Technology and ancestry come together in an exhibition that reconstructs the faces of freed Africans by Luiz Gama

Abstract Exhibition at the Public Archives of São Paulo recreates, with artificial intelligence, the faces of 120 Africans freed by Luiz Gama, rescuing their stories and promoting a new look at the abolitionist struggle.

Luiz Gama's abolitionist struggle gains a new dimension with the exhibition “Eu, amanuense que escrever...”, which opens on May 16 at the Public Archives of the State of São Paulo. The exhibition uses artificial intelligence to reconstruct the faces of 120 Africans freed by Gama between 1862 and 1866, people whose existence was recorded by him in historical manuscripts and who are now portrayed as if they had been granted the right to exist officially.

Using the physical descriptions found in the original documents, the technology generated images that resemble 3x4 portraits. Each reconstructed face is accompanied by a fictitious identity card with updated data. It is as if these people, often erased from official records, could now carry an ID card. Visiting is free and takes place at the Public Archives of the State of São Paulo, in the Santana neighborhood, north of the capital.

The initiative is signed by Diego Rimaos and is part of the collection “Black Presence in the Archive: Luiz Gama, articulator of freedom (1830–1882)”, which was recently recognized as Documentary Heritage of Latin America and the Caribbean by UNESCO .

The collection brings together nine periodicals about the abolitionist's work, including the book Matrículas de Africanos Emancipados, from 1864, which contains Gama's handwritten records. The opening will feature a discussion with experts and representatives of the black movement, such as Bruno Lima, Ednusa Ribeiro (State Archives and Meninas Mahin) and Ligia Ferreira (Fundação Bienal de São Paulo and Unifesp).