The visual artist Roque Boa Morte is Brazilian, from the Recôncavo of Bahia, a region that received the greatest influences of both African and European cultures in Brazil. It is from there that he speaks to us, even though his body and his works are in physical and symbolic movements around the world.
Currently residing in New York, USA, he has been creating works connected to his homeland, while also working as a photographer and researcher in the field of visual anthropology.
His works emerge from a process of artistic and intellectual investigation based on the perspective of 'situated knowledge'. A quest to speak through photography from within, from a non-white locus, an imminent immateriality, (re)activating memories, cosmoperceptions, and producing decolonial counter-narratives between Brazil and the USA.
His series of self-ethnographic photographs on Bembé do Mercado (2018/2022), the subject of his master's research in Ethnic and African Studies at Pós-Afro/UFBA, was approved and funded by FAPESB, and published in national media outlets such as Revista Raça and O Globo, as well as internationally in Mexico, as part of the editorial and artistic action "Meio Cura Festivalizar".
His authorial project FIGAS, ANCESTRAL HANDS, symbolically delves into the universe of the most popular amulet in the West through its transatlantic diaspora, was selected and exhibited at the 36th Visual Arts Salon of the State of Bahia after its premiere in Salvador/BA (2021/2022—Cronópios, Casa de Arte e Cultura) and its passage through Rio de Janeiro/RJ (2022—Rato Branko Creative Lab).
Carol Barreto
Visual Artist, Fashion Designer and Teacher at the Federal University of Bahia
