Choreographies of the impossible

Choreographies of the impossible: Ubirajara Ferreira Braga

Plastic artist, Ubirajara Ferreira Braga (Itariri, SP, Brazil, 1928 – Franco da Rocha, SP, Brazil, 2000) began painting at the age of 58 in the Arts Atelier of the Juquery Psychiatric Hospital, and at the end of his life he had produced approximately three thousand paintings.

The works exhibited show both the aesthetic and autobiographical resources deployed by the artist in the wide range of themes he addressed. From his pictorial incursions, scenes of daily life emerge from the perspective of the insane body and a critical view of historical events of the 20th century is articulated, such as in the Invasion of Kuwait. Questioning and purposeful, Braga also carried out projects that point out the duality of a social reading that overcodes his experience of the violence of the asylum system, such as The Prison. The work of Ubirajara Ferreira Braga stubbornly challenges the conceptions of freedom, art, “madness” and lucidity.

About his work, the poet Tatiana Nascimento writes: "From almost 60 years old until his death in 2000 (when Y2K had no failures, contrary to the psyche), Ubirajara Ferreira Braga painted thousands of paintings. He also printed a card of visits, in which he proudly showed his profession: 'plastic artist'. In a film it is said that his diagnostic file painted him as a “calm and conscious resident” of the Juquery (psychiatric-ca) colony. And the public archives that the www keeps say that he was also, for a brief period, a dealer in his own works. In that different type of housing that was the asylum, which has gone down in history as the 'city of madmen', built in the municipality of Franco da Rocha and which had strict regulations on the external circulation of works of art created by its inhabitants A different story, transmitted by word of mouth by those fighting for justice, also refers to that city. as the 'city of the dead': 50 thousand. Well, it was on that frank rock that this ambiguous city was built, known at the same time as the city of the mad and the city of the dead, and where Ubirajara Ferreira Braga - with its Tupi name, whose meaning 'The Lord of the Spear' reveals so much about its history – he painted almost 3,000 paintings.