Reading time: 3 minutes
28.05.2015
Solo Shows, São Paulo, Brazil
May 2, 2015 – June 6, 2015
As a series of annotations on the relations between body, camera and movement present in the documentation of a typical dance of the Northeast of Brazil, FAZ QUE VAI (SET TO GO) comments on the meanings of the carnivalesque within diverse strategies of preservation of Frevo as an image, heritage and product. Originally connected to the idea of resistance inherent to Capoeira movements, Frevo has been performed at the front of military bands during Carnival at the beginning of the 20th Century and consequently evolved towards a quasi-acrobatical expression celebrated as an authentic tradition from Pernambuco. Recognized in 2012 by UNESCO as an Intangi- ble Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the dance has moved from the streets to the stage, and its representation is strongly promoted by local government as the main spectacle of that region’s economy. Beyond deconstructing its celebratory form, FAZ QUE VAI (SET TO GO) – which takes its title from the name of a Frevo step – articulates how new subjectivities imply gender and socio-economic questions for this form of popular tradition.
During the week, Tchanna rehearses in the municipal Frevo school; on Sundays she takes part in street parties and competitions of Funk and Brega in the northern zone of Recife. Although trained as a clas- sical dancer, Bhrunno is the youngest instructor of Frevo in town, being also the choreographer of various Swingueira and Quadrille groups. By day, Ryan dances Frevo for tourists in Olinda, at night he is Alice and performs a show in a city center club. Edson dances Street Frevo as a member of larger outfit, and also teaches Vogue resembling the dance of Beyoncé and Madonna. Here, each one interprets a mixture of Frevo combined with their chosen favorite pop dance. For the exhibition Wagner and de Burca have created a series of lenticular photographic prints, which are shown alongside FAZ QUE VAI, a 12 minute film resembling the aesthetics of a music video. The soundtrack was commissioned following the production of the film and features a percussive Frevo composition by the Bomba do Hemetério Popular Orchestra, Recife.
Bárbara Wagner (Brasília, Brazil) and Benjamin de Burca (Munich, Germany) make use of documentary narrative structures – videoes- says, photo-research and interviews – in order to observe diverse relations between tradition and progress as experienced in emerging economies. Their more recent investigations concentrate on collective practices and traditional rituals – specifically manifested in the body of youths living in the peripheries of Brazil ́s Northeast – which lose their connotations of symbolic resistance to become products of tourism and entertainment industry. Forms of pop culture crystallize as folklore. Working in collaboration since 2011, Wagner/de Burca participated in the 33rd. Panorama de Arte Brasileira at the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo, 4th. Biennial of Contemporary Art of the Indian Ocean, 36th EVA Biennial of Ireland, 6th Festival of Contemporary Art in Latvia, the program of exhibitions at Centro Cultural São Paulo 2014 and the 5th edition of the Marcantonio Vilaça Prize. Wagner/de Burca live in Recife and Berlin.
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