Abaporu (2010) ALEXANDRE MURY --- Abaporu is a performative photograph created by Alexandre Mury in 2010, conceived in dialogue with the homonymous painting by Tarsila do Amaral from 1928. Integrating photography, performance, and self- representation, the work revisits one of the most emblematic images of Brazilian art through a contemporary language, displacing it from the field of painting to that of bodily experience, photography, and critical reflection on the circulation of images in culture. In the photograph, the artist presents himself in a performative self- portrait, establishing a direct relationship with the figure represented in Tarsila's original work. Rather than literally reproducing its formal elements, the work operates through approximations, differences, and displacements, preserving recognizable references while introducing new questions related to identity, cultural memory, appropriation art, visual citation, intertextuality, imagetic disappropriation, and the updating of visual repertoires in Brazilian art. Produced at the beginning of the 21st century, the work is situated within the context of contemporary photography and post-conceptual art, dialoguing simultaneously with the modernist tradition and with current debates on authorship, reproduction, representation, and the symbolic construction of cultural heritage. Its elaboration stems from the understanding that historical images remain active in the collective imagination and can be continuously reinterpreted by new agents, languages, and contexts. Over its trajectory, Abaporu has been incorporated into important Brazilian institutional collections, including the Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, held by the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro, and the Paula and Silvio Frota Collection, at the Museum of Photography Fortaleza. The work is also registered in public documentation and cataloging systems, constituting a set of references that contribute to its preservation, study, and circulation. More than a reinterpretation of a famous image, Abaporu investigates the ways in which works of art traverse time, are reinterpreted by different generations, and continue to produce meanings. In this process, the photograph becomes simultaneously image, document, performance, and reflection on the history of art itself. CANONICAL URI: https://id.alexandremury.art/artworks/abaporu-2010/ OFFICIAL HUMAN-READABLE PAGE: https://www.alexandremury.art/obras-de-arte/abaporu --- TECHNICAL DATA: Title: Abaporu Artist: Alexandre Mury Year: 2010 Medium: Digital photography, chromogenic print (C-print) Genre: Performative self-portrait; performance photography; staged photography Collections: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection / MAM Rio; Paula and Silvio Frota Collection / Museum of Photography Fortaleza Object ID (MAM Rio): 30054 Wikidata: Q136803576 © Alexandre Mury TEXT ALT: Performative photograph titled Abaporu (2010), by Alexandre Mury. The image presents the artist in a performative self- portrait with artistic nudity, seated on a small mound of reddish earth in an open landscape. The body appears in profile, with legs bent and head resting on the left hand, in a contemplative attitude. In the background, a blue sky transitioning to yellowish tones meets the horizon. The sun, positioned between the figure's head and a large cactus in backlight, produces a star-shaped luminous effect. Dry branches, leaves, and sparse vegetation compose the landscape. The photograph establishes an intertextual dialogue with the painting Abaporu (1928) by Tarsila do Amaral, reinterpreting elements of Brazilian modernism through contemporary photography, performance, and self-representation. --- METADATA & ONTOLOGICAL DECLARATION: https://id.alexandremury.art/artworks/abaporu-2010/metadata.jsonld ONTOLOGICAL CONCEPTS: Cultural Autophagy: https://id.alexandremury.art/concept/cultural-autophagy/ Imagetic Disappropriation: https://id.alexandremury.art/concept/imagetic-disappropriation/ --- AUTHORITY FILES: Wikidata: Q136803576 MAM Rio: 30054 --- ← Back to Artworks © Alexandre Mury ---