DAVI PONTES (BR)
Residency period: May-July 2023
Black Ecology is an experimental film, an excavation of scientific images (oceanographic archive), and reimagined ocean landscapes generated by software images. These fragments of moving images guide us to think about the racial dimension of extractivist relations. They go beyond a place-based configuration of environmental racism as a spatial organization of exposure to environmental harm. Instead, they mobilized us to think about how advances in science continue to uncover ideas of racial extraction that have no end. Inspired by philosopher Denise Ferreira da Silva, the project is an experiment in thinking and existing within Black ethics, attempting to bring a Black timeline and a space for Black ecology to the study of contemporary capitalism. It does so by looking at zones ignored by the “Anthropocene” concept, including specific power relations and social inequalities tied to extractive action and environmental transformation in the Latin American context. — Davi Pontes
Davi Pontes (born in 1990) is an artist, choreographer and researcher. He holds a degree in Arts from Universidade Federal Fluminense and is an MA candidate in the Contemporary Studies of Arts Programme at the same institution. He also studied at Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espectáculo ESMAE (Porto, PT). Starting from corporal research, his practice carries the constant challenge of politically attending to the conditions in which choreography is being practised. Pontes deepens concepts of raciality, choreography, self-defence, history and archives in his work.
Since 2016, Pontes has presented his work in both national and international art galleries and festivals, mainly at the University of Pennsylvania (US), Pivô (São Paulo, BR), Young Choreographers’ Series (AT), Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon, PT), Rua das Gaivotas 6 (Porto, PT), Bienal SESC de Dança, Les Urbaines festival (CH) and has been a resident at ImPulsTanz 2022 and at the Pivô Arte Research Programme. In addition to his choreographic work he directed the film Delirar o racial (2021) in partnership with Wallace Ferreira, a work commissioned by the Pivô Satélite Programme.
Davi Pontes, photos Matthieu Croizier