Brazil and Latin America are cultural contexts marked by coloniality, state violence, structural racism, extractivism and multiple forms of popular resistance. Benjamin’s theories allow us to construct critical readings capable of recovering subaltern historical experiences made invisible by official narratives of progress. Collective experience of dictatorship, forced disappearance, territorial dispossession, ecological devastation, and gender violence give way to politics that are a systematic production of human and environmental ruins. From this perspective, the critical task of Benjamin’s understanding of »Gewalt« consists in restoring political voice to those whose historical experiences were violated by conquerors. The lecture enters into a dialogue with contemporary art dealing with amerindian and afro diasporic epistemologies, featuring works by Adriana Varejão and others. It relates Benjaminian »Gewalt« to the aestheticization of political violence and all its efforts that culminate in modern war.
Karla Pinhel Ribeiro is a Professor of Philosophy and Political Science at the University Centre of Curitiba, UNICURITIBA.
