Com o coracao saindo pela boca [With The Heart Coming Out of the Mouth] is the title of the installation in the Brazilian Pavilion at the 59th Biennale di Venezia (2022), in which Jonathas de Andrade uses a wide range of idiomatic expressions that draw on body metaphors to develop a series of two- and three-dimensional works that render tangible the poetic weight of these expressions. Two immense ears placed at the entrance and exit of the pavilion allow the public, for example, to 'go in one ear and out the other', while an inflatable balloon, which invades the space at various times of the day, alludes to a 'heart coming out of the mouth'. The emphasis on the body, especially the body of the man from the Brazilian Northeast, and on language, with its wealth, its flaws, and its revelations, is also a characteristic of several of the artist's earlier works featured in this book, which also includes essays by the publication's editor Jacopo Crivelli Visconti, and Clarissa Diniz. Text in English and Portuguese.

Published to accompany a show at PAC in Milan, which explores other continents through collective shows of contemporary art: this summer Brazil will be in the spotlight. Knife in the Flesh (Navalha na Carne) is the title of a play by Brazilian writer Plinio Marcos, particularly active during the years of the Brazilian military regime. Thus, from its very title, this project declares itself to be in conflict. By means of installations, photographs, videos and performances, several of the artists invited to the PAC make reference to this conflict - which has no beginning, much less an end, is hard to sum up in words and rarely translates into physical fights or battles. A social - and above all symbolic - conflict, then, rather than a military one. Gathering together a series of works created in Brazil over the past forty years, this book shatters conventions and stereotypes without, however, setting out to draw a portrait of the country or its artistic scene, reflecting instead on their inherent conflict: the fights and violence, the political, social, racial, ecological and cultural abuse. A direct language that appears naive, whilst actually pregnant with meaning as it tells of broken dreams and disappointed hopes, but also of a people capable of keeping their incredible optimism and trust in the future.