BRUSSELS.- With Patuá/Patois, Paulo Nazareth presents a comprehensive retrospective at WIELS, highlighting more than two decades of artistic practice. Through two powerful symbols of survival and resilience, Nazareth explores the interplay of memory, language, and ritual in communities shaped by Afro-Brazilian, Indigenous, and anti-colonial struggles. The exhibition engages with Brussels—a city where language and identity are central to social and political life.
Delve into Nazareth's powerful art: Explore the captivating and thought-provoking work of Paulo Nazareth, a leading voice in contemporary art addressing colonialism and its legacies.
Paulo Nazareth is an artist who creates as he walks. With his self- proclaimed Arte de Preceito (precept art), his artistic practice is rooted in radical displacement and movement, such as crossing borders on foot. Through various media—from video and photography to found objects—he explores personal stories and routes that have been shaped by history, the impact of which is still felt today. Nazareth investigates how language and objects can serve as tools for survival, particularly for those displaced by colonial histories and global migration. By transforming movement into an act of resistance, he bears witness to the lives of the forgotten and the silenced.
The exhibition explores two powerful symbols of survival and resilience: patois, a non standard dialect spoken by marginalised communities, and patuá, an Afro-Brazilian amulet symbolizing protection and remembrance. Each of Nazareth’s works can be seen as a type of patuá; every object and image he creates carries the will to remember and resist, illuminating how cultural items become shields of identity in the direst circumstances.
Patois, emerging as the voice of the people, ignores the constraints to which formal language is subjected in the process of adaptation to colonial and national structures. This convergence of resistance finds particularly fertile ground in Brussels, a city officially divided between French and Dutch, where numerous other languages coexist in varying states of recognition or invisibility. Through the artworks presented at WIELS, Nazareth critically addresses Brussels’ vanishing local dialect, its complex linguistic divides, and its fraught relationship with immigration.
Asasignificantactofresistance, Paulo Nazarethwillnotphysicallycome to Brussels for this exhibition. He has made a personal commitment not to set foot in Europe until he has first visited all the countries in Africa, honoring the continent that has deeply influenced his work and identity. This refusal to enter Europe reflects Nazareth’s critique of colonial histories and the power dynamics between the Global North and South. His presence manifests through Paulo Nazareth Ltda., a network of family and collaborators who activate the exhibition in his absence. Together, they transform the space into a living archive of stories passed across generations.
Curator: Fernanda Brenner
Paulo Nazareth (old man born in the city of Borun Nak [Vale do Rio Doce] Minas Gerais) lives and works throughout the world.
His work is often the result of precise and simple gestures, which bring about broader ramifications, raising awareness to press issues of immigration, racialisation, globalisation, colonialism, and its effects in the production and consumption of art in his native Brazil and the Global South. While his work may manifest in video, photography, and found objects, his strongest medium may be cultivating relationships with people he encounters on the road — particularly those who must remain invisible due to their legal status or those who are repressed by governmental authorities. In certain aspects, Nazareth deliberately embodies the romantic ideal of the wandering artist in search of himself and universal truths, to unveil stereotyped assumptions about national identity, cultural history, and human value.
Recent exhibitions include LUZIA, Museo Tamayo, Mexico (2024); Esconjuro, Inhotim, Brumadinho (2024); En la casa de mi hermano, Proyectos Ultravioleta, Ciudad Guatemala (2023); Paulo Nazareth, Archipelago, Hudson Valley (2022); BIRDMAN, Stevenson, Amsterdam (2022); Stroke, The Power Plant, Toronto (2022); Vuadora, Pivô, São Paulo (2022) ; Melee, ICA Miami, Miami (2019 ; Faca Cega, Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte (2018); The Journal, Institute for Contemporary Arts, Londres (2014); Premium Bananas, MASP, São Paulo (2012); News from Americas, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo.
Paulo Nazareth is represented by Mendes Wood DM.
Artdaily participates in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn commissions by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. When you purchase through our links, we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. These commissions help us continue curating and sharing the art world’s latest news, stories, and resources with our readers.
