Ayrson Heráclito

An intervention of the old Portuguese colonial system through the "shaking" or exorcism of the Garcia d’Ávila Tower House in Bahia. Presented as a diptych with "O Sacudimento da Maison des Esclaves em Gorée."

Against a dendê [palm oil] background, gesturing hands stage a ballet of features and powers of the unique Candomblé [African-Brazilian religion] divinities.

Buruburu: same as popcorn. It is the flower of Obaluaê - a black god of diseases and cures. Your bath is a source of energy, wiping vigorously, body and soul.

The work is a requiem for Estelita de Souza Santana, lifetime leader of the Sisterhood of Our Lady of the Good Death (Cachoeira-BA), who passed away at the age of 105. A local myth that identifies black priestesses and white herons inspires the narrative, which explores the symbology of “white” (“funfun” in Yoruba), commonly associated with purity, maturity, and wisdom, the color of mourning in many Oriental countries, and the color of the garments worn by the Black god Obatala. Out of this profusion of symbols, the artist creates his own funeral rite.

Often, when we wish to refer to the presence of the horrors of a past of slavery in the contemporary world, we evoke the metaphor of the wound. To experience this figure of speech is what Ayrson Heráclito’s performance proposes, standing on the border between allegory and enactment. Participants are invited to put on a cape made of dried meat, on which they marked with hot iron. The sensations, noises, smells, and images created by the action evoke the practice of marking slaves with hot iron, and elicit the collective discomfort in the heart of the Western civilization, seeking a deeper understanding of history and an opportunity to open renewed horizons.

An intervention of the old Portuguese colonial system through the "shaking" or exorcism of the Maison des Esclaves (House of Slaves) on Gorée Island. Presented as a diptych with "O Sacudimento da Casa da Torre."