DIVINA CASA: Arte, ancestralidade e pertencimento nos espaços sagrados da Festa do Divino de Dona Benedita no Quilombo Urbano Liberdade

Abstract

“DIVINE HOUSE: Art, Ancestry, and Belonging in the Sacred Spaces of Dona Benedita’s Festa do Divino in the Quilombo Urbano Liberdade”, this research explores the possibilities of interpreting the images of the Festa do Divino Espírito Santo by analyzing its spaces and their hierarchies according to the rituals performed there. In this sense, I seek to go beyond a mere analysis of images; this is an act of self-writing—of myself and my great-aunt—from the place where these rites take place. It is a writing that emerges from an absence, one that I have been filling with images I did not experience while my grandmother was alive, and that I now live through my gaze, shaped by the experience of a pandemic. I write for my ancestors, especially for my great-aunt, a caixeira of the Festa, for myself, and for other women who could not continue their crafts and traditions due to religious racism. In this work, I draw from the concept of escrevivência developed by writer Conceição Evaristo and establish a dialogue between my great-aunt and me through my photographs—capturing imaginary and physical spaces, as well as those reshaped with ritualistic purposes. This dissertation is a study of ancestry and belonging, exalting the history of a Black woman, a mineira, and a grandmother to all. Through a photographic essay, I rewrite voices that were silenced, based on my own perspective and the testimonies of participants and organizers of the Festa do Divino in the Liberdade neighborhood, the largest urban quilombo in Brazil.