Exhibition 'AI-5 50 Years – Still Not Finished Ending' Closes After Brazilian Elections

The exhibition 'AI-5 50 Years – Still Not Finished Ending' concluded on November 4, a week after Brazil's presidential elections. Curated by Paulo Miyada, the show opposed attempts to relativize the data left by the military dictatorship. It highlighted that the regime's repression extended beyond leftist radicals, citing the case of Vladimir Herzog among hundreds of brutal violence cases against citizens. The dictatorship also surveilled over 300,000 citizens through censorship organs and systematically censored press, culture, and art. The exhibition focused on the consequences of this silencing, using visual arts to understand its cost and pay homage to those who expressed themselves when nothing could be said. Miyada notes that the effects of AI-5 will be felt more intensely in coming years, with Black, Indigenous, LGBTQ+, and impoverished people first in the line of fire. The exhibition's persistence of struggle and resistance finds its root in these communities. Paulo Miyada is the creative director of Instituto Tomie Ohtake and guest curator of the 34th Bienal de São Paulo.