The São Paulo Memorial Of Resistance presents the work “Official Portrait” (2017) – by our represented artist Rafael Pagatini – within the project “Memorial Occupations“, which articulates transdisciplinary dialogues about the memory of the authoritarian periods in the country and its reverberations in the present .
The work makes an excerpt on the official photographs of the 5 military men that took power during the period of the Brazilian civil-military dictatorship, presenting the detail of their mouths printed on steel nails fastened onto the wall of the exhibition space. Manipulated, the images refer to the violence and silence policies of the period and seek to deconstruct the supposed officiality of the military regime and its mechanisms of representation.
With the exhibition of the work, the space proposes new crossings and interpretations of the country’s historical narratives, sheding a critical eye on the past and engage the public with a democratic culture and respect for Human Rights in the present.
“Presenting my work at the Memorial Of Resistance helps to contribute to the construction of a space of hope. Hope in building a fairer country and for society to understand that speeches about memory are always in dispute. In this sense, I understand that it is necessary to distrust the images in order to understand that the construction of our view is permeated by games of power.”- Rafael Pagatini.
More information at: www.memorialdaresistenciasp.org.br
To learn more about the artist and his practice, check his official profile.