ART CINEMA – AESTHETICS AND INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES
Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 19-21 May, 2023
Our Indigenous culture has been aesthetically revered since earlier times, long before the first word in Portuguese was spoken. We were already singing our existences with our cosmovision painted on our bodies. Sound and vision were already implicit in this process of reproducing our paintings’ gestural images and of singing our songs. Our aesthetic already existed then, in a diverse and powerful way.
This ancestral knowledge has grown over time and become what we call ‘cinema’. From documentaries made at the beginning of the 20th century – depicting genuine cultural and ritual themes – Indigenous cinema not only portrays our struggle to fight for our rights but also denounces the lack of concern from the Brazilian state towards our lives. We experience and witness the evolution of these developments through making our cinema. Audiovisual tools today allow us to expand our process of dialogue with society and our people.
The number of Indigenous talents exploring new aesthetics and languages has grown. The body is used as a tool for visual dialogue and digital experimentation, a universe that flirts with the future of the Western world. There is an urge to bring the images of cinema closer to these multi- artistic styles. Despite having a more dynamic way of making cinema, the need to express our existence and struggles is greater than all these styles. And it is this continuous production using multi-artistic styles that will be showcased by the curation of ECHOES Indigenous Film Festival 2023.
The programme combines essential insights such as ‘the projection of bodies in favour of timeless art’ and ‘the naked female body as a new reading of revolt and protest.’ The festival is based on a collective perspective but prioritises a place that also focuses on the subjectivity of each artist, creating a vital dialogue about the plurality of Indigenous cinema. Beyond the discussion and showings of ethnographic and anthropological productions, this festival proposes an intellectual and political approach to these narratives in which intercultural dialogue is established, and images provoke the audience.
We are excited to start this dialogue!
The curators,
Graciela Guarani, Takuma Kuikuro and Ziel Karapoto
