Encruzilhadas: práticas artísticas e curatoriais nas redes sociais

Abstract

This thesis seeks to encourage reflections on contemporary artistic and curatorial practices on social media drawing from productions by black and indigenous Brazilian artists shared on Instagram in the early 2020s. To this end, it articulates theoretical discussion and furthers the concept of encruzilhadas [crossroads] poetics, a set of three experimental artistic communication procedures present on posts and pieces created and shared on social media and inspired by the notions of Exu: Yangí, Òkòtó and Enugbarijó. The theoretical basis is interdisciplinary in nature, comprising the fields of communication, philosophy, social sciences and art, from a countercolonial perspective, and also based on an Afro-diasporic and black feminist matrix. The research is thus articulated drawing on the conceptual operator of encruzilhadas [crossroads], conceived by Leda Maria Martins, and the extremities approach, furthered by Christine Mello, which allow for different ways of thinking and understanding the complexities and stakes involved in the production of these artists on social media. The hypothesis is that the artistic and curatorial practices created and shared by black and indigenous Brazilian artists on social media deconstruct the hegemonic processes of the contemporary visual arts, and give new meaning to the current artistic experience, encompassing the subjectivities and topics inherent to the reality of these artists through the aesthetic, poetic and communicational resources that exist at the crossroads of these applications, thus expanding the sensorial experience of art and the anti-racist policies on social networks. To this end, at a first moment, some of the authors who are in dialogue are: Juana Elbein dos Santos, with the Nagô cosmology; Luiz Rufino, with the pedagogy of encruzilhadas [crossroads]; Antônio Bispo dos Santos (Nêgo Bispo), with the countercolonial perspective; and Muniz Sodré, with reflections pertaining to Afro-Brazilian philosophy, communication, identity and thought. At a second moment, in order to observe what refers to communication processes and artistic and curatorial practices on social networks, dialogues are established with André Pitol, Diane Lima, Giselle Beiguelman, Luciara Ribeiro and Priscila Arantes. Regarding the issues surrounding social media and algorithmic logic, we draw on studies by Joy Buolamwini, Ruha Benjamin and Tarcízio Silva, among others. Considering artistic and curatorial practices from the perspective of the encruzilhadas [crossroads] and extremities of social media makes it possible to deconstruct the predominant logics in these spaces. It allows us to understand social networks as an ambivalent communicational place, both for productions in the field of art and for the circulation of artistic works that contend with the visibility and invisibility regimes of algorithmic systems. An ethical, aesthetic and poetic of encruzilhadas [crossroads], where languages and forms of sharing artistic and curatorial practices are disrupted and give new meaning to art today