Eva De Souza
Eva Silva de Souza is a Brazilian artist, actress, and activist. Born and raised in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, she incorporates her Afro-Brazilian roots into her work and is committed to promoting intercultural dialogue. She has been living in Bern for over 30 years, where she combines art and activism to promote social justice, anti-racism, and feminism. Her goal is to overcome boundaries through her art and foster a sense of connection between different cultures.
She studied acting at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) and at the Musical and Pantomime School in Berlin. She earned a master's degree in cultural management from the University of Basel. Her work has been shown and performed in Salvador de Bahia, Berlin, Basel, and Bern, among other places. In Salvador de Bahia, she directed Casa das Máscaras, a cultural center dedicated to masks and myths, from 2001 to 2015.
"My contribution to the 'Rumble in the Archive' project proposes a visual-performative exploration of the ritual of baptism. While researching documents, photographs, and objects related to Heinrich Hintermann's expedition to the Amazon in 1924/1925, I discovered that there is a river in the region called Doutor Hintermann, a tributary of the Ronuro. In a textile installation, I present my reflection on this political form of colonial perpetuation in a symbolic cartography of this riverbank. The aim is to propose a renaming of this river as an act of decolonization and to retell the story of the indigenous peoples' resistance to genocide and assimilation on Brazilian territory—and its extension to the symbolic territories of museums."
