Title: Pierre Verger
Description: In a partnership between the Instituto Tomie Ohtake, the Fundação Pierre Verger, the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo and as part of the 34 Bienal de São Paulo, the exhibition was inaugurated "Pierre Verger: Percursos e Memórias" dedicated to exposing the different documentation of the photographer's trajectory during his main trips. Because it is an unpublished cut and material, the duo of curators - Priscyla Gomes, curator of the Instituto Tomie Ohtake and Alex Baradel, curator of the Fundação Pierre Verger - brings new readings to the production of this exponent photographer. Based on an immersion in his archives, notes, records and writings, the show is the first to feature Pierre Verger as a photographer, researcher, ethnographer and religious leader. In addition to unpublished or rarely shown images, aiming to contextualize his production and relating aspects of the photographer's personal life to the historical context to which he belonged, the show will bring his travel notebooks, national and international publications and periodicals, unpublished letters and texts, negative and studies of enlargements, as well as an iconic documentary co-produced by the photographer and ethnographer, totaling more than 300 items on display. The articulation between image, writing and extensive research resulted in a vast, unknown panorama of the public that recurrently approaches Verger through his most iconic photographs. Between 1932 and 1970, there were decades of travel around the world, passing through Europe, Asia, America and Oceania. The year 1946 marks his arrival in Brazil, a journey that would result in a long stay and the discovery of a universe that would definitely change his life. His arrival began his Afro-Americanist and Africanist research, which provided important developments in his trajectory. Verger also began to record by writing the information collected in his travels between Brazil and Africa. It is in this universe that the photographer and ethnographer concentrated his studies, dedicating decades of his life to yoruba and fon cultures, in addition to their religious diasporas.
Subjects: Criticism and interpretation, Catalogs, Photographers, Biography, Indians of South America, Pictorial works, Photography in anthropology, Artistic Photography
Places: France
People: Pierre Verger (1902-1996)
Time periods: 20th century