Brazil: Knife in the Flesh

Published to accompany a show at PAC in Milan, which explores other continents through collective shows of contemporary art: this summer Brazil will be in the spotlight.

Knife in the Flesh (Navalha na Carne) is the title of a play by Brazilian writer Plinio Marcos, particularly active during the years of the Brazilian military regime. Thus, from its very title, this project declares itself to be in conflict. By means of installations, photographs, videos and performances, several of the artists invited to the PAC make reference to this conflict - which has no beginning, much less an end, is hard to sum up in words and rarely translates into physical fights or battles. A social - and above all symbolic - conflict, then, rather than a military one.

Gathering together a series of works created in Brazil over the past forty years, this book shatters conventions and stereotypes without, however, setting out to draw a portrait of the country or its artistic scene, reflecting instead on their inherent conflict: the fights and violence, the political, social, racial, ecological and cultural abuse. A direct language that appears naive, whilst actually pregnant with meaning as it tells of broken dreams and disappointed hopes, but also of a people capable of keeping their incredible optimism and trust in the future.