Jonathas de Andrade, Olho no Olho [eye to eye], 3 April – 8 June 2025
Boundaries between fiction and nonfiction are blurred in the film Olho no Olho [eye to eye], where personal debates about identity, care, family, class consciousness, and social and political visibility emerge. The work is created by Jonathas de Andrade, who represented Brazil at the Venice Biennale in 2022.
Jonathas de Andrade’s film work Olho da Rua/Out Loud depicts a contemporary community of homeless people living on the streets in central Recife, a city in northeast Brazil. Through the film’s artistic approach and radical pedagogical tools, the artist repositions the stories of people who are marginalised and made invisible. The film fosters ways to collectively rethink reality and imagine alternatives.
De Andrade’s artistic approach is inspired by Brazilian writer and dramaturg Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, and the film stages a series of performative actions in one of the city’s squares. The exercises highlight collective dynamics in a publicly accessible urban space, with a particular focus on the gazes through which we observe one another. Blurring the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction, de Andrade engages a cast of non-professional actors in debates about identity, care, family, class consciousness, and social and political visibility through actions and words. The film does not use a fixed script. It is the actors’ personalities and emotional worlds that carry the narrative, creating a powerful testimony of modern Brazil, with its rich, diverse culture and significant structural inequalities.
Although the film was made in 2022 – and thus a snapshot of Brazil under the former president Jair Bolsonaro – Jonathas de Andrade’s film work remains highly relevant today. This image of indifference towards already vulnerable lives seems especially pertinent in the present day, and the consequences of colonialism and structural inequality are not limited to Brazil.
The beautiful moving images are accompanied by a hypnotic soundtrack by percussionist Homero Basílio that uses instruments rooted in northeastern Brazilian culture.
The title of the exhibition, Olho no Olho [eye to eye], mimics the title of a chapter in the film and refers to the artist’s practice and his focus on the gaze: how we see and are seen.
Jonathas de Andrade is a visual artist and filmmaker. Through his work, he explores and uncovers the power dynamics and conflicts of Brazil – especially in the northeast region and Recife, where he lives and works – in light of the consequences of colonialism, slavery, modernist culture and cheap labour.
Courtesy of the artist, Galleria Continua, Galeria Nara Roesler and Fondazione In Between Art Film
Practical information
The film lasts 26 minutes and is looped in the art cinema when there are no other events.
It is free to watch the film with a paid admission to Kunsthal Charlottenborg.