Brazil
About the team In Brazil, decay persists as an ontological condition for indigenous communities, a continuation of the historical processes of colonialism: institutional violence, deforestation, mining and the pressure to adopt western lifestyles. Here, decay represents opportunity for activism and political change. Increasingly communities turn to contemporary art practices as tools for activism and political resistance, readdressing and transforming their traditions. Preserving the cultural heritage of these communities poses a particular challenge to Brazilian museums where the art and material cultures of indigenous communities remain largely absent or misrepresented in existing collections, and colonial thinking on collecting and displaying still dominates. This leaves indigenous practices and conceptions on the margins of official collections.
The Brazil team will explore if digital technologies can be developed to benefit efforts of indigenous communities motivated by decay to preserve or recreate their relationship to natural and cultural heritage? Conversely, can these technologies push museums to rethink colonial practices, opening ways for indigenous artists and makers to reinterpret, activate and invert existing collections? Can problematising existing digital infrastructure through critical activation of AI codes create ethical online tools that respect the complex relational ontologies underpinning indigenous knowledge systems without false purisms?
Fernanda Pitta
Fernanda Pitta is an art historian, Assistant Professor at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo. She has been a FAPESP Fellow, the AAMC and AAMC Foundation Fellow, the Clark Art Institute Fellow, the Getty Library grantee, and Visiting Scholar at the Fakultet for kunst, musikk og design, Norway. From 2014-2022, she was Senior Curator at Pinacoteca de São Paulo, were she curated several exhibitions, the most recent being: Nobody would have believed it: Alvim Corrêa and 10 contemporary artists, she also worked as curatorial coordinator of Véxoa: we know, curated by Naine Terena. She was a consultant for the show Raio-que-o-parta: fictions of modernity in Brazil, at Sesc 24 de maio, São Paulo. She edited more than 10 catalogs among them: We are many: experiments in collectivity. Among her most recent scholarly publications is: A ‘breve história da arte’ e a arte indígena: a gênese de uma noção e sua problemática hoje. MODOS: Revista de História da Arte, Campinas, SP, v. 5, n. 3, p. 223–257, 2021.
About project
Fernanda Pitta is an art historian, Assistant Professor at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo. She has been a FAPESP Fellow, the AAMC and AAMC Foundation Fellow, the Clark Art Institute Fellow, the Getty Library grantee, and Visiting Scholar at the Fakultet for kunst, musikk og design, Norway. From 2014-2022, she was Senior Curator at Pinacoteca de São Paulo, were she curated several exhibitions, the most recent being: Nobody would have believed it: Alvim Corrêa and 10 contemporary artists, she also worked as curatorial coordinator of Véxoa: we know, curated by Naine Terena. She was a consultant for the show Raio-que-o-parta: fictions of modernity in Brazil, at Sesc 24 de maio, São Paulo. She edited more than 10 catalogs among them: We are many: experiments in collectivity. Among her most recent scholarly publications is: A ‘breve história da arte’ e a arte indígena: a gênese de uma noção e sua problemática hoje. MODOS: Revista de História da Arte, Campinas, SP, v. 5, n. 3, p. 223–257, 2021.
Bruno Moreschi
Bruno Moreschi is researcher and multidisciplinary artist. He is coordinator of the Group on Artificial Intelligence and Art (GAIA) / C4AI at the Universidade de São Paulo, researcher of the project Decay without mourning: Future thinking heritage practices, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond / Volkswagen Foundation and senior research fellow at the Center for Arts, Design + Social Research (CAD+SR). Moreschi received his PhD in Arts at the State University of Campinas. His investigations are related to the deconstruction of systems and the decoding of social practices in the fields of arts, museums, visual culture and technologies. Projects recognized by Bauhaus Fellowship, ZKM, Van Abbemuseum, 33rd Bienal de São Paulo, Rumos Award, Funarte, Fapesp, University of Cambridge etc.
About project
A member of Aldear!, the Brazilian nucleus of the Decay Without Mourning: Future-thinking heritage practices project, Bruno Moreschi is responsible for mediating between the groups and people involved in the project with tools and technological solutions that will be used based on the identified needs. Part of these actions are related to the construction of digital databases and websites, in addition to the critical and collaborative use of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning processes.
Naine Terena
Naine Terena holds a Master in Arts, PhD in Education, and graduated with a degree in Social Communication. A woman of the Terena indigenous people, she created the Oracle Communication, Education and Culture, in 2012 which promotes the participation of minorities in the socio-cultural context in Brazil. She is the organizer of the book-collection of indigenous writers Tempos (editora Sustentável, 2021) and of scientific journals such as Abatirá: Educação Escolar Indígena no Século XXI: Desafios, especificidades e perspectivas (v. 1, n. 2, 2020); and Revista Urdimento: Corpo e(n)cena e (des)educação - As artes da cena dos e com os povos indígenas (v. 1 n. 43, 2022). She was one of five finalists for the Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice, offered in 2019 by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, New York (USA). She is recognized as Master of Culture of Mato Grosso (Brazil - 2020/2021). She was also curator of the exhibition Véxoa - Nós sabemos at the Pinacoteca of State of São Paulo, Festival Desenho Vivo - Circuito Urbano de Arte (CURA) and member of the Judging Committee of the 13th International Biennial of Architecture of São Paulo. She teaches in the specialization course in Cultural management - Expanding repertoires, at Instituto Itaú Cultural and at the Indigenous Intercultural Master's at the University of the State of Mato Grosso. Follow her on social media at Facebook and Instagram.
About project
As a Post-Doctoral Researcher Fellow of the Aldear! incubator in the Decay project, Naine Terena is responsible for mediating dialogues with partner indigenous groups, and to develop propositions on the issue of the collections of cultural institutions, their forms of access, preservation and dissemination. She is especially interested in thinking about the issue of decadence / decay of systems of thought and the protection of indigenous heritage from the insurgency movement of the counter-narratives of native peoples in Brazil.