Representação e autorrepresentação de mulheres negras na materialidade e na linguagem artística de Renata Felinto

Abstract

The present research aims to reflect on the strategies of representation and selfrepresentation of black women in the materiality and artistic language of Renata Felinto and her articulations with black feminisms. For this, we seek, at first, a contextualization about Afro-Brazilian artistic productions in the country. Based on authors such as Emanoel Araújo, Roberto Conduru and Nelma Mattos, we seek to dialogue about a non-hegemonic perspective of the visual arts in Brazil, with a special interest in black protagonism in this space. Then, we discuss some contemporary Afro-Brazilian visual artists and their forms of resistance against hegemonic narratives from the visual arts. Next, Felinto’s trajectory and some of his works are investigated, with emphasis on the analysis of the project “As que me habitam” (2017-2019), in which Felinto shows different works in which, on the one hand, he honors women that preceded it and who, despite their relevance to national history, were made invisible, also making a social critique of the place of black women in society. On the other hand, it connects its image to those of these women, in a process of identity construction, marked by religiosity, ancestry and the appreciation of black bodies and the subjectivity of these people.