Shards, Monsters and Prosthesis

The Relevance of Collage in the Work of Brazilian Contemporary Artists

Authors

  • Luiz Renato Montone Pera Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35699/2238-2046.2025.59329

Keywords:

collage, necropolitics, dialectical image, Posthumanism, new materialism

Abstract

To reassemble the historical narrative, it is necessary to destroy it, to operate from its shards, warns Walter Benjamin. The artistic works analyzed here produce mnemonic puzzles that we do not know whether are under construction or in ruins, an entropic impetus that is, precisely, the central nerve of collage. Through case studies and textual experimentation with the glossary format, this critical essay aims to build significant constellations composed of different materialities – discursive, temporal, territorial, corporal –, engaging with fragmentation. Drawing from artistic and theoretical sources, from Benjamin to posthumanism and new materialism, necropolitics, gore capitalism, and my own artistic practice, I seek to closely follow Benjamin’s strategy, to put the method of the dialectical image into practice.

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Author Biography

  • Luiz Renato Montone Pera, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

    Artista, pesquisador e professor adjunto do Instituto de Artes da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). Concluiu recentemente pesquisas de pós-doutorado na University of the Arts London (UAL), no Reino Unido, com bolsa do CNPq, e na Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo (FAU-USP). Participa de exposições coletivas e individuais, residências artísticas e projetos para espaços públicos, no Brasil e no exterior. É doutor, mestre e bacharel em Artes Visuais pela Escola de Comunicações e Artes da USP.

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Published

2025-09-13

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 34 (2025): maio/ago

Section

Articles - Open section

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Copyright (c) 2025 Luiz Renato Montone Pera

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How to Cite

Shards, Monsters and Prosthesis: The Relevance of Collage in the Work of Brazilian Contemporary Artists. PÓS: Journal of the Arts Postgraduation Program at EBA/UFMG, Belo Horizonte, v. 15, n. 34, p. 10–35, 2025. DOI: 10.35699/2238-2046.2025.59329. Disponível em: https://periodicos.ufmg.br/index.php/revistapos/article/view/59329. Acesso em: 5 feb. 2026.