Nome Próprio, Sasha Huber | Rio de Janeiro, 2019

How do places get their names? What does it mean to preserve someone’s legacy by attaching their name to a public space? And what stories — or silences — do these acts reveal?

These questions have been central to the practice of Swiss-Haitian artist Sasha Huber for more than a decade. They are also at the heart of her exhibition, “Nome Próprio”, opening on June 1, 2019, at the Centro Municipal de Arte Hélio Oiticica in Rio de Janeiro.

Huber’s interest in the politics of memory began in 2007, when she joined the international campaign Demounting Louis Agassiz. Agassiz (1807–1873) was a Swiss scientist whose theories were instrumental in shaping the racial segregation ideologies of the 19th century. Despite widespread criticism of his work today, Agassiz’s name continues to mark public spaces and geographical landmarks around the world — from Agassizhorn, a mountain in the Swiss Alps, to Praça Agassiz in Rio’s Méier neighborhood, and the Furnas de Agassiz in the Itanhangá district.

Agassiz’s ties to Brazil stretch back to the 1860s, when he traveled through Rio de Janeiro and the Amazon as part of the Thayer Expedition, producing photographs of men and women framed through the pseudoscientific lens of racial hierarchies.

He undertook similar projects in the United States. Among the most notorious images from this work is a portrait of Renty, a man of Congolese origin who was enslaved at the time. Now held by Harvard’s Peabody Museum, the image has become the subject of a legal battle between the university and Renty’s descendants. As The New York Times asked in a March 20, 2019 article: “Who should own the images of enslaved people?”

In 2008, Sasha Huber responded with one of her most powerful performances. She climbed Agassizhorn, more than 3,000 meters above sea level, to honor Renty and his erased story — symbolically renaming the mountain Rentyhorn in his memory.

“It’s essential to recognize how struggles over collective memory are increasingly at the center of political debates in Brazil as well,” says Sabrina Moura, the exhibition’s curator. “One of the most powerful examples is the movement to rename public spaces around the world in honor of Marielle Franco.”

In dialogue with these acts of remembrance, Huber presents a portrait of Marielle Franco, exhibited in Rio for the first time as part of her ongoing series Shooting Stars. This series honors victims of politically, ethnically, ideologically, or economically motivated violence. It also includes portraits of environmental activist Chico Mendes (1944–1988) and construction worker Amarildo Dias de Souza (1966–2013).

The exhibition is accompanied by a public program curated by Lorena Vicini, featuring talks, workshops, guided tours, and collaborative labs. These activities invite visitors to reflect on how history and memory are constructed — and how art can surface hidden narratives, challenge dominant histories, and open space for new forms of remembrance.