About the project

In “Erased”, Paulo Simão refers to Robert Rauschenberg’s “Erased De Kooning Drawing” and manipulates images from the US Library of Congress to reflect on ways of remembering and the role of the archive in shaping history. By erasing the images, he gives them additional meaning, demonstrating that removal can reveal just as much. The isolated pedestal image suggests an anti-monument to values and knowledge that the initial statues represent.

Three years after the invasion of the US Capitol we start seeing the questions Paulo Simão want to address. How should we deal with monuments that celebrate historical events that clash with a contemporary and humanistic vision of society? How do democracies deal with their colonial past? What is the role of schools, educators, cultural workers and the media today? The exhibition is sponserd by the BAT Foundation.