About
The Hemispheric Institute is proud to present “Performances Negras”: Tactics, Strategies and Barricades in Contemporary Brazil, a series of virtual meetings on performance, politics, imagery, social justice, Blackness and reflections on urgent issues in contemporary Brazil, curated and presented by artist, researcher, and professor Rodrigo Severo. For this series of events, Severo invited artists, activists and intellectuals such as Rosane Borges, Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro, Débora Maria da Silva (Mothers of May Movement), Ayrson Heráclito and Leda Maria Martins.
All conversations in the series will be in Portuguese with simultaneous translation into English. Register for this conversation through the Zoom link below.
Event
Becoming Immeasurable: Destroying the Machines that Produce the Fiction of Race
Rodrigo Severo in conversation with Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro
Tuesday, April 30, 2024 | 5 PM EST
Artist, writer, and clinical psychologist Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro will talk about the intellectual and artistic interventions she has made in her career and how they relate to her concepts of Macumba Aesthetics and the Ephemerality Clinic. In her work, Brasileiro explores the fleeting possibilities of breaking with the violent racialization of Black existences in order to build transitory spaces of freedom.
Bios
Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro
Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro is a visual artist, writer, and clinical psychologist. She graduated from the Federal University of Espirito Santo and holds a master's degree in clinical psychology from PUC-SP. In her multidisciplinary practice, Brasileiro studies the mystery between life and death, the so-called Transmutation, and the ways of moving between these existential zones. As a member of Bantu-Brazilian diaspora, Brasileiro founds her research on interspecies medicines and spirituality (between different forms of life) in a Bantu-Brazilian ontology. She is the author of the book Quando o sol aqui não mais brilhar: a falência da negritude (When the Sun No Longer Shines Here: the Bankruptcy of Blackness, 2022), and has participated in group and solo exhibitions in Brazil and across the world. Her most recent solo exhibition took place in New York City and was entitled "Remember When We Talked About Our Reunion." This exhibition was presented at the gallery that represents her, Mendes Woods. Brasileiro is also one of the artists taking part in the 35th São Paulo Biennial. She is currently working on her long-term project "Kalunga: a origem das espécies" (Kalunga: The Origin of Species), available at https://kalungatheoriginofspecies.com. She was born in Fonte Grande. Vitória/Espirito Santo, Brazil. She lives and works on planet Earth.
Rodrigo Severo
Rodrigo Severo is an artist, researcher and teacher who works at the interfaces between performance, theater and expanded scene. He has a doctorate and a master's degree in Performing Arts from ECA/USP and a degree in Theater from UFRN. He is a member of the Laboratory of Performative Practices at ECA/USP and a founding member of Coletiva Preta Performance, which investigates ethnic-racial relations in Brazil and creates decolonized and anti-racist aesthetic actions. His research interests include Black performance studies, the African diaspora, the Black body, decolonized aesthetics, Black authorship, and the contemporary scene.
