With utmost autonomy and independence, Juraci Dórea (1944, Feira de Santana, Brazil) has created a radical output that is aware of contemporary trends and debates, yet deeply and programmatically rooted in Brazilian Backlands living and culture. In one of his most iconic series, the Estandartes do Jacuípe [Jacuípe Flags], initiated in 1975, Dórea appropriates leather working techniques and decorative motifs often used in saddles and cowboy attire, sublimated here into objects devoid of utilitarian or practical purposes. A few years later, in 1982, Dórea kicked off a project that would take on near-mythical overtones: Projeto Terra [Earth Project], where leather is again employed, but this time in conjunction with tree branches and other landscape elements, to create sculptures to be installed within the Bahia hinterlands. A video and photographs are the only existing records of these actions and works. Around that same time, in addition to the paintings on canvas and plaques in the series Histórias do Sertão [Stories from the Backlands], Dórea created a series of interventions featuring similar motifs directly upon the façades of houses in different villages. Thus, Dórea established an unexpected dialogue with international experiments such as the Land Art movement, with which his work has been associated, while reaffirming his belief that “the Backlands are a big museum.”

Jacopo Crivelli Visconti

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