From the Sacred to the Spectacular: Performance of Diasporic Consciousness Through Visual Representations in Brazilian Candomblé

Candomblé is the appellation given to a Brazilian religion originating in the north-eastern state of Bahia, Brazil. Its principles and ritual practices were brought to Brazil by African slaves from the 16th Century. Candomblé was historically discriminated against, criminalized, demonized and persecuted. It however persevered with resolute vivacity, so much so that in the 20th Century, it began to acquire some valorisation by Brazilian ideologists as a cultural treasure that could aid the Brazilian nationalist agenda.

My project traces the ways in which mobility of artefacts enforce a continued impression of diasporic consciousness on the one hand and how on the other, visual representations have supported the creation of a symbolic cultural identity of Brazil.

The project emphasises on parallel, yet antipodal developments stemming from visual representations of the practice of Candomblé, while investigating the liminal spaces between esoteric and exoteric enactments of a once threatened homogenous people and cult.