Rosângela Rennó's Books Confront Brazil's Dictatorship Archives and Institutional Precarity

Brazilian artist Rosângela Rennó created two books—2005–510117385–5 and A01 [COD.19.1.1.43] – A27 [S | COD.23]—that incorporate photographs stolen from Rio de Janeiro's public collections. Published in 2023, Marina Bedran's article in ARTMargins analyzes these works as interventions into Latin American Conceptualisms of the 1960s and 1970s. Rennó's projects address the secret files from Brazil's 1964–85 military dictatorship, an unresolved national issue. The books critique how archives can be manipulated for authoritarian purposes while proposing a circulating counter-archive of collective memories. They examine the dynamics between public museums, private collections, and cultural incentive laws. These works also highlight institutional vulnerabilities, a concern tragically realized in 2018 when Rio de Janeiro's Museu Nacional fire destroyed twenty million archival items. Rennó's practice warns against the unregulated circulation fostered by neoliberal markets. Her books activate the generative potential of circulation to question national memory and cultural heritage preservation.