Annunciation of Ardencies

Courtesy MEZEKƎRƎ

In the forest territories of Brazil’s interior, spirituality walks hand in hand with earthly life. Conceived as a force that crosses worlds, it unites body, time, and territory within a single field of existence. In these places, the spiritual transcends otherworldliness, instead signifying engagement and struggle. It is a practice of listening, responsibility, and connection among different forms of life—one in which knowledge emerges from lived experience, gesture, and embodied memory.

It is with this energy that we inaugurate Anunciação das Ardências (Annunciation of Ardencies) by Brazilian artist Gê Viana — her first solo exhibition in Europe. A sound-based work comprising eleven collages, a sculpture, a raffia installation, and a new sound altar rooted in the reggae culture of the Brazilian state of Maranhão. It transforms the space into an environment that is at once archive, ritual, and gathering place.

At the heart of Anunciação das Ardências lies the Radiola : a sound body, a meeting point, and a vehicle for collective memory. For decades, Radiolas have shaped Maranhão’s distinctive reggae culture. In Gê Viana’s work, the sound system becomes an assertion of presence and a struggle to sustain the ritual and musical practices of her home territory.

*Anunciação das Ardências* is an outcome of Gê Viana’s residency at MEZEKƎRƎ in the spring of 2026. The exhibition follows Viana’s widely acclaimed participation in the 36th São Paulo Biennial in 2025, where her monumental Radiola installation, A colheita de Dan (Dan’s Harvest), was showcased—a work cited by ArtReview as one of the Biennial’s “most thought-provoking” pieces.