The world has come to a halt. And, through the lens of a virus, it has found itself to be even more unequal. Social exclusion, racism and lies have become worse. In the images that follow, the body asserts itself as a battleground and a place of resistance: be it in the performances of Berna Reale, which uncover the violence of the State; or in the clips of Hudinilson Jr., which expose the desires that we insist on repressing; or in the proud gazes portrayed by Deana Lawson, which, according to the writer Zadie Smith, are a response to the discrimination promoted by the history of men and of the image.

The political struggle also takes hold in the visual field. And we need history to face the dispute: as the artist Ahlam Shibli reveals in showing the attempt to erase the Palestinian tragedy, or through professors Eyal and Ines Weizman, by investigating tragedies visible only in the gaps between the images. The verb “to go viral” has returned to the center stage, confusing even more the boundaries between truth and falsehood, as Giselle Beiguelman explains in analyzing the spread of videos produced by artificial intelligence – the deepfakes.

In the post-war photo collages of Décio Pignatari, in the scenes of the Indian coast of Sohrab Hura, or in Lebohang Kganye’s reinvention of the family album, the surreal helps us cope with the violence and to rebuild ties. With a game of chance, artist Paulo Bruscky has created a new work, printed in fluorescent colors. This work also circulates as a special insert in the printed magazine for subscribers, reaffirming our commitment to the printed image, the physical presence.

Restrictions to free movement, established to protect us, mean that this edition is arriving late, but it is no less dashing. On the eve of it going to press, Ventura Profana presented us with some dazzling photomontages, which join symbols of the Abrahamic religions with those of the political and social situation in Brazil and in the rest of the world. The images have made it to the cover and the supplement that opens this special edition. We are all under attack, physical or virtual, but bodies and images resist.