são paulo imperial: escravidão, cativeiros, monumentos e apagamentos históricos (slavery, captivity, monuments and historical erasures), 2017
drawing made with white pemba (chalk used in rituals of Umbanda) and dermatographic pencil on black cotton, plywood plate engraved in laser and map of the central region of the city of São Paulo
photos Igor Vidor

In Brazil, May 24 is dedicated to the celebration of the National Coffee Day. From Africa, coffee was introduced in Brazil around 1720 in the province of Pará by Francisco de Mello Palheta. However, it was only after almost a century that coffee became an item of great importance for the Brazilian economy and society, and it became a central element in the construction of the country's history.

Borrowing this date as a research index, the work "São Paulo Imperial: slavery, captives, monuments and historical erasures" consists of an iconographic survey of the presence of slavery in the center of the city of São Paulo, and seeks to reflect how the erasure / demolition of spaces for torture, violence and murder of enslaved bodies in the central region of the city of São Paulo served to construct the myth of racial democracy and miscegenation, which to this day prevail as elements of the "socialization" of the Brazilian people.