Vandria Borari, Brazilian artist and activist from the Borari people, will be artist-in-residence during CULTURESCAPES 2021 Amazonia in partnership with Atelier Mondial (Basel) and LabVerde (Manaus, Brazil). She will be working in Basel from 10 August to 31 October.
Vandria Borari (Vandria Garcia Correa) is a ceramist artist from the Borari people of Baixo Tapajós, Pará, Brazil. She is also a communicator and activist for the rights of indigenous people. She is also a first Indigenous lawyer from her region, holding a degree from the Federal University of Western Pará.
Vandria works as a producer and cultural manager that organizes exhibitions and cultural spaces in the village of Alter do Chão, Pará, such as Mutak - Mukameẽsawa Tapajowara Kitiwara (Indigenous art Exhibition of the Lower Tapajó) and the indigenous Culture Space Wasú.
Vandria grew up watching her grandmother make vases and pots. Over the years, she also started to claim her own indigenous identity through clay. Tapajônica pottery that is found by archaeologists throughout the Lower Tapajós River region and dating back to 11’000 years, serves as a document to prove the existence of Indigenous peoples in a territory full of disputes and agrarian conflicts.
The Borari Indigenous Territory is not yet demarcated and the Borari ceramics found in the soils of Alter do Chão is a testament to the resilience of Indigenous families against the land grabbing.
During her residency, Vandia plans to combine research in contemporary European ceramic technics, sharing her knowledge of ancestral pottery, and speaking about human rights and activism in the Amazon.
“People without culture are not people. Our culture unites us and maintains our harmony with our territory. On top of that, we want to preserve the culture for which our ancestors resisted all these horrible types of violence. Our culture is different because we depend on the forest. We are part of the forest. Because we believe we are nature, we believe that, if we destroy nature, we are destroying ourselves. Our culture is all about being in harmony with our lands,” says Vandria.
For more details, here's a Q&A with Vandria Borari.
