Cartographies of Resistant Bodies
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Life as Queer
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Cartographies of Resistant Bodies
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Project conceived and carried out by JĂŁo, in October 2019
Cartographies of Resistant Bodies
About the Project Existing and resisting in a sexist and prejudiced society, especially as an LGBTQIA + artist, is an act that requires strength and courage facing so much injustice and disrespect. “Life as Queer: Cartographies of Resistant Bodies” is a sequence of drawings from the artbook/body map/mind of Jão, visual artist from Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. The drawings were produced in October 2019, inspired by the challenge of illustrator Jake Parker to create one illustration per day. The artist used the process of creating the artbook/body map as a moment of expurgation of feelings that had been repressed for a long time. The book reveals secrets, sharing constraints and denials of sexuality experienced by the artist, through illustrations that express outbursts, hurts and pains of the neglected, forgotten or even unseen by cis - and transgender homosexuals - who are disrespected daily, resulting in denial and depression due to the obligation to adapt to social contexts, whether in the family, at work or any other social context.
The project is a tool for the struggle for social and gender equality. Through the visual arts, as inclusion tools for the enjoyment of thought and dialogue, it addresses topics such as respect, acceptance, especially self-acceptance, but it also denounces on hate speech that permeates the world of LGBTQIA + society but is hardly ever talked about. By drawing his already purged and healed wounds in his oil pastel paintings on the sheets of a 10x15cm notebook the artist wants, to collaborate in the transformation, visibility and empowerment of the LGBTQIA+ community in the city of Fortaleza - CE, raising respect and the recognition of the LGBTQIA+ community and its own social minorities. Because art and culture effectively accomplish the magic of personal and social transformation! Ethics, respect and appreciation of diversity, now!
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Life as Queer
Monthly, approximately 180 new cases of physical, psychological, moral, sexual and institutional discrimination against LGBTQIA + people come at the LGBT JanaĂna Dutra Reference Center, an organization of the Municipality of Fortaleza.
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Cartographies of Resistant Bodies
* Faggot, sinner, mistake, shame, you’ll die, Nancy-boy.
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Life as Queer
* Repulsion to the pussy does not make you a fag.
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Cartographies of Resistant Bodies
* The woman in the relationship.
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Life as Queer
* How long will they keep on killing us ?
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Cartographies of Resistant Bodies
* Man up.
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Life as Queer
* Non-standard “Weird fag!” “Look how long his arms are.” “Skinny like that, he must have a giant cock.”
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Cartographies of Resistant Bodies
* Rejection
* That you don’t see me doesn‘t mean I don’t exist.
* “Give yourself a bit of respect.”
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Life as Queer
* “You are like that because they didn‘t beat you enough”.
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Cartographies of Resistant Bodies
* “Not recommended for society�.
* Silence your ghosts.
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Life as Queer
* The Goddess is watching you defending your LGBTQIA+ friends and then making fun of them behind their backs.
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Cartographies of Resistant Bodies
* “Do you really need to be that queer all the time?�
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Life as Queer
* “Why showing affection in public?”
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Cartographies of Resistant Bodies
* Love is the most revolutionary act.
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Life as Queer
* Unholy.
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Cartographies of Resistant Bodies
* “You just want to shock”.
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Life as Queer
* “Nothing against LGBTQIA+ people, but...”
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* “But you don’t even look gay.”
Life as Queer
* Let’s be together. Let‘s take care of each other.
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Cartographies of Resistant Bodies
* Be brave where there is fear.
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Life as Queer
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Cartographies of Resistant Bodies
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Life as Queer
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Cartographies of Resistant Bodies
About the artist Jão is a visual artist, graphic designer and LGBTQIA+ activist, based in Ceará. He took classes in urban arts, comics and graphic arts at Porto Iracema das Artes, in academic drawing and watercolor by Daniel Brandão Studio and in deconstruction of drawing by Caixa Cultural. Jão participated with his work “Romans 1: 25-27” in the collective exhibition “Rotas de Criação” in Porto Iracema das Artes, in Mesa Branca, an artistic project realized by Yuri Leonardo and Ramon Cavalcante, at Casa Vândala, with the Collective Absolutamente Ninguém. He composed the collective curatorship of the exhibition “The House, The Candy And The Baobab” at Minimuseu Firmeza, developed the website and opening logo of the 13th Edition of the “ForRainbow: Film and Culture Festival of Sexual Diversity and Gender” in Ceará, and held the exhibition “Things No Longer Want to Be Seen by Reasonable People”, to be seen at the VII Edital das Artes de Fortaleza - SECULTFOR. @jao.jao.jao.jao.jao
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Credits Direction JĂŁo Curator Junior Barreira Producer Magno Carvalho English Version Kevin Liebig Sanandra Graphic Design JĂŁo
Life as Queer
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Cartographies of Resistant Bodies
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Life as Queer
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