It was not Cabral: reviewing silences and omissions
16 FEB 2024 - 24 MAY 2024
Curated by: Lilia Schwarcz and Nuno Crespo
The annual programme of conferences, concerts, exhibitions and performances returns to the School of Arts in spring 2024. Each year, this programme is aligned around an emerging theme in our contemporary world. If, in previous years, our attention has been focused on how it is possible to learn to "tread softly on the earth" (Ailton Krenak), on the relationship between "Art / Thought / Sound" or on exploring the multiplicity of intersections and contaminations between "Art and Science", in 2024 it will be reflection on the omissions and silences that histories maintain that will take centre stage.
The title is inspired by a song by MC Carol in which the singer, in a poetic gesture, draws attention to the need to change the historical narrative of the construction of Brazil: "Teacher, I'm sorry / but I'm going to say / this year at school / things are going to change / nothing against you / don't get me wrong / who discovered Brazil / it was not Cabral."
This cycle is not about Brazil, but about the need to think critically about history and stories, exploring how a relevant group of contemporary artists has contributed to changing the paradigms of narrative construction that define us as human beings belonging to communities with different artistic, cultural and spiritual expressions. It is precisely to think about the silences and omissions that persist in our discourses that we have brought together various artists, filmmakers, activists and intellectuals.
The ambition of this programme is to build a space for debate where together we can think about historical narratives and the way in which artists from different geographies and cultures have been key drivers in extending and transforming this official history. It's not about revising or rewriting history(s), but thinking about how other subjects, other bodies, other objects can be added to that history(s) so that we can progressively build a broader and more diverse picture of the world, its inhabitants and its processes of transformation.
So, from February 2024, the School of Arts is proposing a programme co-curated by Brazilian intellectual and curator Lilia Schwarcz and EA director Nuno Crespo; and in partnership with the University of São Paulo and Princeton University.
Free entrance
