Contemporary indigenous art

shedding light on its rays

Abstract

The paper proposes an analysis of the images and writings of the artivist Jaider Esbell, along with the book Makunaimã: the myth through time (2019), according to the concept of authorship that prevailed in the Middle Ages, as suggested by Paul Zumthor, when stories were narrated by various storytellers in the oral tradition. It delves into the workshops of scribes, where a version of history was transcribed and written in order to enter the literary universe. From September 4th to November 28th, 2021, the Moquém Surari Exhibition at the 34th São Paulo Biennial featured several indigenous artists of contemporary art, from the Baniwa, Gusani, Mbya, Kunikuin, Krenak, Karipuna, Lakota, Makuxi, Murubo, Pataxó, Patamona, Taurepang, Tapirapé, Tekmû'ûn-Maxakali, Xerixana and Yanomami peoples. The event showcased drawings, paintings, photographs, and sculptures referring to the visual transformations of Amerindian cosmological thinking and narratives. With a bibliographical approach, the objectives of the article are to analyze the worldview of the indigenous peoples, contribute to restoring values of indigenous art with photos of paintings from various artists at the Biennial, and differentiate them from the hierarchy rooted in the context of non-indigenous art. Furthermore, the paper also addresses the epistemological and methodological aspect of the symbolism observed in the writing and painting of such images, with a theoretical perspective that emphasizes the appreciation of ethics in oral tradition and its mechanism of reproduction, concluding with final considerations.