Rivers of Freedom: Decolonization is not a metaphor

Una mano sostiene un cartel grande con el texto en inglés: "DECOLONISATION IS NOT A METAPHOR" (La descolonización no es una metáfora), apareciendo detrás de unas colinas.
Una mujer joven con un kufiyya o pañuelo palestino cubriendo parte de su rostro con una mano, sostiene con la otra una bengala de humo de color magenta o rosa intenso en el aire, dominando el lado derecho.
En el lado izquierdo, una mujer indígena con tocado y maquillaje tradicional grita apasionadamente, con otras mujeres indígenas que marchan a su lado. Un cartel pequeño cercano dice "NÃO AO MARCO TEMPO" (No al Marco Temporal), en referencia a la ley brasileña.
Entre las manifestantes indígenas y palestina, hay grandes cajones con golosinas de colores, tipo gomitas, que se venden en un mercado callejero en Gaza durante la guerra.
En el centro, una imagen histórica en blanco y negro muestra a un grupo de mujeres palestinas de espalda caminando en el campo. — Descolonización no es una metáfora (I). Collage digital. Mariana Fossatti, 2025. CC BY-SA.

Decolonization is not a metaphor

This is a series of three digital collages that makes part of the exhibition Ríos de Libertad (Rivers of Freedom) at the Justiça Federal Cultural Center (CCJF) in Rio de Janeiro, featuring 14 artists, seven from Uruguay and seven from Brazil, and curated by Mauricio Planel.

With this series, I seek to explore what it means to celebrate 200 years of Uruguayan independence in a world where colonization is not a dark chapter that has been left behind, but rather a process that continues to unfold in many parts of the globe.

As it began its life as an independent state, the territory we now call Uruguay continued its process of internal colonization and built a white, European national identity for a country “without indigenous peoples,” based on the physical and cultural genocide of its original inhabitants.

200 years later, the country’s authorities not only fail to question that genocide or the continued existence and resistance of indigenous peoples, they are also incapable of uttering the word “genocide” to refer to the crimes against humanity currently being committed in Gaza.

These collages are inspired by my reaction to the proposal that Uruguay could offer aid to Palestine by “training young Palestinians in the creation of startups, especially in sustainable agriculture” (sic.) in the West Bank. This declaration of good intentions, from June 2025, served to support the Uruguayan authorities’ position that there is no need to continue discussing the use of the word genocide (or to take any action consistent with it).

En el centro, una mujer de piel morena y arrugada con un hiyab amarillo y negro, vestida de negro con unos destellos claros que hacen pensar que la tela es un cielo nocturno. Está parada y abraza con sus manos la cabeza de una cabra marrón. Tiene los ojos cerrados y su rostro refleja serenidad pero también tristeza. Esta figura está superpuesta sobre cuatro cuadrantes asimétricos con distintas imágenes que componen el fondo. A la derecha, una pila dd nopales (Opuntia) inmaduros de color verde y amarillo. Arriba a la izquierda, bocetos de líneas finas en rosa neón superpuestas a un paisaje grisáceo; arriba a la derecha, alambre de púas en escala de grises. Arriba a la izquierda una foto en sepia de una mujer charrúa en campo, superpuesta a una foto de una muestra de trigo de un libro de investigaciones sobre la agricultura palestina Abajo a la izquierda, hay un patrón de bordado tatriz palestino. — Descolonización no es una metáfora (II). Collage digital. Mariana Fossatti, 2025. CC BY-SA.

Instead of acknowledging the ongoing genocide, let alone the occupation, apartheid, and continued colonization of Palestine, this proposal for “aid” contributes to obscuring the impact of Israel’s violence and systematic dispossession.

Furthermore, it omits why Palestinian agricultural production and rural life need to be the subject of such “aid”. At the same time, it renders invisible the Palestinian people’s profound agricultural knowledge, their own sustainable solutions, and their resistance to abandoning their land.

Desde arriba a la derecha una mano entra en el collage, sosteniendo una frutilla o fresa fresca que parece colgar sobre una foto antigua, coloreada, del Río Jordán, que se funde con un mapa de Palestina de principios del siglo XX. La frutilla, el río y el mapa están atravesados por hilos color rosa y negro. Alrededor de la frutilla hay pequeñas manchas rojas. Partiendo del centro hacia la izquierda hay una foto histórica en blanco y negro de una mujer beduina, tomada en un plano medio, centrado en su figura desde la cintura hacia arriba. Viste traje tradicional y su cuerpo está en una postura erguida con un brazo cruzado sobre el abdomen y el otro cayendo hacia un lado. La expresión facial es serena, denotando un sentido de calma y dignidad. Superpuesta con una leve transparencia a esta foto hay una foto más pequeña,color sepia, de una mujer charrúa con una expresión y pose similar. Alrededor de las fotos, desde el centro y hacia la esquina superior derecha, se ve un bordado palestino de patrones geométricos de colores rosas y violetas. En la parte inferior derecha hay un texto de principios del siglo XX que analiza las riquezas botánicas y agrícolas de Palestina en un tono crítico hacia la población originaria, con una perspectiva orientalista y colonial. Abajo al centro, otra mano ingresa al collage sosteniendo una mandarina cultivada en Gaza antes de la guerra. — Descolonización no es una metáfora (III). Collage digital. Mariana Fossatti, 2025. CC BY-SA.

With this collage series, which is not based on words or numbers, but rather on online image research from various open-access archives (see below), I hope to highlight this well-known but continually silenced history. I am also interested in establishing connections with our own past of indigenous genocide and cultural erasure in Uruguay and the region, which is why I draw on images from the Charrúa Memory Archive and the 2023 National March of Indigenous Women in Brazil.

Two hundred years after Uruguay’s independence, we must not forget that colonialism exists and is an ongoing process, and that decolonization is not a metaphor.

Links to the images and repositories used in the collages

Charrúa Memory Archive

Tirazain archive of Palestinian embroidery patterns

Agricultural and botanical explorations in Palestine, de Aaron Aaronsohn (USDA files at the Internet Archive)

Wikimedia Commons

Most images are licensed under Creative Commons or are in the public domain, but some of them do not have a clear copyright status. Click on each image to access the original file and check authorship and usage rights.

Online conversation

Mariana Fossatti and Mauricio Planel

About the exhibition Rivers of Freedom: Between the Plata and the Atlantic

Ríos de Libertad (Rivers of Freedom) is a collage exhibition curated by artist Mauricio Planel. Taking Uruguay’s Bicentennial of Independence as its starting point, Ríos de Libertad uses this commemoration as a springboard for a plurality of ways of thinking about the historical and contemporary relations between Brazil and Uruguay, the processes of independence (and interdependence), and the environmental and territorial issues that affect them—from the Amazon to the Río de la Plata—as key elements in the construction of collective identities. With 14 artists, seven from Uruguay and seven from Brazil, each artist has worked freely with their personal materials and processes, each with their own particular way of using the poetic and political power of this artistic technique.

The exhibition is being held at the Centro Cultural Justiça Federal (CCJF) in Rio de Janeiro in partnership with the Consulate General of Uruguay in Rio de Janeiro, and is supported by the Centro de Fotografía de Montevideo, which has made its high-resolution historical archive available. It opens on December 10, 2025, and will be on view in Rio de Janeiro until February 8, 2026.

Uruguay

Rivers of Freedom: Decolonization is not a metaphor

Decolonization is not a metaphor

Links to the images and repositories used in the collages

Charrúa Memory Archive

Tirazain archive of Palestinian embroidery patterns

Agricultural and botanical explorations in Palestine, de Aaron Aaronsohn (USDA files at the Internet Archive)

Wikimedia Commons

Online conversation

About the exhibition Rivers of Freedom: Between the Plata and the Atlantic

Artists

Adriana Maciel

Beto Shibata

Camila Alcântara

Eduardo Recife

Gabriela Kotesky

Gino Bidart

Luis Trimano

Marcia Albuquerque

Mariana Fossatti

Marta Villa Plada

Mauricio Planel

Rubem Grilo

Solange Pastorino

Yamandú Cuevas

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