Jimmie Durham’s Untitled, 1997, is our current highlight as it is on display in the exhibition “Casa das Novidades: from the CGD Collection”, open at the Centro Cultural Raiano, Idanha-a-Nova, between October 4 and December 6. This exhibition is part of the cycle Desconcentrar, a project that promotes artistic creation and production in areas of low population density such as Caramulo, Abrantes, and Guarda. In this second stage of the Cycle, curator João Francisco Reis selected artists – Adriana João, the Adufe players of the Idanha-a-Nova Folkloric Group, and Inês Mendes Leal – to create original works in artistic residency, designed specifically for this occasion.

Jimmie Durham was an American artist, poet, and essayist who claimed Cherokee ancestry, although he was never officially recognized by any community of that Native American Nation. Despite this controversy, Durham played an active role in the civil rights movement, especially from the 1980s onward, when his artistic practice gained recognition. The objects and texts he produced explore the deconstruction of the dominant view of Western society, using mystical elements and references to Native identity as critical and symbolic filters.

Untitled, 1997 was donated by the artist to the Collection Caixa Geral de Depósitos when he participated in “Pode a Arte ser Afirmativa?”, an exhibition curated by António Pinto Ribeiro – then Culturgest’s artistic director. The show consisted of flags hoisted on flagpoles located on the CGD head office building’s west façade pavement. The flag created by Durham displays the portrait of a middle-aged man, who looks directly at the viewer. The hypnotic pose, the frankness, and the formal hat and clothes show an ordinary, working man. By choosing to represent this figure on a flag, Durham subverts its traditional symbolic meaning by presenting a critique of visual communication conventions and deconstructing the codes that rule institutional representation.

Jimmie Durham's work has been widely recognized, and he was awarded the Golden Lion award at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019. He participated in the prestigious Documenta IX in Kassel, Germany, in 1992, solidifying his presence on the international contemporary art scene. A retrospective exhibition entitled “Jimmie Durham: At the Center of the World”was presentedat the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, in 2017. Subsequently the show travelled to the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and Remai Modern, Saskatoon, Canada. This retrospective exhibition reignited the debate surrounding Durham's claims about his Cherokee ancestry, a subject that followed his artistic and public path over the years.

Hugo Dinis