Resurgence

Upwelling is a phenomenon that occurs in the oceans, where cold, deep waters rise to the surface. These waters are rich in nutrients, and several factors influence the process. The one most commonly associated with it is the presence of winds. As winds encounter the sea, they cause water movement, and Cabo Frio experiences this phenomenon along its coast seasonally, between spring and summer.
Memory, like deep waters, emerges from the will to remember, from the refusal to forget, from the desire to be understood, to be named. Yet sometimes there are attempts to suppress certain memories, which for some reason—or by choice—try to be erased.
Evoking memory consists of activating the questions submerged over time, whether geological or human (here also understood as political and cultural time in a world of destruction). The isolation caused by the ground or by time did not prevent the breath. The artistic and social activity of a coastal and inland city makes us reflect on the dimensions of belonging. To nourish oneself from what is re-signified. It is necessary to let the boat go to sea. To row so the boat does not sink. To be a school, not a fish out of water. To dive again into the ocean of things. New air, new winds.
— Beatriz Pedrosa

Producing art in the Região dos Lagos is like being in deep waters. There is a darkness in the social environment that prevents it from becoming fertile. Artistic activity needs a surface illuminated environment so that everyone can access it and experience renewal. Artistic work is neither diminished nor enlarged when compared to any other labor, but not all workers—even artists—occupy the shallow waters of their oceans.
Engaging in art as a means of expression, and often as a means of survival, is a revolutionary act. Struggling in deep waters, producing inquietudes and dissonances; transferring and transforming emotions so that we may, as individuals and society, finally emerge from the depths re-signifying ourselves, marked by the internal transformations of artistic activity and the impact that art proposes.
I invite all observers to experience what a collective of artists can produce in times of upwelling and affectivity, through artistic subversion, pathways of retreat into the contemporary.
— Rapha Ferreira