“Véxoa: We Know,” at the Tufts University Art Galleries Aidekman Arts Center, 40 Talbot Avenue, Medford, from Sept. 5 to Dec. 10, 2023, is a revelatory survey of indigenous art-making across Brazil today. As can be seen in the display’s opening vista of a shopping cart staged before a tableau of palm masks, skirts and costumes.
The shopping cart, “Ẽpry vẽnkhãpóv (Crossroads),” 2022, was created by the Kókir Collective—formed by artists Tadeu dos Santos Kaingang and Sheilla Souza. They transform the familiar cart of contemporary supermarkets by weaving dyed plant fibers through it in diamond patterns of Kaingang braided baskets that speak to their cosmology.
The monumental masks, skirts and outfits were braided from buriti palms in 2000 and 2001 by Itsautaku Waurá, Karapotan Waurá, and Aulahu Waurá of the Wauja, one of 16 Indigenous groups from the upper Xingu River in the state of Mato Grosso. Organizers have arranged the attire to suggest the ritual in which the Wauja use masks, flutes, and clarinets to celebrate and worship the apapaatai, whoare believed to spread sickness and be “kidnappers of human souls,” in an effort to get them to instead cure and protect people.
Kókir Collective (artists Tadeu dos Santos Kaingang and Sheilla Souza), “Ẽpry vẽnkhãpóv (Crossroads),” 2022, Supermarket cart and tressed Kaingang. Background Itsautaku Waurá, Karapotan Waurá, and Aulahu Waurá, “Atujuwá Masks and Skirts,” “Supukuyawa Yuluma Eneju Mask and Outfit,” “Spukuyawa Yuluma Toneju Mask and Outfit,” and “Pair of Yukuku Masks,” 2000, buriti fiber, vine, wool thread, beeswax adhesive putty, metal, wood, annatto and genipap.
“Véxoa,” which means “we know” in the Indigenous Terena language, features art from 22 Indigenous artists and collectives from diverse ethnic groups from across Brazil. Organizers write that it “showcases the ways in which Indigenous artists move between the millennia-old traditions inherited through their native cultures and the different systems of artistic production in the world today.”
“Véxoa” was originally organized by Naine Terena, a member of the Terena Indigenous people of the Brazilian State of Mato Grosso do Sul, for the at the Pinacoteca de São Paulo in 2020. It includes painting, drawing, and sculpture to video, performance, and sound installation by Denilson Baniwa, Jaider Esbell, the collective MAHKU (Movimento dos Artistas Huni Kuin/Huni Kuin Artists’ Movement), Gustavo Caboco, Yakunã Tuxá, Tamikuã Txihi, Olinda Muniz Tupinambá, the collective ASCURI (Associação Cultural dos Realizadores Indígenas/Cultural Association of Indigenous Filmmakers), and others.
Kaya Agari, Untitled pieces, 2021–2023, acrylic on canvas.Kaya Agari, Untitled pieces, 2021–2023, acrylic on canvas.Itsautaku Waurá, Karapotan Waurá, and Aulahu Waurá, “Atujuwá Masks and Skirts,” “Supukuyawa Yuluma Eneju Mask and Outfit,” “Spukuyawa Yuluma Toneju Mask and Outfit,” and “Pair of Yukuku Masks,” 2000, buriti fiber, vine, wool thread, beeswax adhesive putty, metal, wood, annatto and genipap.Itsautaku Waurá, Karapotan Waurá, and Aulahu Waurá, “Atujuwá Masks and Skirts,” “Supukuyawa Yuluma Eneju Mask and Outfit,” “Spukuyawa Yuluma Toneju Mask and Outfit,” and “Pair of Yukuku Masks,” 2000, buriti fiber, vine, wool thread, beeswax adhesive putty, metal, wood, annatto and genipap.Itsautaku Waurá, Karapotan Waurá, and Aulahu Waurá, “Atujuwá Masks and Skirts,” “Supukuyawa Yuluma Eneju Mask and Outfit,” “Spukuyawa Yuluma Toneju Mask and Outfit,” and “Pair of Yukuku Masks,” 2000, buriti fiber, vine, wool thread, beeswax adhesive putty, metal, wood, annatto and genipap.Carmézia Emiliano, “Making Hammocks,” 2019, oil on canvas.MAHKU – Huni Kuin Artists’ Movement, “Kapewē Pukenibu,” 2022, acrylic on canvas.Gustavo Caboco with Lucilene Wapichana and Ricardo Werá, “Orca Mbya,” 2020, from the series “Where is the Indigenous Art in Paraná?,” fabric, Wapichana thread, wood and paint.Gustavo Caboco with Dival da Silva and Ricardo Werá, “Walking in Group in Paraná,” 2020, from the series “Where is the Indigenous Art in Paraná?,” fabric, Wapichana thread, wood and paint.Denilson Baniwa, “Yawareté maku tetama (jaguar in ancestral land),” 2023, wheatpaste on plywood.Denilson Baniwa, “Yawareté maku tetama (jaguar in ancestral land),” 2023, wheatpaste on plywood.Denilson Baniwa, “The Shaman’s blow,” 2023, luminescent paint on drywall.Jaider Esbell, “Pata Ewa’n – The Heart of the World,” 2016, acrylic on canvas.Kókir Collective (artists Tadeu dos Santos Kaingang and Sheilla Souza), “Ẽpry vẽnkhãpóv (Crossroads),” 2022, Supermarket cart and tressed Kaingang. Background Itsautaku Waurá, Karapotan Waurá, and Aulahu Waurá, “Atujuwá Masks and Skirts,” “Supukuyawa Yuluma Eneju Mask and Outfit,” “Spukuyawa Yuluma Toneju Mask and Outfit,” and “Pair of Yukuku Masks,” 2000, buriti fiber, vine, wool thread, beeswax adhesive putty, metal, wood, annatto and genipap.
