ANCESTROFUTURISM

Ancestro + Futurism are two terms that apparently emerge from an impossibility, from the ambivalence between two disparate realms: archaism and future. Future, broadly speaking, is a term linked to the modern age, which is generally understood as the age that would remove humanity from obscurantism, false beliefs and superstitions, to place it in the path of progress and evolutionary development dominated by science and technology. Ancestrality, according to this perspective, is considered a series of traditional values ruling over archaic societies that are oblivious to scientific truth and cultivate obsolete knowledge devoid of empiric evidence. Nevertheless, Ancestrofuturism requests concepts that work with other notions of time and resignify the assumed linearity between past and future, i.e., concepts that deconstruct the idea of vertical time and history — from archaism pointing towards the future — and that horizontalize this perspective.

The “EDEN: Ancestrofuturismo” project stokes interest in studying the ancestral traditions of the native Brazilians. It continues the investigation into the capabilities of the T2T/TNT system. One of the project’s important attributes is its invocation of the Native American cultural and historical legacy, with the artist giving young Native people the ability to test the ancient knowledge with modern scientific methods.

Thus, “EDEN: Ancestrofuturismo”, serves an important social function. On the one hand, it encourages the preservation of the ancient traditions; on the other hand, it uses the medium of art to draw attention to the region’s contemporary problems.