Museum of the Foreigner

2012 - Installation (Installation)
Various dimensions

Icaro Lira has been developing the project “Museum of the Foreigner” since 2015, in which he recounts the trajectories of populations inside Brazil, from the north to the big cities of the south. The artist is himself Nordestin and moved to Rio to study cinema before enrolling at art school. The term “museum” is ironic, it evokes the institution and with it, the official history that the artist seeks to deconstruct by creating multiple stories that intertwine. Continuing the project in London and Paris, he continued to expand his history of Brazil, told through accounts found in Europe. Various histories are collaged together: an article from Paris Match about an evangelist group killed by the Indians, dated from 1945, is compared with the current political situation under the premiership of Bolsonaro. What is striking about the work is the economy of resources and the voluntary and political use of poor materials. If the artist develops a work while producing practically no waste, it is not for the sake of financial economy, but more an attempt to maintain authenticity and veracity within his work. The pieces that make up the “Museum of the Foreigner” are often small or insignificant objects, elements of everyday life so omnipresent that they have become invisible. However, here they are loaded with intimate stories, not of great men but of strangers. It’s an official counter history that is patiently constructed by Lira, in an attempt to provide a popular history of Brazil.

Artist Icaro Lira’s work develops archeological and fictional methods in order to assess historical and political events that have taken place in his native Brazil. Seeking to illuminate counter narratives that are often obfuscated by official accounts written and maintained by hegemonic voices, he develops what he calls “small museums” composed of found objects – for example an extracted paving stone or an old newspaper – and original research. Comprising objects, text and images, Lira’s works are often activated in exhibitions, publications, workshops and field trips with the aim to unveil the intricacies of history and question the power dynamics at play in the way in which they are recounted.

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