Wellington Gadelha

“Here is a body, with a bicycle and a backpack, a messenger from the favela, travelling through a piece of deep Ceará, the old Northeast.” Wellington Gadelha is an ambassador of a surreal world. In it, the magical enables an escape from the reality of Brazilian favelas that is dominated by police violence, creating an empowering potential. The ambassador's task is to cross borders and reach the place in dreams that terror cannot touch. The “manifesto of the dream” he brings with him becomes a political force for a vibrant society. As an artist and activist, Wellington Gadelha combines his body with old and new technologies as he campaigns for human rights and Black youth in Brazil.

He created the film in 2021 as part of the renowned festival Panorama Raft in Brazil. Along with many other international partners, HAU Hebbel am Ufer supported this edition so that the selected artists could realise their concepts despite the pandemic.

Folllowing the German premiere of Gadelha's film “At Haunting's Disposal”, he will participate in a talk with Lisa Tracy Michalik at HAU4. Michalik is a media and cultural scientist and freelance journalist for publications such as Missy Magazine. Her writing addresses issues of racism and gender, drawing on her lived experience as a Black queer woman in Germany.