We are pleased to announce the six artists who will be in residence at Instituto Sacatar on the island of Itaparica, Bahia, Brazil, from May 13th to July 1st, 2024.
These artists were selected through the Sacatar 2022 Selection Process and the African Diaspora in Brazil Open Call 2023.
This session highlights cinema by Black women filmmakers, with two great artists in this field: Safira Monteiro, from Salvador, Bahia, and Ja’Tovia Gary, from New York and Texas (USA).
The works of Ja’Tovia Gary, filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist, are in the collections of important museums in the USA, such as MoMA, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Whitney Museum. In her work, Ja’Tovia Gary challenges conventional narratives through a Black feminist lens, seeking to expose new perspectives and contradictions. Her project at Sacatar will document the oral histories of elders in terreiros in Bahia, exploring the spirituality and ancestral legacies of the African diaspora.
Safira Monteiro is a filmmaker and visual artist from Salvador, Bahia. During her residency at Sacatar, she will focus on completing her feature-length documentary “Cais”. Based on the filmmaker’s personal journey, the documentary explores different territories in Bahia, focusing on Afro-diasporic communities along the Paraguaçu River.
This new group of residents also includes Brazilian writer Armando Martinelli, American multidisciplinary artist Karina Aguilera Skvirsky, writer and multidisciplinary artist Stephanie Sauer (USA), and Swedish choreographer and dancer Tobias Sköld.
More information about each artist and their intended projects for the residency can be found below:
Armando Martinelli
Literature
Brazil
Armando Martinelli is a writer who grew up in different towns in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. His writing moves between observations of the contemporary world and a dreamlike atmosphere, where nature and the sea act as a refuge. Over time, Martinelli has developed a style of writing that mixes autobiographical and cartographic elements.
His project at Instituto Sacatar aims to create an anthology of texts using auto-fictional language. Inspired by Donna Haraway’s concept of ‘fabulation’, he’ll explore narratives about refuge that come from artistic manifestations, from other people in the residency, as well as from the local community. The project draws inspiration from the geography of the Instituto Sacatar itself and from artistic manifestations in nearby cities, such as Salvador. The project also includes the recording of dreams during the residency.
Armando Martinelli is the author of works such as “Cabeça do Cão na Fenda do Muro” (Patuá, 2023), “A Luz do Abismo” (Urutau, 2022) and “Recital das Reticências” (Urutau, 2018). His writing manifests itself in different forms, sometimes poetic, sometimes in prose, reflecting his vision as an observer of the world and explorer of the boundaries between the real and the imaginary.
Martinelli has a BA in Journalism and an MA in Scientific and Cultural Dissemination. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Education at UNICAMP.
Ja’Tovia Gary
Cinema & Multidisciplinary Arts
USA
Ja’Tovia Gary, a multidisciplinary filmmaker and artist, challenges conventional narratives by infusing her work with a Black feminist subjectivity, often using archival materials and experimental animation.
Her projects aim to provoke deep emotional responses and raise awareness of collective realities, exposing new perspectives and contradictions. With a focus on intimacy and a critical examination of power dynamics, the artist’s work serves as a reparative gesture to distorted representations of Black life, often highlighting Black spiritual traditions and ancestral legacies.
During her residency at Sacatar, Ja’Tovia Gary plans to get in touch with candomblé terreiros and document the oral histories of their elders. Her interest stems from the ability of these spiritual communities to preserve traditions derived from Yoruba culture and practiced by people of African descent all over the world. By collecting historical stories and cosmological narratives, Ja’Tovia Gary aims to explore the intersection of spirituality, culture, and history within the African diaspora, adding depth and nuance to her ongoing exploration of identity and memory.
Karina Aguilera Skvirsky
Video
USA
Multidisciplinary artist Karina Aguilera Skvirsky explores themes such as abstraction, politics, feminism, and the complexities of identity. With a background in photography, her practice has expanded into video installations and live performances. Her work includes the projects “Sacred Geometry”, with hand-cut photographic collages, and “How to Build a Wall and Other Ruins”, a multi-channel video installation accompanied by a live performance. Karina Aguilera Skvirsky’s artistic efforts often challenge conventional narratives, revealing the subjectivities of history and truth, and drawing attention to marginalized perspectives.
At Sacatar, she plans to develop “The Afterlife”, a video installation that examines the sculpture “The Four Destinies of Man: Death; Soul in Hell; Soul in Purgatory; Soul in Heaven” (Manuel Chili, ca. 1775). This project investigates the history of these sculptures’ acquisition, now kept in the collection of The Hispanic Society of America. It juxtaposes interviews with performance enactments of each of the four states represented in the work. The artist seeks to question perceptions of history and truth while shedding light on the complexities of cultural heritage and identity.
Safira Moreira
Cinema
Brazil
Safira Moreira is a filmmaker and visual artist from Salvador, Bahia who is currently focused on completing her documentary “Cais.” This feature film is based on her personal journey, following the the loss of her mother. The film documents Safira and her 9-month-old son, Amani, as they travel along the Paraguaçu River, exploring Afro-diasporic communities and spiritual manifestations in the Chapada Diamantina region. “Cais” has been awarded grants from Rumos Itaú Cultural and the Avon Women of Audiovisual Fund, and has already taken part in laboratories and market events in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Spain. With an approach that values the voices of Black women and collective memory, Safira seeks to create a mapping between the past and present, the visible and the invisible.
Safira Moreira has degrees in Cinema from the Darcy Ribeiro Film School and in Visual Arts from Parque Lage (RJ). She has directed several short documentaries and award-winning series and has worked as a scriptwriter on productions shown on Rede Globo and Canal Brasil. Her focus on the representation of Black people and the politics of memory permeates all her work, using words and images to explore themes such as ancestry, mourning, and identity.
Stephanie Sauer
Literature
USA
Stephanie Sauer, a writer, interdisciplinary artist, and editor, plans to develop a collection of lyrical and visual-verbal essays entitled “Tailings” during her residency at Sacatar. Arising from experiences in a traditional mining community, Sauer’s project investigates the intersections of oral histories, mythology, mineralogy, and mining practices, exploring themes of ecological and social violence, as well as attempts at reclamation and regeneration. Employing playful prose and visual games, she aims to challenge dominant narratives around the legacies of mining, drawing connections between global mining cultures to envision shared human futures beyond extraction. At Sacatar, her project will draw parallels between gold mining in Northern California and diamond mining in the Chapada Diamantina region.
Sauer’s previous works, including “Almonds are Members of the Peach Family” and “The Accidental Archives of the Royal Chicano Air Force”, blend art and literature, and have received awards and critical acclaim. As a professor in Stetson University’s Master of Visual Arts in the Americas program, she is deeply engaged in promoting creativity and critical thinking.
Tobias Sköld
Dance
Sweden
Tobias Sköld is a Swedish artist who specializes in performing arts, dance, and film. Sköld graduated in Dance and Choreography from the Danish National School of Performing Arts in 2019. Since then, he has lived in Stockholm and has been freelancing as a dancer for Swedish, Danish and American choreographers. Alongside his performing career, Tobias develops his own projects in dance, performance, and film. His creative process involves the in-depth exploration of specific themes, such as character traits and specific qualities of movement, with an emphasis on the centrality of the body. His creations manifest themselves in live or video performances.
For his residency at Sacatar, Tobias arrives with an open-ended project, seeking to explore dance, performance, and film.
