(dr) Imaginary
The Imaginarius organization wants volunteers who, with their faces covered, provoke reflection on prejudice, censorship and social and legal judgment.
The festival is looking for volunteers to participate in covered face e exposed nipples in a show that aims to take to the streets of Santa Maria da Feira a reflection on prejudice, censorship and social and legal judgment.
With its national premiere at 7pm on May 23rd, in the city of the district of Aveiro and Porto Metropolitan Area, the performance, which is part of the commemorative edition of the 25th anniversary of the recently renamed Festival of Performing Arts in Public Space, is by the Brazilian company Collective Deviation and was only performed once in São Paulo, since, after its launch in 2021, was never authorized again in Brazil – as it is considered a indecent assault and this constitutes crime which prevails over freedom of artistic expression.
For Leandro Brasílio, co-author and producer of “Drugs”, This situation explains the need of the show itself: “Brazilian legislation provides for a prison sentence for the crime of an obscene act, which consists of carrying out a sexual act, lewd conduct or display of intimate parts in a public place, offending collective modesty. Now, What is collective modesty? Why do law enforcers and society understand that a woman’s nipples offend everyone, while men showing their nipples in public space is natural?”
Those interested in participating in the project can apply until May 8th on the Imaginarius festival website, they must be over 18 years old and will receive prior training which will explain the “plural and inclusive” character of the show, preparing the selected extras for a task that, although as simple as walking down the street, “is not a neutral gesture”, representing, for some, “an acquired right” and, for others, “constant exposure, vigilance and risk”.
With its own costumes, “Mamil(a)s” will thus cross Law and Feminism, combining, on the one hand, Leandro Brasílio’s experience as a lawyer for 14 years and, on the other, several researches by Priscilla Toscano, artistic director of the performance, on women’s bodies in urban space.
The company wants to be involved in this reflection 30 participants of any gender identity and believes that training for the show will constitute an early and more intimate reflection on sensitive issues of circulation in public space.
“What is the life of a ‘queer’ person like? What is the life of a woman there like? We invite [os voluntários] to talk, but, mainly, to hear the testimony of people who, in the same city, live completely opposite realities”, says Leandro in an interview with Lusa.
The Brazilian lawyer and producer recognizes that the final performance before the public “is an act of courage, of disputing the symbolic”, of leaving the individual sphere for the collective creation of the desired society, but believes that the greatest transformation is the one that takes place before entering the scene, during prior training and rehearsals. True performance happens, he says, “in those moments of sharing e collective construction”, because “it is impossible to participate in work like this and look at the city again as before”.
One of the main awarenesses resulting from this is that the female body is more subject to risksnot just when exposed in front of an audience, but “in practically all situations throughout life”. Already the male physiqueif it is true that it begins to go unnoticed in the show because the nipples of “cis or trans” men are confused with those of women, it will hardly generate a shock. Given the absence of verbal language throughout the performance, the identification of the male breast depends only on the spectator’s observation capacity and may not even be verified.
“We take all the precautions and provide all the necessary guidance so that art will always be our greatest argument”, highlights Leandro, regarding the proposal that brings him to Imaginarius for the second time, after in 2017 covering 30 extras with clay and leaving them “Blind” by capitalism. But the confrontation between indecent assault and art will continue to exist even in the most tolerant countries, especially given the “current context of dissemination of ideologies, in which boys and men are taught to hate girls and women“.
This is why the company Desvio Coletivo describes “Mamil(a)s” as “a community project and a space for debate about gender, city, law and art”, to which it applies “a consensus methodology in which there is no majority will, but a collective construction that makes sense for everyone”.
From this general objective, Leandro arrives at the specific examples of Ângela Diniz, a Brazilian woman murdered by her partner and defamed even after her death, and Erika Hilton, a black transvestite who was the first ‘trans’ woman in Brazil to be elected councilor, federal deputy and president of the Women’s Rights Commission in the Chamber of Deputies.
Out of revolt or pride, therefore, the spectacle of Desvio Coletivo is assumed as a celebration of female presence and participation in society – “whether in achieving rights such as rest, freedom, enjoyment, the choice or not of motherhood; or in obtaining professional respect, equal pay, representation and political power” – but it is also “a tribute to all women victimized by male violence throughout history”, even when this aggression occurred in the most subtle way.
“There was a woman who told us, in a very touching story, that she never imagined she would have the courage to take off her blouse in a public space; that just thinking about the idea made her feel uncomfortable”, recalls Leandro. “But, from the performance [com o peito exposto]lived an extraordinary experience of freedom — the same experience of freedom that has always been extremely normal in a man’s life.”
