Jonathas de Andrade Biography

Early Years

De Andrade was born and raised in Maceió on the east coast of Brazil. The region's colonial histories and sociopolitical struggles have featured at the forefront of many of his artworks—in a conversation with Ocula Magazine, De Andrade stated, 'Being born and raised in the Northeast brought me a deep experience of observing life and its contradictions'.

In the early 2000s, De Andrade studied communications at the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife, where he lives and works today. De Andrade later turned to contemporary art for the greater freedom afforded when addressing contemporary issues.

Since 2007, De Andrade has worked with A Casa como Convém (The House as It Should Be), a Recife-based artist's collective that he co-founded with artist and filmmaker Cristiano Lenhardt, among others.

Jonathas de Andrade Artworks

Jonathas de Andrade uses images to tell stories around issues of discrimination, identity, fragmentation, and colonial legacies, through media including photography, film, collage, and installation. His work is often produced collaboratively, based on specific exchanges with under-privileged communities.

Recife

From early in his practice, De Andrade engaged with the people, social fabric and history of his adopted home city Recife in northeastern Brazil. For the installation recenseamento moral da cidade de recife (moral census of the city of recife) (2008), the artist surveyed selected homes in the city's urban area, and created a map attached with photos and interview responses that reflected the customs of Recife's residents.

In Ressaca Tropical (Tropical Hangover) (2009), the artist tells the story of modernist developments in Recife from the 1950s to the 1970s, intertwining these observations with photographs and excerpts from a found anonymous diary from the 1970s.

Corrida de Carroças no Centro da Cidade de Recife (2012) was one of De Andrade's largest Recife projects, comprising a carriage race held in the centre of Recife under the guise of making a film. Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary in 2012, the project highlighted the horse cart riders who had been rendered invisible by city laws which prohibited rural animals on the streets. From this project emerged the film O Levante (2013), and a 2014 installation commissioned by the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University, which contained written and photographic documentation of the event.

Documento Latinamérica

De Andrade also examines broader Latin American identities in his work. For the Documento Latinamérica project (2009), the artist journeyed through six countries in South America in an attempt to understand the region as a place that is simultaneously whole yet divided, and of which Brazil forms a part. The project in part attempted to undo a perceived cultural amnesia in relation to Latin American unity, resulting in films such as 4000 Disparos (2010) and Pacífico (2010).

Museum of the Northeast Man

The people, histories, and struggles of Brazil's northeastern region have long been an area of interest for Jonathas de Andrade. This interest is encapsulated in Museu do Homem do Nordeste (2013–2015), a collections project started in response to the anthropological museum in Recife of the same name, which was established by Gilberto Freyre in 1979. For his project, De Andrade retraced the colonial histories of Brazil as presented through artefacts in Freyre's museum, examining their enduring legacies and consequences for cultural identity in the past and present.

Works in the collection include the installation 40 nego bom é um real (2013), which delves into contemporary employment issues and examines northeast Brazil's history as both a hub of the transatlantic slave trade and the sugar industry. Suar a Camisa (2014) presents 120 shirts gathered from workers that the artist met on the street. De Andrades' Posters for the Museu do Homem do Nordeste (2013) were made by photographing workers who came forward and shared how they imagined themselves, with each representing the region based on their own experiences.

With the Heart Coming Out of the Mouth

For his presentation at the Brazilian Pavilion at the 59^th Venice Biennale in 2022, Jonathas de Andrade's offered a set of sculptural metaphors. Com o coração saindo pela boca (With the heart coming out of the mouth) (2022) plays on idiomatic expressions relating to the body, such as 'going in one ear and out the other', 'a lump in the throat', and 'to have powerful backing'.

Giant body parts which act as literal visual embodiments of these expressions are scattered throughout the pavilion: with a giant ear standing outside, and the centrepiece—a large red inflatable bag coming out from a mouth suspended on the ceiling and slowly filling the room—offering a literal interpretation of the installation's title. De Andrade said to Ocula Magazine: 'I was intrigued by the idea that the body can offer strong metaphors that express feelings hard to describe or translate, and many of them resonate with the political challenges of the present'.

Exhibitions

Jonathas de Andrade has been the subject of both solo and group exhibitions.

Select solo exhibitions include Staging Resistance, Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, Amsterdam (2022); O Peixe, New Museum, New York (2017); Museu do Homem do Nordeste, Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR), Rio de Janeiro (2014); Ressaca Tropical (Tropical Hangover), Instituto Cultural Banco Real, Recife (2009).

Select group exhibitions include Penumbra, Fondazione In Between Art Film, Venice (2022); Global(e) Resistance, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2020); Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2014); Um Outro Lugar, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro (2011).

Website and Instagram

Jonathas de Andrade's website can be found here, and his Instagram can be found here.

Michael Irwin | Ocula | 2022