Museums uniting a divided world: a mediated conversation

Xadalu Tupã Jekupé is a mixed-race artist who uses elements of screen printing, painting, photography and objects to address the tension between indigenous and Western culture in cities in the form of urban art. His work, the result of experiences in villages and conversations with wise men around the campfire, became one of the most powerful resources of visual arts against the erasure of indigenous culture in Rio Grande do Sul. Dialogue and integration with the Guarani community Mbyá allowed the artist to rescue and recognize his own ancestry. Xadalu has an origin linked to the indigenous people who historically inhabited the banks of the Ibirapuitã River. The waters that bathed his childhood carry the story of Guaranis Mbyá, Charruas, Minuanos, Jaros and Mbones — as well as the artist's great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents. The work made for the Collectors Club features an indigenous head, like those carved on the base of the Porto Alegre cathedral, which symbolize the dominance of Christianity over indigenous culture and the extermination of original peoples. In Guarani, the artist writes “There is a city above us”, in a clear allusion to the buried indigenous territory and the archaeological remains found in the region.