Biography

“Isabel Gouvêa was born in Sao Paulo in 1953. She holds a Master’s degree in Visual Arts and is a photographer, curator, educator, researcher and manager of socio-cultural projects.
She has lived and worked in Salvador, Brazil since 1978. She was an active member of the FOTOBAHIA movement between 1979 and 1986, where she organised and participated in exhibitions, workshops and debates. She worked as a photographer for the inventory of the historical centre of Salvador by the Instituto de Patrimônio Histórico da Bahia. Gouvêa also worked for more than twenty years in the multimedia sector of Teatro Castro Alves, documenting the artistic programming and directly accompanying the TCA Ballet. In recent years, she has organised two major solo exhibitions, presenting her extensive photographic research in important cultural centres in Salvador, São Paulo and Brasilia. She won a prize at the Salão Baiano de Artes Plásticas of the Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia in 1989, and has various works in several national collections, including the Espaço Pierre Verger de Fotografia da Bahia, in Salvador. She currently coordinates the education sector at the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia.”

Encantamento: Celebrações para Iemanjá em Salvador (1995 – aujourd’hui)

“Encantamento: Celebrações para Iemanjá em Salvador (Enchantement : Fêter Iemanjá à Salvador) is the result of a research project that has been carried out for over twenty years in Salvador, on the island of Itaparica and in the city of Cachoeira, in the Bahian Recôncavo. This project poses a photographic look at the Iemanjá celebrations. Iemanjá is an Afro-Brazilian divinity who is celebrated every year on February 2nd.
Through her photographic eye, Isabel Gouvêa tries to represent the unspeakable: How can images approach what we cannot see? How can they evoke a myth and move towards the imaginary, where there is neither true nor false, where all intrigues are possible and legitimate? “