artnexus #34

Multiculturalism, colonialism, and postcolonialism are themes that both artists and critics frequently address in the field of contemporary art.

Adriana Varejão (Rio de Janeiro, 1964) has been working with these problems and using elements of the colonial legacy, which she subverts in an attempt to show us the complexity of the dramatic confrontation between diverse cultures. In this process, the body becomes a key vehicle for thinking and theatricalizing history. A tale in which violence is exercised against the body and identity.

In her characters and the references which surround them, Varejão makes use of oriental art, baroque elements, and the love of ornamentation inherited from the Portuguese conquest. Her wide range of imagery is taken from the history of art as well as local traditions, without any archeological intentions, but transformed into referents that evoke the present. The images are visual evidence recalling situations that have lost none of their topicality. Verejão looks at the past in order to reflect on a dense, complex, and changing history. 

IVONNE PINI