Page 114 - ARTE!Brasileiros #57

ENGLISH VERSION EVERYTHING IN CHECK

dissolved under the Bolsonaro government and the - information, ways of doing and facing things cautious when thinking, for example, about
current secretariat is linked to the Tourism section. - will be incorporated into our habits. Now, the end-of-the-year parties, carnival and
Miranda also spoke about the global and broadly speaking, I don’t like the expression even proposals for releasing masks in open
regional inequality opened up by the pandemic, “return to normal”. Because the normal was spaces. At Sesc, for now, we are going to
about the need for us to learn to be more solidary already too problematic, we were already demand two doses of vaccine and mask,
and to pay attention to “the environmental issue, facing a situation of economic tightness, for employees and for visitors.
the issue of diversity, the issue of gender and of difficulties in financing many actions...
mutual respect”. Read the full interview below. I’m not saying at Sesc, internally, but from I remembered an interview with you in which
the point of view of society, especially in the you said that we live in a very materialistic
arte!brasileiros – The Sesc units, even though world of culture. There were already serious reality, where things are considered only from
they are private spaces, have always been constraints before the pandemic. And so the point of view of economic development,
located in the city almost as extensions of getting back to normal means going back to but that, more and more, it is realized that
public space. They are open to everyone, that? It doesn’t interest us. So let’s go back the search for quality of life depends on a
designed for a creative and democratic to our habits, but also look for this new path, lot more things. And then you talk about
coexistence, in short, linked to a project of which has nothing to do with the pandemic education and culture in a broad sense, as
“social well-being and good living”, in their period, but neither with the previous period. they are the foundations of Sesc-SP’s work.
own words. For a year and a half these units We want deeper changes. Could you talk a little about this?
had to close their doors, on account of How Because I think that, despite everything, at For us, the concept of culture has always
was this experience of trying to keep SESC’s that time we have enriched our understanding been very broad and closely linked to the
mission without physical spaces? of things, under certain aspects of educational issue. In this sense, the concepts
It was sorely missed, as space is vital for us coexistence, solidarity, consideration for of culture and education are even confused,
to be able to fully fulfill our mission. Meeting, others, mutual dependence between us. because they mean preparing for a better
socializing, face-to-face activities, this is These are things that have been incorporated, life, the search for greater well-being for
essential for our daily lives. I used to say even if in a very strong, almost forced way, everyone, in all aspects. That’s where the
that our great specialty is bringing people and we need to be more aware that we live in a question of knowledge, the worldview, the
together. Now, given the facts, the new society where solidarity must be incorporated perception of things, the aesthetic sense, the
situation, we had to reinvent ourselves, - regardless of political or religious positions, sense of community and belonging comes
change things. Then the units were closed but from a point of view purely human. in. But there are also issues of personal
and we started to do a multitude of activities And in this aspect, some points were very character, physical issues, health, food,
through our remote system, with great reach exacerbated. The environmental issue, the way of life, and also environmental issues.
on our pages. We had a very strong action diversity issue, the gender issue, the issue In fact, our indigenous peoples put it in a
in terms of content, with emphasis on Sesc of mutual respect, they all come together. very integrated way, everything is part of
Digital, which is a platform that was already These are not new things, but responses everything: we are part of this whole, and
ready and was launched right at the beginning to all of this began to be demanded more what this whole is is also part of us. And so,
of the pandemic, in April 2020. We have a lot from us. So a great number of institutions, going back to Sesc, we have this very holistic,
of collection material there - more than 20 organizations and companies are more aware very broad, very comprehensive vision, we
thousand items - a very large complement of this, all over the world. Governments too, act with this perspective.
from the point of view of providing services but that’s not our case. We are an exception,
and a lot of information. And that was getting a total nonsense. Is this broad vision of culture, among other
better. Little by little, we were providing some things, what the country’s current federal
pre-scheduled face-to-face services, in the In a conversation we had at the beginning government lacks?
food, dentistry and, later on, even courses, of the pandemic, when the epicenter of this I have no doubts. The current government
exhibitions, concerts, etc. We are only now crisis was in Europe, you said that if the has no idea what culture is, not even the
fully reopening. epidemic was serious there, it would be even traditional, classical one. It has no idea of
worse here. In fact, we are now about 620,000 what the more restricted concept of culture
From now on, Sesc-SP starts to work in a dead. Has the pandemic further exposed is, the one aimed at the arts and the symbolic,
hybrid model between virtual and in-person? global inequalities? nor the broader concept, of an anthropological
How are the plans in this regard? No doubt. There is a huge imbalance, this is nature, which concerns everything that is
remarkable. If we look at what happened here, human creation. These are not people who
Yes, we are going to mix the two, which but also in countries in Asia, Africa and other are dedicated or who immerse themselves
will make our performance even more poorer parts of the world, especially in the in this concept. When they put, for example,
effective. I already said, a few decades ago, southern hemisphere, it is quite different from culture as part of an action aimed at tourism,
that everything possible should be done what happens in the northern hemisphere. they undoubtedly did not understand anything
at a distance. And we didn’t even have a This is true for economics, politics, culture, about what culture itself means.
dimension of how much this represented, diplomacy… and it is also true for health. It’s With this in mind, five secretaries of culture
of where the technologies would arrive. I very serious. have passed through the government so far,
was thinking mainly about the bureaucratic And thinking internally, in our country, all of them with highly controversial actions.
part, with information, scheduling and there is also great inequality. In the city of São We then arrived at the current secretary,
registration, so that people would arrive at Paulo, we have 100% of the adult population Mário Frias, who seems to be increasingly
the units with things made easier. But this vaccinated, while in other parts of Brazil there restricting his activities in the area, paralyzing
has been exacerbated, especially now in the are still very inadequate situations, numbers the Incentive Law, among other things...
pandemic, and the virtual has gained much much lower than that. It’s a sequence of progressive worsenings,
greater momentum, and we will also work Now, from then on, things went a little unfortunately. The Rouanet Law is a law
with this reality. unforeseen. Here in Brazil, in fact, we have envied by other countries in the world, since
At the beginning of the pandemic, a lot was reached a very serious situation, including a it deals with the issue of tax incentives from
said about the need to learn something from total lack of control at the beginning of this companies, with business projects linked to
what was happening, that is, an idea that we year, but since then - mainly due to society, the issue of public culture. It is something
should leave this period knowing how to deal the press and politicians from levels other that must be deepened, improved, advanced,
better with the world around us. Now, when than the federal level - we have managed without a doubt, and I am not saying that the
we see a big advance in vaccination and the a process of vaccination quite broad. And law is perfect. There were problems, above
resumption of most activities, do you think this today puts us in a situation that even all, in terms of the geographic issue and in
we’ve actually learned something? Do we has a certain advantage over a large part of terms of a mixture between advertising and
change our way of being or do we go back Europe itself, where there is much greater culture, but even so, it was a law that had
to the same place? denial about the vaccine. So things changed wide participation of businessmen, artists,
Institutionally speaking, at Sesc-SP we a little and that’s why we can also have this cultural promoters, creators and managers,
made a great effort in this regard. Many perspective of reopening at Sesc. At the with a committee representing society. When
things we have accumulated in this period same time, we have every reason to be very you cut that and make everything decided
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