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ENGLISH VERSION ON THE PROWL

Contemporary anthropology, for me, an exhibition at the National Museum photographically and that brought him
is not the study of culture or separate of Fine Arts in Argentina, in which it an enormous sensation of abyss, in which
culture. It has to be that, but it must illuminated only the works made by he was “stopped, suspended”, between
also understand the problems of women in the institution’s collection. “fascinated and seduced by a mystery”.
interculturality. And then we saw the minority role that The same impression, he commented
women play in museum collections later, he had again almost 20 years later
– This interview will be around the world. when he was faced with works by the
published in the context of our 1st English artist Francis Bacon, one of his
Latin American Seminar: Reports, COVER ANTONIO OBÁ [pages 30 to 39] references in painting and whose power
Memory and Reparation, which will and visuality captured him, as if he were
address, among other issues, the A CONVERSATION facing a “hole”. , something that was
construction of counter-hegemonic WITH ANTONIO OBÁ missing and fascinated him too.
narratives in recent years. Are The artist, whose flock exhibition
cultural institutions in Latin America is on display at Pinacoteca the educator
open to these narratives? Do these Contemporânea, transcends Obá was born in 1983, in Ceilândia, in
painting, sculpture and installations
narratives, which come from minority to conceive images of suspended the Federal District, where he still lives
groups, have any chance of improving bodies and children, sometimes ghostly and works today. He has always drawn
our democracies, or is resistance to and painted, but grew up as an educator.
them very strong? by patricia rousseaux He worked as a teacher at Centro
If we consider a period like the first Educacional 15 in Ceilândia, taught
two decades of the 21st century, listening to antonio obá, in a long, about art and creative processes, as
we see all the socioeconomic and paused, reflective conversation, talking a high school teacher, at the Center for
political compositions, the increase about his childhood, the construction of the Development of Creative Potential
in poverty, etc. on the one hand; on his career, his meetings brings, firstly, a (criar), for children and adults in
the other hand, there are positive lot of calm and, in the end, the certainty Taguatinga, a satellite city of Brasília.
effects, achievements of these of how much his memories are directly He was always interested in the place
explosive emergences of identities reflected in his work . that art and communication occupy
and new social actors. I don’t like In flock , the exhibition opened in as motivators of autonomy, curiosity
to use the word identity because June of this year, at the recently opened and knowledge. As a place of learning
it seems abstract. They are social Pinacoteca Contemporânea, in São Paulo, disruption. For him, the field of visual
actors that have forms: from native Antonio Obá developed a work in dialogue arts “goes through the contribution to
peoples, from different feminisms, with the building and the history of the human socio-educational development”.
from African-Americans, etc. And new museum, which was an educational One of the characteristics of the
they conquered many things: institution built in the 1950s and attributed beginning of his career is that he was
university quotas in Brazil and in to Ramos de Azevedo, engineer and very far from the traditional art circuit,
other countries, benefits and rights architect responsible for the projects, even during the period in which he
for women and also the possibility for among others, of the Municipal Theater participated in a collective at the Renato
people to have other gender options. and the Pinacoteca do Estado itself. Russo Cultural Center, in 2013, in Brasília.
And this is institutionalized, it was In the installation, hands suspended, A defining moment in his career
converted into laws. There is no way molded with silicone on the bodies of was when he decided to suspend his
to diminish the importance of having children and young people who attended enrollment in the faculty of advertising
many more women in parliaments the workshops at Ocupação 9 de Julho and chose to study visual arts at unb. At
and in some presidencies, having at the mstc and at the Pinacoteca the same time, he attended the Centro
the presence of presidents of native Contemporânea studio, between March Cultural Elefante, an artist house created
peoples, as in the case of Bolivia. We and April 2023, and then forged in white in 2013 by the São Paulo manager Flavia
know that this is not an upward and plaster, evoke, according to him, “hands Gimenes and the Rio de Janeiro plastic
incessant evolution. The us court free in mid-flight; hands – the very ideal artist Matias Mesquita who, newly
has just annulled quotas for African of sustenance and freedom present in the arrived in Brasília, built a drawing
Americans in universities. And there craf to which they dedicate themselves. experimentation space in the North
is something I would like to highlight Hands previously chained, today almost Wing of the federal capital, sculpture,
in closing. Sometimes, the conquests without weight or regret, but aware of all engraving and modelling.That’s when
do not consist exactly in achieving the traumas, like an ex-voto.” [ 1 ] he started to have contact with the
what was proposed, what was asked It is no coincidence that Obá production of national and international
of the institutions, nor in the approval trans cends painting, sculpture and artists. He traveled to Inhotim, got to
of new laws. The achievements installations in images of suspended know the work of Adriana Varejão, who
consist in keeping the demands bodies or children, which are sometimes served as inspiration for his work Wade in
alive, in not forgetting that there are ghostly. He remembers that at the age of the water (Af er Adriana Varejão), of 2019.
indigenous peoples, that there are 8, he came across a hall of ex-votos in the
Afro-Americans, that there should be historic church of Trindade, inaugurated oba’s research
no gender discrimination. Museums in 1912, as the first Sanctuary of the Some signifiers permeate Obá’s work:
are changing, slowly, but they Divine Eternal Father, popularly called children, suspension, ambiguity. Their
recognize this diversity. In 2018, the the Old Sanctuary or Igreja Matriz, in children have marked, almost adult faces.
Nosotras Proponemos collective held Goiás. A scenario that he remembers “They appear as agents of time who seem
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