Experiencing Interruptions?

Democracia

Democracy
Bruno Latour (2004, p.12) in his book “Politics of Nature” points to a political ecology left to its own devices. It tries to bring nature into public life, but often fails to achieve its goals due to the limitations imposed by current policies. The banner “Democracy” by Suely Farhi, Adriana Maciel and Martha Niklaus comes close to such ecology by presenting a political art of nature, with the possibility of its preservation against human degradation. It works as a means of raising awareness capable of mobilizing everyone.
It opens up the possibility of other artists participating in its initial phase by sewing and printing messages through stencils on the surface of the fabric – with phrases such as “there will be a quota”, “there will be a fight” and “my ass is secular” –, which allow for its constant updating in accordance with the specific contexts in which it is inserted.
With the work stitched together and cohesive, we have its use in performances that emphasize a collective political attitude, with the conduction of its limits and its horizontal distension – but always undulating –, with the word “democracy” in evidence. Such undulation is perhaps a sign of the unstable nature of the term, which has gained different readings and weights over time, or indicates that for blacks, indigenous people and women there has never been democracy in Brazil, as Lélia Gonzales (2020, p. 218) points out in “Por um feminismo afro-latino-americano”.
The aesthetic distension of the work of Farhi, Maciel and Niklaus seems to echo in the stage posture of artists such as Chico Buarque and Gilberto Gil, who also inherited from the tropicalist experiences, as shown by historian Priscila Gomes Correa (2012, p. 203), “the ebullition that performances could provoke”, with enthusiasm and the transmutation of art into behavior. In “Democracy”, behavior is transformed into art during the procession that takes the banner to its final point of re-rolling, with the participating conductors calling for “demarcation now” or “democracy now”; or an art that calls for participation with gaps between the seams, allowing dives and emergences to a level above the surface of the fabric with leaps.

We then have an aesthetic-political tension and distension as occurs in the relationship with the documentary pointed out by Philipi Bandeira (2017, p. 26), but here with the articulation of the creative engagement of the avant-garde with the march as an established genre of manifestation. This distension is also present in the color palette used, blue, yellow, pumpkin, green at the end and black in the large letters of the word democracy. The colors of the Brazilian flag are alternated with the red of the fire of the patches so present today. The green is set adrift. Beyond the political interests in the yellow of gold, the red of meat and the silver of mercury, it is necessary to bring nature – with all its colors – closer to society, moving away from a “state of nature” of man to bring us closer to a political ecology that works.
Fabio Mourilhe
BANDEIRA, Philipi Emmanuel Lustosa. Documentário radical ou a ficção como colaboração: Invenção, disjunção e cinema compartilhado. Devir e cosmovisão em As Hipermulheres. Dissertação de mestrado. Centro de Artes e Comunicação, Departamento de Comunicação Social, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Comunicação, Recife: Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 2017).
CORREA, Priscila Gomes. Caetano Veloso: só um jeito de corpo e um projeto Brasil. In: Arte para a nação brasileira. Manuel Domingos Neto (org.). Ceará: Universidade Estadual do Ceará, 2012.
GONZALES, Lélia. Por um feminismo afro-latino-americano: ensaios, intervenções e diálogos. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 2020.
LATOUR, Bruno. Políticas da natureza: como fazer ciência na democracia. Bauru: EDUSC, 2004.

  • Fabio Bola
    Director
  • Marcos Oliveira dos Santos
    Key Cast
  • Fabio Bola
    Key Cast
  • Suely Farhi
    Key Cast
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Democracia
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    videoarte, performance
  • Runtime:
    2 minutes 5 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 7, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    100 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Brazil
  • Country of Filming:
    Brazil
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Parada 7 2024
    Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro
    Brazil
    Parada 7 2024
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Fabio Bola

Fabio Mourilhe (Fabio Bola) has a PhD in art from UERJ, a post-doctorate in art from UFRJ, a master's degree in design from PUC-Rio and a degree in web design. He took courses on Macromedia and Adobe software in 1999. He also has a PhD and a degree in philosophy (UFRJ and UERJ). He has been developing a diverse range of work, including audiovisual. See several projects on Behance: https://www.behance.net/magneticstudiobr

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