The Garden of Memory

The activity proposes a space for creation and conversation around memory, repair, and collective work. The first part will be the Collective Repair Workshop, led by Dyonne Chaves Boy with the soundscape of Paco Serrano.

Through collage, participants will be able to work with photographs, clippings, papers, fabrics, or other personal materials in order to transform them and place them in dialogue with collective memories. Materials will also be available for those who do not bring their own.

The workshop will be a space for listening, experimentation, and reflection, where sewing, cutting, and rewriting will become ways of questioning official narratives and imagining other ways of telling memory.

Afterwards, a conversation between Dyonne Chaves Boy and Paco Serrano will delve into their artistic and community practices, linked to jongo, territorial memory, anti-colonial resistance, and forms of visual, historical, and affective repair.

The gathering defends memory as a living, shared, and collective practice: a memory that is inhabited, cared for, and defended.

Led by Barby and Ezequiel Soriano from the Communication Guild, Xeito Fole and Rodrigo Yrigoyen Gonzales from the Digital Guild, Mercedes Saya Rosés, Lourdes Gay-Punzano and David Coñomán from the Publishing Guild and Kha Villanueva, Nadia, and Samu from the Santa Mònica Participation Guild.

Dyonne Boy is a visual artist, cultural manager, researcher, and dancer with more than 25 years of experience at the intersection of art, politics, and Black traditions in Rio de Janeiro. She holds a PhD in Performing Arts from UFRJ and combines journalism, performing arts, institutional management, and visual arts. Since 1998, she has served as executive coordinator of the Grupo Cultural Jongo da Serrinha, leading efforts to safeguard jongo as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Brazil.

Paco Serrano studies linguistics and Hispanic literature at the University of Granada and develops parallel work in theatre and music across several countries. He has participated in contemporary jazz and contemporary music projects while also performing with flamenco, Afro-Caribbean, and Cuban music groups. As an actor, he has been part of companies such as Centro Dramático Elvira, Vagalume, Pepadasola, La Fabrique des Petites Utopies, and Cie Sara Molina, among others. As MadMonKey, he works as a music producer.