Critical text Carla Zaccagnini, 2003
Texto publicado no folder do artista Wagner Morales, participante da III Mostra do Programa de Exposições do CCSP.
About “Cassino, Filme de Estrada” (Cassino, Road Movie), exhibited at Centro Cultural São Paulo – CCSP on November/December 2003
The plan is well delineated, and we could say that it leaves little space for accidents. From a vehicle (under sail) on rails the camera registers its only possible trajectory. The duration: the trajectory’s duration; the speed: the one that provides the wind which allows the traction of the wheels on the rails; the images: the ones which succeed one another; the only narrative: the way’s narrative. The audio: the one of the ambience, including the song composed for the video, in the volume which the microphone can capture from the sound system. A perfect travelling, without ornaments.
The destiny was chosen from a satellite image of the Brazilian coast, which displayed a spot that complied with the specific, arbitrary requests. The Beach Guide confirmed the expectations: Cassino, nine hundred miles south of São Paulo, is the beach with the biggest length in the world (132 linear miles). An interesting space, this of the beach, a sand track which separates the earth from the sea – sometimes more sand, sometimes less, depending on the tides. Maybe this frontier condition is the cause of this sandy terrain’s instability; the terrain easily registers your steps, but not for a long time. Every night the water does its task of erasing the vestiges of the day.
Nine hundred miles on a well studied road in right speed. The plan is to arrive in Cassino within two days. The beach, open to the Atlantic, has a series of three-mile rock breakwaters that protects it from the violence of the waves, and smoothes the way to ships arriving at the Rio Grande port. A boat takes the visitors from the end of a breakwater to another, from earth to sea, from sea to earth. The plan is to turn on the sound system, with a track determined by the satellite images of this place and its descriptions for tourists, at the same time that the camera begins to function and the linear movement, determined by the rails, is initiated. A perfect travelling.
Nine hundred miles on asphalt, and Cassino, even if the trip is perfect, might be a surprise. And it is possible that the result of the journey may not correspond to the artist’s expectations and to the descriptions of this text. Anyway, a road movie must accept surprises, even if most part of the road is run before and after the action, going and coming.
Carla Zaccagnini
Zaccagnini, Carla. "III Mostra do Programa de Exposições" : 12 de novembro a 10 de dezembro de 2003. Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo, SP,2003.