Indigenous presence and imagery in public art in Espírito Santo cities

Abstract

Some aspects of public art in the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil, are presented, seen from the modes of representation and presence of the ethnic-racial imaginary in the urban ecosystem. We will deal with the figure of the original peoples of Brazil, the indigenous peoples, starting from an imagery inventory carried out in the 78 cities of the state. It is considered that urban monuments are directly related to the social memory and collective identity of a society, with this premise, there is little representation of the original peoples in public sculpture in Espírito Santo. It identifies how the indigenous figure is represented, highlighting two trends: a whitening of the figure, with body patterns typical of classical European-based sculpture; on the other hand, stereotyped representations of these original peoples. In contrast, we will highlight the only work in which the physical representation of the work tries to be effective from a formal presence with a strong ethnic-racial focus.