Untitled, from Notícias de América series

2011 - Photography (Photography)
60 x 80 cm

In 2011, Paulo Nazareth completed a unique journey of several thousand miles. Nazareth left Minas Gerais, Brazil and walked across all of Latin America to the United States to take part in an exhibition during the Miami edition of Art Basel. The series Notícias de América , described by the artist as a residency in transit, or perhaps an accidental residency, is the result of a year’s elaboration of a body of work that is the direct result of an entanglement of human affairs experienced along the way. Instead of flying to this target-location of the contemporary art world, he chose to walk over a great deal of Latin American soil to get there. Through an impressive combination of images, written and visual diaries, found objects and assemblies, Nazareth unveils social and personal ties that exist from household to household, village to village, and city to city. In this particular excerpt from his journey, Nazareth is pictured standing on the side of a highway, in front of a blue sign that reads “Welcome to California”. The sign in Portuguese on his chest reads “No me voy a migrar para la EUA”, which translates to ” I won’t emigrate to the USA”. The sign advises that Nazareth doesn’t intend to stay in the US, just that he is passing through. This enduring and epic trip sheds light on historical injustices prompted by the colonial enterprise that have historically affected the entire American continent leaving behind all sorts of social, political, and economic inequalities. In this journey, he said he took five things: his life, his passport, his wallet, a hard-drive, and some personal items. On the way, according to him, he lost everything but his life, his wallet and his optimism. Nazareth is a radical nomad, a wandering performance artist who brings racial, national, and transnational questions to the fore.

Born in 1977 in the city of Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais, Paulo Nazareth now lives as a global nomad. His work is often the result of precise and simple gestures, which bring about larger ramifications and raise awareness of pressing issues such as immigration, racialization, globalization, colonialism, and its effects in the production and consumption of art in his native Brazil and the Global South. While Nazareth’s work may manifest in video, photography, and found objects, his strongest medium is in cultivating relationships with people he encounters on the road — particularly those who must remain invisible due to their legal status or those who are repressed by governmental authorities. In certain aspects, Nazareth deliberately embodies the romantic ideal of the wandering artist in search of himself and universal truths, to unveil stereotyped assumptions about national identity, cultural history, and so-called “universal values.”

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