We Cannot Remiain Silent - Brazil 1970s
ABOVE: Latin American Studies Association - 2nd Annual Conference Declaration, 1970
“WE CANNOT REMAIN SILENT
We cannot remain silent in the face of the overwhelming evidence of the flagrant denial of human rights and dignity coming to us from Brazil. This dossier is but a fraction of the evidence. Significantly, several documents were written by Brazilians and smuggled out of Brazil at great risk to those involved. They accepted the possible penalties in order to inform the people of the world of the fact that the terror and torture are used in their country as instruments of government."
ABOVE: Brazil Government memo on Latin American Studies Association - 2nd Annual Conference Declaration, 1970I’ve been trying to wrap up my research for my upcoming exhibition, Documents of Resistance– Moving Forward Together, which provides a small window into the collaborative mediascape of indigenous solidarity in the Americas during the 1970s, when I came across this document. It's quite interesting as the first signer to the declaration was Ralph Abernathy, who had taken over as President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Also interesting are the two artists who signed the letter, Hans Haacke and Allen D'Arcangelo, as well as writer and art critic Dore Ashton. Both Hans Haacke and Dore Ashton taught at Cooper Union, and I assume they were friends during the time. Dore later wrote the introduction to D’Arcangelo’s exhibition catalog for the 1979 exhibition at Burchfield Center, SUNY Buffalo, NY.
A friend recently asked me about my process and I said that for the most part, it is pretty simple I choose one of many many protests or events that involve BiPOC artists to explore. Most often the time, date, people, and place of the protest or campaign are relatively clear. This current project has been more difficult as I'm discovering many layers of activist causes that intersect with this topic of indigenous rights. To add to that complexity, certain artists and individuals involved are proving difficult to research—but I'll save that for another post.
Either way, I'm happy to be able to share what I've been working on during these past few “transitional” years in my upcoming Documents of Resistance exhibition. Subscribe to my email for updates, or follow me on IG.
---
Note: the original impetus for Documents of Resistance - Moving Forward Together came from my research of PAD/D Collection/MoMa Archives for the group exhibition and book Art for the Future: Artists Call and Central American Solidarities at the encouragement of curators Abigail Satinsky and Erina Duganne in 2019—a gift that keeps on giving.