A arte de Xadalu - resistência à invisibilidade indígena

Abstract

The invisibility and resistance of indigenous peoples are addressed in this study, which troubles personal histories involving the indigenous condition in Brazil. Its starting point is my personal and professional background, which connects to both the history of some my indigenous students who do not accept their descent and the history of a mestizo artist whose work seeks, precisely, to foreground his ancestry and its ineffable presence in culture and society. Underlying this study is a master’s degree research whose starting point is the following question: how are invisibility and resistance thought by the artist Xadalu Tupã Jekupé and expressed in his works? The unfolding of this question occurred in the fulfillment of the following research objectives: to identify, describe and analyze, in the works by Xadalu Jekupé, the expressiveness, the struggle and the resistance to the invisibility of indigenous peoples. Such scope allowed understanding how the artist sees, feels, thinks and acts, in his singularity, to give visibility to indigenous peoples and expose a social problem so that art can be a place of resistance and fulfillment of the desire for social inclusion. The construction of this understanding was based on theoretical-conceptual and artistic bases in which the resistance to the invisibility of indigenous peoples was projected as a subject for elementary education Art classes. Methodologically, the research was characterized as qualitative and document-based, besides being carried out according to case study method procedures. Research data analysis — photographs of visual art works — has relied upon procedures of iconological and iconographic analysis. The research has resulted in the following systematic understanding: Xadalu Jekupé art works claim the recognition of the existence of indigenous peoples and their demands for their social rights. To do so, the artist recurs to a diverse repertoire of materials, techniques, modalities, languages and other elements of art making, which he combines with textual expression to bring to the foreground the image of the struggle and resistance of indigenous peoples, given their social invisibility.

Keywords: art teaching; indigenous peoples; invisibility; resistance; Xadalu Jekupé.