MOARA TUPINAMBÁ & EMERSON UÝRA

Curated by Marissa Lôbo and Ivana Marjanović

The solo exhibition Resurgences of Amazonia! features the work of Brazilian artists Moara Tupinambá and Uýra Sodoma. Their work negotiates issues of indigenous identity, memory, origin, and the experiences of the "comunidades ribeirinhas", the river communities of the Amazon, and their importance for socio-ecological sustainability as well as resistance to the violent process of colonization and its continuity in the present.

Moara Tupinambá’s work celebrates anti-colonial narratives and a way of thinking that resists colonial historical erasure. In doing so, she emphasizes the importance of affirming indigenous identity. Her poetics wander through cartographies of memory, identity, origin, indigenous resistance, and anti-colonial thought. Moara starts from a connection with her origins and identity, and begins a process of making collages of old photographs-taken by European ethnologists-of people she has encountered in her research. This work brings back to her stolen memories.

The current pandemic represents a kind of eternal return for the indigenous population in Amazonia, which has struggled with deadly diseases in its history of resistance since the conquest by Europeans.

Emerson or Uýra Sodoma is an indigenous artist and biologist as well as an art facilitator in the river communities. Emerson lives in Manaus, an industrialized territory in the middle of the central Amazon, where he transforms into Uýra, a being between animal and plant, working to make visible and heal systemic colonial diseases. Through the use of the body and organic elements, Uýra embodies a tree that moves and crosses any boundaries in the medium of photo-performance and performance. Interested in ecosystems and their destruction, Uýra tells stories of nature, enchantment, and boundary crossing amidst a landscape that oscillates between city and jungle, from the perspective of diversity, dissidence, functioning, and adaptation.

The exhibition brings together photography, video collages and sound pieces by both artists.

MOARA TUPINAMBA
is a visual artist born in Mairi Tupinambá. Her ancestors are native Tapajowaras, coming from the Cucurunã and Boim (Tupinambá) community. She lives in São Paulo and works as an artist and curator multimedia with drawing, painting, collages, installations, video, photographs, literature, and performances. Her poetics include cartographies of memory, identity, ancestry, indigenous resistance, and anti-colonial thought. In 2020, with the "Museu da Silva", she participated in the 30th edition of the exhibition program of Centro Cultural São Paulo. She participated with Janaú in the Sydney Biennial "Nirin" (curator Brook Andrew) with the video of the March of Indigenous Women (2019); Seminar on Indigenous Histories of MASP (2019); Exhibition "Indigenous August" (2019), São Paulo; Teko Porã, in the collective exhibition "Re-antropofagia" curated by Denilson Baniwa and Pedro Gradella in Niterói, UFF Arts Center (2019). She was nominated for the Select Art and Education Award 2018 for the project II Bienal do Ouvidor 63, which took place in São Paulo with a large artistic cast.

More information:https://www.moarabrasil.com

EMERSON UYRA
is a performance artist, biologist and educator from the Amazonian city of Santarém, in the state of Pará in Brazil. Emerson is involved in social and environmental work in urban areas and developed the persona of the Drag Queen of the Amazon Uýra Sodoma, which recently received a lot of attention in the local and international media. Emerson uses art as a tool for indigenous environmental activism. As a performer, participation in various exhibitions such as Salão Arte Paraná, VII Edition of Prêmio EDP at Instituto Tomie Ohtake, Instituto Moreira Salle or Museu de Arte in Rio de Janeiro.

More information: www.instagram.com/uyrasodoma/

EVENTS DURING THE EXHIBITION

SOFT OPENING
09.07.21, 16:00-20:00
RESURGENCES OF AMAZONIA!
with DJ-Set of Tonica Hunter


ARTIST TALK / WORKSHOP / PERFORMANCE
10.07.21, 12:00-18:00

12:00-13:00 Artist Talk, Guided Tour 
RESURGENCES OF AMAZONIA! 
with Emerson Uýra and Moara Tupinambá

14:00-16:30 Workshop
COLLAGE UND ANCESTRALITY 
with Moara Tupinambá

17:00-18:00 Performance
THE FOREST UNDER CONCRETE
with Emerson Uýra


GUIDED TOURS

28.08.21, 12:00
RESURGENCES OF AMAZONIA!
with Ivana Marjanović

04.09.21, 12:00
RESURGENCES OF AMAZONIA!
with Marissa Lobo