Oblie

During one of Paulo Nazareth’s trips across West Africa, the artist found a piece of worn-out fabric that he decided to keep. He embroidered a silhouette resembling a tree on this abandoned object, beneath which he added the word “forget”. The simplicity of this gesture and the sobriety of this object cover up the painful history of the slave trade. Millions of Africans who were taken forcefully from their homelands were made to walk seven times around a colossal baobab tree called the Tree of Oblivion. This ritual sought to erase their identities and ancestral ties before their forced departure for the Americas.

 With the deliberate spelling mistake in the title, in which “oublie” (which means “forget”) is written as “oblie”, the artist makes a critical comment on the lasting repercussions of linguistic colonialism as well. With this work, Paulo Nazareth continues his exploration of the enduring psychological, social, and political consequences of racial and colonial violence.

The Pinault Collection showed this work for the first at the Icones exhibition at Punta della Dogana in Venice in 2023