-Brazilian cult) entities in their particular poetics” – André Vargas![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/7_foto_filipe_berndt.jpg)
96 x 65 cm
Gouache and PVA on Kraft paper Photo Filipe Berndt “A sequence from the “Povo” (“People”) series, made in the fragments and the mysteries of absences that make up the images and names of Umbanda (Afro-Brazilian cult) entities in their particular poetics” – André Vargas![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/6_foto_filipe_berndt.jpg)
30 x 20 cm
PVA and acrylic paint on canvas Photo Filipe Berndt “I was always imagining the things that the open mouths of the characters in Heitor dos Prazeres’ paintings could be saying. The joy and jubilation of each scenario created by this master always invited me to sing. Today I sing in color... Hail Heitor dos Prazeres!” – André Vargas![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/5_foto_filipe_berndt.jpg)
285 x 75 cm
PVA on Oxford fabric Photo Filipe Berndt “Kaô is the salute to Xangô, the Orisha of justice, lightning, thunder and fire” – André Vargas![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/4_foto_filipe_berndt.jpg)
28 x 58 cm
PVA on cardboard
Photo Filipe Berndt“This work follows, in aesthetics and logic, the perspective of one of my first works: “Figa na fuga” (“Crossed fingers upon fleeing”), in which there is a will to understand the courage in fleeing when staying means continuing to suffer the ills of oppression. Thus, to think of fleeing as courage is to take the very word ‘flight’ as an action of rebelling, making it a concept that, in this view guided by an Afro-centered perspective of history, contradicts the hegemony that leads it to the notion of cowardice”
André Vargas
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/2_foto_filipe_berndt.jpg)
90 x 90 cm
PVA paint on unbleached cotton Photo Galeria Vermelho This series investigates the herbs used by faith healers, as well as the prayers they make when they bless people. It is at the intersection between object- image-herb and writing-prayer-voice that the work sustains the simplicity of popular traditions as a fundamental importance for our constitution.![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021_roseira.jpg)
90 x 90 cm
PVA paint on unbleached cotton Photo Galeria Vermelho This series investigates the herbs used by faith healers, as well as the prayers they make when they bless people. It is at the intersection between object- image-herb and writing-prayer-voice that the work sustains the simplicity of popular traditions as a fundamental importance for our constitution.![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021_manjericao.jpg)
90 x 90 cm
PVA paint on unbleached cotton Photo Galeria Vermelho This series investigates the herbs used by faith healers, as well as the prayers they make when they bless people. It is at the intersection between object- image-herb and writing-prayer-voice that the work sustains the simplicity of popular traditions as a fundamental importance for our constitution.![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021_guine_.jpg)
50 x 90 cm
PVA paint on unbleached cotton Photo Galeria Vermelho This series investigates the herbs used by faith healers, as well as the prayers they make when they bless people. It is at the intersection between object- image-herb and writing-prayer-voice that the work sustains the simplicity of popular traditions as a fundamental importance for our constitution.![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021_aroeira.jpg)
90 x 90 cm
PVA paint on unbleached cotton Photo Galeria Vermelho This series investigates the herbs used by faith healers, as well as the prayers they make when they bless people. It is at the intersection between object- image-herb and writing-prayer-voice that the work sustains the simplicity of popular traditions as a fundamental importance for our constitution.![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021_abre_caminho.jpg)
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/acao_andrevargas_foto_aliceloureiro_06092021-25.jpg)
200 x 150 cm
PVA paint on fabric Photo Galeria Vermelho This flag in honor of the orixá Ogum claims the power of the origin of the elements that make up the symbol of communism to this orixá who is the owner of the forge and creator of technologies and work tools, inserting black people in the history of western ideologies.![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ferreiro_do_universo.jpg)
Dimensões variáveis [Variable dimensions]
Action and banner in PVA paint on fabric, and PVC pipes Photo Silvana Marcelina Parade is an action produced for the exhibition “Sal60: a revolution in red, white and black”, curated by Leonardo Antan, in honor of the 60th anniversary of the period known as ‘Revolução Salgueirense’, which marked the history of the culture of Rio de Janeiro. The period of the “Salgueirense Revolution” promoted a series of artistic changes in the carioca carnival, with themes from black culture and new aesthetics that would be in contact with various artistic and cultural movements beiond the samba school parades. Vargas’ action took place in dialogue with the allegory that opened “festa para um re negro” [Feast for a black king], one of the classic parades of that period, presented by the Salgueiro samba school in 1971. The theme told the story of the coming of African princes to Brazil. The allegory carried the phrase “If it were today?”, provoking the audience about how the members of this black royalty would be treated at that time. “So I reproduced the parade of that phrase, crossing the same Avenue Presidente Vargas, which, fifty years earlier, had watched Salgueiro parade. But in this game of pointing to the past, other layers of meaning were added, since I carried this banner that asked “If it were today?” in a year in which carnival, due to the covid19 pandemic, could not take place.”![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021_desfile_xi_-_fotografia_silvana_marcelina.jpg)
Dimensões variáveis [Variable dimensions]
Action and banner in PVA paint on fabric, and PVC pipes Photo Silvana Marcelina Parade is an action produced for the exhibition “Sal60: a revolution in red, white and black”, curated by Leonardo Antan, in honor of the 60th anniversary of the period known as ‘Revolução Salgueirense’, which marked the history of the culture of Rio de Janeiro. The period of the “Salgueirense Revolution” promoted a series of artistic changes in the carioca carnival, with themes from black culture and new aesthetics that would be in contact with various artistic and cultural movements beiond the samba school parades. Vargas’ action took place in dialogue with the allegory that opened “festa para um re negro” [Feast for a black king], one of the classic parades of that period, presented by the Salgueiro samba school in 1971. The theme told the story of the coming of African princes to Brazil. The allegory carried the phrase “If it were today?”, provoking the audience about how the members of this black royalty would be treated at that time. “So I reproduced the parade of that phrase, crossing the same Avenue Presidente Vargas, which, fifty years earlier, had watched Salgueiro parade. But in this game of pointing to the past, other layers of meaning were added, since I carried this banner that asked “If it were today?” in a year in which carnival, due to the covid19 pandemic, could not take place.”![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/montagem-1.jpg)
7m de comprimento
Action and banner in PVA paint on fabric
Photo Silvana Marcelina“In Calunga Grande, André evokes the memory of the waters of the Atlantic, where more than 2 million Africans are buried after beeing thrown into the sea during the more than three centuries of human trafficking.
A banner of monumental scale that reads Calunga Grande produces meaning in the contact with points that constitute the territory baptized as “Pequena África” by Heitor dos Prazeres. André Vargas and Jéssica Hipólito wear white in reverence to those who came before them, those who conquered death, dreamed and fought for a future of freedom for their descendants.”
Juliana Pereira
“Calunga Grande it is the sea on the infinite horizon that swallows souls. It is the gaze of someone who remains, or is yet to be forcibly carried away, watching someone who has already been caught being erased by violence and distance.
It is the indecipherable absolute that sways the waters in the dungeons of memory. It is where the wind and torment live for me. It is the movement of bodies that leave without any choice.
It is the essence of each grain, it is the excellence of each bubble. It is a non-ground of trampled blood and blue.
It is the sea that is made of death. It’s the cut that pours the rum. It’s everywhere were the sea has been or the sea will be. It’s everywhere there is.”
André Vargas
*When crossing the ocean, during the trafficing of enslaved people, Calunga Grande could be the final destination for those who did not arrive alive or healthy. The term was used to designate the sea itself but could also be understood as a cemetery.
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021_calunga_grande_-_baia_de_guanabara_foto_de_silvana_marcelina.jpg)
7m de comprimento
banner in PVA paint on fabric (images from the action of stretching it in various locations)
Photo Silvana Marcelina“In Calunga Grande*, André evokes the memory of the waters of the Atlantic, where more than 2 million Africans are buried after beeing thrown into the sea during the more than three centuries of human trafficking.
A banner of monumental scale that reads Calunga Grande produces meaning in the contact with points that constitute the territory baptized as “Pequena África” by Heitor dos Prazeres. André Vargas and Jéssica Hipólito wear white in reverence to those who came before them, those who conquered death, dreamed and fought for a future of freedom for their descendants.”
Juliana Pereira
“Calunga Grande it is the sea on the infinite horizon that swallows souls. It is the gaze of someone who remains, or is yet to be forcibly carried away, watching someone who has already been caught being erased by violence and distance.
It is the indecipherable absolute that sways the waters in the dungeons of memory. It is where the wind and torment live for me. It is the movement of bodies that leave without any choice.
It is the essence of each grain, it is the excellence of each bubble. It is a non-ground of trampled blood and blue.
It is the sea that is made of death. It’s the cut that pours the rum. It’s everywhere were the sea has been or the sea will be. It’s everywhere there is.”
André Vargas
*When crossing the ocean, during the trafficing of enslaved people, Calunga Grande could be the final destination for those who did not arrive alive or healthy. The term was used to designate the sea itself but could also be understood as a cemetery.
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/montagem-2.jpg)
Dimensões e durações variáveis [Variable dimensions and durations]
Performance. Textile banner with PVA paint
Photo Silvana MarcelinaThis series of actions and banners in process intends to prophesy black references in the city streets where they dispute the spaces where the Christian messages of the hecatomb of sin, the end of the world and salvation prevail.
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2020_zumbi_esta_voltando_-_fotografia_silvana_marcelina.jpg)
Dimensões e durações variáveis [Variable dimensions and durations]
Performance. Textile banner with PVA paint
Photo Silvana MarcelinaThis series of actions and banners in process intends to prophesy black references in the city streets where they dispute the spaces where the Christian messages of the hecatomb of sin, the end of the world and salvation prevail.
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2020_todo_arrebatamento_sera_samba_-_fotografia_silvana_marcelina.jpg)
Dimensões e durações variáveis [Variable dimensions and durations]
Performance. Textile banner with PVA paint
Photo Silvana MarcelinaThis series of actions and banners in process intends to prophesy black references in the city streets where they dispute the spaces where the Christian messages of the hecatomb of sin, the end of the world and salvation prevail.
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021_depois_do_apocalipse_a_apoteose_-_fotografia_silvana_marcelina.jpg)
150 x 150 cm
PVA paint on fabric
This work is done by decomposing the image of a traditional lucky charm, which is the four-leaf clover, to reveal from its leaves the heart symbol with which they are transformed, playing, as in the title, with the Brazilian saying (in free translation): “lucky in gambling, unlucky in love.
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2020_amor_na_sorte.jpg)
Dimensões variáveis [variable dimensions]
PVA paint on 9 bat-ball masks
Photo Renato MangolinSeries of nine Bate-bola masks. Bate-bola is an important character in the carnival of the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro.
The masks are painted with the names of the regions of the city where this culture originated. Those are stigmatized and marginalized regions of the city, but in which, with the power of the bate-bolas, the noise that their presence makes against the richest regions of the city is summarized.
The Bate-bola possibly originated from freed slaves. This population which was constantly harassed by the police, wore these costumes to be able to freely play the carnival since it covered their whole body. They used the Bate-bola to protest against the oppression, hitting the balls – that were made from oxen bladder – hard on the streets, to show that they had the strength and power to disturb and transform.
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2020_o_terror_da_sul_-_foto_renato_mangolin.jpg)
Leafletting action that took place during the 2020 municipal elections in Rio de Janeiro.
Leafletitng action that took place during the period of the election campaign for the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, which came, for the first time in its history, with two black women running for office. There were two days of leafleting, one in the Meier district and the other in the city center.
In the action, flyers with the words “Não vote em branco!” [dont vote in white!] are distributed, in a lexical game between the act of voting in blank (voting ‘in white’ in brazilian portuguese) – or for nobody – or for a white person.
The title refers to Abdias do Nascimento, a cultural agent, politician and civil and human rights activist for Brazilian black populations, who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010.
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/montagem-3.jpg)
210 x 150 cm
PVA paint on fabric
Photo Galeria Vermelho“Having the language as a flag is realizing that the language is produced while it is spoken and, therefore, expressing that “our Portuguese is Creole” – that is, a language that is constituted from the vast contribution of black and indigenous speaking – in addition to the ambiguity of the image built by the stated phrase, is an urgent need to recognize the decolonial power that already exists in this ancestral speech and it is a fact that reorients us to realize that the general bases of our culture go through these same Afro-indigenous dictates.
Blacks and indigenous peoples constituted the majority of speakers of colonial Brazil and crossed with their mother tongues the vocabulary of the colonizer’s language thus reformulating its phonetical and semantical roots to such an extent that we are able to elaborate that the particularities of our we speach is actually “Portuguese”. It is from this language that is built on the black speaking of my ancestors that I empower myself to say that my flag is our voice.”
André Vargas
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2020_a_lingua_como_estandarte.jpg)
Dimesões variaveis [variable dimensions]
PVA paint on unbleached cotton Photo Galeria Vermelho This work in progress is constituted from fragments collected from the histories from my paternal family that date back to the times of captivity with catchphrases and speeches from my ancestors, mixed with fictional phrases of power takeover in response to some of the symbols of Brazilian slave coloniality.![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/serie_trapos_2019.jpg)
119 x 84 cm
Gouache and PVA paint on kraft paper sheet Photo Galeria Vermelho This series deals - in the partial representation of images of entities from the Umbanda, as well as in the incomplete indicative of their names - with the role of spectators as accomplices in the dynamics of completing text and images, likewise the signification as sacred or profane of those representations.![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/b_-_copia.jpg)
119 x 84 cm
Gouache and PVA paint on kraft paper sheet Photo Galeria Vermelho This series deals - in the partial representation of images of entities from the Umbanda, as well as in the incomplete indicative of their names - with the role of spectators as accomplices in the dynamics of completing text and images, likewise the signification as sacred or profane of those representations.![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/a_-_copia.jpg)
119 x 84 cm
Gouache and PVA paint on kraft paper sheet Photo Galeria Vermelho This series deals - in the partial representation of images of entities from the Umbanda, as well as in the incomplete indicative of their names - with the role of spectators as accomplices in the dynamics of completing text and images, likewise the signification as sacred or profane of those representations.![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/67913519_149452032787851_7226399706949604774_n.jpg)
119 x 84 cm
Gouache and PVA paint on kraft paper sheet Photo Galeria Vermelho This series deals - in the partial representation of images of entities from the Umbanda, as well as in the incomplete indicative of their names - with the role of spectators as accomplices in the dynamics of completing text and images, likewise the signification as sacred or profane of those representations.![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/vovo-.jpg)
119 x 84 cm
Gouache and PVA paint on kraft paper sheet Photo Galeria Vermelho This series deals - in the partial representation of images of entities from the Umbanda, as well as in the incomplete indicative of their names - with the role of spectators as accomplices in the dynamics of completing text and images, likewise the signification as sacred or profane of those representations.![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/67693892_128221531797614_5406933063085689542_n.jpg)
119 x 84 cm
Gouache and PVA paint on kraft paper sheet Photo Galeria Vermelho This series deals - in the partial representation of images of entities from the Umbanda, as well as in the incomplete indicative of their names - with the role of spectators as accomplices in the dynamics of completing text and images, likewise the signification as sacred or profane of those representations.![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/velho.jpg)
119 x 84 cm
Gouache and PVA paint on kraft paper sheet Photo Galeria Vermelho This series deals - in the partial representation of images of entities from the Umbanda, as well as in the incomplete indicative of their names - with the role of spectators as accomplices in the dynamics of completing text and images, likewise the signification as sacred or profane of those representations.![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/c_-_copia.jpg)
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/sorte_2019.jpg)
Dimensões variáveis [variable dimensions]
Pair of carved slippers Photo Galeria Vermelho This work is placed in the territory of the superstitions of the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro and other regions of the interior of the state, which believe that leaving the slipper with the sole up can make the mother die.![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/mae_2019.jpg)
75 x 350 cm
PVA paint on fabric Photo André Vargas Ode à Odé is a tribute to the Orixá Oxóssi and his accurate arrow. Different affiliations of Candomblé and Umbanda use different names to designate the same orixás, with Oxossi and Odé being equivalent, although the former is more popular. In Yoruba Odé means hunter. Odé is the hunter god, lord of the forest and of all beings that inhabit it, orixá of abundance and wealth. Currently, the cult of Odé is practically forgotten in Africa, but it is widespread in Brazil, Cuba and other parts of America where the Yoruba culture prevailed. This is due to the city of Kêtu, of which he was king, bieng almost completely destroyed in the mid-eighteenth century, and its inhabitants, many consecrated to Odé, being sold as slaves in Brazil and the Antilles. This fact made possible the rebirth of Kêtu, not as a state, but as an important religious nation of Candomblé.![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ode_a_ode_2019_-_andre_vargas-_300dpi.jpg)
35cm x 10cm
Acrylic on machete Patakori is a greeting in Yoruba to the Orixá Ogum - blacksmith, lord of technologies, weapons and work tools.![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/patakori_2019.jpg)
60 x 110 cm
PVA on welded rebar “Kiô" is the cry of a caboclo from the Umbanda terreiros and Caboclo's Candomblé. A cry that announces the entity's arrival and a cry that throws itself into freedom like the hiss of a great bird that spreads its wings to fly. The most resounding of the screams in our history, which takes place on the banks of any river, where our identities are most deeply rooted.![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/brado_retumbante_2019.jpg)
150 x 210 cm
Acrylic paint on cotton Photo Galeria Vermelho In this work, the word that is presented summons the spectator-reader to fill his emptiness, deriving from this complementary act connections that re- elaborate the history of literacy, orality and of writing itself from a black perspective. *The presented word, in portuguese, could be read as ‘escrevo’ (I write) or ‘escravo (slave).![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2018_escr_vo_.jpg)
variable dimensions
PVA on TNT and nylon canvas masks
Photo Filipe BerndtAndré Vargas’s masks complement this dissident perspective on the place of fear in the social imagination of whiteness. At the end of daybreak, the morne forgotten, forgetting to erupt. In O Terror da Sul [The South Terror] (2018-19), the artist refers to the introjection of racism and its relationship with social classes, more specifically the division of Rio’s cultural scene that separates the populous suburbs in the Baixada Fluminense neighborhoods from the so-called “Zona Sul” (the Southern District). His masks address the costumes used in the Clovis tradition (from the English word “clown”), whose groups are made up of masked men roaming the streets dressed as “bate-bola”.
Excerpt from No Fim da Madrugada, by Lisette Lagnado
A possible origin of this movement is related to freed slaves. These, who were sometimes unfairly persecuted by the police, dressed in costumes to be able to freely play at carnival and “use Bate-bola” to protest against oppression, hitting balls made from ox blathers on the ground to show that they had the strength and power to disrupt and transform together.
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/mg_3124_copy.jpg)
![](https://galeriavermelho.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/mg_3124_copy.jpg)
André Vargas is a visual artist, poet, composer and educator. Vargas works on the recovery of his ancestry as a way of understanding the foundations of the linguistic, religious, historical and aesthetic cultures of the “brazilianness” in which he is inserted, with popular culture as the greatest indicator of this foundation. The suburbs, the interiors and other places of personal and collective memory that surround this ancestry are presented as an empirical starting point for his conceptual postulations.
Graduating in Philosophy at UFRJ, Vargas questions the hegemonies that indicate a unique story by recounting and responding to his own family history, making use of the religious forces that lead back to the Afrocentricity of his gestures. Voice, evocation and conversation, produce folds on the meanings of his works through the conjugation between word and image. In this way, the constant presence of absence reaffirms the infinite possibilities, where any possibility of certainty about the sacred and the profane escapes through gracefulness.
“This method of dealing with the syntax of sentences with Afro-religious origins places the artist in line with what Lélia Gonzalez called “Pretoguês” (alliteration of “Black Portuguese”, something as “Blackguese”). In other words, it is a way of approaching the academic form of the Portuguese language accepting what would supposedly be seen as an error, such as the use of R instead of L, “framengo” (instead of “flamengo”), “pobrema” (instead of “problema”)”, wrote the Professor and Chief Curator of the Museu de Arte do Rio, Marcelo Campos in the text André Vargas: Conceitualismo preto [black conceptualism], from 2022. Campos continues, “In a country where 56% of the population is black, the lingua franca, used in the terreiros (where the rituals of Afro-Brazilian cults are celebrated), in the slang, in the suburbs, should be called official and be included in dictionaries. André Vargas’ work is dedicated to this thinking of tautology in a black conception, in which, from the coldness of European philosophical games, we can “sprout” and expand the game, spreading the fire beyond, until it reaches many, echoing the history of our quilombos (communities of formerly enslaved during the colonial period, some of which still exist today). ‘Only Exu can defend me’.”
André Vargas is a visual artist, poet, composer and educator. Vargas works on the recovery of his ancestry as a way of understanding the foundations of the linguistic, religious, historical and aesthetic cultures of the “brazilianness” in which he is inserted, with popular culture as the greatest indicator of this foundation. The suburbs, the interiors and other places of personal and collective memory that surround this ancestry are presented as an empirical starting point for his conceptual postulations.
Graduating in Philosophy at UFRJ, Vargas questions the hegemonies that indicate a unique story by recounting and responding to his own family history, making use of the religious forces that lead back to the Afrocentricity of his gestures. Voice, evocation and conversation, produce folds on the meanings of his works through the conjugation between word and image. In this way, the constant presence of absence reaffirms the infinite possibilities, where any possibility of certainty about the sacred and the profane escapes through gracefulness.
“This method of dealing with the syntax of sentences with Afro-religious origins places the artist in line with what Lélia Gonzalez called “Pretoguês” (alliteration of “Black Portuguese”, something as “Blackguese”). In other words, it is a way of approaching the academic form of the Portuguese language accepting what would supposedly be seen as an error, such as the use of R instead of L, “framengo” (instead of “flamengo”), “pobrema” (instead of “problema”)”, wrote the Professor and Chief Curator of the Museu de Arte do Rio, Marcelo Campos in the text André Vargas: Conceitualismo preto [black conceptualism], from 2022. Campos continues, “In a country where 56% of the population is black, the lingua franca, used in the terreiros (where the rituals of Afro-Brazilian cults are celebrated), in the slang, in the suburbs, should be called official and be included in dictionaries. André Vargas’ work is dedicated to this thinking of tautology in a black conception, in which, from the coldness of European philosophical games, we can “sprout” and expand the game, spreading the fire beyond, until it reaches many, echoing the history of our quilombos (communities of formerly enslaved during the colonial period, some of which still exist today). ‘Only Exu can defend me’.”
André Vargas
1986. Cabo Frio, Brasil
Lives and works in Rio de Janeiro.
Solo Exhibitions
2023
– L’Espérance, çe une douleur – Centre Intermondes La Rochelle – La Rochelle – France
2022
– Fogo encruzado – Vermelho – São Paulo – Brazil
Group Exhibitions
2023
– No Fim da Madrugada – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brazil
– Passeio Público – Caixa Cultural RJ – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
– Cartografias de Augusta – Sesc Madureira – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
– Artistas de Terreiro: Expressões Sagradas da Criatividade Afro-Brasileira. Festival Mário de Andrade – Biblioteca Mário de Andrade – São Paulo – Brazil
– Funk: um grito de ousadia e liberdade – Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR) – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
– DOS BRASIS: Arte e pensamento Negro – Sesc Belenzinho – São Paulo – Brazil
– Verbo – Mostra de Performance Arte (17a ed.) – Galeria Vermelho São Paulo – Brazil
– Carolina Maria de Jesus: um Brasil para os brasileiros – Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR) – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
– Nossas sensações não são nossas: Rádio Nacional ontem e Carnaval hoje – Museu da Imagem e do Som RJ – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
– Eu enterrei meu umbigo aqui – Galeria Marco Zero – Recife – Brazil
– Margens Plácidas – Atelier Sanitário – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
– Dar bandeira – Galerie Salonh – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
– Tridimensional: entre o estético e o sagrado (Um recorte da coleção Vera e Miguel Chaia) – Arte 132 Galeria – São Paulo – Brazil
2022
– Atravessar o presente – Superior de Desenho Industrial da UERJ – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
– Como que brinca disso – Parquinho Lage – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
– Fuzuerê – Galpão Bela Maré – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
– Encruzilhada – Triplex – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
– Altay Veloso, um Alabê – Sesc São Gonçalo – São Gonçalo – Brazil
– Vozerio – Cinemateca do MAM-RJ – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
– Verbo – Mostra de Performance Arte (16a ed.) – Galeria Vermelho São Paulo – Brazil
– Histórias Brasileiras – Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP) – São Paulo – Brazil
– Carolina Maria de Jesus: um Brasil para os brasileiros – Sesc Sorocaba – Sorocaba – Brazil
– Brasil Delivery (a gente só não precariza o sonho) – Espaço Travessia – Instituto Nise da Silveira – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
– Água Banta – Memorial Municipal Getúlio Vargas – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
2021
– Rebu. Exposição de final do curso de formação e deformação da EAV – Parque Lage – Galeria 5 Bocas – Complexo de Israel – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
– Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
- Campo Aberto: abertura de atelier da residência Pivô Arte e Pesquisa – São Paulo – Brazil
– Crônicas Cariocas – Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR) – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
– Carolina Maria de Jesus: um Brasil para os brasileiros – Instituo Moreira Salles (IMS-Paulista) – São Paulo – Brazil
– Semba/Samba: corpos e atravessamentos. Museu do Samba – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
– Sal60 (online exhibit)
2020
– Estandarte. A vanguarda dos povos – Centro Cultural Municipal Oduvaldo Vianna Filho – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– Baile da Aurora Sincera. Solar dos Abacaxis – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– Instáveis – Galeria Danielian – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– Patifaria – Espaço Titocar [Maricá] – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– Rua! Museu de Arte do Rio [MAR] – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– Casa Póvera – Centro Cultural Bernardo Mascarenhas – Juiz de Fora – Brasil
2019
– Patifaria – Galeria Azul UFRJ – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– Tamo Aí – Galeria da Passagem [Coart-UERJ] – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– O Grito. Espaço PENCE – São Caetano do Sul – Brasil
– Tipo Coletivo. Tipografia – maio de 2019;
– Corpos-Cidades – São Caetano do Sul – Brasil
– Renovação Carismática – Caixa Preta – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
2018
– Africanize Performática – Centro Municipal de Artes Hélio Oiticica – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
Interventions
– 2022: Galeria Providência – Praça Java – Morro da Providência – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
– 2021: Calunga Grande – Fachada do Museu de Arte do Rio [MAR] Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
– 2021: Hoje só lavaremos a alma – Lavanderia dos escravizados do Parque Lage – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
Workshops and Courses
– 2022: Curso de formação dos mediadores da Bienal do Mercosul 2022 – Porto Alegre – Brazil
– 2021: Oficina de Dispositivos artístico-pedagógicos – Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR) – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
– 2021: Batuque na cozinha. Instituto dos Pretos Novos – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
– 2020: Nós Cais. Valongo, Cais de idéias (IDG) – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
Books
– Roupa de Camaleão. Grupo editorial Zit, 2017.
– Caraminholas. Poesias do fundo da cachola. Editora Multifoco, 2012.
Residencies
– 2023: ELA (Espaço Luanda Arte-Angola) with the project Angola Air by Dominick Maia Tunner
– 2023: Centre Intermondes – La Rochelle – France
– 2022: Atelier Sanitário – Rio de Janeiro – Brazil
– 2022: Casa do Sereio – Alcântara – Brazil
Collections
– Instituto Inhotim – Brumadinho – Brazil
– Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Mas todo imaginário tem valor/ E pode transformar esse cenário/ A mente criadora é um dom maior/ Naqueles que são revolucionários/ Naqueles que são revolucionários. “Líder dos Templários”, Jorge Ben Jor.
Dia 23 de abril é dia do santo guerreiro e, no Rio de Janeiro, é dia de lembrar que até no festejo se imprime a força de nossa batalha. São Jorge e sua festa guerreiam por uma cidade de encantamentos; por uma cidade “terreirizada” como tão bem nos indicam Luiz Antonio Simas, Luiz Rufino e todo o bando de bambas que se dedica a pensar a rua com a rua; por uma cidade que, portanto, elabora e se reelabora no poder dos encontros e dos encruzos de toda sorte, uma cidade que se entende nas calçadas, nas biroscas e nas beiradas. A festa é a batalha pela ruptura com a seriedade cinza das instituições e pelo reinstituir das relações brincantes, estas ainda mais sérias, de intuições e intentos que nos convocam catarses.
“Reencantar a cidade, subverter o território em terreiro, entender a cidade como lugar de encontro, comer pelas beiradas driblando os perrengues, malandreando entre o horror e o gozo, é seguir vivendo e sobrevivendo para fazer o gol na partida que não termina: num lance rápido e certeiro do contra-ataque que nos resta para salvar a rua.”. (Luiz Antonio Simas, Corpo Encantado das Ruas – Pag.: 75).
Todo dia de São Jorge é dia de quermesse, gira, passe, benção, capoeira, ponto, oração, brincadeira, samba, hino, cerveja, procissão, feijoada e o que mais for para o bem de acontecer. É dia que vemos Jorge encontrar Ogum em praça pública. É dia de reconhecer todas as faces que nos compõem culturalmente como transeuntes desse chão. É dia de sentir um cheiro d a bagunça boa que era a festa da Penha nos idos dos anos de 1930. Dia de entender que toda cidade é pequena, toda urbanidade é roça, é quando o centro inteiro fica parecendo uma pracinha de interior. Esse é o poder da festa e é por isso que se guerreia: fazer simples, agregadora e afeita aos encontros e as preces a mesma cidade que, em geral, nos esforçamos cotidianamente para construir dura, hierárquica e propícia aos encontrões e as pressas.
Festejar em um mundo que quer nos ver tristes já é ser linha de frente na batalha das opressões da vida, agora, festejar ao santo guerreiro andando pelas ruas comprimidas do centro da cidade do Rio de Janeiro é sentar praça e construir um exército em um ato que nos dá novo folego para continuar no batidão dos dias do restante do ano em que vivemos em função de funcionar.
“A cidade é aquilo que praticamos. Assim, o Rio é aquilo que é inventado cotidianamente enquanto terreiro. Lembremos que os terreiros são saídas táticas, a partir da prática do tempo/espaço por aqueles que rasuram as lógicas da desterritorialização e aniquilamento.”. (Luiz Antonio Simas e Luiz Rufino, Flechas no Tempo – Pag.: 78)
É claro que naquele gole de cerveja estalado no gogó que tomamos no meio da semana depois de um dia exaustivo de trabalho, ou quando topamos, apesar do cansaço, ir à uma roda de samba, ou, ainda, quando numa domingueira resolvemos nos arriscar a fazer uma feijoada, já se encontra a resistência, amiúde, da morte e do desencanto que tratamos. Mas estes são apenas fragmentos de festa que nos dão, de alguma maneira, um remédio paliativo para os sintomas desse mal de desencante, pois quando reunidos no dia certo, no dia santo, esses fragmentos, agem diretamente na fonte dos sintomas e redimensionam nossa existência ao reelaborar a nossa perspectiva de fé, de festa e de disputa por uma sociabilidade menos sisuda e tacanha.
Nesse ano de 2021 foi mais um ano em que a festa de São Jorge teve de se dar em casa, não ganhou a rua. Mas, para além da tristeza com que percebo essa condição, percebo que existem outras camadas para se entender essa devoção, que aqui no Rio se faz tão grande. A casa é também uma rua para o guerreiro passar com seu cavalo e matar nossos próprios dragões, quando conseguimos fazer dela um espaço de abertura para o indizível invisível. A felicidade, maior sensação de encanto, quando habita o lar, faz dele a morada do sagrado e a casa é essa armadura, essa morada de proteção de quem se resguarda para num futuro instante poder contra-atacar.
Como fragmentos de fé que se reúnem no espaço, é na casa que se consagra a planta, espada de São Jorge, é na casa que se avista o azulejo do santo da fachada, é na casa que se acende a vela e reza no oratório, é na casa que se coloca a cerveja do santo no alto de seu esplendor. Precisamos, portanto, tornar a casa encantada como assim queremos a rua, porque a intimidade tem que concordar com essas nossas querências sociais. De outra maneira corremos o risco de dizer para a rua um hipócrita “faça o que eu digo, mas não faça o que eu faço”.
Foi para dentro da casa das tias baianas, moradoras da região da “Pequena África” (nome dado por Heitor dos Prazeres à região que compreendia ao território que ia da Praça XI à região portuária Rio de Janeiro em meados do século XX) que o samba foi se reinventar, quando a sua pratica pública era perseguida pelos órgãos oficiais de fiscalização e policiamento no período onde a “lei da vadiagem” de 1941, que se ocupava em criminalizar o corpo negro livre no pós-abolição, era aplicada a torto e a direito. Dessa maneira, está em um capítulo de nossa história a resposta de poder e feitiço que se pode conjurar caseiramente quando a rua não pode mais ser um espaço de transe e transito. Festejar em casa é a maneira com a qual vamos intimamente produzir o encantamento aguerrido que levaremos ao contra-ataque e, nesse ditado, a rua que nos espere, pois o que é dela está guardado. Dois anos sem ver a alvorada na certeza de que, quando pudermos, seremos todos nós o próprio alvorecer.
Salve Jorge!
Ogunhê!
Patakori, writes André Vargas about a machete. The word refers to the gesture of cutting off the heads of the enemies, as in a passage from the stories of Ogum, the Orisha that his work reveres. With the gesture, and, above all, with the word, it is invoked the one who, when the world was created, carved a path in the dense forest with two machetes, allowing the arrival of the other Orishas.
Creating phrases and wordplays seems to be a central nod in the artist’s work. In a painting, André Vargas pays homage to the same Orisha with the phrase “Ogum brings everything to iron and fire” (playing with the Brazilian popular expression “levar a ferro e fogo”, meaning taking everything too seriously, or to the extreme), highlighting Ogum’s character as the god of iron, of agricultural tools, and his impetuous and choleric personality. Here, one of the ways of understanding the artist’s works can be seen: following the logic of the sentences, the syntax game, one approaches, at the same time, the outcomes of these works, since the sentences themselves open up in metaphors, palindromes, building potent apparitions. The artist creates images, chooses the colors red and blue, Ogum’s colors in Umbanda and Candomblé (Afro-Brazilian cults), respectively, to compose the painting.
Poetry, in the artist’s trajectory, has two biases. Coming from a family of musicians, André acknowledges his need to show artistic competence, since his siblings, Julia and Ivo Vargas, sing and play. His mother was a choir conductor, his father, a musician and composer, his grandparents, saxophonists and trumpeters, one of them performing with Orquestra Tabajara and playing with great artists like Sara Vaughan and Wilson Simonal. In this context, André decides to embark on poetry. On the other hand, with experience in mediating exhibitions, working directly with different museum audiences, André Vargas starts to create games, interaction devices in which quibbles already appear, such as “benzadez” (wordplay with the expression “Benzadeus” – “God Bless” – and the word “dez” – “ten”): two decks, in which one finds the perrengues (problems) of the body and the herbs that might cure them. When a perrengue is placed on the table, the participant needs to fight it with a healing herb. André has always been dedicated to enchantments and mandingas (spells).
Fogo encruzado (Crossed fire), the artist’s first solo exhibition, brings together part of his recent production, with mostly new works. Thus, André Vargas exercises an approximate observation of popular cults and invocations, while appropriating banal elements such as brown paper, banners, cabinets. His works are also prayers: “Oh Santa Bárbara, thou who are stronger than the towers of fortresses and the thunder’s violence”, writes the artist at the edges of a painting in which a flame is represented by the plant “sword of Santa Bárbara/Iansã”.
The artist devotes himself to thinking about the role of fire both in the cults of Exu and Xangô, as well as in the incorporation of elements of revolt and violence against a colonial past that is renewed every day. In Retribuindo a Gentileza (Paying Back Kindness), André repeats the word “flame”, honoring the Prophet Gentileza, maintaining the typography of the writings of the poet who roamed the streets of Rio de Janeiro preaching love as a weapon and an antidote against the ills of the world. Referring more directly to Xangô, Vargas writes “Aquele que come brasa” (“The one who eats embers”), in a work composed of seven strings of red and white beads. Eating embers is one of the characteristics of the Orisha who came into the world with the mission of directing the thunders and who keeps the secret of swallowing embers and releasing flames through his mouth, destroying evils and enemies. On the other hand, in Coquetel Marafo (Marafo Cocktail), André uses common spirit bottles, placing tissues at the bottlenecks, as we see in so-called Molotov cocktails, used in street demonstrations, which Brazil has experienced particularly since 2013. We also see references to the various names of Exu, in which the word “fire” takes part. The artist then removes the word, leaving only the complement of the names, such as Pomba (gira – turn) of fire and Exu Pinga (fogo – fire).
This method of dealing with the syntax of sentences with Afro-religious origins places the artist in line with what Lélia Gonzalez called “Pretoguês” (alliteration of “Black Portuguese”, something as “Blackguese”). In other words, it is a way of approaching the academic form of the Portuguese language accepting what would supposedly be seen as an error, such as the use of R instead of L, “framengo” (instead of “flamengo”), “pobrema” (instead of “problema”). Gonzalez conceives such appropriations as a political stance. And, here, we are reminded of the ancestral song of Clementina de Jesus, singing Yaô, by Pixinguinha, “Aqui có no terreiro/Pelú adié” (lyrics that mix Portuguese and Yoruba terms), the Brazilian language and its Bantu and Yoruba incorporations. African words such as “abadá (tunic), banzo (homesickness), caçamba (contanier), cachaça (moonshine)”, as Margarida Petter informs us, are now widely understood, while others have more informal uses, such as cafofo (currently meaning a modest dwelling) and muquifo (a dirty, chaothic room). In another work, André Vargas theorizes about the origins of você (the Brazilian word for “you”): “Vossa mercê”, “Vosmecê”, “Vancê”, “Você/you are a black invention”, stirring up even more the presence of the “pretoguês” in our language.
André Vargas comes from a family of relatives who were enslaved in a coffee and cotton plantation, Fazenda dos Saldanha, in Chiador, Minas Gerais. However, resisting the colonial logic, the following generations of the family have bought their own lands. Having his ancestry as a driving force, the artist’s work is full of reverence for the spirits and Pretos Velhos (Black Old Men, spiritual entities in Umbanda), his ancestors, vibrating in recoded altars and small chapels, where we read “Jesus is Preto Velho”, which puts us in line with the thesis that, being born close to Africa, Jesus could only be black, a fact that was confirmed in scientific reconstructions of his face, which are at odds with the Aryan recreations produced in Hollywood. Floriano, Nazário, Carolina, Mariana, Adelaide are some of André Vargas’ ancestors to whom we pay our respects, and we ask permission to quote them here.
As a kind of black conceptualism, André Vargas plays with the logic of revenge when the subject is directed to the word “engenho” (the mills where sugar was produced during the colonial period), in what Jota Mombasa calls the redistribution of violence. André researches names of neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro in which the word “engenho” remained, and constructs sentences of revolt and retaliation against the atrocities perpetrated during the slavery years. In everything, a single idea, to set them on fire: “Engenho de Dentro will burn through the night”, “Fire walks through Engenho da Rainha”, “My fire will be cruel in Engenho de São Miguel”.
In a country where 56% of the population is black, the lingua franca, used in the terreiros (where the rituals of Afro-Brazilian cults are celebrated), in the slang, in the suburbs, should be called official and be included in dictionaries. André Vargas’ work is dedicated to this thinking of tautology in a black conception, in which, from the coldness of European philosophical games, we can “sprout” and expand the game, spreading the fire beyond, until it reaches many, echoing the history of our quilombos (communities of formerly enslaved during the colonial period, some of which still exist today). “Only Exu can defend me”.
1) Petter, Margarida. Línguas africanas no Brasil: vitalidade e invisibilidade. In: Carmo, Laura e Stolzelima, Ivana. História social da língua nacional 2: diáspora africana. Rio de Janeiro: Nau editora, 2014, p. 26.
Na imagem, fotografada por Bárbara Dias em 2018, vemos a vereadora Marielle Franco descendo os degraus da escada da Câmara dos Vereadores do Estado do Rio de Janeiro cercada por policiais agitados e atentos. Os signos de poder dessa fotografia são violentos, pois violenta é a nossa realidade. Um corredor de policiais se abre, como um mar de brutalidade que apresenta um frágil pontal em maré baixa, para que Marielle possa passar na segurança mais insegura que pode haver. O pórtico da câmara municipal vigia ao fundo, com toda a sua pompa histórica de representação política popular, a representatividade dessa mulher preta, favelada e lésbica a atravessar o bloco de distintivos e cassetetes, impávida e colossal. Por cima da fotografia, o desenho simples de um artista de olhar muito aguçado para os vazios das imagens que se estabelecem e se cristalizam na regra hegemônica das opressões como a história. Mulambö percebe nesses vazios a forma das peças, como em um jogo de quebra-cabeças, capazes de restituir aos personagens dessa memória outra razão de protagonismo. No desenho em questão, o artista prescreve roupa, armas e adornos que, talvez, muitos de nós já havíamos sentido diante da presença de Marielle, mas que sempre nos faltou ver.
Mulambö, João, meu amigo, esse foi o primeiro trabalho seu que eu vi, e nunca mais deixei de acompanhar com expectativa e alegria cada passo que você dá nesse mundão das artes. Você em “Força da Natureza” vestiu Marielle com as roupas e as armas de Iansã e, com isso, nos trouxe ainda mais forte a ideia do poder de frutificação dessa nobre vida de lutas, sobretudo onde o território é o do indizível e onde o ciclo vida e morte é indivisível. Para muito além da ausência, esse seu trabalho me organiza o entendimento sobre a força do encanto e da continuidade.
Nesse mês de março completamos três anos sem respostas mais conclusivas sobre o brutal assassinato da vereadora. Três anos de desamparo político sobre os rumos democráticos de nossos poderes. Três anos de ausências e retrocessos. Três anos de mobilizações e promessas. Três anos de perguntas suspensas. Três anos que Marielle virou uma das mais fortes ideias de representatividade política em todo o país. Três anos que a potência Marielle se tornou a bandeira mais brandida de uma nação em profunda redefinição identitária. Três anos e eu não poderia deixar de retomar essa imagem produzida por Mulambö, porque dela eu pude retirar muita esperança num momento em que eu e todos ao meu redor estávamos reféns do medo e compartilhávamos da mesma dor. Esse trabalho me ajudou a entender que a Marielle estará sempre presente em nossa luta, ainda que não possamos mais avistá-la, como era de costume, nas ruas, nas frentes de batalhas do dia-a-dia.
Roupa, armas e adornos forjados por Mulambö no invisível de uma imagem, mas o que será que essa roupagem de Orixá desenhada pelo artista pode nos dizer sobre o caminhar solene que Marielle prescreve da Câmara para a rua divisada por policiais? Talvez consigamos coletar mais maneiras de olhar para essa imagem simplesmente ouvindo algumas músicas e pontos dedicados a Iansã[2], Orixá que Mulambö sobrepõe na imagem, prestando bastante atenção a suas letras. Recorro, com alguma frequência, às letras das canções para pensar e repensar tudo aquilo que me circunda, pois acredito que passam pela poesia as tais nuances do invisível, do indizível, que Mulambö atina e que só somos capazes de sentir brevemente nas coisas. Além do mais, nada mais honesto para pensar a poética de Mulambö, que também tem sua pesquisa bastante influenciada pela música, do que construir uma trilha sonora para ouvir enquanto vê, diluindo as próprias noções de ver e ouvir, para, assim, tentar reelaborar as relações que construímos num primeiro momento com esse trabalho.
Mulambö pôs na mão esquerda de Marielle seu eruexim, ou irukerê, instrumento sagrado de Iansã, semelhante a um rabo de animal, com o qual ela lida e controla os eguns, espíritos ancestrais desencarnados e Marielle é também a força desse domínio quanto à ancestralidade negra. Aquele reconhecimento estranho que se avultava para mim, quando sua campanha caminhava, também era um reconhecimento de ordem ancestral, um reconhecimento de um parentesco perdido pela violência da escravização de nossos antepassados e dos reflexos que vivemos até hoje dessa história. Era o reconhecimento que ressoa no pendão das matriarcas negras. Ela é minha tia, ela é minha avó e ela é minha irmã. Em dias atuais, sobretudo em alguns países da África Central, carregar um eruexim é sinônimo de nobreza e status, o que solidifica ainda mais a coerência de este instrumento estar nas mãos da vereadora que, sem sombra de dúvida, figura entre as mais altas patentes de nossa cultura de luta e resistência.
Na mão direita de Marielle está postada a sua espada. É o símbolo de sua luta e a marca distintiva de sua caminhada. Com essa arma ela abre caminhos e, ao mesmo tempo, segue a batalha. De alguma maneira eu consigo imaginar a espada afiada de Iansã com a palavra categórica de Marielle quando discursava e, seguindo essa analogia, imagino também o poder do eruexim de Iansã, com a ancestralidade evidenciada pela própria presença marcante de Marielle.
A eparrei ela é Oyá, ela é Oyá
A eparrei é Iansã, é Iansã
A eparrei
Quando Iansã vai pra batalha
Todos os cavaleiros param
Só pra ver ela passar
“Ela é Oyá”, Ponto de Iansã de Sandro Luiz
Quando Marielle Franco despontou como candidata a vereadora, eu soube de pronto que ela seria avassaladora como um fenômeno da natureza; eu soube que ela seria vasta como o vento e soube que ela seria crítica como o raio. E, mesmo à distância, acompanhei sua campanha, fazendo a minha própria, de modo pessoal quando revelava o meu voto sempre que era possível a qualquer pessoa que me perguntasse, “Eu vou votar na Marielle!”, não havia segredo nisso, era um voto aberto. Eu agia naquele momento com a certeza inquebrantável de quem estava assistindo uma guerreira se apresentar para comandar nossas batalhas. Ao mesmo tempo, eu percebia que outras pessoas que, assim como eu, não a conheciam de perto, também reconheciam essa força que vinha dela. Um reconhecimento diferente, uma coisa que era impossível descrever e que agora percebo que talvez fosse um reconhecimento desse poder invisível tornado visível por Mulambö.
Não à toa Marielle foi recordista de votos em sua primeira participação em uma eleição, sendo, com 46 mil votos, a segunda mulher mais bem votada em uma campanha com poucos recursos e que, em muito se pautou pela velha dinâmica do contato boca-a-boca. De qualquer maneira, sem sequer suspeitar da minha singela campanha pessoal, Marielle foi pra batalha e sua voz, seu discurso, suas palavras eram as armas de que dispunha para enfrentar toda a sorte de conservadores que enxergavam nela, e em tudo o que a presença dela representa, a sua algoz. Mas, tanto aqueles que lhe faziam oposição, quanto àqueles que lhe eram parceiros de luta, paravam para ver e ouvir Marielle falar. Quando não paravam de imediato, ela se impunha e reestabelecia o respeito. Pois era forte o que falava e a forma como falava sempre muito certeira, segura, não deixava que ninguém a subjugasse com facilidade, como na parte do discurso que fez no dia 8 de março do fatídico ano de 2018, seis dias antes de seu assassinato. Quando, em plena Câmara dos Vereadores, interrompida de sua fala por um manifestante conservador disse: “Não serei interrompida, não aturo interrupção dos vereadores desta casa, não aturarei de um cidadão que vem aqui e não sabe ouvir a posição de uma mulher eleita Presidente da Comissão da Mulher nesta Casa.” e reestabeleceu a ordem de sua presença. Era como se a sua fala recolocasse cada sujeito em conflito com ela em sua dimensão de insignificância, para, então, se recolocar.
Obviamente recaiam sobre Marielle as mais obscuras formas de preconceito existentes em nossa sociedade. Quer sejam quanto a sua raça e cor, ou quanto a sua origem, ou ainda quer sejam quanto ao seu gênero e sexualidade. Marielle abria com sua entrada, aos poucos, com seus projetos e sua forma de apresentá-los bem como com seus discursos incisivos, como que a golpes de facão em densa mata, um caminho em meio a uma estrutura política grosseiramente racista, misógina e homofóbica. Mas o caminho que por ela foi aberto agora é conservado e expandido por outras guerreiras da mesma falange e que despontaram com bravura justamente ao caminharem com e por Marielle, trilhas em que vencer demandas é a única forma.
Eparrei, Iansã, ilumine o dia de amanhã,
A tarde desceu mais cedo,
Quando da taça bebeu
Na caminhada, trovejou mas não choveu.
“O Bailar dos ventos. Relampejou, mas não choveu”, Acadêmicos do Salgueiro 1980: Zé Di, Zuzuca, Edinho, Haydée, Moacir Arantes e Pompeu
Nessa caminhada que se embrenha na floresta do conservadorismo, o céu traz avisos de guerra e de paz. Mas é preciso estar com olhos fustigados para o ver das coisas invisíveis.
A sabedoria de olhar para o céu e compreender a hora exata de voltar para casa. O domínio de ver no céu a rota certa para chegar em seu destino. O ensinamento que se tem ao olhar para o céu e perceber que foi desleixado ao esquecer um guarda-chuva. Ou o simples olhar para o céu e saber que a nuvem é passageira. Tantas coisas o céu pode nos recomendar e nos confessar. Mas nem sempre o que o céu indica de fato se cumpre, às vezes os avisos são somente para nos lembrar do seu poder. Só para nos lembrar que o céu é maior e é uma força maior. Como o trovejar que muito acompanha os ventos de Iansã quando muda o tempo, mas que, nem sempre, cumprem o temporal que anuncia.
Apresentar o poder sem que seja necessário a utilização do mesmo é como um lembrete da pequenez da humanidade diante de fenômenos naturais e místicos. Vestir Marielle de Iansã é também atentar para essa face da política que experimentamos e que necessita muitas vezes parecer forte, apresentando poder sem fazer uso do mesmo como forma de se estabelecer nesse meio que, como já dito, ainda é dominado por uma hegemonia branca, masculina, cis, heterossexual e rica. Em outras palavras, aparentar ser aguerrida, trovejar e não chover, em alguns momentos, é a única forma de se conseguir impor respeito diante de pessoas que, de antemão, menosprezam a aridez de sua caminhada.
Não haveria motivos pra gente desanimar
Se houvesse remédio pra gente remediar
Já vai longe a procura da cura que vai chegar
Lá no céu de Brasília as estrelas irão cair
E a poeira de tanta sujeira há de subir, Oyá.
“Iansã/Oyá”, Arlindo Cruz e Arlindo Neto
Não deveria ser uma condição, para que outras políticas se apresentem como possibilidade de mudança, que elas tivessem que ser, ou aparentar ser, aguerridas para que só assim detivessem respaldo e atenção das instituições, partidos e outros integrantes da política. No Brasil, no entanto, a forja que sustenta as opressões nos cria como lutadoras e lutadores e, que em muitos momentos precisamos radicalizar em discursos e gestos para que esse imenso grupo de privilegiados tomem nota de que nossa existência e persistência é nossa réplica.
Manter-se com esperanças, na “cura” das nossas doenças sociais e que essa mesma “cura” foi, é e será, tarefa de uma guerreira como Oyá, única capaz sacudir a poeira das velhas políticas e a sujeira dos velhos políticos, não é tão fácil quanto parece. A luta é cheia de medos e descaminhos aporéticos. Mas a lembrança de Marielle por si só restaura nossa armadura contra o desespero, e a imagem de Marielle como Iansã de Mulambö instaura nos inimigos o terror de que responderemos, porque já estamos respondendo.
Rainha dos raios, rainha dos raios, rainha dos raios
Tempo bom, tempo ruim
“Iansã”, Gilberto Gil
Aquela que anuncia a mudança do tempo, ou a mudança dos tempos, a rainha dos raios, está tanto no tempo bom, quanto no tempo ruim. É quem coordena os eguns, portanto, está tanto na memória quanto no esquecimento. E é quem faz a transição de quem falece sobre a terra, logo, está tanto na morte quanto na vida. É presença sempre, nunca bipartida. É o que ganhamos e o que perdemos ao continuar.
O tempo mudou! Fez o céu brilhar
O Sol e a Lua irradiam energia
Para renovar
Que renasça o amor e fortaleça a fé
Pois Iansã está soprando pelo mundo
Um vendaval de Axé!
“A guerreira vai reinar”, Ponto de Iansã de Sandro Luiz
Um vendaval de Axé, Marielle se fez semente no peito de muitas outras mulheres pretas que aceitaram a missão de guerrear na frente politica por uma sociedade mais justa e respeitadora da diversidade que é toda a nossa riqueza. Ultrapassando a barreira da vida, como que renascendo todo dia em cada uma das guerreiras que se levantam contra as conservas autoritárias da hegemonia. Renasce como amor aos oprimidos, fortalecendo a fé de que a luta contra as opressões é a única digna em um caminho contínuo de renovações.
Mulambö, ao vestir Marielle de Iansã, demonstrou que tudo o que se move no invisível demove a visão de sua predominância sobre os demais sentidos, escancarando a existência de mil outras batalhas em outros planos, em outros ditos, ajudando a soprar pelo mundo a esperança que Marielle simboliza de que toda essa luta há de nos apresentará a novidade.
Salve Mulambö!
Marielle vive!
Epahei, Oyá!
NOTAS
[1] Título do trabalho de 2018 do artista Mulambö e referência à Iansã
[2] Iansã é um título que Oyá ganha de Xangô. Iansã quer dizer A mãe do céu rosado ou A mãe do entardecer. Ele a chamava dessa maneira, pois ela era radiante como só o entardecer pode ser.
Publicado na revista Palavra Solta em Março, 2021.