The LO-ACT project supported and financed the exhibition CATA, currently showcased in the famous Minas Gerais Vale Memorial in Brazil until Feb 24. On November 7th, at 1:30 pm, Memorial Vale unveiled the hosting of the exhibition CATA - Climate Change and Waste Pickers, by artist and photographer Verônica Alkmim França. The exhibition reflects the encounter between visual arts, sociology and popular education through cooperation between the international network Women in Informal Work Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO in English) and the University of Sheffield with the visual artist/photographer VERÔNICA ALKMIM FRANÇA who has been developing authorial work of recognized visibility. The curation is by the photographer and sociologist SONIA MARIA DIAS and thematizes two of the great dilemmas of contemporary humanity, the climate emergency and the social inclusion agenda, in a world that is increasingly marked by the worsening of socio-environmental dilemmas. CATA is made up of 10 images that were captured and subsequently constructed in the form of a sensibility about the universe of recyclable collectors - an important environmental agent in the context of the climate emergency - and is part of the WIEGO research “Impacts of Climate Change and Climate Change Strategies”; Adaptation: Experiences of Collectors in Brazil” coordinated by WIEGO in partnership with the Urban Institute.
During the CATA project, the collectors participated in an imaging workshop using the Cyanotype technique, in which the waste was raw material for a new experiment. The result will be displayed at the exhibition.
VERONICA is a multidisciplinary artist, who lives between Sweden and Brazil. Born in Brazil, she emerged in the 90s as one of the pioneers of Wearable Art in Brazil and stood out for the precious photographic documentation of her works and for her revelation as an authorial photographer. She is one of the winners of the FEMALE IN FOCUS International Photography Award 2022 from the BRITISH JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY'S – 1894, BRASILIA PHOTO SHOW 2022, CHROMATIC INTERNATIONAL PHOTO AWARDS, MONOCHROME PHOTO INTERNATIONAL AWARDS, winner of the FAPA - FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS, honorable mentions at PX3 PRIX DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE DE PARIS and at the IPA INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS and her work has been highlighted through pertinent issues related to sustainability and the environment in many aspects. For more information, visit @veronicaalkmimfranca
Against the flow of mass consumption and the throwaway society, this exhibition interrogates the subordinate role allocated to recyclable collectors, who are on the front line of the climate emergency and lead daily struggles to recreate and give new meaning to our daily remains, that is our waste... For more information, visit WIEGO and @sonia.wiego. The exhibition has an exhibition design by Isabella Vecci, a cyanotype workshop taught by Alexandre Lopes, videos produced by Retina Filmes and WIEGO and can be seen until February 25, 2024 and has free entry. Minas Gerais Vale Memorial The Minas Gerais Vale Memorial, one of the cultural spaces of the Instituto Cultural Vale, has already received more than 1.1 million people, from all over Brazil and other continents. There are more than 1,600 events held and around 200 thousand people in mediated visits. It is part of the Circuito Liberdade, in Belo Horizonte, one of the largest cultural complexes in Brazil. Characterized as an experience museum, with exhibitions that use art and technology in an intense and creative way, it is one of the winners of TripAdvisor's Travelers' Choice Awards. In Gringo Cardia's curation and museography, real and virtual scenarios mix to create experiences and sensations that take visitors from the 18th century to the 21st century. More than a space dedicated to the traditions, origins and constructions of Minas Gerais culture, the Memorial is a place of transit and intersection between the power of history and the contemporary pulses of art and culture, where the present and the past are in direct contact, in permanent renewal. It is alive, dynamic, transformative and creates confluences with independent artists and different segments of Minas Gerais culture.