In this presentation, Maria Vaz shares her artistic practice based on confrontations and interventions within the Public Archive of the City of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. How can images and events from the present act as visual "triggers" to reorganize and subvert historical documents? Grounded in the methodological notion of anachronism, and by actively employing the gestures of situating, distancing, and moving, the presentation explores how contemporary visual creations fracture official narratives of progress. By looking at the archive through the urgency of the present, the artistic gesture operates as a powerful ally in confronting the theatricality of the state and unlearning sovereign institutional narratives.

Maria Vaz is a visual artist and researcher, holding a master’s degree and a PhD researcher in Visual Arts at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), with a period as a visiting researcher at the Freie Universität Berlin. Her work explores the relationships between memory, territory, and the imaginary, the intersections between image and word, engaging in a dialogue with public and private archives. With numerous exhibitions in Brazil and abroad, she was nominated for the PIPA Prize in 2023, and has received the 5th Décio Noviello Photography Prize, the 16th Funarte Marc Ferrez Photography Prize, and the 8th and 9th Pierre Verger National Photography Prize. She has published three photobooks, two in partnership with Bárbara Lissa, with whom she has also participated in several exhibitions and forms the duo Paisagens Móveis (Moving Landscapes), which since 2017 explores the relationship between art and ecology.