O Silêncio da Terra problematizes the photographic archive of the Diamond Company of Angola, constituted with the explicit objective of documenting the civilizational mission undertaken in Lunda, between 1917 and 1974.
The ambiguity of the exhibition’s title – O Silêncio da Terra – is combined with the ambiguity of the image of colonial photography.This Exhibition – which unfolds in twospaces, Galeria do Paço and Museu Nogueira da Silva – invites the viewer to broaden one’s gaze and to live dialectically with the diéerent sides of what one sees and what is given to see.
These images of colonial photography are confronted by counter-narratives oéered by post-colonial art, exposing the contradictions of the instituted narratives. Thus, creating tensions and loopholes that resonate with visual artefacts. Creating a dynamic where in the eyes of the present, returns an unênished past full of incomplete relationships and
open questions.
The exhibition at Galeria do Paço is conceived in dialogical and critical terms between the selection of the photographic archive, which are intercepted by a set of art works delving into issues related to memories, colonial and post-colonial narratives and discourses surrounding late Portuguese and European colonialism. Through the proposal of an intercepted reading between photographs in their archival and colonial dimension and contemporary art, the exhibition highlights it’s inspiration of the concept of ‘third space’ (Bhabha, 1994) conducive to the (re) negotiation of meanings creating multiple perspectives and temporalities.
Featured artists:
Alida Rodrigues, Ângela Ferreira, Catarina Simão, Délio Jasse, Filipa César, Francisco
Vidal, Henrique Neves Lopes, Irineu Destourelles, Kiluanji Kia-Henda, Marilu Námoda,
Mónica de Miranda, Nuno Nunes-Ferreira, René Tavares, Rita Rainho / Ângelo Lopes.