Neyde Lantyer

Neyde Lantyer is a Brazilian visual artist and independent researcher on photography and culture living and working in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Her artwork explores a variety of themes related to memory, relationships, immigration and belonging, having feminism as backgound. 

ACTIVISM

Lantyer was born in Queimadas, Bahia, and moved to Salvador, the colonial capital of Brazil for 300 years, one of the biggest cities of the country. Her move to Salvador coincided with the last years of the struggle against the military dictatorship that came to the end in 1984, after 24 long years without democracy. She immersed herself in the student’s activism for amnesty and free elections and collaborated with the foundation of the Brazilian workers party (Partido dos Trabalhadores) (1979-85);

The activism leaded to famale issues and feminism: in the university (Universidade Católica do Salvador at Social Work’s School), she started a research on the life conditions of a group of women of a poor community in Salvador and her graduation essay was inspired by Simone de Beauvoir ‘s “The Second Sex” (1980-84);

After graduating, she worked with women’s sexuality (sexual freedom X gender oppression) and human resources, creating seminars about existential issues such as “the Heart”, “the Death” and “The Retirement” (1988-1997).

She studied visual arts at Universidade Federal da Bahia where started her experiments with photography. Later, decided to seek for an independent developement since the Belas Artes School did not offer a formation in photography (1990-93);

First solo exhibition at Museum Casa do Benin (1994) presenting a long series of mixed media portraits with a mixture of collage and drawings on photography; created the course “Linguagem Fotográfica” em Salvador (1996-97);

Moved to Amsterdam-NL (1998) where followed several courses at Amsterdam Institute of Photography and De Moor and had her first solo exhibition in Europe at WM Gallery (2002);

Studied “Histories and Theories of Photography at Universiteit van Leiden (2008-09).

PHOTO RESTORATION

Worked for 8 years with Dutch restorer and conservator Michiel Kort (FotoZorg), a major specialist in recovering vintage negatives; learned to restore and to conserve photography, glass plate’s negatives and a variety of old printing techniques (2004-2012);

IMMIGRATION, MUSIC AND CINEMA

Chairwoman and subsequently artistic director of the cultural bi-national foundation A Hora do Brasil. Along seven years in charge, she developed several artistic-cultural projects pinpointing the Brazilian cultural history in the Netherlands while dealing directly with the issues of immigration within the Brazilian community;

Created the music festival Brazilian Summer Sessions presenting concerts, jam-sessions, music documentaries and talks at Bimhuis, Amsterdam, together with dancer and choreographer Claudia Trajano. The - highly successful - program helped to develop a new vision on Brazilian Music in The Netherlands.

Collaborated for 3 years with the festival World Cinema Amsterdam, curating a film music documentary showcase (2005-2013), again with choreographer Claudia Trajano.

Created the online plataform Fotografia&Cultura.Com (2012-2018);

Started, in partnership with Teatro Munganga, the analog program Talks on Photography, at Teatro Munganga, Amsterdam (2015).

Inspired by the experience with photo restoration and conservation, she began an artistic research on photography and memory (in progress since 2009), investigating the photo-albuns of her own family to trace the presence (and absence) of women in the region where she was born. The work is presented in talks, lectures and projections in universities, museums and institutions since 2015. 

In 2016, a coup d’Etat in Brazil deposed the democractically ellected President Dilma Rousseff, the first woman in office in the country. From Europe, a group of Brazilians and their international friends started a movement to restore democracy. In Holland, was created the Collective Amsterdam for Democracy in Brazil from wich Lantyer is an active member.

Currently, she works with a wide range of interestes and genres such as installations, printing, story telling, photography and video. At this very moment, her work is questioning the position of the woman artist in a context of immigration. Exclusion, neo-colonialism and the limitations of the individual (woman) artist within society and the so called “art world” has being the main interest of her actual artistic practice.






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