Mulheres negras visualizadas e ignoradas: uma análise de narrativas expográficas no Museu de Arte de Belém (MABE)

Abstract

The expographic narratives of the long-term exhibition “Windows of the past, mirrors of the present: Belém of Pará, art, image and history”, at Museu de Arte de Belém (MABE), constituted the object of study of this Dissertation, which unfolded in analyzing seven images of black women, portrayed in paintings in that exhibition. Images that consolidate the problematic categorization of “popular types”. Having as empirical material the exhibition catalog, considered as an important document, support of knowledge in relation to the content, far beyond the expographic trace, as it offers the possibility to understand the works and their raised contexts and the objectives proposed by the curatorial team. Based on black feminist thoughts, and on issues pertinent to the field of Art History, intertwined with racial relations, this study presents theoretical arguments that converge to analyzes of the museal and museological field. Using an argumentative synthesis that started from the study of three “tyrannical” categories, analyzes were carried out on stereotypes that surround the imaginary about the representation of black women: the “tyranny of the visible”, by Georges Didi-Huberman, the “tyranny of silence”, by Audre Lorde and “images of control”, by Patricia Hill Collins. The application of “tyrannical” categories led to the understanding of other ways of seeing the images of black women in the context of long-term exposure, unlike the expository selection that produced narratives of absence.