Insurgent silence:

Visual erasures and the decolonization of the gaze in contemporary art

Authors

Abstract

This article examines decolonial visual practices that employ silence, erasure, and opacity as critical strategies against the coloniality of the gaze, taking as its main corpus the works "Bastidores" (1997), by Rosana Paulino, and a set of visual productions by Denilson Baniwa that mobilize strategies of erasure, reappropriation, and opacity as a critique of the coloniality of the gaze. Methodologically, it combines critical discourse analysis and decolonial studies to explore how these practices destabilize hegemonic regimes of visibility and challenge cultural institutions. Findings reveal that insurgent silence is not absence but a political gesture that interrogates transparency as an emancipatory paradigm, highlighting tensions between institutional capture and epistemic resistance. The study concludes that decolonizing the sensible requires reimagining memory infrastructures beyond representational logic. Keywords: Coloniality of the gaze; Insurgent silence; Decolonial art.

Author Biographies

Tiago Negrão Andrade, FAAC/UNESP

Doutorando no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Mídia e Tecnologia da FAAC – Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Bacharel em Comunicação Social, com habilitação em Relações Públicas, pela Universidade de Sorocaba (Uniso).

Maria Cristina Gobbi, FAAC / Unesp

Pesquisadora Livre-Docente em História da Comunicação e da Cultura Midiática pela UNESP pela Unesp. Chefa no Departamento de Jornalismo e professora dos cursos de Graduação e de Pós-Graduação da mesma instituição. Bolsista de Produtividade do CNPq e Bolsista Fapesp (Processo 22/08397-6). Diretora Administrativa da ALAIC. Integra o INCT Caleidoscópio.

Published

2026-07-01