On December 4, Inhotim opens two temporary exhibitions: Abdias Nascimento e o Museu de Arte Negra (Abdias Nascimento and the Black Art Museum) and Deslocamentos (Displacements)

Abdias Nascimento e o Museu de Arte Negra

In a joint curatorship with IPEAFRO (Afro-Brazilian Studies and Research Institute), Inhotim hosts a museum within its own space, opening the exhibition Abdias Nascimento and Black Art Museum, a project comprising four acts to be held over the next two years, beginning with the exhibition “Primeiro Ato: Abdias Nascimento, Tunga e o Museu de Arte Negra” (First Act: Abdias Nascimento, Tunga and the Black Art Museum), at Galeria Mata. 

Poet, writer, playwright, curator, visual artist, university professor, Pan-Africanist and parliamentarian, Abdias Nascimento (1914–2011), officially nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, had a long trajectory in activism and in the fight against racism. In 2021, the year that marks the tenth anniversary of the loss of this scholar, who was essential to Brazilian thought, Inhotim and IPEAFRO (Institute for Afro-Brazilian Research and Studies), an institution founded by Nascimento and which cares for his legacy, honor him with a long-term initiative, to be held from December 4, 2021 through December 2023.  

Tunga, one of the most emblematic artists in Inhotim’s collection, grew up as a friend of Nascimento’s. He was the son of Gerardo Mello Mourão, a poet who, in the 1930s, was part of Santa Hermandad Orquídea alongside Abdias Nascimento and other writers.

The curatorship, shared by Inhotim and IPEAFRO, brought together for this first act paintings, drawings, photographs and installations that show the dialogue and artistic connection between Tunga and Nascimento.

Deslocamentos

The exhibition Deslocamentos (Displacements), at Galeria Fonte, brings together works drawing on processes of representation of physical and imagined places, with issues related to occupation, sharing, and migration between different territories. It features works by Cerith Wyn Evans, Gordon Matta-Clark, Jorge Macchi, Laura Lima, Matheus Rocha Pitta, On Kawara, Raquel Garbelotti, Rivane Neuenschwander, Rodrigo Matheus, Rubens Mano, and Sara Ramo.

The experience of displacement presupposes the notion that leaving a certain place is a gesture that opens a path. The challenge of reflecting on this journey refers back to the first travelers of ancient times and, consequently, to the first foreigners. Representing space and delimiting borders that separate one territory from another; mapping regularities, intersections and points of contact, but also tensions and disputes; recounting encounters and journeys. However, since the last decades of the 20th century, the notions of space, territory and border, in the context of globalization, have attained new definitions and produced new materialities and immaterialities, mediated by the intense flow of goods, capital, and individuals. Displacing now acquires a different meaning, provokes new forms of record-keeping.

Abdias Nascimento e o Museu de Arte Negra (Abdias Nascimento and Black Art Museum) and Deslocamentos (Displacements) are part of the program entitled Território Específico (Specific Territory), research theme and axis around which Inhotim is centering its activities in 2021–2022. The concept of territory is expanded transversally to an investigation of the environmental, social and artistic aspects that take place within Inhotim as a space, in its surrounding areas, and in the multitude of relationships that unfold from it.