Sintétika, the CCVM's new collective exhibition, looks at human diversity in the Legal Amazon

28 November 2023 to 13 January 2024

The exhibition Sintétika opens to the public this Tuesday, the 28th, at the Vale Maranhão Cultural Center, as a result of the public notice Occupy CCVM — Amazon in Focus, which received photography and audiovisual projects from the states that make up the Legal Amazon. The group exhibition brings together the works of Maranhão artists Tairo Lisboa, Letícia Martins, Lucas Ferreira and Márcio Vasconcelos; Evna Moura and Alberto Bitar from Pará; Gabriel Bicho from Rondonense; and Alessandro Fracta and Coletivo Picolé de Massa from Rondonense.

With installations and images that connect to create a portrait of the Amazonian individual in relation to their environment, Sintétika is the meeting of different perspectives on life in the midst of the largest tropical forest on the planet. “The concept of synthesis underwent a shift with the advent of industry. When we hear the word ‘synthetic’ we immediately relate it to what is artificial. However, ‘synthetic’ refers primarily to everything that is ready to work together in communion. In this sense, the inhabitants of the Legal Amazon have much to teach us when we think of each of them as beings synthesizing the complexity of living in and with the largest tropical forest in the world. The exhibition reveals several perspectives on the relationship between the subject and his environment, and discusses issues concerning the maintenance of this biome that is so important to the planet,” explains Gabriel Gutierrez, director of the Vale Maranhão Cultural Center and curator of the exhibition.

One of the works on display is Corte Seco, by Alberto Bitar, a photographic series that addresses impermanence based on crime scenes captured during police reports in the city of Belém. The work opens space for speculations on topics such as transience, memory, and the fragility of our existence, by capturing the atmosphere that occurs moments after the crime. In addition, the images make us think about the relationship between poverty, marginality, and crime. Three photographs and a video are part of the work. The title chosen by Bitar draws an analogy to the term used in audiovisual language for scene transitions with the flow of life abruptly interrupted by daily violence.

Four artists from Maranhão exhibit their works

Maranhão photographer Márcio Vasconcelos composes the exhibition with Juradas de Morte, a series of photographs that highlights the strength and fiber of six coconut breakers from Maranhão, women organized politically through the Babaçu Coconut Breakers Interstate Movement — MIQCB, examples of leadership and bravery in the struggle for their territories.

The installation Portraits of Father Francisco, by Tairo Lisboa, exalts the universe that permeates the party character from Bumba Meu Boi, highlighting players from three important popular culture groups in Maranhão: Guimarães, Maracanã and Ribamar. Amazônia Legal: From Green to Blue, by Leticia Martins dos Santos and Lucas Ferreira Araújo, features photographs taken with experimental techniques, such as cyanotype.

Works represent landscapes and people from Northern Brazil

Dreams of an Endless Amazon, by Alessandro Fracta, aims to draw attention to the importance of enchantment stories from the Amazon and how they have the power to raise awareness and sensitize people to connect with territories and ancestral knowledge.

The visual artist, art educator and researcher Evna Moura presents Olhares Ilhados, the result of her master’s research, carried out on the Island of Cotijuba (PA), with portraits produced over two years.

The work Desvio para o Norte, by Rondonian multimedia artist Gabriel Bicho, is composed of the series Teônpora In Ngo Meitire, with graphic interventions based on photographs of Sertanists from Pernambuco and Munduruku indigenous people from Pará, intersecting the struggle of these peoples for water; and the video May Your Struggle Be Like the Forest, a manifesto for life in the midst of the destruction of Brazilian biomes.

And the collective Picolé da Massa, from Manaus, will exhibit the installation Alexandrina – A Lightning, a reinterpretation of a black life that existed in the Amazon in dark times, with social relevance for its community, but which appears in official records only as a historical figure.

The group exhibition Sintétika will be on display at the Vale Maranhão Cultural Center until January 13, 2024. Admission is free, as is the entire CCVM program, which is located at Rua Direita, 149, in the historic center of São Luís.