Le Cri à La Roça, 2023
Le Cri à La Roça, 2023, 210mm x 290mm each, linocut on paper
Le Cri à la Roça (Screaming in the Plantation) evokes Black suffering and resistance that were (and are) purposely erased from Brazilian historical archives.
This print is a recreation of La Cuisine à la Roça [Cooking in the Plantation] (1959), by Victor Frond. One of the most important photographers of the 19th century, Frond portrayed Imperial Brazil as a "racially peaceful" nation, which was captivating and comfortable for the European gaze. His well-know picture depicted enslaved Black women alienated from the world around them: anonymous, subordinate and obedient. Le Cri à La Roça, on the other hand, complicates the bias behind national archives, raising the question: how can we rescue Black Brazilians' agency in canonic representations of the nation?
Though actively excluded, the screams and voices of Black history have survived, and will continue to rise.