In this edition of Commented Archive, curator and researcher Beatriz Lemos analyzes GRIN (2016), by Isael Maxakali and Roney Freitas.
The video work seeks to reconstruct a history that has long been silenced: the actions of the Indigenous Rural Guard (GRIN) during the Brazilian military dictatorship. The work alternates between archival images and interviews with Maxakali people, who narrate the violence suffered and the resistance of that period, keeping a collective memory alive.
GRIN was awarded at the 21st Biennial Sesc_Videobrasil (2019). Currently, the work is part of the Videobrasil Archive and can be watched in its entirety at the cultural association's video library by prior appointment via email at arquivo@videobrasil.org.br.
Beatriz Lemos works in curation, research, and writing. Founding director of Lastro—an organization that promotes transdisciplinary creation and learning processes focused on art in the Global South—she is currently the coordinating curator at the Inhotim (Brazil). In 2017, she joined the team of guest curators for the 20th Festival Sesc_Videobrasil, alongside Ana Pato, Diego Matos, and João Laia. With a master's degree in Social History of Culture from PUC Rio de Janeiro and a degree in Art History from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Lemos has been working as a curator since 2003, with an extensive resume of exhibitions, residencies, publications, research, network coordination, educational practices, as well as organization, cataloging, and mediation of collections.
*The Commented Archive invites curators and researchers to reflect on the works in the Videobrasil Collection. With original critical analyses, the project expands the information available on the works in light of contemporary issues and offers new angles for research, activating the collection of Associação Cultural Videobrasil and expanding knowledge about artists from the Global South.