Akakor: Curated by Kiki Mazzucchelli & Maria do Carmo

Akakor is one of three cities built thousands of years ago by an ancient civilization deep in the Amazon jungle. Its history was immortalized in the book “Chronicle of Akakor,” published in 1976 by the German journalist Karl Brugger. He had heard about it a few years earlier from a man named Tatunca Nara, the only (self-proclaimed) descendant of that tribe known. Even though many of the claims made by Nara were, at the very least, suspicious, this did not stop adventurers and curious travelers from around the world from journeying in search of this lost civilization. Nor were they deterred by the fact that the self-proclaimed indigenous man had a European appearance, spoke fluent German, and broken Portuguese.

Over the years, Nara became associated with a series of sinister episodes involving the death and disappearance of people who accompanied him on failed expeditions in search of Akakor. It was eventually revealed that Tatunca Nara was, in fact, Günther Hauck, a German who had fled his native country to avoid imprisonment for failing to pay family support.

This group exhibition employs the great farce of Akakor as an allegory for charlatanism in the art world. It aims to investigate the different methods employed by artists to deceive, mock, and mislead their audience through conceptual or formal strategies. In the works gathered here, charlatanism is used in approaches that raise doubts and questions about subjects as diverse as the notion of authenticity in contemporary art production, the thin line between fiction and documentary, and the gaps in perception, among many others.

Curated by Kiki Mazzucchelli and Maria do Carmo M. P. de Pontes, the exhibition brings together works by Agnieszka Kurant (Lodz, Poland, 1978. Lives in New York), David Lamelas (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1946. Lives between Los Angeles, Brussels, and Berlin), Elena Damiani (Lima, Peru, 1979. Lives in Copenhagen), Felipe Cohen (São Paulo, Brazil, 1976. Lives in São Paulo), Felipe Ehrenberg (Tlacopac, Mexico, 1943. Lives in Mexico City), Francis Alÿs (Antwerp, Belgium, 1959. Lives in Mexico City), Frank & Robbert // Robbert & Frank (Ghent, Belgium, 1989/1989. Live in Ghent), João Maria Gusmão + Pedro Paiva (Lisbon, Portugal, 1979/1977. Live in Lisbon), John Smith (Walthamstow, United Kingdom, 1952. Lives in London), Luis Ospina (Santiago de Cali, Colombia, 1949. Lives in Bogotá), Marcius Galan (Indianapolis, USA, 1972. Lives in São Paulo), Martin Creed (Wakefield, United Kingdom, 1968. Lives in London), Nelson Leirner (São Paulo, Brazil, 1932. Lives in Rio de Janeiro), Pilvi Takala (Helsinki, Finland, 1981. Lives between Helsinki and Istanbul), Raphael Hefti (Biel, Switzerland, 1978. Lives between London and Zurich), and Stefan Burger (Baden, Germany, 1977. Lives in Zurich), among others.

Akakor
Curated by Kiki Mazzucchelli & Maria do Carmo M. P. de Pontes