Hal Wildson

“We are active agents of each written letter, how does written history influence the history that is still to happen?”
The typewriting machine gives light to the forgotten memories, reaffirming that it is necessary to remember things so that they don’t happen again. The “scrambled” letters are like historical moments in confusing narratives, words that are still in formation, a text that is written in the current moment. The dispute for historical narratives steals the spotlight in Hal’s artistic phase, revealing the moment we are living as a mirror of the past.

“Ninguentude – Identity Memory – Forgetfulness

But how is it possible to go from being nobody to becoming somebody? How does the process of creating an identity occur? How is forgetfulness also capable of creating an identity memory?

Between 1941 and the mid-2000s, documents were typewritten. Identity documents were not only used to identify a person but also to lift them out of invisibility. In what way are these documents able to assert who we are?

Our history is being written every day; memory is a place of dispute. It is not about disputing the past and changing it but about looking at this past with the eyes of now, projecting a future. It is our current vision that prompts us to rewrite, reinterpret our historical past. I believe that the Brazilian people are still escaping from ‘Ninguentude’ in the pursuit of becoming someone… a people without memory is a people without a soul! And in the pursuit of becoming someone, what are we becoming? What Brazil is our generation writing for the future?”

“Contemplating Brazil is a task I’ve undertaken even before engaging in art. Artistic thinking has always accompanied me, but before my production took shape, my primary interest was understanding ‘why things are this way’ and ‘is it possible to change the order of things’? Reflecting on utopia in Brazil, for me, is contemplating the power of utopia as an antibody acting in a sick body, in an ailing land… seeking healing. This philosophical, anthropological perspective on Brazil aligns with my desire to also understand my place in the world and the art world. What I produce is my way of dealing with this invented reality and also confronting it. As a thinker and knowledge producer, it interests me that my art circulates through various layers of society; for me, the limited path of the art market is not enough. I want my art to reach the families in the periphery, public schools, children in rural areas, and instill in them a desire for utopia… just as it happened to me.”

There is a Brazil in us that is worth believing in! We are a people who are born and find themselves in the mismatch of their multiplicities, who go beyond time in the process of building and making themselves. There are many of us in us, Brazil under construction and reconstruction, and it is because we believe that I make my art a seed of hope, a hammer that breaks, a brick that builds. Singularity, Brazil, identity.