Talk – Vilanismo – South–South Dialogues – Africa–Africas: provocations, conjurings, and confabulations between Vilanismo and Link’ArtÁfricas

On November 8, the conversation South–South Dialogues – Africa–Africas: provocations, conjurings, and confabulations between Vilanismo and Link’ArtÁfricas will take place. The discussion features Denise Barros and Mahfouz Ag Adnane, from Link’ArtÁfricas; Denis Moreira and Ramo, from Vilanismo; and will be mediated by Flávio Nogueira, also from Link’ArtÁfricas. The event will run from 3 pm to 5 pm at the Invocations space, 2nd floor.

The encounters Africa–Africas: provocations, conjurings, and confabulations between Vilanismo and Link’ArtÁfricas aim to examine the relationships between art and academia, practice and theory, bringing together artists, researchers, and collectives that operate within this field of intersection. The first meeting, titled “What Are the Africas Today? Practices and Thoughts Between Art and Research,” opens the cycle and proposes a discussion on how “Africa” is conceived and represented across contexts—from Brazil to Angola—spanning both academic and artistic spaces. The goal is to establish a space for dialogue that allows for new questions and perspectives on the relations between artistic production, knowledge, and research.

Link’ArtÁfricas (initiated in 2023) is a research group focused on artistic creations, engagements, and thought in African contexts from the 1980s to the present. It brings together members from various Brazilian and African universities, based in São Paulo and funded by FAPESP. The group conducts both individual and collective studies, proposing a heuristic methodology that connects authorship, creation, context, and transdisciplinary understanding. This approach is grounded in theoretical and bibliographic research, supplemented by seminars, case studies, fieldwork, and dialogued interaction with artists, curators, historians, and cultural activists. Systematic reflection is combined with the differential construction of data to weave relationships between artistic expressions as thought on the aesthetics of plasticity.

Denise Dias Barros holds a PhD in Sociology from USP and a postdoctoral degree from the Laboratoire systèmes de pensée en Afrique noire (École Pratique des Hautes Études, CNRS). She was a resident researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Nantes (2008, 2009) and has extensive research on cultural practices, migration, and expressive processes in North and West African contexts. She is currently the principal investigator of the FAPESP Thematic Project Link’ArtÁfricas at USP and a faculty member of the Interunit Graduate Program in Aesthetics and Art History at the same university. She is also a founding researcher of Casa das Áfricas (Núcleo Amanar).

Flávio Nogueira is a PhD candidate in the Interunit Graduate Program in Aesthetics and Art History at the University of São Paulo (USP), where he also earned his master’s degree in 2024. During his master’s studies, he was a FAPESP fellow, conducting field research in Cape Town (South Africa) and Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), focusing on curatorships, visual productions, and artistic practices related to contemporary African poetics. He is a researcher with the FAPESP Thematic Project Link’ArtÁfricas.

Mahfouz Ag Adnane holds a degree in History (Al-Azhar University), two master’s degrees in History (PUC-SP and Cairo University), and a PhD in History from PUC-SP (2019). He is a visiting professor in the Department of Art History at UNIFESP, a researcher at Casa das Áfricas – Núcleo Amanar, and a member of the FAPESP Thematic Project on arts in African contexts. His research focuses on Saharan cultures and artistic expressions, emphasizing contemporary African history, festivals, visual arts, music, and resistance. He also participates in studies on the São Paulo Bienal and the art scene of Marrakech.

Vilanismo (founded in 2021, São Paulo) is a collective of twelve Black men dedicated to creating spaces of resistance and affirmation within the art circuit. The group values ancestral knowledge, Afro-Indigenous experiences, and collective creation, prioritizing autonomy and sustainable practices. In their work, they reject stereotypes and historical fetishes imposed on Black bodies, subverting normative expectations and celebrating cultural abundance. Vilanismo has participated in events such as Baile do Vilanismo (Edifício Misericórdia, São Paulo) and the conversation-performance Black Masculinities (Instituto Moreira Salles, São Paulo). Current members include Diego Crux, Ramo, Renan Teles, Carinhoso, Guto Oca, Rodrigo Zaim, Rafa Black, Robson Marques, Denis Moreira, and Daniel Ramos.

This participation is supported by The Order of New Arts.

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Talk – Vilanismo – South-South Dialogues – Africa-Africas: provocations, conspiracies, and collusions between Vilanismo and Link’ArtÁfricas
36th Bienal de São Paulo – Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice
October 18, 2025
Sat, 3 pm
Invocations space, 2nd Floor
Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo
Parque Ibirapuera, Gate 3
Av. Pedro Álvares Cabral, s/n
São Paulo, SP
free admission