Black woman, filmmaker, visual artist and a person with disability, Roberta Holiday brought her energy, her stories and her talent to this intimate dawn at the Rio Art Museum. At each vigil, a blank canvas became a living memory, an emotional record of the encounters that take place under the stillness of the night, far from the public eye. Roberta and Panmela Castro shared their views on art, life and the struggles they face as black creators in a world that still denies them their due space.

In the series “Vigils at the Museum”, Panmela transforms the Rio Art Museum into her studio and paints portraits of visitors who spend the night with her. The paintings created are memories not only of the encounter, but also of the stories shared between her and those portrayed. The “Vigils at the Museum” took place in the context of the exhibition “Radical Ideas About Love”. At the opening of the exhibition, the canvases started out blank and were painted over throughout the months of the exhibition.

“Radical Ideas About Love” was held at the Rio Art Museum, curated by Daniela Labra, with curatorial assistance by Maybel Sulamita and expography by Estúdio Sauá, between August and November 2024 at the Rio Art Museum (MAR). The exhibition is based on the scientific psychology article “Need to Belong” by social psychologists Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary, who approach belonging as a fundamental human impulse. Based on this concept, Panmela presents a series of participatory pieces that, in some way, required the participation of others in order to exist, creating an artistic space aimed at building interpersonal relationships and satisfying this essential impulse.

For Panmela, the “Vigils at the Museum” dialog directly with the theory of the need to belong, as she believes that this moment together, which results in the painting, is a way of creating lasting bonds amid the fleetingness of the contemporary world. With each “Vigil”, Panmela reaffirms the value of genuine connections, where the presence of the other is honored, and art becomes a link that solidifies these relationships, creating spaces of welcome and belonging.