Page 87 - ARTE!Brasileiros #52

Benjamin’s home country. It was in their search another way, more mental, more immaterial”. the “possible” as a limit imposed on us by a
for the Irish region of Connemara that they In the speeches at the end of the table, naturalization of the barbarism committed by
came across the work of Irish documentary Andrea Giunta emphasized, in line with the capitalism, but rather the search for a new path,
filmmaker Bob Quinn. “In the 1980s he developed presentation by Bárbara and Benjamin, that “art the strengthening of our capacity to challenge
a quartet of documentaries that spoke of the has the capacity to be an archive, an archive of the march that, if not contained, leads us to
origin of Irish culture in a very sophisticated experiences that were created at different times. extinction. “Against social misery, geopolitical
way, questioning the European hegemony in And with this file we can ask the questions of chaos, economic debacle, we have a way out:
shaping the culture there and suggesting that the present”. Thus, for her it is necessary to solidarity and frugality as well. We need to
the contact with countries in North Africa was rethink the relationship of the body with the develop the ability to focus on what is useful
essential,” said the artist. In the series, entitled world, in the sense of moving away from the for our life, for our pleasure, and forget about
Atlantean, “he asks: what if our Irish culture is idea of the self-centered subject so common money, competition, monetary abstraction”,
much closer to Africa than Europe?” in art - “to understand, experience and feel defends the philosopher.
Based on this hypothesis and living with that we are in the world”. Bárbara agreed: “In Bifo introduces a fundamental element of his
Quinn, now 87 years old, Bárbara and Benjamin the sense of the body that experiences another reflection by beginning his speech citing the
had an initial project in mind until the moment form of knowledge, which is shared. Our work protests that shook Chile last year and hailing
when the manifesta invitation came to “give a is an audiovisual work that is supported by the holding (on October 25) of the referendum
formal tie to the work”, according to Bárbara. collaboration. It is not possible to work alone, you to overthrow the constitution that has been in
In the end, the film became “kind of a visual can’t do it without friction, without difference”. force since Pinochet’s military regime, which
and editing experiment between Ireland he said perpetuates the dictatorship - military
and southern France, in dialogue with North international seminar | day 1 [pages 24 to 26] and neoliberal - imposed by the authoritarian
Africa”. For this, the duo invited popular artists regime inaugurated with the coup of 1973. Thus,
to perform in two emblematic spaces for “IT IS NECESSARY TO it reinforces the importance of spontaneous,
colonial history in these places - palaces that REACTIVATE THE EROTIC supportive, combative movements, such as
have become museums -, creating ambiguities, BODY OF SOCIETY” that in defense of the environment led by the
frictions, and moments of beauty with various resistance of Gretta Thunberg, the various
layers of meaning. Speaking hard during the seminar, manifestations that broke out in 2019 throughout
In Ireland, musicians and dancers were filmed philosopher Franco “Bifo” Berardi says the planet and the explosion of the anti-racism
in spaces at Bantry House, a palace from the that we live in the world “the convulsion of movement in the United States.
a suffocated body” and summons youth,
end of the 17th century directly related to British poets and artists as strategic agents of The theme adopted by the American protests,
imperialism in the country and which, in addition transformation “I can’t breathe” (in reference to the murders of
to a sumptuous garden, has a 100-step staircase Eric Garder and George Floyd by the police),
- the “hundred steps” of the title - built between By maria hirszman became a strategic piece in Berardi’s reflection,
1840 and 1850, the decade of the great Irish including serving as a title for Asphyxia: Financial
hunger. “In every corner of Ireland there is a the Diagnosis oF the philosopher Franco Capitalism and Language Insurrection, one of
huge mansion built by the dying people. And Berardi on the present is acid and accurate: we three works of his own published in Brazil by
if we think about it, this great hunger, which are living the death of the capitalist system, we UBU, book publisher. If the work already pointed
created a diaspora of almost 2 million people, inhabit a putrefied corpse, but that still stands out and reflected on the suffocation, literal and
is still very recent in the country’s history ”, and dictates the rules of the game. Even defining metaphorical, of contemporary society, the
says Benjamin. The artists who enter the house, society so skeptically in the terminal phase of issue ended up acquiring new developments
therefore - and Bob Quinn appears there with capitalism, the thinker proposes an encouraging with the outbreak of the pandemic of the new
his camera - “become that other voice, which is image of struggle and transformation of this coronavirus, a disease that deeply weakens the
the voice of Irish culture”, according to Bárbara. gloomy scenario, calling youth, poets and respiratory system. We live, according to Bifo,
In Marseille, on the other hand, a museum artists as strategic agents of transformation, “the convulsion of a suffocated body.”
house in an old bourgeois residence, “with seeing surviving in the chaos, the fighting The effects of the pandemic, compared
a similar history, despite the quite different forces necessary for overcoming the serious by him to an overwhelming storm, which
context”, served as a stage for the performance problems that plague humanity and put it at has been killing thousands and makes more
of North African musicians living in the city. serious risk of extinction. Against the feeling close the idea that human survival is at risk,
“So, we created a way to get closer, without that we live inexorable moments, despair at the have somehow contained the transformative
necessarily being comparing. It is speculation, rise of fascist movements around the world and power of social movements, making solidarity
again, but above all rhythmic and musical”, the serious environmental imbalances facing difficult or almost impossible. “It is necessary to
explains Bárbara. If Arab culture in North Africa the planet, Bifo – as he has been known since reactivate the erotic body of society,” says the
appears explicitly at home in Marseille, it may childhood – clearly stands beside those who philosopher, who is extremely concerned about
also be diffused in Irish music, which, according do not conform with the limits of oppressive the devastating effects of this disease, not only
to Quinn, drank from these roots. “And suddenly daily life and dare to fight for a fairer society , on the physical level but on the psychic level.
we look at these artists, as if they were visitors, supportive and egalitarian. “The proximity of the skin has become a kind of
the Irish and the Arabs, and the film creates It thus responds boldly to the reference to metaphysical danger,” he diagnoses, saying he
this fantastic device in which we can realize the “art of the possible”, a term adopted as a fears the effects of this phobic sensitization in
the occupation of these spaces with another subtitle of the seminar “In Defense of Nature and relation to the body, to kissing. But he warns that
story”, concludes the artist. Because, according Culture”, in which he participated on October 8. we must be aware that, despite the danger posed
to Benjamin, “colonialism continues to exist in And it emphasizes that we should not consider by the virus, it is not the cause of our evils. The

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