Collective learning processes within institutional art spaces. The exhibitions Nhe’ Porã: memória e transformação by Daiara Tukano and Escola Panapaná by Denilson Baniwa

Abstract

With a descriptive approach, through remote observation of the exhibitions Nhe’ẽ Porã: Memória e Transformação curated by Daiara Tukano at the Museu da Língua Portuguesa and Escola Panapaná curated by Denilson Baniwa at the Pinacoteca in São Paulo in 2022, the article presents an analysis of the curatorial processes of these artists. The observations also benefit from a series of interviews conducted with some indigenous Brazilian artists, and from two years of research regards the artistic practices of the Sámi people of Northern Europe carried out within the scope of the project A South North Dialogue on Afro-Indigenous Art. There are three pillars that guide these practices, and differentiate them from the Western arts world imposed by Eurocentric universalism: first, a more complex formulation of the concept of authorship than in the West, where the collective and personal dimensions merge; second the non-existence of the word (and concept) of art in indigenous cosmologies; and third, the overcoming the Western perspective of the division between art and crafts which - by frequently referring the latter to domestic tasks, mostly carried out by women - expresses the patriarchy and racism implicit in it. Finally, what the analysis highlights is the similarity of the collective and pedagogical character of these practices.