Exhibition by Brazilian artist Aline Xavier Mineiro
“Langsdorff Expedition. Before your Eyes” is an exhibition presented by the Brazilian Embassy in Moscow and the Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve, created by Brazilian artist Aline Xavier Mineiro. It shows an artistic interpretation of the 1822-1829 expedition by Georg von Langsdorff, explorer, natural scientist, and Russian consul in Rio de Janeiro. Having spent several years in the Amazon jungle, he returned with a collection that was unrivalled at the time. As part of a three-month art residency in Tsaritsyno, Mineiro studied numerous artifacts including documents, maps, drawings, herbarium, stuffed animals, and created a unique project at the intersection of art and science.
“The Langsdorff Expedition marks a defining moment of Brazilian identity, since its beginning almost coincides with the birth of independent Brazil,” says the Brazilian Ambassador to Moscow, Rodrigo Baena Soares. “By exploring the interior of Brazil, the expedition discovers totally new natural elements, expanding scientific knowledge about Brazilian tropical fauna and flora and making the nascent country aware of the extent of its natural heritage. To revisit the Langsdorff expedition is to revisit the essence of Brazil.”
The exhibition merges the findings of the first Russian expedition to Brazil undertaken in 1822-1829 and creative research by Aline Xavier Mineiro, who explored St. Petersburg museums and archives where the materials collected by Georg von Langsdorff have been kept for two centuries. Inspired by historical artefacts, Mineiro created the exhibits for Tsaritsyno.
“Art & Science is actively evolving and becoming part of museum spaces and exhibition projects,” says Elizaveta Fokina, General Director of the Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve. “Interdisciplinarity is a buzz word that defines the contemporary world. The amalgam of scientific and artistic cognition enriches research and draws attention to important contemporary topics. For our museum, Langsdorff Expedition. Before your Eyes is the first experience of working with such an exhibition format.”
Like most geographical expeditions, Georg von Langsdorff’s campaign blended academic and cultural research. The expedition included both scientists and artists. German painter Johann Moritz Rugendas, French painter Adrien Taunay and French artist and inventor Hercule Florence managed to capture the fantastic nature and life of the indigenous peoples of Brazil, their culture and traditions. The expedition was sponsored by the Russian crown: Alexander I allocated hundreds of thousands of roubles to the researchers, and throughout its duration, all collected artifacts were transported to St. Petersburg. The Langsdorff’s expedition played an important role in the history of Brazil. In 2022, the 200th anniversary of the country’s independence, Aline Xavier Mineiro’s exhibition project brings back the memory of the journey one of the most important scientific expeditions ever undertaken, for its ethnographic, cartographic, botanical and zoological contribution, besides the artistic treasure of the collection and illustration of the landscape, fauna and flora over the thousands of kilometers travelled.
“One of the main goals of the expedition was to create an inventory of everything that appeared before the explorers’ eyes,” the artist says. “The expedition members returned with incredible, unique information about the tribes that inhabited Brazil, about plants and animals that were first discovered and named during this expedition, and new maps that covered the existing blank spots. The expedition is the result of an international effort of scientists and artists from Russia, Brazil, France and Germany. The documents found are in four languages (Russian, Portuguese, French and German) and from different points of view (economic, political, geographical). As an artist and researcher, I found this dialogue between science and art very contemporary and interesting.”
Aline Xavier Mineiro suggested documenting her own expedition to Russia, where she worked with the Langsdorff archives kept in Saint Petersburg: in the Komarov Botanical Institute Museum, the Zoological Institute RAS, the RAS Archive, Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian State Naval Archive. All the documents and artefacts obtained and sent to Russia upon the expedition’s completion were forgotten and lost for more than a century. No one studied them, and only in the Soviet years, thanks to St. Petersburg historian Boris Komissarov, the Langsdorff’s archives were thoroughly researched, systematized and published.
“It is a great honour for me to have access to this unique archive,” Aline says. “For my project, I chose materials that have never been exposed to the public and used the techniques and methods that were employed by the expedition members. For example, Hercule Florence, considered one of the fathers of photography, used a unique method of paper print fixing, and my artwork explores his approach. In his diaries, Florence also published another invention: a way to document sounds coming from animals as musical scores. Motivated by an “orchestra of birds” that he heard in the Amazon he became the pioneer on what today we call Bioacustics. I’m not just retelling their stories in my own words, I have worked to highlight their discoveries, mostly ignored by the European gaze inspite of is relevance. I also worked to make the Brazil that appeared before their eyes visible again, especially the richness of our nature and the culture of our indigenous and people of color.”
To create video and sound installations for Langsdorff Expedition. Before your Eyes, Aline learned to work with developers used by the first photographers, write in ink identical in composition to the one used in the XIX century, and studied taxidermy techniques that were used in expeditions of that time. Working with the Langsdorff’s archive, the artist used various modern methods of image processing: photogrammetry, 3D scanning and high-resolution video capture. Aline describes the exhibition as entertaining, and even playful: each visitor will be able to make their own small discovery. The exhibition will unfold in a darkened space filled with objects that can be studied endlessly.
“I come from Minas Gerais, a mountainous state in the southeast of Brazil”, Aline explains. “Historically, it is from Minas Gerais that many scientific expeditions to remote areas began. I absorbed the spirit of adventure since childhood and associate myself with it in many ways. If we were in 1822 and I was invited to take part in an expedition, I would have agreed without much hesitation.“
Aline Xavier Mineiro (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) is a visual artist and filmmaker who graduated as an expert in contemporary art. Her accolades include the Foco Bradesco ArtRio Award (2018) and the 19th Videobrasil Award (2015). She took part in the Flaherty Seminar Film Festival (2021) and the art residencies Akademie Solitude (Germany, 2022), Instituto Sacatar (Bahia, 2019), Skissernas Museum (Sweden, 2019), Thami Mniele (Amsterdam, 2017), Kooshk Residency (Iran, 2016). Her works were exhibited at MAR – Rio Art Museum, CCSP – São Paulo Cultural Center, SESC 24 de Março, Pampulha Art Museum, Inhotim, Cine Humberto Mauro – Palácio das Artes, Itaú Cultural, among other institutions. In 2006, she founded the studio 88 Arte Contemporânea that produces films and digital art. alinex.com.br
The research and exhibition project by Aline Xavier Mineiro became possible with the support of the Embassy of Brazil in Moscow and the PJSC “PhosAgro”. The partner of the exhibition is the Russian Academy of Sciences, including the Saint Petersburg Branch of its Archive.
Contributors
The Landsdorff Expedition. Before Your Eyes
Director General of the Tsaritsyno State Museum-Reserve
Elizaveta Fokina
Deputy Director General for Academic and Exhibition Work
Olga Dokuchaeva
Deputy Director General for Development, Communication and Project Management
Kamilya Baydildina
Head of the Exhibition Department
Viktoriya Petukhova
Chief Curator of the Collection
Elena Karasyova
Embassy of Brazil in the Russian Federation
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Brazil to the Russian Federation
Rodrigo Baena Soares
Minister Counsellor
Patricia Wagner Chiarello
Head of Cultural Section
Carlos Suzuki Amorim
Assistants
Natalia Armash, Darya Ryabova
Author of the Project
Aline Xavier Mineiro
Project Design
Maya Frolova
Project Supervisor
Nina Mochalova
Project Coordinator
Ekaterina Eliseeva
Project Team
Anastasiya Akulova, Natalia Aredova, Aleksandr Bezlepkin, Kirill Borzenkov, Aleksey Chervyakov, Lyubov Fedetskaya, Kseniya Kalchenko, Veronika Kandaurova, Aleksey Kazakov, Liliya Khafizova, Aleksandr Kozhokin, Irina Kravchenko, Aleksey Lizunov, Anna Luka, Ekaterina Pavlova, Olga Pugach, Yuliya Semyonova, Yuriy Shcherbakov, Lyudmila Shemrakova, Dmitriy Stepanov, Igor Tsykunov, Marina Volgina
Exhibition Custodian
Natalia Epifanova
Project Partner: Saint Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Director
Irina Tunkina
Project Members
Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg
Director Nikita Chernetsov
Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg
Director Dmitriy Geltman
Images Courtesy of
Russian State Archive of the Navy, Saint Petersburg
Director Valentin Smirnov
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Kunstkamera), Saint Petersburg
Director Andrey Golovnyov
Creation of Art Objects
Art Production
Anna Agafonova, Inna Alekseeva, Mikhail Bodukhin, Aleksandr Bodyakovskiy, Anastasiya Chaladze, Aleksandr Chermyanin, Lyudmila Frost, Sergey Kalinin, Olga Kvasova, Dmitriy Polyakov, Andrey Shagin, Grigoriy Tolchinskiy, Natalia Tsygankova, Ekaterina Vlasova
Multimedia Production
Ralph Antunes, Kid Azucrina, Pedro Maia de Brito, Natalia Fentisova, Gabriela Sá, Felipe Turcheti and 88 Arte Contemporânea art studio
Music Production
Carlos Amorim, Viktoriya Korolyova, Rafael Macedo, Darya Moroz-Khidasheli, Bruno Quaresma, Darya Vershinina, Egor Veselovskiy
Music Production
O Grivo Group
Taxidermy
Darya Alieva
Insurance of Museum Objects
Absolyut Strakhovaniye
Transportation of Museum Objects
Art-Paсking
Decoration Work
Sole Proprietor Maksim Dyachenko