Ana Hupe

Fire, Faísca, Funke, 2019

Exhibition by Ana Hupe, Marina Camargo, Barbara Marcel.
At Mario Kreuzberg Gallery, Berlin (25.May – 16.June).
Project funded by Bezirksamt Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Berlin.

The works by Ana Hupe for this show are guided, on the one hand, by socialist sentences found in the streets of Havana, Cuba, during one month of residency at Artista x Artista and, on the other hand, by elements of Santería. The priestess of Yemayá, Raiza Morenas Cruz, told stories and shared knowledges of santería religion.

Pictures by © Marina Camargo

Brillamos con luz propia // We shine with our own light, 2019

Raffia (palha de santo), metal ring;
green led lamps and eletronic circuit in wooden box:
01 Photograph 15x 23 cm digital pigment print on Hahnemühle pearl paper

(One the right: Forest Flame by Barbara Marcel)

Bananas para o rei // Bananas to the king, 2019

Printed text on 30 x 50cm wood;
02 metal triangles;
02 shells;
02 C.U.C coins;
02 imperial palm tree seeds;
01 Photograph 15x 23 cm digital pigment print on Hahnemühle pearl paper

In Havana, I found some bananas hanging on an elegant, huge imperial palm tree, tied with a red node. It was when I discovered that besides being the symbol of Cuban Constitution, printed in the back of some C.U.C. coins, the Imperial Palm Tree is also the tree of Sango (Written Changô in Cuba, and Xangô in Brazil). And Sango, the King of justice, likes bananas.The status symbol of the imperial palm tree was also spread during colonial times in Brazil. The King John VI of Portugal planted the first one in the Botanical Gardens of Rio de Janeiro and forbid the selling of the seeds. But Sango made his intervention: at night, enslaved people would climb the tall trunks and steal the seeds, which they would sell next. Bit by bit, seeds were transformed into coins, used to buy their freedoms.

Traje de gala // Gala dress
(To Yemayá)

Seven flags;
02 black lights;
01 photograph of Santera Raiza Morenas Cruz,15x 23 cm digital pigment print on Hahnemühle pearl paper

The Priestess of Yemayá, Raiza Morenas Cruz, told me about the ritual of wearing a gala dress when the Ìyàwó, person who is going through the process of initiation in Santería, is presented to the drums, the reborn moment. After that, the dress should only be worn again by the time of death. The mystery of the sacred gala dress, always hidden, as if living in the abysm of the oceans, inspired the flags with the seven elements of Yemayá, which navigate under the black light. In the abysm is where the bioluminescent beings live.

Maniok reibe ich dir, Schwesterchen, 2015-19

BARBARA MARCEL + ANA HUPE | 2-Channel Video Installation
Pará-BR / Germany, HD-Video, Sound, 13min + 43min
(Stills by Barbara Marcel).

The video gathers images and interviews with local Amazon women activists and herbalists, filmed by Barbara Marcel and Ana Hupe in Santarém, Alter do Chão and in the community of Anã between 2013 and 2017. The second channel brings fragments of the first film ever shot in the Amazonian forest, No Paiz das Amazonas (1922), merged with images of present-day soy monocultures and local politicians discussing town planning. The surviving ancestral indigenous process of manufacturing manioc flour is also juxtaposed with an old recording of Macushi indigenous people singing a women’s labour song recorded by the German naturalist Theodor Koch-Grünberg between 1911 and 1913 during a trip to the Brazilian and Venezuelan Amazon. Mixing the sound material contained in the Köch-Grünberg wax rolls with contemporary images demonstrating the survival of indigenous technology in the production of manioc flour in caboclo communities in the Amazon region, the artists experiment with the possibilities of productive shocks between past and present, and challenge viewers to listen to the Phonographic Archive of Berlin-Dahlem Museum in a decolonial way.

Film Credits (Technische Angaben)
Interviews
Luciene Santos | Activist and Herbalist at GECEM- Casa de Chico Mendes, PA-BR)
Izilda Godinho aka Piquixita | Herbalist from the Community of Anã, in the Extractive Reserve of Tapajós-Arapiuns, PA-BR
Claudete Munduruku | Defender of the Munduruku indigenous rights and teacher at Aldeia Sauré, Itaituba, PA-BR

Images
Barbara Marcel and Ana Hupe

Editing
Barbara Marcel

Soundtrack
ContraNatura (2015) by Thelmo Cristovam
Walzenaufnahmen aus Brasilien (1911-1913). Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv Series Historische Klangdokumente – 3. Arbeitsgesänge - Gesang Beim Maniokreiben, Gruppe Makuschí

Additional Images
No Paiz das Amazonas (In the land of the Amazon, Manaus, 1922), a film by Agesilau De Araujo and Silvino Santos.
Der Edison-Phonograph, by UnterbergerMedien, 2014. Auftraggeber: Helbling Verlagsgesellschaft mbH Produzent: M&P Unterberger KG. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4koqcfAzSCQ
National Museum: the neglect of history, Tv Brasil. September 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPp1oR6JrPg

Ass. of Finalization
Alice Dalgalarrondo

Transcripts and subtitles
Paulina Hupe

Special Thanks to
Marty Hiatt, Kandyê Medina, Fabio Ribeiro, Hugus Félix, Project Saúde e Alegria, Thais Helena Medeiros, Caetano Scannavino, CEFA – Centro Experimental Floresta Ativa, Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation – ICMBio, Casa Bicho, MUSA, Mulheres Sonhadoras de Anã, Rodrigo Lopes, Marisa Mello, Luciene Santos, Izilda Godinho aka Piquixita, Claudete Munduruku, Alice Alfano.

Most of the video footage was taken during a residence of artist Barbara Marcel at Casa Bicho, Alter do Chão in December 2017.