Art-Ere Room
VENTURE
AFRO ARTS
Breathe, get inspired, life calls for art
Cantinho do Batuque
We opened this room with two corners, two families of works: Gente Candombeira and Noite em Araruba.
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Candombeira people
"...the first collective mural painting that I can consider Afroreferenciada came in the 5th life cycle: the Candombeiros painting. From July 2007 it was restored in July 2017 with my return to the Mato do Tição community". VENTURA, 2021.
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"(...) The quilombola community of Mato do Tição, located in the city of Jaboticatubas in Minas Gerais, has 35 families in a total of 176 residents. The territory they occupy today consists of a part of what was, in the past, the land donated by a lord to a group of enslaved people, grandparents of the current patriarchs and matriarchs of the community, who worked there at the end of the 19th century.
(...) The community, throughout its history, has lived with conflicts and tensions that involved the struggle for territory and survival. After a long process of expropriation and usurpation of their original lands, the residents obtained, in 1981, the right to usucapião, keeping their small territory to this day.
To the cultural effervescence characteristic of Mato do Tição, there is a growing interest on the part of researchers, students, NGOs, social movements, etc. that constantly visit the community, thus enabling a dynamic contact between residents and people from different parts of the state and the country".
Source: SANTANA, PatrÃcia Maria de Souza, Modes of Being a Child in Quilombo Mato do Tição – Jaboticatubas – Minas Gerais. Thesis defended in the Graduate Program in Knowledge and Social Inclusion and Education at the Federal University of Minas Gerais Belo Horizonte, 2015, pp. 12/13. Available at: https://repositorio.ufmg.br/bitstream/1843/BUBD-AHNKUX/1/tese_de_doutorado_patr_cia_maria_de_souza_santana.pdf
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" 'Candombe is the name given to an ancient dance of slaves on plantations, the term being formed by the Kimbundo prefix 'ka', meaning custom or usage, and the Kikongo word 'ndombe', denoting 'of the black peoples'. The author adds that with the Yoruba word ilê, meaning house, we have Candomblé, that is, house of Candombe (or dance with drums).By extension, it has become the generic word in Bahia for the religion itself and the location of the cult centers of Candomblé'.
The language of Candombe is remarkably symbolic, with recurrent use of proverbs, riddles and metaphors constituting the poetics transmitted orally, as a collective function of language, which is very close to traditional oral cultures existing in Bantu Africa. (...) Better known as dots, Candombe's chants are uttered in a responsorial form, that is, alternated between the solo and the choir. At the center of the circle goes a candombeiro, led by the dialogue he establishes with the drums, pulling his point. This entrance is marked by the use of the guaiá, an idiophonic instrument that resembles the Coco de roda ganzá, and which is also found under the same name in the Batuque Paulista.
(...) Both the ganzá and the guaiá, considering in the latter case some Candombe groups in Minas Gerais, are instruments that symbolize the power of the one who is conducting the living word, which makes them dance and sing. Some points are intermediated by the Captain's enunciations about the history that explains the mysteries of the emergence of Candombe and the strength of its drums. After the soloist pulls out his first verses, the choir of five (or even six) voices responds surrounded by a mystical force and symbolic language, repeating the Captain's verses in sound projections – vocalizations –, singularly perceptible in each individual who composes the chord .
Source: ARAUJO, Ridalvo Felix de. Candombe from Minas Gerais: É d'ingoma / Saravano tambu / I ask for permission / For my singing firmá . Thesis defended in Literature Theory and Comparative Literature at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. Available at: https://repositorio.ufmg.br/handle/1843/LETR-ARVMA3 141/142.
To get to the creation of the work Candombeiros , resident of the walls of Lei's bar, in Matição, I experienced candombe nights and smelly waters warmed by friends and bonfires. From these, dozens of daughters and sons were born in charcoal that inspire colors in profusion in my soul, culminating in the Três Candombeiros .
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Three Candombeiros
Acrylic/vinyl on cotton, 2007/2008,
140X160 CM
Montes Claros
Available in store.
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Aunt Divina do Matição, blessing.
Canson Charcoal on Paper, 2007,
42.5X35.5CM
Ticao Forest
Matação collection.
Uncle Dante plays the box.
Canson Charcoal on Paper, 2007,
Ticao Forest
42.5X35.5CM
Matação collection.
Hands washed in tambú and cachaça.
Canson Charcoal on Paper, 2007,
Ticao Forest
42.5X35.5CM.
Available in store.
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