Page 94 - ARTE!Brasileiros #48

THE ART OF MEMORY ENGLISH VERSION
pointing to the need to be willing to contaminate oneself. for these things of the world, text about their outlaw activities. Thompson himself called this style “gonzo journalism,”
for randomness and surprise. This was an important moment in the renewal of artistic an ironic way of pointing out a contradiction in his own condition as a journalist who
language, hence experimentation. Undeniable to see how it is driven by the use of new characterizes himself as a character, without publicly assuming, and remains there in a
technologies. Two artists used this procedure in an exemplary way: the American Vito fairly ethically questionable zone. In Germany, journalist Hans–Günter Wallraff has a similar
Acconci and the French Sophie Calle. procedure, acting as an employee of the McDonalds fast–food chain, as a Turk working
In 1969, in Follow Piece, Acconci randomly selected people on the street and followed underemployment, and as a reporter for the hyped Bild–Zeitung newspaper. In all these
them, unbeknownst to them. The persecution occurred until they entered a private cases he has published books, being the most famous Turk’s Head, on working conditions
space, where the artist’s presence was not allowed. If a person entered a movie theater, for immigrants in Germany.
for example, Acconci would also enter paying the entrance. These pursuits could last Both Thompson and Wallraf seek to push the boundaries of journalism from literature
minutes or even hours, depending only on the other’s course. inspiration, using procedures of fiction. In Brazil, Otávio Frias Filho (1957 – 2018) was
For Acconci, who had a background in literature and was a critic of the market–based inspired by this model to produce immersive reports in swing houses, the Oficina Theater
art system, this kind of action meant the very loss of the artist’s primacy over the work, and other experiences, which resulted in the book Queda livre, Ensaios de risco.
as he declared “I am almost no longer ‘me’”. . What he presented as his final work, in WHAT ABOUT THE STANDPOINT?
this case, was a map of the city on which he marked the streets he passed, photographs These immersive experiences in journalism, even if carried out with many limits, do represent
of the people he followed unknowingly, observations and time stamps on each walk. a realization of the need for empathy, that is, to be able to put oneself in the other’s shoes
It can be clearly seen how this effort to leave the protected space of the studio really in order to have a broader view. From empathy to effective collaboration is a passage that
represents this desire to give up total control over the work and a need to observe the can be seen in the work Swinguerra, by Bárbarw Wagner and Benjamin de Burca, which is
other through the use of instruments that are typical of journalistic practice, in the on display in Venice, and should be seen in the pavilion of the São Paulo Biennale.
case of Acconci, the photographic camera, especially because his images follow the For his background in journalism, Wagner has much of his work being the result of a dialogue
documentary style: there is no staging, the character does not even know that he is between documentary practices and art. Born in Brasilia, the artist graduated in Journalism
being photographed, thus composing a “real” portrait of this person. from the Federal University of Pernambuco in 2003. For the next two years, she attended
Sophie Calle did something very similar in Paris ten years later, in 1979, but even more Brasilia Teimosa, the largest slum in Recife, portraying her residents in a very different way
radically, when she goes after stalking people on the streets of the French capital until from the way these people’s images usually circulate. , usually victimized after a disaster.
she is stubborn by one of them, who she calls Henri B., and you get to know at a party. She built a series of images where these residents are at leisure, with empowered attitudes,
There Calle discovers that he will travel to Venice and she decides to follow him secretly, sometimes even similar to how sensational magazines portray celebrities.
recording, for two weeks, everything he does in the Italian city. The result is the series of While the artist gives vision to a group marginalized by the media, she builds these
photos and texts Suite Venitienne (Venetian Suite), in which she acts as a spy and analyst, images not only respectfully, but allows them to pose with a dignity that is not generally
making a series of lessons about the character in the written accounts. At the same time, bestowed on them. To construct these images, even with advertising and fashion
this obsessed pursuit in a romantic city like Venice raises the issue of affection for the object. resources, it appropriates, thus deconstructing the typical image of the favela. Going
In both works there are many elements that point to the essential characteristics public in 2005, the series quickly conquered the art system and has been featured in
of contemporary art, such as the refusal of the autonomy of art and the notion of many exhibitions, possibly being one of the best representations of the social rise that
representation, and, for that, the search for an effective experience, which in both took place in PT governments.
materializes in sharing an experience. with the other. It is relevant here that, in both cases, Since then, she has been working with German Benjamin de Burca, especially making
procedures such as documenting actions in photographs and reporting objective data videos in which she continues to give visibility to marginal groups such as evangelicals
from each story come close to journalism practices. Another factor close to journalism in Believers and Preachers 2014. In this video they portray the singers of the evangelical
is the exemption of both in seeking not to influence who they are pursuing, not being churches, inserting in a pop context, something close to Terremoto santo, a musical
identified, just as the journalist should not influence the responses of their interviewees. documentary with young people from Pernambuco’s Zona da Mata who dream of
ART AND JOURNALISM recording a gospel music video, shown at the Corpo a Corpo show, which opened the
If artists’ approach to the real in the early days of contemporary art already starts from Moreia Salles Institute in São Paulo.
the use of journalism’s own equipment and techniques – let’s remember that 50 years The universe of music was also approached in Estas Vendo Coisas about the tacky Recife
ago journalism had a better valued position than it does today – journalism also sought scene, exhibited at the 32nd São Paulo Biennial, 2016, Uncertainty Living. In it, Wagner
inspiration in art, especially in literature, at that time. and Burca develop effective collaboration with the musicians portrayed in the work, as
Throughout the history of journalism, a practice that aims to narrate facts as freely as the script was written jointly with participants from Brega and the surrounding music
possible, taking into account, obviously, all the limits and contradictions of what it means video industry. Collaboration between the artists and their portraits has become common
to make a cut of the real, many have been attempts to make use of fictional resources practice in more recent works, including Swinguerra, and not only the artists, but Eduarda
for a better approximation with what we can call here facts. Lemos, one of the central figures of the work, was also opening the Italian show. It is in
The so–called “new journalism” or literary journalism, as this approximation with literature gestures of this nature that it is clear how shared authorship actually becomes effective.
is nowadays called, has a long history, both in the United States, where it is usually pointed Talking about another, thus, is not a voyeuristic or illustrative attitude. It is commitment,
out by journalists such as Truman Capote, Gay Talese, Norman Mailer and Tom Wolfe. , something that had its first steps in the early works of Sophie Calle and Vito Acconci,
as in Brazil, with José Hamilton Ribeiro and Joel Silveira, thinking about the same period although they follow the other, but without involvement. In Bárbara Wagner and Benjamim
of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. They all used fictional resources, such as attributing what one de Burca representing the other means an effective partnership of exchanges for the
of the subjects would be thinking without actually asking him that. However, based on construction of the work, and for it to be a place of speech for who really should speak.
dozens of interviews and observations. In Frank Sinatra is a cold published by Esquire in
1966, for example, Gay Talese makes a profile of the American singer, considered the best SEMINAR ART AS WORLDBUILDING | PAGES 20 TO 25
are so detailed and so contextualizing his attitudes that no interview becomes irrelevant. FAMA TAKES ART BRUT TO ITU
text about him, without interviewing him. His descriptions of the singer’s life, however,
Other journalists who participate in this aspect have even more radical practices, such
as Hunter Thompson who did an immersion work, mixing himself with the characters he WITH THE OPENING OF BISPO DO ROSÁRIO EXHIBITION, ART AS WORLDBUILDING
would write about, without identifying himself as a journalist. This is how he portrayed the SEMINAR TAKES TO ITU DISCUSSIONS AROUND ART BRUT, OR OUTSIDER ART, AND
American group of riotous bikers, Hell’s Angels, at the invitation of The Nation magazine, PRESENTS INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS AND EXPERTS INTEGRATING THE MOVEMENT
which resulted in the book Hell’s Angels – Fear and Delirium on two wheels. For more than
a year, he lived with the radical bikers clandestinely, thus being able to write a very realistic BY JAMYLE RKAIN

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