Lecture
Image - Infrastructure. A visual ethnography of the Port of Suape (Brazil)
- Date
- Monday 16 September 2024
- Time
- Series
- CADS Research Seminars
- Location
-
Pieter de la Court
Wassenaarseweg 52
2333 AK Leiden - Room
- 1B01
About the research
One of the most disruptive infrastructures in the history of Brazil is the Suape Port Complex, which from the 1970s was responsible for a rapid transformation of the coast south of Recife, capital of the state of Pernambuco. The communities that were displaced and that live today around the port have been the object of extensive imagetic exploration, and many images and audiovisual recordings have been made in coincidence with reports or other events.
This presentation aims to propose an analysis of these images, highlighting how these material forms are a fundamental part of the Port's infrastructure, and allow an exploration of the poetics and temporalities that were imposed on the residents of the regions affected. This interpretation allows a re-politicization of the Port that passes fundamentally through the materiality of the images, beyond the concrete of its installations.
About the speaker
Alex Vailati transits between anthropology and documentary cinema. He is an associate professor of anthropology at the Federal University of Pernambuco, where he coordinates the Visual Anthropology Laboratory and the Suape Museum project. His publications include the books "Ethnographies of On Demand Films. Anthropological Explorations of Commissioned Audiovisual Productions" (Palgrave, 2021, with Gabriela Zamorano) and "O campo das elites. Percursos etnográficos para a exposição da desigualdade" (Papéis Selvagens, 2024).