By Cristina Cavalcanti : :
An immersive and interactive installation that puts into tension different archival documents of the Brazilian civil-military dictatorship, including a manuscript, photographs, and audio recordings. The document is a handwritten testimony authored by Inês Etienne Romeu, a militant in two leftist organisations opposing the dictatorship in Brazil, and describes the humiliation, torture, and violations which she was subjected to at Casa da Morte (House of Death), a centre dedicated to systematic torture, from where she was the only one who escaped alive. It acts as a trigger, inviting the participants into the spatial field of the installation.
As the visitor approaches, a sensor activates a sequence of sounds, images, and the release of smoke through a perforated tube. The rising vapour becomes a screen on which the faces of twelve women, all tortured, murdered, or forcibly disappeared during the dictatorship, emerge in random succession. In counterpoint, the sound environment is composed of the voices of military officials and torturers denying any knowledge of or involvement in the crimes committed.
The manuscript was choosen precisely because it is a denunciation written by a woman, a singular voice that speaks for many. Inês Etienne Romeu, who died in 2015, was responsible for initiating the first court case concerning the rape of a political prisoner in Brazil. When the visitor leaves, the smoke dissipates, the images fade, and silence settles, leaving only the illuminated letter.
[Des]montagem delves into the potential of digital media art to contest official histories and disrupt the hegemony of dominant narratives through the reactivation of archival materials. By appropriating institutional archives, exposing deliberately hidden documents, and recontextualising them, it invites new perceptions and reinterpretations of the past, provoking reflection on the present. The installation challenges the unequal formation of memory and the power of dominant narratives, while affirming the voices that were once silenced.
The artwork was developed in collaboration with a transdisciplinary team: Rui D’Orey as programmer and Rodrigo Menck as lighting designer. In Brazil, researcher and filmmaker Maria Júlia Andrade worked as a research assistant and was responsible for securing the image rights of the victims and their families
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