Page 96 - ARTE!Brasileiros #52

ENGLISH VERSION AGAINST THE DEVASTATION

the satisfaction of seeing the recognition of For Denilson Baniwa, Isael succeeds as no one report | deColoniality [pages 68 to 73]
indigenous people as artists. “So from where to translate the richness and power of Maxakali BEYOND STEREOTYPE:
I’m I try to understand these narratives and also culture into the Western world. “And in this
call for relationships a little healthier than this connection, he creates a relationship where they BRAZILIAN ART BY
dispute,” he concludes. can both get along. When he puts the Maxakali ASIAN-BRAZILIANS
The fact is that artists such as Baniwa and spirits into the world, perhaps I understand it Brazilian artists, curators and
Maxakali help to bring up urgent issues today, as a voice of attempt to create relationships. To researchers of Asian descent talk about
especially in a Brazil that experiences intensely say, ‘This is my world, I am presenting it to you representativeness in the world of the arts,
prejudice and decoloniality
the oppression of indigenous people and the in a way that you can understand, which is by
destruction of ecosystems. “The government the senses of the Western world - by hearing By giUlia garCia
has no commitment to indigenous peoples and vision - but I also want you to understand
and forests,” Maxakali says. “And in all Brazil, that there is something much greater than just in the last Years, the debate on prejudice
where there is a village, the village preserves what you are seeing and listening to.’ and inclusion of minorities started to occupy
the forest, preserves the river, preserves the an increasing space in the arts circuit. However,
culture. But the government wants to end our Drawings anD animations little is heard about the inclusion (or exclusion)
culture,” he laments. It wasn’t long after the interest in cinema that of Asian-Brazilian people in these environments.
Isael began his practice as a designer. In the In a world that was surprised by a pandemic
traJeCtorY in the arts early 2000s he began to mainly use watercolor in 2020, the fact that the coronavirus (Covid-19)
Born in Santa Helena de Minas in 1978, in one of to draw nature, animals and people. Although started in China has sparked a xenophobic
the few Maxakali villages still existing - bringing he understands it as distinct practices, he says movement around the globe with people of
together today about 2,000 inhabitants in areas that both productions are part of the same desire. different Asian ancestry. In Brazil, it was no
in northeastern mg - Isael became interested “For me every image is alive, it is spiritual, both different. However, as transdisciplinary artist
in audiovisual language around 1999. “Why in the film and in the drawing. If I draw, all that’s Cyshimi points out, “the issues that permeate
did I learn how to make movies? Because I saw left is to put a heart, to walk,” he says. Asian-Brazilians are not new”, it started long
many films from other villages, from Xavantes, And it was the desire to make the drawing before and go far beyond the virus.
Guaranis, and it became my dream to also make speak and walk that triggered interest in In edition #51 of arte!brasileiros, Luciara
the Maxakali.” Isael didn’t speak Portuguese - animations, which came to fruition in more Ribeiro brought a reflection on the subject: “We
he didn’t eat seasoned food or drink coffee, he recent years in two films. Alongside Bicalho, after always need to ask ourselves why we racialize
points out - and, while he began learning the the approval of a project in the Edital Filme em certain populations and assign them specific
language, he had his first contacts with filming Minas 2015, he produced Konãgxeka: o Dilúvio terms, such as Afro-Brazilians, Brazilian Indians
through professor Rosangela de Tugny of Ufmg, Maxakali, short film exhibited in a series of or Asian-Brazilians: is it because we recognize
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. national and international festivals. Another the so-called Euro-Brazilian art as just Brazilian
It was years of exchanges with researchers film that gained prominence was Grin, by Isael art? ”. For Shima, winner of the pipa Award 2013,
from Belo Horizonte until he produced his first and Roney Freitas, screened and awarded at the this is an essential point of the discussion. “We
film. In 2007, he filmed both a ritual of initiation of 21st Bienal Sesc_Videobrasil. The documentary will be born and we will die Asians in Brazil,
boys, called tatakox, and the end of the seclusion rescues, through a series of interviews, the no matter how Brazilians we feel. I know that
of a woman after the birth of her son, made memories of the Maxakali about the formation I will never be invited to represent a ‘Brazilian
through rituals and chants in a river near Aldeia of the Indigenous Rural Guard (grin) during the art’,” he says.
Verde, where Isael lived at the time. Today, the military dictatorship, with reports of violence In this edition, we decided to look specifically
artist, who is also a councilman of the city of suffered by the population. at Brazilian art made by Asian-Brazilians, the
Ladainha since 2016, helps to erect Aldeia Verde, Currently, the newly opened 18th edition of prejudices that surround it, the struggle
also on the outskirts of the city. Doclisboa presents Yãmiyhex, as Mulheres- that permeates it and its possibilities. To
Territorial issues, food insecurity, lack of espírito, new film by Isael and Sueli. Meanwhile, introduce this discussion, we spoke with
drinking water and access to rivers are just some the artist continues “taking care of the swidden, artists, researchers and curators from different
of the daily difficulties faced by local indigenous seeking firewood, playing” and working to erect backgrounds.
peoples - and do not fail to permeate Isael’s work. the new Maxakali village in Ladainha, while
After the first films, assembled and subtitled exercising his political position and the local is there preJuDiCe against
with the help of collaborators such as Charles leadership role. He is also doing a master’s asian-brazilians?
Bicalho in Belo Horizonte, Isael intensified degree at Ufmg, “and if i do, then I will do my Asia is the largest continent and has the
his production, often alongside his wife Sueli doctorate, to clarify the name of the Maxakali, highest population density in the world. There
Maxakali. In Xokxop Pet (2009), for example, of my people”, he concludes. are 50 countries with different phenotypes,
recorded the going of several indigenous peoples According to Baniwa, “although some people ethnicities and cultures. However, as artists
to a zoo in Belo Horizonte, where they sing their cannot understand how complex the Maxakali and activists point out, in Brazil there is still
yãmîy (sacred songs) in honor of the animals in world is, as are other indigenous worlds, I think a direct association of Asia with Japan and a
captivity; in Dia do Índio na Aldeia Verde Maxakali Isael’s work can reach people in a sensitive reduction to East Asia. “The homogenization
records celebrations made in the village in 2010; way. And if maybe in a first contact can’t be of Asian ethnicities carries traces of
and in Xupapoyanãg (2013) films a great ritual in understood, it’s a seed. A seed that is planted colonialism by simplifying and objectifying
which some indigenous represent otters - sacred and that time will tell if it hatches or if it dies, in diverse bodies, identities and cultures and,
animals for the Maxakali - who come to the village this soil in which I, Isael and other indigenous with that, motivates the loss of memory and
to avenge the death of their relatives. artists are planting.” assimilation of peoples”, explains the artist,

96