Brazil is celebrated as a multicultural nation, with a hugely diverse heritage. From the 17th Century until the end of the slave trafficking era, circa 4,8 million Africans berthed in the country against their will. Many were Bantos, an ethnic group from the Centre-south and Northeast Africa, and 'Sudaneses' from multiple central and western regions of the African continent.
A grim side of this history is rarely told and unknown to many: just when slavery was being abolished in the 1880s, rather than looking to repair centuries of injustice and coercion, horrific European eugenics theories propagated in Brazil perpetuating discrimination and inequality of black people.
The German word Vergangenheitsbewältigung – ‘the overcoming of the past’ - suggests that grappling with the past is necessary to move beyond it. FORGED MULTICULTURALISM explores how African artists and artists from the African Diaspora in Brazil have come to reframe their heritage by placing the consequences of slavery and highlighting their contributions to society at the very centre of the international narrative.
The show offers paintings, videos, installations and performances by artists whose personal narratives and works deal with these aspects of Brazil’s society and its perception of its own making. Complementing the exhibition are Harvard University Implicit Association Tests in which visitors can obtain self-understanding of their attitude or stereotype relative to dark-skin people and African origin.