Ventura Profana (Catu, BRASIL , 1993).
Ventura Profana, La raíz cuadrada de siete [Square
root of seven]
[...] is less a set of artistic collages and more an
entanglement of fractal fabulations. Here, a fractal is not an
object whose separate parts repeat the entire whole, but a
mysterious moment where everything that ever existed,
exists, and will exist manifests in the smallest details of
what is yet to be completed. This moment not only
surpasses numbers but collapses the logic of
representation. We can look at a space probe and wonder:
such algebraic calculations are there. But only when we
face the memory of this probe within Profana's fractal
entanglement can we remember: between one and zero
lies infinity. There, images of a world whose representation
has been shown to exhaustion, as well as images of
forgotten and yet-to-be-invented worlds, sensibly
accumulate at the same point to bring desires and projects
both destroyed and built to life.
This series is driven by Profana's concern with the
space colonization project anchored in human expeditions
beyond the Earth's atmosphere. Using photographs taken
by space satellites provided by the agencies in charge of
such programs, Profana reaches a place that no longer
seems to be ordered by human motivations, a place,
indeed, inconceivable to the so-called Homo Sapiens.
There, the elements of this hyper-technological human
program appear as the ruins of an alien civilization long
extinct, now reformulated with cosmic motivations.
Text by Abigail Campos Leal
Manauara Clandestina,(Manaus, 1992)
Por enquanto 35
Manauara Clandestina’s work dialogues about travesti
life, questioning the conditions of violence and societal
erasure in which trans and travesti individuals live. Her
proximity to theater and singing in church planted the seed
for performance and gender exploration. This exploration
later led her to begin her transition and feel the need to be
heard. As a result, she has expanded her forms of
expression beyond previous formats, developing
transversally. Clandestina’s works convey affection, contain
an intimate and sensitive gaze, and speak to us about her
life experience. Her work and life show her relationship with
religion and how she expands discourses with new
perspectives on borders and colonialism.
In Por Enquanto 35 (2018 – 2023), Clandestina portrays
Brazilian and Latin American travestis and trans women of
various ages, conducting research guided by the exchange
of experiences. This archive was born in São Paulo in
2019, in the face of daily news of murders of trans and
travesti individuals whose life expectancy is approximately
35 years due to murders and violent deaths. In this work,
Clandestina does not want to talk about death but about
life, about moments of celebration, beauty, and parties.
These portraits give a face to people who had never had
one. Beneath many of these portraits, we find their ages,
written in pen. From an ephemeral idea, from photographs
that may fade over time, we find the idea of reuniting after
the disappearance of these photos. This small mural of
photographs exposes the desire to live, to create
community.
Text by Fidel Villar Barquín