Ancestral Weaving - Kipaé
Denilson Baniwa, Naine Terena, Jamille Pinheiro Dias, Flávio Fêo
Brasil
Bringing together light projections and sound art, Denilson Baniwa and Naine Terena conduct this collective transmedia work connecting ancestral Indigenous forms of knowledge and various dimensions of human existence, seeking to link them to some of the perceptions that shape people's daily lives in Brazil and Germany. Along with Jamille Pinheiro Dias and Flávio Fêo, they raise awareness about environmental and social concerns experienced in the Brazilian Amazon, such as criminal forest fires, invasions of Indigenous lands and a disproportionately high incidence of COVID-19, by weaving a cosmic fabric in which distinct cosmologies are intertwined.
Due to travel restrictions related to the pandemic, the collective led by Baniwa and Terena were unable to fly to Germany for Theaterformen, but met in Chapada dos Guimarães, in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, were they carried out a short-term arts retreat in preparation for the festival. In the resulting works, Baniwa’s projections will light up Theaterformen with Amazonian plant, animal and spiritual beings, accompanied by Terena’s multi-species sound art work, which will immerse listeners in soundscapes from Chapada combined with testimonials from German volunteers.
Production credits
Denilson Baniwa was born in the village of Darí, in Barcelos, Amazonas, Brazil, in 1984. His work as an artist combines traditional and contemporary references, using icons of non-Indigenous visual cultures in order to promote awareness of the struggle of Indigenous peoples in various media and languages. Among many other venues and events, his art was exhibited at the 22nd Sydney Biennial, at Centro Cultural São Paulo (CCSP), at Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (CCBB), and at Pinacoteca de São Paulo, where some of his works remain as part of the collection. He was one of the winners of Brazil's prestigious PIPA Award.
Naine Terena lives and works in Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil. She is a researcher, teacher, artist and curator. She graduated in Social Communication-Radio from the Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT), and holds a PhD in Education from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP) and a Master’s in Arts from the University of Brasília (UnB). In 2019, she participated in the Verbier Art Summit in Valais, Switzerland. She dedicated herself to curating the exhibition Véxoa: We know, which took place at the Pinacoteca de São Paulo from October 2020-March 2021.
Jamille Pinheiro Dias was born in Belém, in the Brazilian Amazon, in 1983. She is a Research Associate at the University of Manchester, where she works in the Cultures of Anti-Racism in Latin America project, funded by the United Kingdom's Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). She has had previous appointments at Stanford University and the University of São Paulo, where she also received a Ph.D. in Modern Languages. Her main research interests are Indigenous aesthetics and poetics in the Americas, with a focus on Brazil.
Flávio Fêo was born in Guaraniaçu, Paraná, Brazil. He holds a Ph.D. and a Master in Philosophy from PUC-PR, and is a specialist in Philosophy and Psychoanalysis (UNIOESTE-PR). He ghraduated in Philosophy (UNIFAI-SP) and is Professor of Philosophy at the Catholic College of Mato Grosso (UNIFACC-MT). He has published in the latest editions of ANPOF (National Association of Postgraduate Studies in Philosophy). Along with Naine Terena, he is the creator and producer of “Paraskeué: podcast for life.”