Tupi Valongo - Cementery of the New Blacks and Old Indians.
Of the 12 million Africans who arrived to the Americas as slaves, 4.8 million disembarked on the Atlantic coast of Brazil, occupied for thousands of years by Indigenous Tupi peoples. The Valongo Wharf in Rio de Janeiro was the port that received the largest number of enslaved people in the world (2 million Africans). Those that arrived dead, or died after disembarking, were thrown into a shallow grave in the Cemetry of New Blacks (
the largest cemetery of Africans outside the African continent). In this same locale, a Tupinambá village had previously stood, and before that, a Sambaqui (an enormous shell mound, the oldest form of Indigenous burial site on the Atlantic coast).
In Anita Ekman’s performance, the artist revives the technology of ceramic stamps for body art (developed by the Sambaqui peoples 6600 years ago) to stamp her skin and that of the actor Hugo Germano. Hugo, conversing with African and Indigenous masks, enquires about Afro-Indigenous Brazilian identity and the current situation of Afro-descendant Brazilians, on a stage interposed with projections from video art produced in collaboration with Nzo Oula and Marcelo Noronha of Maranduva films.
Performance created and presented to the Goethe Institute on the Echoes of the South Atlantic.
Goethe-Institut, Salvador da Bahia, Brazil
23 Apr 2018 - 25 Apr 2018
Performance of Nzo Oula and Anita Ekman in Cementery of New Blacks. Instituto de Pesquisa e Memória Pretos Novos, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Nov 2017. by Anita Ekman
TUPI – VALONGO
Cemitério dos Pretos Novos e Velhos Índios
Concepção e direção geral: Anita Ekman
Performance: Anita Ekman e Hugo Germano
Argumento: Anita Ekman e Hugo Germano
Citações em ordem de apresentação:
Nhandecy eté poema em Guarani de Sandra Benites
Reza em Gouro de Nzo Oula
Arena Canta Zumbi de Augusto Boal e Gian Francesco Guarnieri
Estatística de Maria Inês da Silva Moraes
Música:
Música tradicional Pankararu por Lídia Pankararu
"Negra" por Nina Wirtti e Luis Barcelos (composição Iara Ferreira e Luis Barcelos com citações do poema Me Gritaram Negra de Victoria Santa Cruz e Jongo Meu irmão Café de Nei Lopes)
Video Arte
Direção, câmera, som e finalização: Marcelo Noronha
Projeção e criação: Caco Chagas
Cenário:
Cesto Guarani de Sebastiana Aquiles (Guarani Mbya)
Máscaras africanas da Nigeria e Costa do Marfim de Nzo Oula Collection
Máscara Indígena Tikuna
Arte Plumária Kayapó coleção de Yanina Otsuka
Carimbos cerâmicos para Pintura corporal de Anita Ekman
Agradecimentos:
FUMDHAM ( Fundação Museu do Homem Americano)
Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio)
Instituto de Pesquisa e Memória Pretos Novos e em especial ao historiador e pesquisador Júlio César Medeiros da Silva .
Agradecimento especial:
Karl Werner Pothmann