images | text

Rosângela Rennó
Born in 1962 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil / Lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Adriano Pedrosa (AP): Your works presented in Istanbul concern two archives, both somehow related to Brazilian ruins: one devoted to the construction workers who built Brasília in late 1950s, and another of historical photographs stolen from the Biblioteca Nacional (National Library) in Rio de Janeiro.

Rosângela Rennó (RR): Imemorial was made in 1994, based on photos from the old files of Novacap, the government construction company that built Brasília, the new capital. These files belong now to Brasília’s Public Archive and were the basis of my first large research project. With the help of the archive employees, going through around 20,000 disordered and badly maintained files, I obtained approximately 60 portraits of workers confirmed as having  died during the capital’s construction. This project made me aware  of the egregious neglect of memory and historical heritage in Brazil.  Our history is badly told, with lapses of amnesia, with one or another occurrence always disrupting the country’s course toward a prosperous, vibrant, and immaculate  future. Gathering and revealing the images of the workers is my “antimemorial,” a commentary on the incalculable price paid, in human lives, for the realization of President Juscelino Kubitschek’s modernist dream of a city designed for the future. My book entitled 2005 – 510117385 – 5 (2008–9) exists in two versions: an “artist’s book” in an  edition of 10 and an offset print run of 500, for free distribution to libraries. It contains reproductions of  the backs of 101 of the more than 800 photographs stolen from the  Biblioteca Nacional. They were taken in 2005 and returned over a period of four years. Most of them belonged to the renowned private library of Emperor Dom Pedro II, which he donated to Brazil’s National Library Foundation in the late 19th century. The work’s title is the case number of the federal police investigation conducted at the time of the theft. The case is still open. The reader/viewer can only “recognize” an image by the name of the photographer and the textual description in the caption. Keeping the photos concealed, showing only their backs, was my response to the issue, based on respecting the photographers’ work and gaze, and especially their legacy as authors who produced objects of desire and theft. Thus the focus is on the stealing of an important collection rather than on the photographs themselves. Concealing the images reveals the theft of our heritage.

AP: A span of 15 years separates Imemorial from 2005 – 510117385 – 5.  How has your work changed over this period?

RR: I notice that in 15 years of work I continue to obsessively pursue these episodes of historical amnesia, although my approaches, and political and aesthetic actions, are perhaps sharper and more refined now. I also remain convinced that we live in a very rich country, settled by very poor people, and that our future does not seem to have arrived yet even though we are already selling, at exorbitant prices, the vestiges of a past brilliance that went unnoticed by most.