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the northeast region to update these researches. The result can now be seen in the to question about what the sertão are, by their meaning, by the figures that could
exhibition Northeast, until August 25. represent them. After all, what do you say when you say sertao? In the search for a
The trips for updating began in the second half of 2018, said Marcelo and Clarissa. single meaning, in the search for a single definition, the encounter with the diverse,
Some of them were made in trio, others in pairs and others only one of them can with the dispersed, with the divergent, the encounter with the ambiguous, with the
carry out. “The project is the vitality of the region, which showed us other things, ambivalent. In the search to see and to say the sertao, the encounter with the sertao.
not just what we already knew”, says Campos. He says that the trips coincided with In the incessant excavation in search for the sertao, authors and works were swallowed
a very pulsating moment of the Northeast, due to the political scenario of the last up by the vortex of meaning that is the sertao utterance, swirl in the hollow of its
presidential elections. This has made the energy of contem- porary new artists stand meaning, are captured by the swirling of its reality, its identity. A being so multiple,
out in some way. The moment was also very important for them to observe a series of so discontent with itself, how to say it, how to express it? But, after all, what images,
transformations that had taken place in the region during the last years. The curators what imaginary revolves around these topos and this locus so present in Brazilian
were careful not to fall into a trap that is too easy to slip when it comes to the region: cultural production? Let’s open the coffers of the Brazilian imagination and make
the folklore: “We said that it was not our intention to make a picture of the region, nor a small inventory of what you see and what you do when you talk about the sertao.
a panorama. At no point did we do, for example, a statistic”, commented Marcelo. In The sertao is the other. Alterity, difference. The wilderness is the stranger. The sertao
this way, the curators were allowed to cross for subjects that were triggered, in the is the other of the coast, of civilization, of the city, of modernity, of contemporaneity.
end, in nuclei of the exhibition. They are: Future, Insurgency, (non) Coloniality, Work, The sertao is the distant and the distinct. That space with which there is no proximity
Nature, City, Desire and Language. or identity. It is the place of the other, the stranger, the savage, the barbarian, the rustic,
At the same time, the exhibition was not conceived in a way that escaped the prejudices the rude, the late, the dissimilar, the animal, the inhuman. The sertões are another and
that are directed to the region and showing them is also a way of not normalizing have the infinite capacity to being another itself. It always does, but it always makes
them: “These prejudices are part of a northeastern experience”, Clarissa points itself different when we approach it. The more it spies, the more it looks changed,
out, explaining that the encounter is provocative and stirs up a series of concepts morphed. The sertao is a snake that changes the skin every day.
and prejudices. In the Nordeste region, there are 275 works by 160 artists, among The sertao is never where we look for it, and yet it seems to be everywhere. The
them, such as Retirantes, by Cândido Portinari, who is part of the MASP collection, sertao lives the border condition, it is always moving. The sertao is always ahead, it is
and the Manto de Apresentaçào, by Arthur Bispo do Rosário. More contemporary a search and a wait. We are always losing sight of the sertão. When we arrived, he was
artists with heavy works, such as Juliana Notari, who presents the video Mimoso in gone, stammered. The sertões are always there after the turn of the road. The sertao
the Desire sector, are also very present in the web constructed by the curators. One is mischief, it is perdition, it is wandering. The sertao is to err, the sertões are wrong.
of the highlights is Memelito’s work, from the collective Saquinho de Lixo, which When we reach the edges of the sertao, it jumps farther ahead. When we think we
appeared as a memes page in social networks. The video brings a series of images have conquered the sertão, it refuses, capricious. When we think we have dominated
known on the internet. Also very contemporary, Gabriel Mascaro’s work is not about the sertão, it will crumble, he will flee further.
shoes, reflects on the issues surrounding the demonstrations that have taken place However, it continues as an obsessive presence, as a question to be answered, as a
in the country in recent years, taking as a point of discussion the manifestations of challenge to be faced, as a goal to be achieved. The sertão is there, but it is here, it is
2013, which began a more latent process of participation - tion of the population in there. When we step on the sertao it escapes from our feet, although it continues to
the direction of the country. For the exhibition, were commissioned 12 unpublished hurt in our soul, being a mirage in our eyes.
works, such as A gente combinamos de não morrer, 2019, by Jota Mombasa (cover The sertão is a distance. He is always more there than here. But where to situate it?
of this issue). The commissioning was, according to Marcelo, a way of breaking the The sertão is a distance in time. The sertão is anachronistic, it is a past thing, it is a
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vericalization of art. In addition to Mombaça, artists such as Daniel Santiago (PE), Gê thing of the past. The sertão belongs to the past, it is its expression and incarnation. The
Vianna and Márcia Ribeiro (MA), Ton Bezerra (MA), Isabela Stampanoni (PE), Pêdra sertão is tradition, it’s folklore, it’s archery from the old, it’s handmade, not industrial.
Costa (RN), Marie Carangi Alves (PE) also carried out new work. The sertao is made by hand, in cross stitches. The sertão is dead, the sertão is the
place of death par excellence and incelências. Walking toward the sertão is walking
SESC MAY DE MAIO against time. The sertão is retreat, the sertão is ruin, the sertão is what remains of
Located in a very central region of the city of São Paulo, where thousands of migrants the times gone. In the sertao, time drags on, heavy, slow, limp. In the sertao, time
and immigrants pass by, SESC 24 de Maio has a very strong geopolitical character in its stretches, stretches, drowsy. The time of the sertao is sticky, it is like visgo, imprisoning
roots. The unit was inaugurated in 2017 and has hosted major exhibitions celebrating everyone in its modorrenta march. Therefore, in order to see the sertao it is necessary
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what comes from outside of Sao Paulo, such as Jamaica Jamaica, which focuses on to take distance, it is necessary to look at the old, previous, ancestral times. You can
Jamaican culture and politics, and Lasar Segall: essay on color, which presented a only see the sertao with the eyes of memory or history, because the sertão are always
great collected from works by the Lithuanian artist living in Brazil. behind. The sertão is a measure of time, it allows us to measure the distance in which
we find ourselves from the times of origins, of primitive, primitive times. The sertão
Watch the video on À Nordeste exposure on our website. Visit www.artebrasileiros.com.br is a principle, it is primordial, it is an armorial. 3
The sertão is a longitude. Remote space, distant place, brenhas, bushes, scrub. The
ARTICLE PANORAMA 36 OF MAM | PAGES 74 TO 76 sertão are leagues of tyrannies. The sertão is to lose sight of. Open horizons, endless
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DIGGING THE HOLLOW OF lands, space to conquer, to tread, to unveil the secrets and mysteries. The sertão is
an appeal to displacement, it is an invitation to nomadism. The sertão is land without
MEANING OR WHAT DOES gates, doors without tramples. The sertão is a sink of people. Space of enchantment

IT MEAN SER-TAO? and disappearance. The sertao is of people and of animals. The sertao is land of
touches, burrows and playwrights. It is mufumbo, it is scrub, it is carrascal, it is the
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cafundós of Judas, where it lost its boots. The sertão is beyond, it is paradise and it is
BY DURVAL MUNIZ DE ALBUQUERQUE JÚNIOR* hell. The sertão is what is inside, is what is inside of each one of us. The sertão are so
far away, the sertão are so close. Agent always leaves the hinterland, but the sertão
What images evokes when you listen “sertao”? leave us? The sertão is Maria-vai-com-as-otros, follows us and chases us where we
In Brazilian social thought, in Brazilian literature and in the arts, it has been recurrent go. He inhabits us and dwells in all the places where we are. When the sertao is least

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