Curator Helio Menezes discusses the exhibition 'Améfrica: Diasporic Connections in the Jorge M. Pérez Collection' at the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo in Seville, Spain. Inspired by Afro-Brazilian thinker Lélia Gonzalez's concept of amefricanidade, the show brings together artists from Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Australia to explore cultural, political, and spiritual ties forged through the African diaspora. Menezes explains how the exhibition refuses fixed national borders and linear chronologies, instead organizing works around shared experiences of displacement, spirituality, colonial memory, and reinvention.
The exhibition matters because it challenges traditional geographic and colonial narratives in art curation, centering Black and Indigenous perspectives from the Americas. By using Gonzalez's amefricanity as both theme and methodology, the show reimagines the Atlantic as a space of connection rather than separation. This approach offers a model for curating beyond national categories and highlights the transformative potential of Black self-representation in contemporary art discourse.