INTERVIEW_ANTÓNIO OLE

One of Angola most prominent contemporary artists, António Ole brings to Brazil two installations that deal with themes such as time, history, and the history of his country. In this interview, Ole talks about using knowledge of the past as fuel for life.

By Helio Hara

Your art deals with memory, the remembrance of history and of a time that has passed, and incorporates objects that you have collected. Is it about nostalgia? Or is it a way of addressing the past in order to organize the present?
Somebody once said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. This is definitely something to think about. Although the current trend points towards chronic forgetfulness, it seems to me that this frequent trend towards amnesia must be countered. As for nostalgia, I can assure you that it has nothing to do with my art.

The often turbulent history of Angola is a key reference in your work. Does your art contain a certain dose of optimism regarding history, particularly the history of Angola?
Somewhere along the way I have decided to do a research project on the history of Angola, especially slavery. In order to do so, with the help of personnel from the National Historical Archive of Angola, I gathered the material and then put it to creative use, combining enlarged photocopies and collected objects to convey symbolic meaning. I didn’t mean to prove anything historically, I just wanted to draw the people’s attention to some of the obscure aspects of our past. Naturally, now that peace has been established in Angola, I am facing new artistic challenges, and those will surely inspire my future work.

You have worked in Salvador for a while. What are the similarities and differences between Brazil and Angola?
There seems to be a very close kinship, something that makes me feel at home everytime I go to Bahia.

How did you create “Canoa quebrada” (Broken boat) and “Hidden pages, stolen bodies”, two pieces that feature in the Pan-African Contemporary Art Exhibition?
“Canoa quebrada” is the key element to a project that began in 1994, in Luanda, entitled “Margem da Zona Limite” (Margin of the Limit Zone). It symbolizes the interruption of history, and it is an installation made of materials such as iron, bricks, briefcases, dead crows, and TV sets. “Hidden pages, stolen bodies”, to which I have already referred, is part of a dense project about slave trade, what it meant to Angola, and some of its consequences.