RAFAELA ALVES FERNANDES

This research aims to debate the status of art in the face of violence, suffering and pain, questioning the legitimacy of the aesthetic judgment of certain images, as well as a certain ethics of representation that refers us to the concept of the sublime, widely revalued in modern and contemporary art, which makes use of the repugnant and the unpleasant in the field of aesthetic contemplation. Based on a selection of works by Alfredo Jaar, Rosângela Rennó and Thomas Hirschhorn, which question the presence and absence of certain images and their effects on our behaviour in the contemporary world, the aim is to examine the critical procedures used to focus on the traumatic events represented and also the modes of production of the visible, especially in the daily spectacle of trauma. The intention is to discuss, thus, the new configurations of the visible and the sensitive, and the possibility of restoring confidence in the emancipating power of images, pointing to the co-responsibility of the viewer in the face of naturalized violence.