Dja guata porã is a saying in the Guarani language that means “walk well” and “walk together.” It is also the title of an exhibition held at the Rio Art Museum between May 2017 and March 2018.
Dedicated to the presence of indigenous people in the Rio de Janeiro state, the exhibition further developed the Museum’s agenda of shedding light on local history and culture from a multiple and contemporary perspective. However, more than that, it attempted to distend and expand the position from which the Museum builds its vision.
The exhibition was conceived based on a series of visits and open meetings, which sought to establish public dialogues and engage representatives from local indigenous villages (among which Guarani, Pataxó and Puri, in addition to the multiethnic community of Aldeia Maracanã) in the construction of their own narratives.
Aligned with the mission of new museology, this collective curatorial process demonstrates how efforts to unsettle the museum must go beyond challenging stereotypical constructions of the other and their cultures. It is also necessary to open institutional devices to conflict and alterity, thereby transforming the very structures of museological work.
Dja Guata Porã is here shown in the perspective of other projects coordinated by curator Clarissa Diniz that play with the permeability of institutional collections and the kinds of histories and subjects they seek to produce.
