Discourses of Necropolitics
Discourses of Necropolitics investigates the mechanisms through which death, disposability, and systemic violence are normalized, aestheticized, and operationalized in contemporary society.
Drawing from Achille Mbembe’s concept of necropolitics, the project examines how states, institutions, and media construct narratives that determine which lives are grievous, visible, or valuable.
We The People
Reproductions in larger formats of biometric photographs, rehearsing the notion of identification even in the face of democratic erosion.
The search for identity originates in a space of biopolitical crisis and is a direct consequence of colonization.
The 13 portrayed individuals — Indigenous, African-American, and Latinx — represent the 13 stripes of the American flag, or the original 13 colonies.
The “afterimage” effect in the work suggests not only a revelation of the images themselves but also a space for reflection. When the experiment is carried out and the viewer stares at the negative image for 30 seconds, the eyes attempt to continue the image on a blank surface. Physiologically, the brain and the eyes seek equilibrium, and thus the image is revealed in its positive state.
The negative view in which the works are displayed may represent the perception of the privileged — those who believe that “we are all equal” under the law, the constitution, and history. But we are not.
Above all the pillars of a nation’s construction, non-white people have historically suffered — and continue to suffer — the consequences of a colonized society. Blood was spilled for these red stripes so that something could be built.
Our blood.
“We the people.”
Resistencia
The tattoo was made on the central axis, purposely to cause tension in the spine and the peripheral nervous system.
Classified as an extension of the central nervous system (CNS), the spinal cord consists of the encephalon and spinal cord. It begins in the lower part of the brainstem and terminates in the lower dorsal part, thus forming the medullary cone.
A collection of nerves, known as the cauda equina, leaves the lower part of the spinal cord (medullary cone) and serves to provide us sensibility and movement in the legs.
The tattoo as done in this region, causes involuntary movements and pain in other parts of the body, where the tattoo is not being done, in addition to dizziness and headaches. The intention is in every action, the tattoo be done within the stroke, until one day, this whole map is painted red.
The countries of Latin America walk together, strain together and the red symbolizes blood but also revolution, that after the tattoo, the blood is staked in a white fabric, like a flag.
E Daí?
Brazil has been experiencing a political crisis for a long time, which intensified with the Covid-19 pandemic. In January 2019, Jair Messias Bolsonaro was elected, faced with a scenario of political arbitrariness, since then it has been a controversial government that flirts with fascism and necropolitics.
We can consider that the lack of structure and assistance to the most needy, including indigenous people, people living in remote and peripheral areas are more emergent in times of pandemic. In addition to the lack of aid, precarious conditions in the area of health that is a daily occurrence in Brazil, our country also faces a political crisis (in addition to the economic that has been going on since 2014).
During this period, two ministers of health, Luiz Henrique Mandetta and Nelson Teich, the exoneration of both, was specifically due to the direct interference of the president in health strategies against the corona virus, which has no medical or scientific training. Inspired by Trump, Bolsonaro wants to include chloroquine in the official protocol of the SUS (Public Health System) even though medically having several side effects and not having scientific proof of any efficacy in the treatment of the corona virus.
Bolsonaro also referred to the Corona Virus as "little flu" and that people with "athlete backgrounds" were less likely to die from the virus. There was also speculation that the president had contracted the disease, and he, in addition to not publishing his examination, went out on the streets without a mask, inciting the crowd and coughing close to people.
During the pandemic, the minister of justice, Sergio Moro, also resigned, claiming that the president wanted to intervene politically in the investigations of the Federal Police, recalling that allies and the president's family have specifically 6 cases being investigated by the PF, one of them the murder of city councilwoman Marielle Franco.
The name of the performance "E dai?" it is about an interview that Bolsonaro gave, on Tuesday, April 28, when he was asked by a journalist about the deaths in Brazil, which at the time totaled 5,017 deaths, exceeding the total deaths in China, and his answer was: 'And? Am sorry. What do you want me to do? ’, Says Bolsonaro about coronavirus deaths; 'I am Messiah, but I do not do miracles'