Afro‐Atlantic Histories Exhibition and Its “Mestizo and Anthropophagic Toolbox of Sorts”

ABSTRACT In the curatorial text for Afro‐Atlantic Histories , Adriano Pedrosa, artistic director of the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), critiques art history as a colonial apparatus deeply intertwined with the institutional structure of museums, proposing a “ mestizo and anthropophagic toolbox of sorts” as a means of transforming museums into more inclusive and plural spaces. The exhibition was a milestone in Brazilian curatorial practice, combining artistic and political aims to highlight Afro‐Atlantic identities and histories. In view of the curatorial practice of Afro‐Atlantic Histories and its choice to cross temporalities and geographies, but also to include works by artists of different ethnic‐racial identities in its axes, rooms, walls, and murals, the aim of this article lies in thinking about the “usefulness” of this “ mestizo and anthropophagic toolbox of sorts” in the service of a decolonial practice that can “cannibalize” the museum in order to make it more porous to decolonial practices.