Embroidering possible futures
2019
Embroidering possible futures was a workshop given at the Associação Fotoativa during the exhibition A volta de Fordlândia for the 26th edition of the Projeto Circular Campina, which is about socio-cultural actions in the historical neighborhoods of the city of Belém, held every two months, with the objective that the public get to know cultural spaces and participate in actions, workshops, shows, guided tours, among other activities.
The workshop was inspired by the work Bandalhas, by André Parente, one of the works that composed the exhibition, in which he creates Brazilian flags with traces made from embroidered phrases that were said by key figures in recent periods of Brazilian politics, such as the construction of the 2016 coup, the impeachment process of President Dilma Rousseff and the then deputy Jair Bolsonaro. Phrases like "the dictatorship's mistake was to torture and not kill" make us question and reflect a lot on the kind of ideas of people who are at the head of the big political parties and who make decisions that have a big impact on our lives.
With this in mind, we support the proposal of the triangular approach, systematized by Ana Mae Barbosa, which suggests that art be treated from three main axes: reading works of art, contextualization, and making art. Working these three paths, we have a teaching of art that evaluates its extension, interdisciplinarity and critical reflection. Therefore, the proposal of the workshop was that the participants begin by appreciating the work and, always having space to talk, be encouraged to think about these political issues we live. After joint reflections on the present of Brazil, as well as the teaching of simple embroidery stitches, each of the participants was instigated to create a flag having as a possible future guiding stitch for Brazil.











