The Desire of an Empire and the Empire of Desire.
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From the historical images of traveling artists in colonial Brazil, and especially from the so-called "ethnographic" photographs, which explored the exoticism and eroticism of natives from the colonies, the artist proposes a reflection on the construction of colonial imaginaries, especially the image of women within the European colonialist discourse, exotic, erotic, colonized bodies, peripheral and almost always black. From the story of Saartjie Baartman - the so-called Hottentot Venus, which in the early nineteenth century was exhibited in scientific and entertainment circles in London and Paris, to the so-called human zoos in European exhibitions, the true history, and identity of these women, nameless bodies, was erased, "whitened" and silenced. This eroticized and exoticized image was central to the colonialist discourse. To feed the desire for empire, the empire of desire was encouraged.
Sources:
https://www.publico.pt/2013/08/25/jornal/rosita-e-o-imperio-como-objecto-de-desejo-26985718
http://www.scielo.mec.pt/pdf/csoc/v29/v29a06.pdf
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
