Abstract
This article explores the complex dynamics of Indigenous artistic representation in Brazil, focusing on the historic all-Indigenous curation of Brazil's 2024 Venice Biennale pavilion and the repatriation of a sacred 17th-century Tupinambá mantle. By examining how Indigenous artists navigate institutional frameworks while advancing their political struggles for recognition, land rights, and cultural reclamation, the presentation reveals both breakthroughs and persistent tensions in how Indigenous art engages with and challenges established art institutions.
Central to this narrative is the concept of AIC (Arte Indígena Contemporânea), a term coined by influential Indigenous artist Jaider Esbell before his death in 2021. AIC functions simultaneously as a classification tool asserting the contemporaneity of Indigenous creative expression, a political strategy for institutional recognition, and a conceptual framework acknowledging continuity between ancestral practices and contemporary art forms. Esbell's articulation of AIC helped create pathways for Indigenous artists to gain visibility in spaces that had historically categorized their work as craft or ethnographic artifact rather than fine art.