GÊ VIANA
Gê Viana( b. 1986, Santa Luzia, Brazil) directs her artistic practice toward the intersection of official archival documents and the resistance of memory and oral history within her community. With Afro-diasporic and Indigenous roots— the Anapuru Muypurá people— she focuses on deconstructing colonialism, particularly by investigating the festivities and medicinal properties of Afro-diasporic and Indigenous food from Maranhão. In this sense, the Afro-diasporic and Indigenous everyday life of the Maranhão territory lies at the core of her work, alongside a direct confrontation with colonial culture and its systems of art and communication.
In the series Couro laminado( Laminated skin)( 2022 – ongoing), the artist combines manual collage, photomontage, and painting on raffia. These works displace and recontextualize images within new, emancipatory frameworks to challenge hegemonic historical narratives and an ongoing colonial program that endangers the entire existence of certain groups, such as Afro-diasporic and Indigenous communities. This series references significant social uprisings— moments of collective gathering, whether in festive communion or in the shared struggle for rights and freedom. Viana’ s work emphasizes how, in her ancestry, celebration and resistance go hand in hand.( MATEUS NUNES)
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