Moacir dos Anjos ///

even in the clearest of images something unknown remains

The medium of expression used by Rosângela Rennó in her work is nearly always photography, although sometimes she makes use of text or video. Rarely, however, does she take photographs herself. She prefers to draw on the vast inventory of already-existing images that can be found anywhere, investigating, in various ways, their possible and fluctuating meanings in the organisation of everyday conflict and of affection. This procedure presupposes not only the fact that photographs are kept in archives, but also the intention of laying bare the ethics underlying the production and use of such images. Unhampered by the pretensions to certitude that scientific discourse claims – guided first and foremost by her openness to the uncertain – she builds up an archaeology and a genealogy of photography, situating it as an integral part of a system of knowledge and values that anchors forms of power in society, be they clearly defined or more indistinct. Her main strategy for doing this is to present photographs, which she collects from different sources and chooses for varying motives, in a way that makes them appear uncanny to the eye, even though they are familiar or banal. It is when the images are made opaque through this displacement that their meanings can be renewed.