UMBRA NATURAL: Cássio Vasconcellos and Daniel Mattar | Curator Ângela Berlinde

Cássio Vasconcellos brings the series "Viagem Pitoresca Pelo Brasil" (Picturesque Journey Through Brazil) based on the true story of the artistic and scientific expeditions that took place in Brazil during the 19th century, in which art and science joined forces in the mission to map Brazilian territory and show it to the old world. As a result, Brazil became one of the few countries in the Americas to have such a rich and instigating record, sometimes represented as a paradise, sometimes beautiful and fascinating, sometimes fearful and sublime. Advocating for a new photographic lexicon, Vasconcellos challenges photography as a document and makes each image the key to another image, revealing the exuberant tropical beauty and the fragility of the virgin forest. In this way, while paying homage to his great-great-grandfather, the botanist Ludwig Riedel, who was part of the Langsdorff expedition (1825), the photographer embarks on an archaeological adventure in search of answers about the ideas of reality, photography, self-creation, and truth, exploring camouflage in all its layers. "Truth is its gift to deceive", as Caetano Veloso says, and in the face of its delight, we can only pretend to believe it to postpone the world's imminent end.