Sérgio Soarez on Afro-Baroque, Ancestrality, and the 36th São Paulo Biennial

Sérgio Soarez, a self-taught Black Brazilian artist from a favela, discusses his Afro-Baroque practice in an interview tied to his participation in the 36th São Paulo Biennial. He recontextualizes discarded Baroque furniture fragments—such as arabesques and wooden bobbins from Bahia and Minas Gerais—to highlight the silenced Black craftsmanship behind Brazil's Baroque heritage. His materials come from scrapyards, landfills, antique shops, and community donations, including noble woods like jacarandá and imbuia. At the Biennial, his work 'Falogun' (2024) assembles an antique cabinet door, an industrial faucet, tiles, keys, and a personal knife, with the knife referencing Ogum, the orixá of metallurgy. Blue and red beads flow from the faucet, symbolizing Ogum's vital energy. Another piece, 'Ancestrais' (2024), features two wooden shoe forms on a wall-mounted tray, evoking the Sankofa concept of looking back while moving forward. Soarez, who is also an ogã (30 years) and an Ifá initiate (24 years), emphasizes that his research extends beyond orixás to themes of violence, the Bakongo cosmogram, Afro-ancestrality, and the intersection of Black, Indigenous, and European colonial heritage. He insists that Black artists are not limited to orixá themes. His works are set to travel to Brasília, Salvador, Chile, and Mexico.