Decapitated modernism: the musical reanthropophagy of Arandu Arakuaa

Abstract

Beyond the century that separates and links the Brazilian Semana de arte moderna of 1922 to our social period, this article questions the illusory albeit persistent seclusion between the modern, modernism, and modernity, which permeates much of both historiography and cultural studies of the last 100 years, marked by cultural silencing and appropriations of the Indigenous presence in literary and aesthetic-cultural expressions in the context of the Modern Art Week and the anthropophagic movement, and in artistic productions that followed it. Distinct productions are discussed with focus on music as a cultural expression (poetically and historically linked to literature and other arts): textual (José de Alencar, Mário de Andrade, Oswald de Andrade) and musical works (Carlos Gomes, Villa-Lobos); thus, the discussion enters the territory of cultural movements that dialogue with Brazilian modernism, such as Tropicália and other hybrid music genres. Finally, contemporary manifestations of Indigenous authorship in literature, visual arts and music are discussed. These manifestations rescue the Indigenous presence, re-anthropophagizing (as proposed by Denilson Baniwa) modernism, freeing Indigenous art from textual and symbolic limitations, and bringing to light the relation between Indigenous art making and a history of political and epistemological resistance. This articulation is approached in the context of the heavy metal band Arandu Arakuaa, with focus on melody (reappropriating Western musical genres and incorporating local sounds) and discourse (in a decolonial perspective of rescuing and healing of Indigenous episteme).