Lecture Performance, We Cannot Build What We Cannot First Imagine / Jota Mombaça, Thiago de Paula Souza (São Paulo)

In the last decade, we have witnessed an increase of different visibility policies in Brazil and, as a result, a fiercer clash of forces. The paradox of this visibility is that its production is simultaneous to the production of new forms of shadow. What dwells in this shadow? How does this shadow-light economy influence the production and circulation of racialized artists? How is it possible to go beyond the opposition between light and shadow towards a racial politics of opacity? We Cannot Build What We Cannot First Imagine (WCB WCFI) is a visionary platform created by Jota Mombaça and Thiago de Paula Souza with the purpose of gathering works and perspectives from racialized artists and thinkers in Brazil and abroad on the topics of radical imagination, alter-futurisms, disruptive archives, queer politics and black philosophy.