“WE ARE NOT FANS OF SCOUNDRELS”: afrodiasporic political poetics at the 34th Bienal de São Paulo

Abstract

The present text seeks to propose a critical reflection on the political poetics of blackness presented in the exhibition Vento from the program of the 34th Bienal de São Paulo 1n 2020. I aim to analyze these artistic interventions: the notion of body-witness of Stênio Soares in his reflections on self-determination; the idea of self-disclosure in the work of feminist writer Audre Lorde; notions of poetics of philosophers Achille Mbembe and Édouard Glissant; and the thinking of Racionais MC´S, on radiography. By this means I aim to systematize the political poetics presented in the exhibition Vento by focusing on aphrodiasporic artistic production around the reflection on the ethical and poetic discourses in these works.  In this text, aphrodiasporic political poetics are interpreted as a synthesis of radiographic poetics of blackness.  In short, it seeks to contribute to studies of the participation and mapping of aphrodiasporic artists in the history of the São Paulo Biennials.