Country and World Bridge

Brazil, 1976. That was the first year the national census included an open question about color. “What is your color?” revealed 136 different responses apart from the five classic groups included in the previous census. Answers like “Sun kissed,” “Brown welcomes black” opened a fascinating window into the complex fabric of Brazilian debates on race. 

Adriana Varejão is a Brazilian Artist who decided to take that window and turn it into art. She produced 33 of those “skin colors” and from it she made a series titled “Polvo Portraits” (2014). In those, she altered the color of her own skin, adding also pantone-like shades documented at the edge of the canvases. The subjectivity of “sun kissed” skin color brought to life with a species of satirical science. Eugenics au contraire. The title refers to octopus ink, made of the pigment melanin, which also darkens the skin. Maybe it could be a reference to the octopus’s ability to change color for purposes of camouflage and survival. Maybe it is a variation on the word “people”—povo in Portuguese—and how, in the end, all these colors are just different arms of one octopus—polvo. This is a Brazilian artist tackling an issue at the heart of Brazilian society. A country with a majority of non-white people and a history and a present with race at the center of its inequalities. Miscegenation defines Brazil as a nation, and within it, skin color is an essential marker of disparity. In a country known as a “racial paradise,” color, not ancestry or community, “tells” who one is and where one is welcome. 

In 2013, the exhibit was taken to London, and then, to New York City. In countries with other stories to tell about the tales that lie in-between shades of skin, this tale, so intricately connected to a Brazilian narrative, raises different reactions according to context. From Australia to Sudan, from the United States to Macedonia, from France, South Korea or India to Brazil: Placing portraits of the same woman with different skin colors generates different reactions, questions and interests. The octopus is a metaphor that transcends borders and Adriana Varejão knows that. And so does Ai Wei Wei. The artist has a unique capacity to tell tales that are revealing of Chinese history and politics, but most of his work can transcend beyond China. Both artists speak of humanity, because they have the ability to speak of the world, through specific tales. 

On April 24, 2010 Ai Weiwei (@aiww) started a Twitter campaign to commemorate students who perished in the earthquake in Sichuan on May 12, 2008. As of September 2, 2009, 4,851 primary and secondary school students had died from the collapse of sub-standard school architecture. The state never took responsibility for those deaths and had multiple attempts to cover-up the incidents. In 2010, the Sichuan namelist, along with a musical score by Zuoxiao Zuzhou, became a1hr 27 min looped video physically installed at the Gallery DKM, in Germany. A specific criticism of the Chinese government’s crimes becomes a Universally comprehensive tale of a memorial for the loss of innocent lives. (Source)