unmemory, 2016

Unmemory (desmemória) was presented in the front garden of EAV Parque Lage in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as part of the “Negative Hands” exhibition. The institution, which also houses an art school, is situated in a house with colonial heritage that belonged to slaveholders. The action was conceived as an intervention addressing the colonial past of the site and the idea that Brazil was “the country of the future,” a notion particularly developed during the Brazilian dictatorship. Ianês lived and slept in the garden for seven days, around the clock, creating a living space from the garbage produced by the institution and found objects such as branches and leaves from the garden, eating only raw vegetables, and attempting to engage in dialogues with passers-by. When speaking, Ianês only used the future tense, thus creating a state of perpetual becoming and never settling in the present. As usual, Ianês set some rules for their behaviour: not to use the institution’s structure (except for its waste) for shelter, to sleep and live in the garden, to welcome participants warmly and let them lead the conversation, thereby using the institution's resources in a thought-provoking way.