On Constellations

S N / O I T N O / N O C N A O L L E T O S I N T O C AS N / O I T N O / C N A O L L E T S T N O C A L L S E N TIO / A ON LL res

A

nha i L a n

/ / /

l a v i h c r a n i h t i w s g n i n r a e l n u

/Atlas /Transhistorical /Queering the Archive /Erasure & Narratives /Decolonization /Unlearning

I’ve been undergoing a research project titled ‘On Constellations’ for the past 3 years. The work has been developing into different phases, according to my research and practice exercises as well as performances.

At the beginning of the project, my work focused on a collection of objects owned by diplomat family members who worked and traveled in Portuguese former colonies.

These items were acquired, used and collected through the years until their context and history become blurred. I approached these objects and archival material, as well as, familly narratives and deconstructed them in a search of alternative readings/interpretations and power relations.

My work practice goes through a set of methodologies and experimental approaches to collections and archives reconsidering narratives and positions in history and learning institutions dominated by a Western hegemonic legacy. As a Portuguese person, I grew up in a very problematic colonial country where the culture, language and narratives celebrate the hegemonic past.

Within the first two years, there was a focus on researching archival practices and erasure within an Imperialist background, but as the research and methods evolved, I brought up different questions to the table, such as what do these objects can tell, other than the repeated colonial family stories. Were these objects bought from local artisans in colonies or in a more complex market system to please the occidental customers’ taste of ‘exotic’ cultures?

In which circumstances are these objects and images related? What do they mean in a family context or in a broader context? And when do these things become a collection?

How to unlearn these hegemonic behaviors within cultural and learning institutions?

Collective unlearning experience Deconstructing narratives and power relations

Astrology

Transhistoricity Narratives & power

used for divination and archived as a record of state affairs

Erasure & Gaps Unforgetting

Decolonizing knowledge Unlearning hegemonies

reading signs and meanings in things and their shapes

Anti-Colonial Representation

/oracle bone - Shang dinasty

reading figures and narratives Story-telling and divination

\what about speaking through fakes? or replicas?

symbols

how to read signs in the smoke or the liver of a sheep?

reading objects intuitively and establishing connections and meanings

Western domin representation s

How to deal with an oppressive past?

Time Anachronisms Temporality

Politics

Archive

what fits in an archive? and what is allowed to be forgotten?

physical archives

On Constellations Atlas montage

nance on systems

catalogation structures & tecnhiques

digital archives Digital archives are possible to awake and re-perform

Methodology Thinking through diagrams and montage

Research installations

Lecture-performance

mediation & translations

Research

How to challenge hegemonic language and heritage?

Challenge narratives and representation

Decolonize the sites, the narratives, the textbooks, the monuments

Performative research \ know as practice \researching practice \ practicing learning

\ know to practice \ practice to know

Decolonizing identity and collective memory

Recently, I’ve been interested in taking my research further and consider the place of Queer representations and erasure within archival practices connected to an Imperialist learning legacy. How can decolonizing learning methods and practices challenge the hetero-normative and patriarchal rules established by Western Imperialism?

My research and practice approach archives, decolonization and storytelling and how representation and erasure have their place in communal learning and knowledge production. I’m interested in the political dimension and discussions surrounding movements that challenge structural racism and hegemonic practices. My artistic practice has been focused on the approach to archives in order to unfold its potential and problematics inherent to its imperialist beginnings and settings. I’m interested in the political context within collections and curatorial practices and how to unlearn this heritage. I’m very interested in the decolonizing practices within cultural, learning and historical institutions and the political role art can have to bring these discussions about.