PRAIA FORMOSA

Muanza, a Bantu woman from the Kingdom of Kongo enslaved in 19th century Brazil, time travels to the present day, plagued by gentrification and historical erasure. Through memories and objects, she searches for answers from her ancestors and tries to reconnect with her slave sister, with whom she shared roots, destiny and an escape plan. For her fiction debut, Julia De Simone draws on her research into the urban transformations of Rio de Janeiro, in particular the area known as “Little Africa”, and the indelible imprint of colonialism. With an interplay between past and present, history and fable, this speculative account counters the official denial of deterritorialisation with aesthetic richness and documentary-like precision. No matter what image is sold to tourists, memory cannot be erased.