Paulo Nazareth

On the upper level of the Punta della Dogana, Brazilian artist Paulo Nazareth invites visitors to follow him on his journeys. For more than fifteen years, he has been methodically travelling across the Americas and the African continent, walking mostly barefoot to step on the same soil and pay respect to his enslaved ancestors who were deprived of footwear as a symbol of subjugation. This ongoing performance reveals how colonial cartography and systemic racism have shaped the landscapes of modernity. The artist's deliberate, slow journeys transform travels into a form of storytelling, revealing how movement engraves stories into bodies, languages and borders. The exhibition draws on an exceptional group of works by the artist held by the Pinault Collection.