Catalogue > At random

A birdwatcher tries to record the scarce birdsongs in a deactivated mining area, while a team of ethnobotanists faces the challenges of storing one of the largest natural history collections in the world. Scientific practices from the past and present meet in the investigation of a 17th century catalogue of Brazilian plants and animals published in Amsterdam as a product of the Dutch expedition of artists and scientists in the country.

Daniel Frota de Abreu is a visual artist and filmmaker whose practice investigates the role of fabulation in the documentation of natural and historical events. Having a background in typography, his works address the shape of discourses, how history is recorded and how documents can be read. His works have been shown at institutions and festivals such as Videobrasil Festival, Clermont- Ferrand International Short Film Festival, It’s All True Documentary Festival, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Kunsthaus NRW Kornelimünster, Fundação Iberê Camargo, among others. In 2021-22 he was artist-in-residence at Jan van Eyck Academie (Maastricht) and in 2022-23, a research fellow at Het Nieuwe Instituut (Rotterdam). He also runs of the visual communication studio Interno Bruto based in Rio de Janeiro.