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  Uma vez, uma vez,2016 Image courtesy of Pedro Ivo Transferetti/Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

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  Uma vez, uma vez,2016 Image courtesy of Pedro Ivo Transferetti/Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

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  Uma vez, uma vez,2016 Image courtesy of Pedro Ivo Transferetti/Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

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  Uma vez, uma vez,2016 Photo credit: Ricardo Amado

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  Uma vez, uma vez,2016 Photo credit: Ricardo Amado

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  Uma vez, uma vez,2016 Photo credit: Ricardo Amado

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  Uma vez, uma vez,2016 Photo credit: Ricardo Amado

Lyle Ashton Harris’ new multimedia installation, Uma vez, uma vez [Once, Once] (2016), is comprised of Ektachrome images shot between 1986-98, photographic prints from the artist’s journals, and diaristic video works, all excavated from the artist’s expansive archive. The resulting assemblage serves not only to memorialize, but also to evoke lived moments at the intersection of the personal as the political, presenting a dynamic experience that re-engages time past to affectively impact the present. Bearing witness to a period of seismic cultural shifts—the emergence of multicuturalism , the second wave of AIDS activism, and the intersections of the contemporary art scene with LGBTQ and African diasporic communities—the instillation uniquely documents the artist’s personal life, friends, family and lovers, embedded in a pivotal social landscape. By documenting intimate moments alongside landmark events (Black Popular Culture Conference in 1991, the truce between the Crips and the Bloods in 1992, Black Male exhibition in 1994, and the Black Nations/Queer Nations conference in 1995) the instillation constructs collective and private narratives intertwined both with public events and the subjective realm, to discuss identity, desire, sexuality and loss. The installation, Uma vez, uma vez (Once, Once) premiered at the 32nd Bienal de São Paulo: Incerteza Viva (Live Uncertainty), at the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, curated by Jochen Volz, Gabi Ngcobo, Julia Rebouças, Lars Beng Larsen, and Sofia Olascoaga.