Ayrson Heráclito
2021Funfun
Ayrson Heráclito
The work is a requiem for Estelita de Souza Santana, lifetime leader of the Sisterhood of Our Lady of the Good Death (Cachoeira-BA), who passed away at the age of 105. A local myth that identifies black priestesses and white herons inspires the narrative, which explores the symbology of “white” (“funfun” in Yoruba), commonly associated with purity, maturity, and wisdom, the color of mourning in many Oriental countries, and the color of the garments worn by the Black god Obatala. Out of this profusion of symbols, the artist creates his own funeral rite.
Funfun
Transmutação da carne
Ayrson Heráclito
Often, when we wish to refer to the presence of the horrors of a past of slavery in the contemporary world, we evoke the metaphor of the wound. To experience this figure of speech is what Ayrson Heráclito’s performance proposes, standing on the border between allegory and enactment. Participants are invited to put on a cape made of dried meat, on which they marked with hot iron. The sensations, noises, smells, and images created by the action evoke the practice of marking slaves with hot iron, and elicit the collective discomfort in the heart of the Western civilization, seeking a deeper understanding of history and an opportunity to open renewed horizons.
Transmutação da carne