Performance with Music
Brasiliensis Rainforest

An Afro-Indigenous Cosmovision with Anita Ekman & Patrick Angello (Brasilian guitar)

Thu, 06/06/2024
7:00 PM Goethe-Institut Boston

Critically reviewing the 19th century expeditions that were instrumental in creating the global imaginary of the rainforests, artist and performer Anita Ekman, together with musician Patrick Angello, retell the story of the African diaspora and indigenous resistance in the Brazilian rainforests (the Amazon and the Atlantic Rainforest) through the history of photography and the Brazilian guitar.

The performance created by the artists in partnership with various collaborators, including Edu Simões indigenous thinkers and artists Cristine Takua and Carlos Papa, is part of the "Cosmoperceptions of the Forest" project promoted by the Goethe-Institut Rio de Janeiro, with the aim of globally uniting indigenous and scientific knowledge about forests and climate change. Through artistic residencies supported by this project in Colombia, Brazil, Finland and Germany - the project envisages the creation of a series of artistic works that will be exhibited during COP 30 in November 2025, in the Brazilian Amazon (Belém).  

This performance is supported by the Brazilian Consulate in Boston (Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Itamaraty).


Anita Ekman is a visual and performance artist, curator and independent researcher of rock art, pre-colonial art and the history of forests. She was born in the Atlantic Forest (São Paulo). The focus of her work has been on Cosmovision, Indigenous agency and history, the role of women in Brazilian art and Rainforest maintenance. Ekman’s collaborative performance work take place in, and about, archaeological sites and archaeological museum collections. She is researching the historical alliances between Indigenous and African Diasporic peoples in the Atlantic Rainforest and Amazon. In 2021 Ekman, together with Benites, received a Visual Arts Scholarship from the Goethe Institute and the French Embassy in Brazil to work on the history of Brazilian archaeological collections in Europe. Together they recently completed a residency at the Clark Museum. Ekman’s work and research have been published by websites of museums such as MoMA, Peabody Museum of Harvard and Od review.
Anita Ekman has worked with curators Sandra Benites and Cris Takua on international exhibitions such Ka´a Body –Cosmovisions of the Forest in London at Paradise Row (2021) and in Paris at Galeria Radicantes (2022), and in Santa Fe, Womb of the Earth, open at the AIA – Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) in February 2024.

Patrick Angello is one of the leading names in Brazilian guitar (6-string and 7-string) in the Choro and Samba genres, accompanying names such as Elza Soares, Beth Carvalho, Velha Guarda da Mangueira and others. He is currently developing musical performances on Afro-indigenous worldviews and the history of Brazilian forests with Anita Ekman and indigenous artists such as Carlos Papa, Cris Takua.