Associação Cultural Videobrasil

performers - Achiles Luciano, André Montenegro, Cassio Martins, Cibele Lucena, Daniel Lima, Eugênio Lima, Felipe Martineau, Felipe Teixeira Gonçalves, Fernando Coster, Fernando Sato, Iramaia Gongora Lima, João Nascimento, Julio Dojcsar, Maurinete Lima, Maysa Lepique, Nô Cavalcanti, Pedro Guimarães, Roberta Estrela D´Alva, Robson de Souza e Silva and Sônia Montenegro

Futebol – Frente 3 de Fevereiro

The football pitch is the arena of pretence racial and social equality, and, simultaneously, the stage wheredeeply ingrained prejudices are revealed. The pitch inspires the performance by Frente 3 de Fevereiro, a group that researches racism in the quest for inroads in its political and artistic actions. The name of the group is an allusion to the death of Flávio Ferreira Sant’Ana, a black youngster who was murdered by six policemen in São Paulo on that day last year, because they took him for a thief. The 2004 founding manifesto states thatthe aim of the group is to “bring to the surface what Justice and the media try to forget: racism placed before citizenship.” One of the group members, Daniel Lima, created a laser beam suggesting the union between the city of Salvador and Africa at the Pan African Contemporary Art Show, in Salvador, March 2005. Lima has also tackled racism in previous works, such as in the photographic series “Blitz” (2002), in which he smiles standing next to policemen.

“Football” is part of the episode that occurred in April 2005 between players Leandro Desábato, of Quilmes, the Argentinian team, and Grafite, of São Paulo F. C. The Argentinian athlete was charged with racism for calling Grafite an “ape” and a “nigger”, and remained in custody for two days. The case migrated from the Sportsto the Police pages and led the group to a new round of investigations on racism. In order to collect material for the performance, they made interventions in Brazilian and Argentinian matches, in collaboration with the Grupo de Arte Callejero, an Argentinian group that brings together photographers, visual artists and designers who carry out urban actions. Percussionists and DJs follow the projections in “Football”.

Followed by millions and broadcast nationally, football matches are a potent exposure situation for racism, says Daniel Lima. In “Football”, Frente 3 de Fevereiro also aims to deal with inherited racism, reproduced and self-replicated. “What interests me is to think how this past is manifested in daily life and how we can, by means of trigger-elements, make their mechanisms evident”, states Lima, who is also one of the founders of the group A Revolução Não Será Televisionada, which associates video art and activism. “I work with interventions because São Paulo’s public space has always grabbed my attention, with racism, because it touches me and my identity,with the media, because it interests me to think how to re-signify the gigantic load of information we receive everyday, and that, in the end, ‘disinforms’ us”, completes the artist.

ASSOCIAÇÃO CULTURAL VIDEOBRASIL. "15th Videobrasil International Electronic Art Festival - 'Performance.'": 6th to 25th September 2005, pp. 34 and 35, São Paulo, Brazil, 2005.