Literatura Exposta (Literature Exposed) (exhibition)
Artist: És Uma Maluca
Year: 2019
Date of Action: January 2019
Region: South America
Location: Rio de Janeiro
Subject: Nudity, Political/Economic/Social Opinion
Medium: Installation, Mixed Media, Performance Art
Confronting Bodies: Ruan Lira, Secretary of Culture of the State of Rio de Janeiro; Wilson Witzel, Governor of Rio de Janeiro; President Jair Bolsonaro; Casa Franca-Brasil; Álvaro Figueiredo (curator of Literatura Exposta)
Description of Artwork: Literatura Exposta (Literature Exposed), was a multi-media exhibition curated by Álvaro Figueiredo for the Casa Franca-Brasil that brought together ten artists and visual arts collectives. The controversy was sparked by an performance that was part of an installation by the collective És Uma Maluca entitled “The Voice of the [Sewer] Drain is the Voice of God”, which was central to the exhibition. It featured 6000 plastic cockroaches arranged around a manhole cover from which issued audio recordings of speeches of the country’s new president, Jair Bolsonaro. The cockroaches and manhole cover refer to a torture tactic employed by the military dictatorship that controlled Brazil from 1964 to 1985. The title of the piece comes from the popular (but unofficial) Catholic dictum “The voice of the people is the voice of God”. (https://justseeds.org/censorship-in-brazil/) The work is based on a short story by Rodrigo Santos, which described the struggles of a victim of the Brazilian dictatorship who had been tortured with cockroaches.
The Incident: The exhibition was censored via modification, and then shut down altogether.
After Casa Franca-Brasil received complaints, the recording of President Bolsnaro's speeches was replaced by a voice reading out a cake recipe, which references a newspaper tactic during the dictatorship: when their stories were censored, they printed recipes in their place.
On its final day, Sunday, January 13th, the government of the state of Rio de Janeiro shut down the exhibition at the Casa Franca-Brasil for what they stated was a breach of contract. Scheduled for the final day was a performance by És Uma Maluca, whereby two naked women would read a script criticizing the use of torture during the 1964-85 military dictatorship. The naked women would also interact with the exhibition’s centerpiece (cockroaches and sewer drain).
In a statement, Ruan Lira, Rio’s Secretary of Culture, said he had learned from an email exchange that a performance “containing nudity between two women as well as cockroaches” was due to take place. He and Rio governor Wilson Witzel sent a note sent to the press: “The Casa França-Brasil is run by the state and there was an exhibition authorized by the Secretary of Culture and in that exhibition there was no human performance, much less nudity,” stated Governor Witzel. (https://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-politics/art-performance-alluding-to-torture-is-closed-in-rio-de-janeiro/)
“Nudity itself would not be problematic,” Lira said, but a dialogue with the culture secretariat and children’s court were needed first, as well as a stipulation and a separate legal clause in the contract. “I’m not against freedom of expression and even less in favour of censorship,” Lira added. (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/15/rio-artists-stage-show-street-protest-censorship-brazil)
In a message published in his Instagram account, the show's curator Álvaro Figueiredo, stated that Casa França-Brasil had already been warned about staging Sunday's performance. On Sunday, Figueiredo announced on Facebook that Literatura Exposta had been shut down on orders from Wilson Witzel, the far-right governor of Rio state. Witzel is a close ally of President Jair Bolsonaro, who took office on 1 January and whose administration runs the France-Brazil House cultural centre that hosted the exhibition.
Results of Incident: The exhibition’s curator, Álvaro Figueiredo, rejected the idea that there was a breach of contract.
“I communicated in advance the content of the performances… and was authorized to go ahead,” he told The Rio Times.
On Facebook, És Uma Maluca said it is being censored. Determined not to be silenced, the group went ahead with the performance on 14 January, in front of Casa França-Brasil. (Freemuse, Jan 16, 2019)
On Monday, January 14, És Uma Maluca announced they would stage the banned performance on the street in front of the France-Brazil House at 6pm. A crowd of several hundred gathered. Five armed police stood guard to ensure that no nudity took place. The crowd chanted leftist and anti-fascist slogans as they waited for the performance to begin. “Art should never be censored,” said Sebastiana Cesario, 68-year-old chemist, as she waited in the hot sun. “It is an unnecessary provocation.” (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/15/rio-artists-stage-show-street-protest-censorship-brazil)
Source:
És Uma Maluca Coletivo de experimentações poéticas http://www.esumamaluca.com.br https://www.instagram.com/p/Bsqy47plr62/
Brazil: Artists take performance to the street after government cancels exhibition, Freemuse,16 January 2019
Rio artists stage show on street in protest against censorship. Far-right state government had shut down exhibition to stop performance about torture, The Guardian, Jan 15, 2019
Art Performance Alluding to Torture is Closed in Rio. The performance called for an artist in the nude and hundreds of plastic cockroaches around a sewer top, with a recording of newly elected President, Jair Bolsonaro, transmitting speeches, The Rio Times, Jan 16, 2019
Exhibition at Casa França-Brasil in Rio de Janeiro closed down, ArtReview, Jan 14, 2019
Censorship in Brazil, by Roger Peet. Just Seeds, Art & Politics, In the News, January 13, 2019
