By Shola Adenekan
Tuesday, December 3, 2024.
Brussels is the epicentre of art in Europe, just as it does with its easy physical connections to important seats of artistic power like London, Amsterdam, and Paris. Although smaller than these three other cities, its art scene attracts a cosmopolitan public that speaks in many different accents emanating from every corner of the globe. The Brazilian artist Dalton Paula, therefore, could not have chosen a better city for his first major exhibition since his impressive debut at the 2024 Venice Biennale.
Paula’s “Undying Gardens” currently on display at Martins & Montero Gallery in the art district of the Belgian capital is a collection that opens up a part of Brazilian history that many in Europe and around the world may not be conscious of – the African side of Brazilian history. Born in 1982 in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, Paula often uses his art to provide a mirror into Afro-Brazilian history, making a place for people who constitute the majority but who are rarely given their due place in Brazil’s artscape. Paula speaks gently but with passion about his subjects, and “Undying Gardens” is a testament to his commitment to using art to not only tell the story of his people but also an intent to disabuse the world of a perception of Africanness in Brazil and in the Americas, tracing history before the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and the middle passage to a period before Africans were transported to the Americas as enslaved people.
The drawings incorporate landscapes and objects evocative of period photography studios, as the artist seeks to link the past to the present, creating a poetic yet political dimension where identities can be reexamined and history reimagined. Paula’s art invites African traditions to re-emerge in Afro-Brazilian contexts, offering reflections on history, defiance, knowledge, and identity. Through this practice, Paula reshapes how Brazilian heritage is seen, crafting enduring representations that assert the presence and significance of Black Brazilian history.
In Chico Rei IV ( ), Paula drawing retells the story of Chico Rei, an African of royal lineage from Congo, who was brought to Brazil as an enslaved person along with his wife, children, and subjects. During the Middle Passage, his wife and some of his children perished. Upon arriving in Brazil, he was sent to the mines of Ouro Preto and baptised with the name Francisco, where he remained enslaved alongside one of his surviving children.
During the period of enslavement, other enslaved Africans recognised Chico Rei as a royal figure. He later bought his own freedom and began purchasing the manumission of various enslaved individuals, including some malungos (people shipped on the same boat as him) and fellow subjects from Congo. He was elevated to king among the African communities in the mining regions, gaining power and respect from his people. According to oral accounts, Chico Rei accumulated vast amounts of gold. His strategy involved persuading Africans and their descendants to periodically deposit the gold they used to hide in their hair into the baptismal font. These donations were used to liberate more people and fund the celebrations and congadas. Chico Rei straddles the line between myth and reality, yet he remains a vibrant figure in the popular imagination and on streets still alive with congadas today.
Another work Afufá Rufino IV, (graphite and watercolour on paper) is a drawing that reprises the life of Yoruba man Abuncare who was enslaved and transported to Brazil after he was captured during the internal struggle within the Yoruba kingdom that took place in 1823-1824 in the city of Ilorin in today’s Nigeria. Another painting entitled Curukango IV, brings to life the story of the leader of the quilombo that bears Curukango’s name in northeastern Macaé, Rio de Janeiro. Curukango, who originally hailed from today’s Mozambique, is seen as a warrior among Afro-Brazilians. Legends had it that he escaped enslavement by killing his enslaver before retreating into the forests to establish a community that grew to shelter around two hundred Black people.
While Paula adores the historical male figures he draws he speaks more passionately about the female figures. He links these emotional connections to his own mother who sacrificed many things to support his art education that took Paula to the Federal University of Goiás, where he studied Visual Arts.
One can sense confidence and defiance in the women in “Undying Gardens”. The lines in the drawing highlight the courage with which these matriarchal figures subvert male authority in a country that was founded on violence. Paula says that the figure of Tereza de Benguela IV, is his favourite. Standing behind a flight of stairs with her right hand resting on a book, Tereza symbolises aspiration and the development of the mind through education, which Paula says is his own passion. Teresa is often referred to as Queen Teresa of Quariterê. She was one of Brazilian quilombos’ most prominent female leaders and is believed to have arrived in Brazil as an enslaved person around 1730. Under her leadership, the Quilombo do Quariterê flourished, sustaining itself through subsistence agriculture and a resolute resistance against slavery.
Paula’s art is engrossing, illuminating, and educative. This is not art for art’s sake. The drawings are marked by the way the artist illuminates certain parts of the images, like their noses and the lips, asking viewers to look beyond the obvious to the implicit meanings one can read when art reprises lived experiences and subverts the narrative of slavery with stories of confident, deviance and strength. This is a collection from an artist who is worth celebrating, and these works will be celebrated in the decades ahead.
Dalton Paula’s “Undying Gardens”.
Exhibition: Martins & Montero, Brussels, Belgium.
Date: 07.11. 2024 to 18.01.2025
Shola Adenekan is the publishing editor at Thenewblackmagazine.com. He is an associate professor of African literature at Ghent University, Belgium. He is also the author of African Literature in the Digital Age.
