MEMORY, LANDSCAPE, RUINS – INTERVIEW WITH ROYAL HELDILENE

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When Tomas told me that one of the interviews we were going to do for #brazilianart would be with artist and curator Heldilene Reale, I was so excited, partly because I never imagined that I would be able to introduce this little project of ours to someone so prominent in the Brazilian art scene. I spent days thinking about what I could ask her and whether I would be up to talking about her work.

When the day of the interview arrived, her outburst was, "I've never been so excited to do an interview!"

But how? She excited to talk to us? A double excitement for me to hear those words and great excitement to realize that what we are creating with this research has an important and significant impact

But who is Heldilene Reale?

An independent curator at Espaço Cultural Candeeiro, in Belém do Pará, a teacher and artist, she often brings to her work that not-quite-sewn connection to her family and roots.

The daughter of her father's second marriage, she never had the opportunity to get in touch with the affections of her father's family of origin and always grew up with the idea and curiosity to know that unlived past, so much so that she set up a continuous research on this missed memory that reverberates in her life generating curiosity and duty of knowledge.

A studious person and deeply ordered in her work, she tends to dive totally into her projects, thoroughly researching the details.

With a degree in visual arts, specializing in language, communication and culture, she only managed to get in touch with the deeper part of her art during her doctorate, when she began to understand how the experiences and techniques she was using could be connected to her lived experience, the issues related to memory, ruins, landscapes and displacements.

 

The project "Tessituras"

Heldilene in her career has curated many projects and produced many works, but the one she is particularly attached to and that like a river, connects all her production is Tessituras, a project that tells about her, about her childhood in Faro (her father's hometown, between Pará and Amazonas), and where she returned after many years in search of her memories.

Her search begins with the realization that she was for part of her childhood a simple city child, and then moved to Faro, thereby totally changing her landscape and worldview. The period in that town was not easy, and it left her with many inner ruins that were reflected in her early works, almost all of which were marked by the color red.

When her father passed away, already an adult, Heldilene rediscovered a photograph of her paternal grandmother, of Italian origin, whom she had never met, and decided, therefore, to reconstruct that blurred memory by returning to Faro, in a deep journey between the river that connects the paths to get there.

The journey is a performance of life lived but with the gaze no longer of that little girl locked in a cabin on the ship, but as a woman disguised as a traveler, searching for answers.

Along the way she meets many people willing to share their memories of the time when she and her family also lived on Faro, thus managing to connect the dots and reconstruct her own memory.

From this experience, Heldilene draws a video narrative from it, exhibited for the very first time for the people of Faro, in an effort almost to re-edify those memories that have remained in the dark for so long.

His seeking, however, is perennial and ever-evolving, it is those projects based on memories that remain there and over time are built up point by point. And who knows if Italy might become another destination to reach?

Brazilian contemporary art today

When I interview curators like Heldilene, in addition to curiosity about the work she does, I always ask what Brazilian contemporary art is and where this art is at right now.

Heldilene's answer is precise: "Brazilian art has been written for a long time in different ways by the Brazilian people themselves, and only today are we finding this art again, partly because the fundamental question to ask is "what is Brazilian art?" Is it an art really created in Brazil? Is it an art conceived in Brazil even after colonization?

Currently, movements are being created that bring to light not only the aesthetic part but also the ethical part of art, because before the protagonists of art were seen only as mere actors and now, through these movements we are rediscovering even within the places of art (galleries and museums) the protagonism of the artist himself, who makes himself the focal point of his own production. Through this way of seeing art, only now are we able to rewrite Brazilian contemporary art."

I think there is no more valid answer than this, perhaps Brazilian art was seen as locked up in its boundaries because it was yet to be discovered. Only now, through art movements that no longer put only the aesthetic side but also the ethical side in the spotlight is Brazilian contemporary art transforming and recreating itself to be ready one day to come out of its borders.

I deeply thank Heldilene for the time she gave us, for making us actually discover her world and for the memories she rekindled in us as well.

To learn a little bit more about her work not only in artistic research but also in curating you can visit her website.
 

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