Diaspora Aesthetics

Diaspora Aesthetics

Design Is Dead: This Brazilian Creative Is Calling for Revolution

Rahuany Velleda's viral Instagram manifesto declares war on the very industry that made her – and she's not backing down.

Diaspora Aesthetics

O Processo: Angola’s Unfinished Independence, Seen Through an Unforgiving Lens

A hybrid series turns a historic trial into a layered meditation on Angola’s independence and the voices left out of its official story.

Diaspora Aesthetics

“I Am Portugal”: Dino D’Santiago Didn’t Ask for Inclusion—He Composed the Nation Instead

Fifty years after Portugal’s last colonial troops left Africa, the singer’s new opera confronts the ghosts they left behind—with strings, silence, and a voice that won't be erased.

Diaspora Aesthetics

Beyond Dystopia: Brazilian Afrofuturism, a Social Technology for Survival

In a country still haunted by colonial ghosts, a new generation of Black artists, writers, and activists is coding futures not from fiction—but from necessity.

Diaspora Aesthetics

Beyond Representation: Gustavo Paixão and the Decolonial Eye of Brazilian Fashion

How Gustavo Paixão Is Reclaiming Fashion’s Visual Language for Indigenous Brazil

Diaspora Aesthetics

A Brush Against Erasure: Maria Auxiliadora's Return to the Bienal

The 36th Bienal de São Paulo opens its archives and its halls to an artist once ignored, transforming institutional memory into an act of cultural restitution.

Diaspora Aesthetics

Portugal’s Memorial Must Reveal What Empire Tried to Hide

On Kiluanji Kia Henda, colonization, and the unfinished project of public memory.

Diaspora Aesthetics

Jacira Roque de Oliveira: The Matriarch Who Turned Pain Into Power

Jacira Roque de Oliveira didn't just raise Brazil's most important rap dynasty—she invented an entirely new language for Black resistance

Diaspora Aesthetics

Mapfara’s Earthwork: Clay as Rebellion, Memory as Form

In a postcolonial art world still obsessed with biennales and borders, the Mozambican sculptor quietly rewrites the language of matter.

Diaspora Aesthetics

The Alphabet of Monsters: Fefe Talavera’s Ritual of Rupture

In the cracked walls of São Paulo, letters sprout claws, beasts take shape from typeface, and chaos refuses to be tamed. Fefe Talavera doesn’t paint for galleries—she paints for the restless subconscious.

Diaspora Aesthetics

The Mirror and the Lens: Neusa Sousa’s Portrait of São Tomé and Príncipe

In a country often reduced to chocolate and beaches, Neusa Sousa’s film offers something radical: a mirror held up to everyday life.

Diaspora Aesthetics

Between Shores and Systems: Where the Coquí Sings

Kongo Square Studio brings rhythm, research, and reciprocity to the centre of a quietly radical design practice.