BLACK BODY*

compositions with red roses for black and white archive

CORPO PRETA composiçoes com rosas vermelhas para um arquivo em preto e branco 

* is a project supported by the Zum/IMS Grant (2023) Contemporary Collection, Instituto Moreira Salles – Brazil

The project BLACK BODY is a device that complements, through images, this relationship between history and the violence of the archive, as well as in its fiction and in its materiality. Contemporary analog photography as materiality for the black-and-white future. How can we reperform something that is empowering, and not remain trapped in its object structure?

The research presents eight black and white analog photographs exploring contemporary performativity, post-pornography, and the erotic body of Black women in dialogue with colonial archives. Dedicated to dark-skinned Black women, the series proposes visual escape routes fostering dialogues between Black radical thought and contemporary philosophy in Brazil. Produced in Maastricht during the Jan Van Eyck Academie residency, the work delivered to the Moreira Salles Institute comprises eight monochrome silk-screen prints (Fomapan 100, Pentax Spotmatic) on cotton fabrics in white, black, and terracotta. Measuring 90 x 59 cm each, the 24 interconnected images form a single artist’s edition for Bolsa Zum/IMS 2023.