French writer Victor Hugo said that “Hope would be the greatest of human forces, if despair did not exist.” The phrase is exemplary to illustrate part of the work of the artist Nazaré Soares, who in addition to her individual career, is also part of the collectives Levante Nacional Trova and Artistas Latinas. Visual artist, teacher, mother of an artist and with a personal story punctuated by the tragic loss of a daughter due to feminicide, Nazaré Soares transforms the word despair into an Awakening.

The masculine noun despair, among other meanings, means the “state of consciousness that judges a situation to be hopeless; hopelessness.” It is impossible to imagine Nazaré's ordeal, as well as that of many mothers, brothers, fathers and family members of the victims of a very serious and permanent problem in our country: Nazaré Soares refuses the despair of this straitjacket and sets out for his freedom in the form of art.

Nazaré has been creating a series of sculptures and installations in which the filo, in the form of mosquito nets or like cloaks that float over things, is sewn with dozens of African Abayomi dolls: in Yourubá, Abayomi means “precious encounter” or “the one who brings happiness". Among these works is “Desperta”, which is now part of the Calmon-Stock Collection.

Legend has it that the Abayomi were raised by African mothers during the voyages of slave ships between Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ivory Coast to Brazil. They tore up their clothes to create the dolls with just braids and knots, the aim of which was to alleviate the suffering of the children during the terrible journey – the dolls also functioned as a kind of amulet for protection.

The symbolism of the Abayomi, sewn in this delicate and soft fabric, brings a world of sweetness and protection – and the fact that the works in the series allow direct interaction with the viewer adds a corporeal sensitivity to the adjectives. Furthermore: the small mirrors embedded inside the work Desperta also give us a feeling of hope, in addition to welcoming, care... It is possible to risk saying that, in her works, Nazaré Soares unfolds some issues that permeated the interests of Lygia Clark, such as malleability, nourishment, soft matter, non-objects, and even – why not? – the creation of a kind of anthropophagic post-Baba: in the sense that, instead of the hardness, pain, and destruction of the meshes proposed by Lygia, in those of Nazaré Soares the intestines have already been externalized. The body, a desert without entrails, is received in the hope of an awakening.