“Muita coisa importante falta nome.” This phrase was spoken by Riobaldo, a former jagunço who recalls his battles, fears, and repressed love in Grande Sertão: Veredas by Guimarães Rosa, a classic of Mineiro literature. For other things, however, names are abundant. One of these, unfortunately, is violence, which has many faces and strategies.

When discussing popular art, one term becomes fundamental – and, like all concepts, it is contested here: the people. In A Ferro e Fogo (By Fire and Sword), we express our praise for the Brazilian population's insubordination through its various urgencies, causes, and representations – here, the plural and diverse colors and paints, safeguarded by the International Museum of Naïve Art of Brazil, highlight the risk of generalizations. The French term “naïf” literally means naïve. Our invitation to those visiting this exhibition is to question this naïveté and to recognize the depth of the critiques present in these paintings. Just as in popular uprisings, paints are a means to change the world – trusting in art, memory, and representation.

The history of our country, Brazil, is marked by far from naïve struggles. Numerous revolutions, revolts, and conflicts shape the chapters of our histories. The image of a peaceful country with a cordial population is shattered daily on cell phone screens or newspaper pages. It could be no different: marked by colonial violence, extractivism, the project to maintain inequality, and debates about a people's legitimacy in the face of power monopolies, this history, if told peacefully, would ignore the force of a population that dared to fight for its importance and power.

By Fire and Sword, the title of this exhibition, serves as a name that represents two: “A ferro e fogo não dá / Com tanta indiferença vendo a vida passar / Tropeços e tropeços, pedras no meu caminho.” A song from the popular imagination marking the transition from the 20th to the 21st century, a massive hit by the duo Zezé di Camargo and Luciano, the song is a phenomenon of mass culture: it narrates the miseries that afflict an individual’s life. From the harsh life in the social realm to the desire for a loved one in the personal sphere. But this expression also gave title to another work with historical proximity to the sertanejo duo. Released in 1996, A Ferro e Fogo, a book by Warren Dean, tells the story and devastation of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. The book reminds us that one of the first acts of the Portuguese upon arriving in Brazil in 1500 was to cut down a tree to build the cross for the first mass. This act, considered prophetic, was, according to the author, the first victim of European occupation of the Atlantic Forest, which covered much of Brazilian territory. In the five centuries that followed, each new economic cycle of the country meant another step in the destruction of a forest of one million square kilometers – now reduced to remnants. This fact concerns not only millions of Brazilians but the entire international community that recognizes the crucial role this land plays in preserving biomes and global living conditions.

By Fire and Sword stands as a tribute to the insubordination of the Brazilian people who, through different economic cycles and histories, have exercised their alliances in common struggles – from maintaining their working conditions to respecting their customs and beliefs; from preserving lands and animals to protecting against police violence. This fierce spirit, present in restless minds and hearts, has enabled achievements that have kept the status of popular culture – a broad, complex, and stigmatized term – alive like fire, despite attempts to tame the plurality of Brazilian popular culture – here, the metaphor of iron appears under arms.

In this exhibition, we can see how landscapes, geographies, and representations of nature are marked not only by natural richness but also by human action, increasingly complicating the ideas of nature and culture. In this sense, we observe a country marked by the strength of its rich flora and fauna, but also by the effort of workers to build a fairer country in terms of opportunities. The artworks produced by self-taught artists, who did not have access to formal art education, although created in the past, seek to give density to the intense present. It was in the same book by Guimarães Rosa that we read: “– One day, killing people will fall out of use.”