Mariana de Matos (Maré)

Mariana "Maré" de Matos (Governador Valadares, Brazil) lives and works in São Paulo, Brasil.

Mariana de Matos is a trans-disciplinary artist. Born in the state of Minas Gerais, in the region of Vale do Rio Doce, the artist has witnessed the unfolding of a historical dispute between the rights of indigenous populations and the secular machine of progress. In 2009, she graduated in Visual Arts from Escola Guignard (UEMG). None of her teachers were black. She is currently studying for a Masters’ Degree in Literary Theory at UFPE. None of her teachers are black. Her research focuses on the contribution of black poetry to decoloniality. Her practice draws on the tensions between historical truth and polyphonic counter-narratives; identity and hegemony; power relations and renewed outlines for old structures. She investigates representation, symbols, the delirium of modernity, the invention of difference, subjectivity, self-narrative and colonial wounds. Using hybrid languages, she is interested in emotion as a system to enjoy the world, placing her practice on the frontier between image and word. Her practice encompasses painting, sewing, wood, expanded poetry, relational art, installation, urban poetic interventions, self-publication, performance and photography. She founded the expanded poetry label Bendito Officious (2010) and an organisation called MUNA (Black Women in Arts, 2017). She is currently working on the project As poetas do pajeú [Female Poets from Pajeú], in the countryside of Pernambuco (funded by the state government), among other projects. Her works have featured in the solo exhibition Como viver do desejo [How to Live from Desire] (MAMAM, Recife, 2016) and the group shows: Panorama of Brazilian Art: Sertão (MAM, São Paulo, 2019), Epistemologias Comunitárias [Community Epistemologies] (CCUFMG, Belo Horizonte, 2019), Ontem, hoje, agora [Yesterday, Today, Now] (Solar dos abacaxis, Rio de Janeiro, 2019), • (Galeria Leme, São Paulo, 2018), Os da minha rua [The Ones on My Street] (Museum of Abolition, Recife, 2018) and Vetores [Vectors] (Museu Murilo La Greca, Recife, 2018). Her art has also appeared in Flip Meets Panorama and IX Sinais na arte (MAM, São Paulo, 2019), as well as Efetividade das artes para descolonização (C.C Tendal da Lapa, São Paulo, 2019), Com (artes) (SESC, Paraíba, 2019), Confluências (SESC, Pernambuco, 2019), Quilombo do pensamento negro (UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, 2019), O negro como narrador (SESC Research and Training Centre, São Paulo, 2019), the Ebó Egé Conference (Fórum Doc, Palácio das artes, Belo Horizonte, 2018), and Como ler Basquiat? (CCBB, Belo Horizonte, 2018), amongst others.