Catarina Simão is an artist known for her video-essay displays, which interrelate documentary material with themes such as decolonisation and historical memory. She approaches post-colonial Africa from a specific case study of Mozambique, creating a video-essay installation that combines archive materials, testimonies and films.

The work stems from research that began in 2009, centred on two projects by FRELIMO (The Mozambique Liberation Front), founded in 1962, and from the country’s subsequent sovereign government: the Mozambique Institute, set up in 1966, and an archive of films that reflects how education and culture can be powerful tools in political struggles and in forging national identities.

Inspiration for the installation comes from Jornal do Povo, a mural diary located in public spaces in Maputo and symbolising the efforts of FRELIMO to democratise information — key to understanding how Simão uses exhibition space to recreate the dynamics between the access to information and citizen participation in the political history of Mozambique.

The film Effects of Wording, a core strand of the piece, contains footage of archive materials created by the artist, together with images taken by General Jacinto Veloso that document the Mozambique Institute’s day-to-day existence, as well as extracts of films made between 1967 and 1981 and the testimonies of relevant figures in independent Mozambique.
With the convergence of these elements Simão raises questions around the construction of history and identity in a post-colonial context, emphasising how language and education can be harnessed to preserve cultural identity and to impose forms of control and oppression.