In the beginning there were audio messages sent by my iyá reminding me that I can do a bori at home. Bori is a ritual to offer (bó) food to the head (ori) in Afro-brazilian religions. When she gave me these little reminders she said, in a pragmatic way, that the magic rites of our peoples go with us.
This is a performative set divided in two parts: three digital photo collages and four photo-performance sequences.
I propose redesigning, fictionalising, and fabling the possible foods for a black person. My foods come from three elements: air, earth, and water. Nature and the animals, which are not elements for our domain, still form external and internal parts of our dualities. I adorn myself in gold, copper, and silver–stolen from us–and which continues to be locked away in colonial museums.
Feeding the ori is an action of recovery.
The four photo-performance sequences talk about other ways of feeding the head: protecting it. Wearing a turban, and also braiding the hair is more than aesthetic, more than a fight symbol. It brings belonging, recognition, and spiritual contemplation.
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Daisy Serena is a Brazilian visual artist, poet, and activist living and working in São Paulo. She studied sociology and politics at Fundação Escola de Sociologia e Política de São Paulo. She participated in some photographic exhibitions. Tautologias, her debut poetry collection, was published by Padê Editorial in 2016.
Sergio Silva is a Brazilian photographer, videomaker and activist living and working in São Paulo. He is the author of the photographic series “Urban Pirates” (2014). He has participated in photography festivals and his image direction has resulted in the editing of several videos involving poetry and politics.