The Tyranny of Distance
Daniel Frota, Department of Historical Unfutures, 2018
Workshop with students at ESBA TALM, Angers
"Sébastien: So next perhaps we should describe the project of Daniel Frota, who is also a participant in Art by Translation and is coming from Brazil. Daniel is giving a workshop with the students about the colonial history of Brazil in relation to France. Daniel’s work references the event of an Indigenous Amerindian chief from the land now called Brasil, when he made the first ambassadorial journey to France. On that journey the chief gave a speech to the King, which was the first instance when his oral language was transcribed.
Anna: Daniel is very interested in the power relations that are concealed by academic language and the pose of objectivity. In working with the students, Daniel is taking advantage of the academic setting to work on building timelines that look critically at other types of distance to historical material and the apparently objective position of a researcher. What will be shown will be the result of this workshop and will develop over the course of the show."
This text is an excerpt from the performance The Infiltration by Joshua Schwebel whose project was to infiltrate the curators’ position in the exhibition. Read more