Prefix “Re-”
1. “Repetition”: to reaffirm.
2. “Retreat”: to withdraw.
3. “Opposite direction”: to react.
Adjective “Retinto”
Of a deep, very dark color.
We observe a São Paulo increasingly marked by migration issues and the parallel realities that permeate our daily lives. For years, I have strived to translate immigration and transitional spaces, whose occupants, regardless of their origins, are constantly on the move, leaving traces of a collective memory in transformation, or ethnic symbolisms of a seemingly bygone era. These are people whose goal often lies in an undefined destiny, conditioned by urban occupations, stemming from their own exodus, in search of a better life.
Immigrants of African origin occupy dozens of buildings in Latin America’s largest metropolis. In a place where precarity is a constant, countless dark stories intertwine in this exclusion zone of the city center. These are abandoned buildings, forgotten by real estate developers and the government, and now occupied by those who would otherwise have nowhere to live.
Re-Tinto (deep color) is the undeniable presence of those who inhabit the border of exclusion, the fine line between existence and oblivion. It is the color that asserts itself, that does not fade. The shadows of a diaspora forever present, of a history that cannot be erased, forgotten, or deported. A testament to the enduring presence of a people marked by the repetition and erasure of their own history, beneath the walls of a city that perpetuates the cycles of exclusion.
Instagram: @gustavogusmao__
