“‘The Man Who Knew Javanese’ has an element of ‘fake it till you make it,’ that knack we call in Portuguese 'jeitinho'. The idea of him not speaking Javanese but learning a few words, in part through affection and trickery, making a life for himself by deceiving a hopeless man—while, at the same time, generating hope for him—is comical and makes the villain into a hero. The parrot Zé Carioca, a Brazilian cartoon created for Disney, also repeats words without knowing what he’s saying, with several economic and bellicose factors in the backdrop—namely, World War II. There are several curtains hiding behind this parrot who repeats words without knowing what he’s saying, but he’s charismatic—he pretends he speaks.”

DANIEL LANNES

“It’s brilliant how Lima Barreto reveals and superimposes the layers and layers of racism that continue to structure our society today. Therein lies the relevance of ‘Gabriela’s Son.’ I started with the palindrome ama. By mirroring the word, I was able to create a kind of structural grid that overflows the margins of the page. This grid is adorned by words and phrases from passages I find important as the story unfolds. They take on a yellow color that stands in contrast to the black or mixes into the black, white and red. There’s no right-side up, no one angle from which to view the poster. This shuffling of views, of reading, is intentional. To bring out the complexity of the nanny figure is to translate this structure that created and creates, that ordered and orders, that breastfed and breastfeeds Brazil.”

IGOR VIDOR

“While creating this work, I often visualized the sunset from the point of view of someone looking at the sea, at that moment of bidding farewell to the day. Something that was leaving, but with the hope that the next day would be better. That was the feeling I had while reading the short story ‘The Slave.’ Later, I started thinking about labor relations today, which are not all that different than they used to be. No wonder so many people say we are now living a different kind of slavery. And so I opted for something more metaphorical: the subject’s own tears make the sea that I observed. And his back is turned to the sunset. It’s the feeling of melancholy held by the subject, who doesn’t know where he is. It’s the pain that kills him. That’s what I was thinking about when making this work.”

MARLON AMARO