SONGS OF HOPE
Songs of Hope brings together visual arts, poetry and music to explore power relations across two important moments in Brazil’s sociopolitical history: during the early military dictatorship in 1964, and contemporary Brazil in 2025. Grounded in Emily Yamamoto’s artistic research, the exhibition promotes South to South dialogues on the collaborative arts not only as a means of expression or resistance, but as a political practice that promotes critical hope, imagination and solidarity with minoritised peoples.
Informed by Paulo Freire’s concept of critical consciousness whereby the arts can be seen to foster an understanding of the self in relation with the world’s existing oppressive systems, this exhibition foregrounds collaborative multi-arts processes for social justice that emerge from dialogue and collective reflection as sites of inquiry, insight and transformation, guiding us towards a more equitable society.
The exhibition consists of three sections:
Songs of the Oppressed, Songs of Solidarity and Disonant Hues.
01
Songs of the Oppressed explores how the artists of the multimedia show, Opinião (1964) navigated, negotiated and practised collaborative artistic praxis that centred the common people - 'o povo', in the sociopolitical context of the early military dictatorship in Brazil.
02
Songs of Solidarity is a collaborative artistic research project conducted by Emily Yamamoto with four musician in Brazil, 2025-2026. The artists demonstrate the process of collaborative artistic praxis done in contemporary times that centers imagination, critical hope and solidarity, while navigating the complex and polarised realities we live in today.
03
Disonant Hues is a series of artistic reflections that documents Emily Yamamoto's journey in building critical consciousness of power relations as a woman of colour growing up in Australia and as a visible transcutltural researcher.