Exhibition at MAM Rio presents works from the museum’s modernist collection in dialogue with indigenous ceramics and works by contemporary artists.
View of the Nakoada exhibition at MAM Rio. Photo: Fábio Souza/MAM Rio
MAHKU. Kapewẽ Pukenibu, 2022. Acrylic on canvas. Commission. Photo: Fábio Souza/MAM Rio
Djanira, Tea Farm in Itacolomi, 1958. Oil on canvas. Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, MAM Rio. Photo: Fábio Souza/MAM Rio
Curated by Denilson Baniwa and Beatriz Lemos, Nakoada: Strategies for Modern Art seeks to discuss the 100-year anniversary of São Paulo’s Modern Art Week, proposing alternative departure off points for reflecting on the possibilities of artistic production that engages with certain modernist ideals, but escapes their traps. The exhibition features modernist works from the MAM Rio collections, ceramics from the Museu do Índio and commissioned pieces by Cinthia Marcelle, Mahku (Huni Kuin Artists Movement), Novíssimo Edgar and Zahy Guajajara, as well as a piece by Jaider Esbell (1979-2021).
The curators’ guiding concept for the exhibition is “Nakoada”, a war strategy of the Baniwa people of the Upper Rio Negro region, to develop new possibilities of remaining in the world. “Nakoada is an act of return. It’s the moment when people who were targets of external forces understand the oppressive power of the other and now look for the possibility to return to their own autonomy,” explains Denilson Baniwa.
In the exhibition, the silhouette of a snake winds its way through the MAM Rio Monumental Hall. “The exposition design takes the form of a cosmic serpent that has no beginning or end. This is a recurring symbol in the Baniwa cosmovision and in several western and eastern cultures, from the North and the South,” remarks Denilson Baniwa. “It digests our history and carries, within its core, this expanded timeframe, since before colonization.”
Nakoada: Strategies for Modern Art Through January 29, 2023
MAM Rio Av. Infante Dom Henrique, 85. Aterro do Flamengo. Rio de Janeiro/RJ, Brazil
www.mam.rio
Karajá dolls. Museu do Índio Collection. Photo: Fábio Souza/MAM Rio
View - works by Jaider Esbell (Pata Ewa'n - The Heart of the World, 2016. Acrylic on canvas. On loan) and Tarsila do Amaral (Urutu, 1928. Oil on canvas. Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, MAM Rio) Photo: Fábio Souza/MAM Rio
Candido Portinari, Landscape of Brodowski, 1940. Oil on canvas. Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, MAM Rio. Photo: Fábio Souza/MAM Rio
View of exhibition with works by MAHKU and Novíssimo Edgar (On Invisible Bonds, 2022, installation, commission). Photo: Fábio Souza/MAM Rio
Heitor dos Prazeres. Mulata, 1959. Oil on chipboard. Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, MAM Rio. Photo: Fábio Souza/MAM Rio
The exhibition pushes us to think, to take another look at the artworks and artists we think we know. Rearticulating these narratives and languages, and presenting them in other settings, in connection with indigenous creations and contemporary works of art, Nakoada expands and activates them as tools for other stories and other constructions. Pablo Lafuente, co-artistic director of MAM Rio.
View of exhibition with works by Cinthia Marcelle (Wound Meditation or The School of Knives [Nakoada version], 2022, wood, hinge, Styrofoam, velvet, commission) and Maria Martins (The impossible, 1940s, bronze). Photo: Fábio Souza/MAM Rio
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