Welcome to the first talk of this season, part of the artist talk series World In My Eyes, organised in collaboration with Moderna Museet and Konstfack, and hosted by Stadsmissionen Mötesplats Mariatorget. Read more about World In My Eyes.
Jonathas de Andrade (b. 1982, Maceió, Brazil) lives and works in Recife, Brazil. He develops videos, photographs and installations based on the production of images and texts, employing strategies that juxtapose fiction and reality, tradition and negotiation with local communities. Parting from the artist’s interests in social issues, his works cross the field of language and anthropology as aspects that challenge the notion of truth, power, desire and social imaginary.
In his recent survey exhibition, “Na Cidade da Ressaca” (In the Hangover City, 2023), Jonathas de Andrade portrays Recife, Brazil, where he lives today (born in Maceió, 1982). The exhibition took place in Recife and brought together all of Jonathas’ projects that used the city as a starting point, reflecting its significant influence on his political and historical understanding and his development as an artist. Jonathas engages with memory and how it affects objects and symbols in Brazilian society. His primary mediums—installation, photography, and video—serve as tools to delve into the impacts of relationships and forms through the consequences of urbanization and power.
Through his work, de Andrade scrutinizes the resonances of modernist culture in Brazilian society, particularly in light of the repressive politics in Brazil during the 20th century. His engagement with Brazilian modernism, which frequently juxtaposed indigenous and African elements with modernist aesthetics, situates him within a legacy of artists confronting a colonial past and its contemporary continuities.
Since 2007, de Andrade has collaborated with the artist collective A Casa como Convém (The House as It Should Be), which he co-founded in Recife. One of his notable works is the mural “Nostalgia, a Class Sentiment” (Nostalgia, Sentimiento de Clase, 2012), which, with its geometric tiles and manifestos from the 1960s and 1970s, provokes an understanding of Brazil’s modernization projects and their failure to achieve sustainable change.
His recent solo exhibitions have been showcased at, among other institutions, the Brazilian Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale (2022), MAAT Lisbon (2023), FOAM Amsterdam (2022), and MCA Chicago (2019).