On October 15, the exhibition Reler Debret (Rereading Debret) opened in the Museu Castro Maya – Chácara do Céu, in Rio de Janeiro. Museu Castro Maya has one of the largest collections of original prints and paintings by Jean-Baptiste Debret, a French painter who spent decades depicting the first stages of independence in Brazil in the early 19th century. Debret’s prints about Brazilian urban everyday life, especially in Rio de Janeiro, and also in his travel diaries of trips in the entire Brazilian territory have been widely influential in the Brazilian imagination of its colonial past.
The most famous compendium of his works was Voyage Pittoresque et Historique au Brésil, published in Paris in the 1830s and was created for the European public. The book was never a success and fell into oblivion until it was unearthed by his descendants one century later. Debret has since been considered one of the most important European artists to have depicted Brazilian colonial life, stirring debates about whether his depictions represent a romanticization of colonial life or a critical eye onto a slave society.
Nevertheless, in recent years, Debret’s archives have received much attention from Brazilian contemporary artists, including ourselves in a series of photo montages where we highlight the presence of Black mothers in his compositions.
At Museu Castro Maya, curator Anna Paola Baptista selected our rereadings of Debret from the series Ways of Seeing where we intervene in the images with objects from Afro-Brazilian religions and other elements.
Download the exhibition catalogue here.
Also in the exhibition are artists Denilson Baniwa, Herberth Sobral, and Valerio Ricci Montana.