Negros na Piscina: Pinacotheque from the State of Ceará
"Negros na Piscina" (Black People in The Pool) refers to a Brazilian Landscape. One that does not yet exist, but that is being built by a large part of its inhabitants. And if there is no short or easy path to achieve this goal, the works gathered in this exhibition offer at least hints of this gradual and unstoppable construction. Works that offer, therefore, sparks of beauty - a word that defies a single understanding - even where many suppose there are no reasons for it to exist. Beauty as an expression of resistance and as a motor of invention.
Curated by Moacir dos Anjos and Fabiana Moraes, "Negros na Piscina" (Black People in The Pool) immediately brings to mind an image of subversion. The possible presence of certain bodies in spaces not designated for them in the history of Brazil. Spaces of fun or relaxation, but not only that. The swimming pool is also home, food on the table, access to education and health. It is many things: party and work, pleasure and security. It is a phrase-title - borrowed from a photograph by Paulo Nazareth - that sums up the desire and precision of a revolt against prohibitions. Against the impediment to a full life that is the result of centuries of colonization and its consequences; of the predation of certain people and their descendants. It is a call that reacts to the process that has produced unequal possibilities for white and non-white bodies to seek autonomy of life over time. Therefore, anchored asymmetry in the ethnic origin and skin color of each inhabitant of the country.
