As Flames Engulfed the River (2018)

Video essay

17 min.

This video essay starts from an examination of the presence of the peacock flower (also known as ayoowiri) in the proximity of the Marechal Zenóbio da Costa Military Police battalion in the district of Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro. During the Brazilian military dictatorship, which ruled the country between 1964 and 1985, the complex was transformed into the local headquarters of DOI-CODI, the intelligence and repression agency of the regime. Within those walls, countless people were brutally tortured. The film engages with this brutal — yet recent — aspect of Brazilian history, linking it to the broader history of colonialism and sexual violence.

Installation photos by Tomáš Souček.