Check out here the digital work Ausências ou sintomas? [Portuguese only]

Gustavo Caboco, a Wapichana visual artist born in 1989, is recognized for his versatile artistic production, encompassing drawing-document, painting, text, embroidery, animation and performance. His work deals with profound themes, such as the displacement of Indigenous bodies and the cultivation of Wapichana memory. His independent research in museum collections aims to support the causes of Indigenous peoples in the fight for their rights. Gustavo Caboco was one of the participants in the 34th Bienal de São Paulo – Though It’s Dark, Still I Sing.

Based on his extensive research into collections, the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo opened the doors of the Arquivo Histórico Wanda Svevo to Gustavo Caboco, giving him the opportunity to create a commissioned digital work and a book. For this research, Gustavo worked with Tipuici Manoki to reflect on the Indigenous absence in the Bienal Archive. Tipuici is a filmmaker and is researching the importance of women in the political and ritual processes of the Manoki people. In the process, the artist and the filmmaker asked themselves what an “archive” is for Indigenous peoples.

The Arquivo Histórico Wanda Svevo, also known as the Bienal Archive, has more than a million documents related to the Bienais de São Paulo and their influence on the history of art in Latin America. “We were invited to research the Indigenous presence in the history of the Bienal, but what happened was a dialog with the absences. So we made a publication, to start dealing with this issue of absences, and invited Indigenous relatives to a public event to reflect on ‘what is archive’ for Indigenous populations,” explains Gustavo.

With these questions in mind, Gustavo Caboco produced a digital artwork entitled Ausências ou sintomas? [Absences or Sypmtoms?] and a publication entitled “Isso tudo não me diz nada” [All of This Tells Me Nothing]. These projects were entirely commissioned by the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo.

On October 28, 2023, Gustavo and Tipuici presented this process to the public at the Conversations with Absences event, which is part of the public program of the 35th Bienal de São Paulo. The conversation was also attended by Almires Martins Guarani and Boe Liberio.

See below the publication “Isso tudo não me diz nada”, by Gustavo Caboco and Tipuici Manoki, available only in Portuguese.