Jaime Lauriano

Racial democracy, melting pot, purity of races

This series recreates illustrations of maps and nautical charts with their emblematic scenes of navigations and the “discovery of the new world”. It is a black-on-white re-reading of early efforts to depict the system of colonisation, the exploitation of timber and indigenous labour, the first proletariat of the future “continent”. The sticky tapes, often used to bind people in lynchings, form a golden rectangle that refers to the exploitation of land and bodies by colonial commodification. The terms racial democracy, melting pot and racial purity, taken from books that narrate the History of America, reinforce the violence of these illustrations of the “Invention of the American continent”.

Jaime Lauriano / São Paulo, 1985. Lives and works between Porto/Portugal and São Paulo/Brazil.

Graduated at Centro Universitário Belas Artes de São Paulo, 2010. 

The artists examine the structures of power contained in the production of History. In audiovisual pieces, objects and critical texts, he highlights how violent relationships between institutions of governance and state control – such as police, prisons, embassies, borders – and subjects shape societies. Thus, his work brings to the surface historical traumas relegated to the past, proposing a collective revision and re-elaboration of history. 

Recent solo shows: Marcas, Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, Recife, Brazil, 2018; Ao Norte do Rio, Sesc Santana, São Paulo, Brazil, 2018; Brinquedo de purar moletom, MAC Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2018; Assentamento, Galeria Leme, São Paulo, Brazil, 2019; Nessa terra, em se plantando, tudo dá, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2015; Autorretrato em Branco sobre Preto, Galeria Leme, São Paulo, Brazil, 2015; Group shows selected: Shuttle, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo, Brazil, 2019; The Fall of the Sky, CAIXA Cultural Brasília, Brasília, Brazil, 2019; Quem não luta tá morto – arte democracia utopia, Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2018; Afro-Atlantic Stories, MASP and Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil, 2018; The World’s Game: Fútbol and Contemporary Art, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, USA, 2018; 11th Mercosur Biennial of Visual Arts, Triângulo do Atlântico, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2018; Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil, São Paulo, Brazil, 2017; Metrópole: Paulistana Experience, Estação Pinacoteca, São Paulo, Brazil, 2017; WELT KOMPAKT?, frei_raum Q21, Vienna, Austria, 2017; How to Remain Silent, A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa, 2017. 

Public collections: MAC Niterói, Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; MAR – Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; MASP – Museu de Arte de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Casa das Onze Janelas Museum, Belem, Pará, Brazil; Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil and Schoepflin Stiftung: The Collection, Lörrach, Germany. 

http://jaimelauriano.com/