São Paulo, 2016

Like a geopolitics invented from the outside-in, Latin America lacks cohesion among its members—its people and its nations—, a connectedness that could enable them to recognize and cultivate something shared, both historically and in the present. Begun by the artist and educator Fábio Tremonte, the Escola da Floresta [Forest School] attempts to lay the groundwork for this and other discussions. With no fixed headquarters or even a website, the project, created in 2016, has fostered networks of interlocutors from different countries across the continent and promoted horizontal dynamics of knowledge. Shared journeys, walks, texts, films and shared kitchens are just some of the project’s triggers.

At Frestas, the School staged a series of performative readings via live feed on Facebook. The idea was to throw some light on the indigenous situation in Brazil by resurrecting a hard-hitting and long-forgotten document. Spanning 30 volumes and some seven thousand pages, the Figueiredo Report was the result of an investigation completed during the military dictatorship about human rights abuses against indigenous populations between 1946 and 1968. Packed full of documental evidence of torture, slave labor and genocide, as well as environmental devastation, the report was left gathering dust until 2013, when it was found at the Museu do Índio and sent to the National Truth Commission, an organ created to investigate human rights abuses during the dictatorship. Read by the Escola da Floresta on consecutive days as part of a multi-voice vigil, excerpts from the report bring to light facts that urgently need to be assimilated into memory.

[A.M.M]

Obras

  • Escola da Floresta [Leitura pública do Relatório Figueiredo] mídia: Facebook, transmissão ao vivo postagem: 11/9