Image and ancestrality: a mithic-ritual creation

Abstract

The following Project discusses and analyses the ancestral African matrixes present in photographical images taken of the mythical and ritual universe of African-Brazilian cults, such as Candomble. It proposes, thus, a reconnection between the contemporary myth and the ancestral myth, evidenced by photographic work. I intend to discuss the construction of the visual printed in the social-cultural manifestation and in the artistic creation, by two strategies: the mapping and analysis of the imagery produced on the theme, and a photographic installation- the experimental result of the reflections on the issue of the African dispersion in Brazil and the maintenance of ancestry, seminal elements for the discussion of ancestor matrixes, formers of the Brazilian cultural identity. This is about defending the thesis that there is a dialogue between the ontology of the photographic image and the social imaginary, with which it interacts and expresses itself. The objective here is to comprehend the introduction of this imaginary in the Brazilian context, considering the possibilities of image as an agent of themes in national culture. For the development of the project, I will use an interdisciplinary theoretical basis which comprehends the photographic theory and critic in the conceptualization of themes proper of contemporary image and the issues relative to the African dispersion, the African Brazilian traditions and the religious cults of African matrix, theme dealt with by disciplines such as anthropology and sociology.To accomplish this, the following chapters will be elaborated:CHAPTER 01- BODIES INSCRIBED IN THE MYTHS, MYTHS INSCRIBED IN BODIES: This chapter discusses the appropriation of the body in African-Brazilian mythology as one of the providing matrixes of visual. The body as a recipient of the mythical-ritual world is a reality reconstructed in the process of initiation. With it, identity and ancestry are reviewed. In this body are the inscriptions necessary to the propagation of ecstasy, allowing the revelation of the photographic continuum and creator of visuals. This chapter prepares the pre-assumptions of the research, discussing the state of the art of the object of research. It proposes a study of African ancestry, in the context of the tradition of the African-Brazilian religious cults, having as a central thematic the ancestral matrixes- elements responsible for the maintenance and exploitation of the myths and rites in this culture. Among the topics for reflection are: the poetry of the trance, the symbolic body, the esthetic relations of the ritual object, the archetypical statute, the feast, the sacred spaces, all having in the body their material representation, decisive for the comprehension of the ancestral African matrixes. CHAPTER 02- RELIGARE: ANCESTRY AND THE PROCESS OF CREATION: This chapter discusses the circulation of image reality, visiting the main authors-photographers. Amongst them: the tradition in Pierre Verger; José Medeiros, between the sacred and the profane; the visual project of Mário Cravo Neto; the negro brotherhoods of Adenor Gondim; Bauer Sá and the production in studio; André Villaron and incantations; Pedro Archanjo and the universe of Bahia; Orixas-characters of Aristides Neves.CHAPTER 03- THE AGENCY OF IMAGERY: This chapter presents the critical terrain of the African dispersion, in the cultural context of ancestral matrixes. It considers that it is in the materiality of objects and gestures that the rites and myths are expressed in this culture; the images as representation and above all, interpretation. The proposal here is to discuss the photographic image as a ritual process, the ethnography of the look and the construction of visual, by means of the study of documented and/or authorial work in the social elaboration of the sacred.The result of these reflections will be a photographical installation with interactive resources.