Radiografía brasileira
Artist name
Artist year born
1947
Artwork make date
1996
Artwork title translation
Brazilian X-ray
Artwork material
found objects
Artwork dimensions
Dimensions: variable
Artwork type (categories)
Installation
Accession method
Donated by Charles Cosac 1996
Accession number
42-1996
Label text
Radiografia Brasileira is one of a number of installations that Siron Franco has created as an immediate response to a specific event. In this case it was the murder, in 1996, of a number of members of Brazil's Movimento Sem Terra (Landless Movement). The ragged clothes of three people (a man, a woman, a child) are arranged on rough, felt blankets. These empty clothes are overlaid with x-ray images, invoking the physicality of the now dead Movimento Sem Terra (MST) members. As a Brazilian X-ray, this installation also offers a metaphorical exposure of the repression imposed on the MST. Franco wanted to draw attention to this issue in general and to the murder in particular. He did so during the central London launch of a monograph on his work, placing Radiografia Brasileira in the street outside the Atrium bookshop in Cork Street. The impact was widespread and effective. Globo, Brazil's largest TV channel transmitted a report on the installation that same day. As well as using installation to respond swiftly and directly to events, Franco uses the more drawn out process of painting to commit incidents of grave injustice to wider memory.
Joanne Harwood
Joanne Harwood
Last updated date
2008