Art That Looks Like Art, Art That Looks Like Life

Perspectives on Activism in Brazil Through the Practice of Christus Nóbrega 

The relationship between art and life has been a central issue in the artistic field, challenging the boundaries between creation and everyday experience. When art is inserted into reality, it strains discourses, shifts meanings, and intervenes in the systems that structure society. Brazilian artist Christus Nóbrega investigates this potential for friction, developing artistic strategies that infiltrate institutional circuits—such as media, educational institutions, and political and judicial institutions—to question, subvert, and re-signify their discourses and functions. His practice mobilizes the participation of figures occupying these spaces, generating symbolic shifts and amplifying the reverberations of art in the public sphere. In this talk, he presents recent works that operate along this logic, including actions developed in dialogue with the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the President of the Supreme Court, Luís Roberto Barroso, and other institutional agents.

Christus Nóbrega is an artist and professor at the Department of Visual Arts (VIS) at the University of Brasília (UnB). His multidisciplinary practice spans photography, video, performance, installation, and new technologies, exploring the intersections between art, politics, and culture. He coordinated UnB’s Distance Learning Program in the Amazon, where he developed an artist residency fostering exchanges between artists and local communities. His work has been exhibited in major institutions in Brazil, and in 2024, he was commissioned by the Brazilian Presidency to create the official gift for Chinese President Xi Jinping. His works are part of collections such as Fondation Cartier (Paris), CAFA (Beijing), and the National Museum (Brasília). Twice nominated for the PIPA Prize (2017, 2019)—Brazil’s most prestigious contemporary art award—he represented Brazil in China (2015) and Australia (2019) through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Artistic Residency Program. Currently, he is sponsored at ANU by the CASS Global South Visiting Fellowship and supported by the Associate Dean (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access). He is also collaborating with Maya Haviland on the Scaffolding Cultural Co-Creativity project, exploring tools, methods, and pedagogical approaches to support co-creative practices.

Presented by the ANU Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies' Scaffolding Cultural Co-Creativity Project and the Global South Visiting Fellowship funded by the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences.