“Quem adora as imagens, adora o diabo”: Reflections on iconoclasm in Brazil

Abstract

From a graffiti inscribed on a wall in downtown Rio de Janeiro, this article intends to reflect on an iconoclast tendency verifiable in Brazil nowadays. Two aspects are focused: firstly, some examples of the so-called "brazilian neo-pentecostal iconoclasm" against Afro-Brazilian cultural expressions. In this regard, the reaction of “Neo-pentecostais” sectors to the artwork “Tridente de Nova Iguaçu” from contemporary artist Alexandre Vogler will be analysed, in which the image of a trident, a symbol belonging to the iconography of Afro-Brazilian religions, was taken as a diabolical symbol. Secondly, the strong conservative reaction against contemporary art in Brazil, in particular what was observed in the exhibition Queermuseu - Cartografias da Diferença na Arte Brasileira occurred at the Centro Cultural Santander-Porto Alegre, in 2017. In this case, faced with unfounded accusations of "pedophilia", "Zoophile", "blasphemy", the sponsor bank decided to cancel the exhibition. The article will sustain that both phenomena are not isolated, but articulated in an "iconoclastic culture" of a religious background that dominates certain sectors of Brazilian society. As a theoretical landmark, we will use the book l'image peut-elle tuer? in which the author Marie-José Mondzain returns to the Iconoclast debates in Byzantium to think about the circulation of images in contemporaneity.