The epistemic shift at Pinacoteca de São Paulo: The curatorial dialogue between Antropofagia and Re-Antropofagia

Abstract

This article analyzes the traditional exhibition matrix in art museums, marked by Eurocentrism and linear paradigms, questioning its regimes of visibility and exclusion. Decolonial thought (Mignolo, 2017; Paiva, 2022) is mobilized to investigate how the museum space can be reconfigured. The objective is to analyze the curatorial and exhibition transformations implemented by the Pinacoteca of São Paulo (2020-2025), examining whether such changes constitute an "epistemic shift" in the institutional narrative of Brazilian art. The methodology combines theoretical review with the analysis of a specific focus: the new long-term exhibition, Pinacoteca: Acervo, focusing on the dialogue between the works Antropofagia (1929), by Tarsila do Amaral, and Re-Antropofagia (2018), by Denilson Baniwa. The results demonstrate that the juxtaposition of these works operates as a critical device for revising the modernist imaginary and re-inscribing Indigenous epistemologies. This strategy evidences a situated epistemological displacement, which tensions the traditional consecrating logic and transforms the exhibition space into a territory for historical and critical discussion. The study recognizes these initiatives as indicative of narrative reconfiguration and expansion of visibility regimes but maintains analytical caution regarding the structural limits of the "decolonizing museums" process.