UV prints on falconboard 16mm; dimensions variable; edition 3 of 3
Jonathas de Andrade’s Eu, mestiço (Me, mestizo) (2017) is a series of portraits of men and women photographed between 2016 and 2017 in various cities in Brazil. The installation also brings together a large line of keywords from the book Race and Class in Rural Brazil, published by Columbia University in partnership with UNESCO in the 1950s. This study was based on a methodology of interviews in which participants were invited to provide feedback on photographs of black, white, and mixed-race people with six attributes: wealth, beauty, intelligence, religion, honesty, and work aptitude. Eu, mestiço features images and words in black-and-white printed on cardboard and combines two historical times: the images of the people taken very recently with the harshness of words and terminologies of the study from the 1950s. The project puts racial issues in historical perspective – as an incessant struggle that crosses generations and that have definitely not been overcome.
