Jaq Lisboa

During my residency at Saari, I aim to deepen my research into “Contemporary Entities,” an ongoing project that blends the spiritual, political, and poetic through performance, ritual, costumes, textiles, handcraft, video and photography. These entities, spiritual beings, address political, social and environmental issues. At Saari, I wish to create a new entity that draws inspiration from the local context, allowing me to delve into themes deeply connected to this territory and me.

I want to reconcile with the environment, I seek to create collective memory with the community around me, I am looking for new strategies for societal healing, and I am interested in addressing painful topics in a poetic, less traumatic way—dissolving pain without the will to ignore what provokes it. My work aims to create spaces to share personal and collective stories, opening spaces for discussions and new forms of acting and thinking.

Born in Brazil (1983), Jaq Lisboa is an artist, architect, set- and costume designer. She has lived in Germany since 2005. A woman of Afro-Indigenous descent, she grew up in the Amazon region in the urban context of the city of Belém (once Mairi, the name given by the native population), in the state of Pará, where the Amazon forest has the highest rate of deforestation and where environmental activists have their lives threatened. Life among rivers, concrete, forest, beauty, violence, and diaspora has shaped her political, poetic, social, environmental and artistic vision. She does not separate art, spirituality and politics in her work and is dedicated to honouring her Indigenous and African ancestry. She mixes the material and the immaterial and translates through performances, installations, costumes, and videos the concerns that her body, mind, and spirit carry, always dialoguing with the environment that permeates her.

Born in Brazil (1983), Jaq Lisboa is an artist, architect, set- and costume-designer. She lives in Germany since 2005. A woman of Afro-Indigenous descent, she grew up in the Amazon region in the urban context of the city of Belém (once Mairi, the name given by the native population), in the state of Pará, where the Amazon forest has the highest rate of deforestation and where environmental activists have their lives threatened. Life among rivers, concrete, forest, beauty, violence, diaspora has shaped her political, poetic, social, environmental and artistic vision. She does not separate art, spirituality and politics in her work and is dedicated to honour her Indigenous and African ancestry. She mixes the material and the immaterial and translates through performances, installations, costumes and video the concerns that her body, mind and spirit carry, always dialoguing with the environment which permeates her.