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UNIRIO – Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro

PPGAC – Post-graduation Program in Scenic Arts

Monographic Report of Discipline – 2018-2.

Discipline: “Coletivos Artísticos: procedimentos criativos e estratégias criativas” (Artistic Groups:


creative procedures and creative strategies)

Profª Drª Laura Erber

Master student: Fellipe Marendaz Mury

Course duration: 2018-2 – 2010-1

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Artistic Groups Today and related Though

Fellipe M. Mury

Abstract:

The present writings derive mainly from a report on the theme of artistic groups and related concepts
proper of the field of arts in general, art philosophy, visual and plastic arts, theater and other dramatic
arts cultural studies and sociological analogies. It gathers information and organize some ideas, exposed
and debate in class. Keywords: art, theater, visual, plastic, drama, performance, scene, collective, group,
artistic, capital, urban, space, solutions, contemporary.

This synthetic article intends to report the classes on artistic groups had in the second semester of
2018, as part of the Master Program in Scenic Arts at UNIRIO. During the given course it were discussed
several aspects of Art in a general way and of some specific collective activities in the World.

Cezar Migliorin tries to settle the concept of what is a “coletivo artístico”, an artistic group: it is
certainly more than one, it is open (receptive to new members), and it produces some kind of energetic
outcome. It is a center of convergence of people, practices, exchanges and mutations. It incites porosity in
what comes to other groups, communities. The coletivo is a sharing dynamic space where its components
share more intensively among themselves than with outsiders. It requires intensity maintenance through
immeasurable presence and dedication.

A brief analogy with hydraulic systems is made by Migliorin, lifting the “Treaty of Nomadology”, by
Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guatari. Much comparing these groups to fluids and trying to comprehend them
in a microphysical way.

These groups are essentially unstable, and for such, they rely on external recognition to follow
producing. The role of festivals worldwide is indeed relevant for building up artists and their following
groups. We could name Tribeca, Sundance, Rio Festival, Gramado, Venice Festival, Berlin, Cannes, the
SAGA, the Emmy’s, the Golden Globe’s, as temples of the movies and screen actors. We could be
reminded of Montreux Festival, of Rock in Rio, Lollapalooza, Baloise Seccions, Eurovision, the VMA,
the MTV Awards, the Grammy’s as sacred stages for the music. But are there enough temples for theater,
dance and circle artists? We have the Bafta, the Tony, the SAGA, the Brazilian Shell prize and the APTA
prize, but are those enough for the continuing growing digits of actors and performers appearing in each

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and every corner of the world? What would be the equal of a Palm d’Or or of a Berliner Golden Bear to
the contemporary theater, or, further, for the plastic and visual artists?

The capitalist order is something the artistic groups must cope with these days and the organizations
and institutions who maintain them too. The anesthetization of the world is very probably a consequence
of this money based system, which may very well be the least harming one and the most sophisticate one
– such as democracy is to the world of politics –, but still causes unwanted effects.

Luís Camilo Osório exemplifies with the Turner Prize laureated to an architecture office which
planned and executed the gentrification of a ward of London. The example of the taxidermied pig which
was accepted by a museum and the very artist questioned the acceptance, making a performance and an
premise on the criteria of what is Art today. Is it the value of the piece? Is it the effort put in the work? Is
it the context in which it is presented to the critics and the public? Timming? Is it the personal and
biological value of the given artist? Is it the animus, the intention of the artist that is precise, acute, keen
on affecting the senses of the receptor? Is it the look of the spectator and his or her willingness to concede
value and concept to something?

Some would talk about an animus, or intentionalism, which would confere authenticity and legitimate
the status of a piece of Art. However if analyzed the full panorama, it can be said that, some times the
criteria are the experience or age of the artist, sometimes, the originality presumed, other the level of
energy and intensity put in a canvas, in marble or under the limelight of a theater or camera. It cannot be
precised the very moment and the very means a masterpiece is born. Afar from what DaVinci once
numbered, a golden divine proportion is out of question in the contemporary Art world, or at least it is not
found through calculators.

In a lecture of a History professor in UNRIO, the relation between Arts and time was explored. The
task of a new certain kind of professional, chronologists, was described as a challenge of the
contemporary era – from “saudosistas” (those who miss a past moment), to revisionists (the ones who
offer new explanations and versions to the facts), cyclists (those who believe History works in cycles and
repeat itself), stationaries (those who seem not to be willing or capable to move into another stage in
time), futurists (those who can only look forward, in prospective), accelerationists (those who intend to
speed the course of history). The debate was raised in occasion of appreciating the historicity regimen,
described by Fraçois Hartog. Some crisis of time perception and the elevation of presentism over memory
were part of the considerations.

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Even if modern creators healed from their lack of optimism and the libertine freedom resulted in
luxurious pieces, the theatrical and other Arts ontogenetic would transcend ordinary standards and cause
buzz in the youngster generations. The unashamed neutral speech of the critics would give in to narratives
of sincere complement, more than cold descriptions of paintings, sculptures, performances, productions.

In Brazil, if it were to oppose the thought of Augusto Boal to Gerald Thomas, for example, we would
find unequivocal similitude in the spirit or the motivations of their works, nevertheless, astounding
collision of their methods, modes of creation, aesthetics and results. A certain “bonne volonté culturelle”
is demanded towards achieving a cultural Olympus or a cultural ascension, for this reason the “poélitique”
(mixing poiesis and politics) is still valid and influences the work of today’s collective and single artists.

These are very pertinent considerations, but mostly, until this point we have referred to plastic and
visual arts or initiatives from other fields which were recognized as artistic despite their functionality and
technicality proper from sciences or economic activities. How does the collective and collaborative
structure and modus operandi apply to Theater, to Cinema and to TV? In Theater it is certainly neater
commonly observed, but is there space for collective logic in the mainstream, the vehicles owned by huge
complexes, solid industries and ancestry-based enterprises? Probably, if we consider these giants of
entertainment and of communication have once been small and they were born fruit of the gathering of
coincident and complementary artists that once had the necessity to produce and to tramit their emotions,
knowledge and information no matter what, we can admit that it is possible for those artists coming up
right now unit and create, despite the initial lack of institutionalism. Pretty much surely, the artists who
endure in their works will be the great leading forces of the market in the future.

In my Master Program’s thesis I have been researching how the language, the aesthetics and lots of
techniques of the German Epic Theater (based on the work of Berthold Brecht and carried on by others,
as Heiner Müller) transcends time and can be noticed as a source and as a powerful force to this very day.
The Berliner Ensemble, at its time, started as one more collective, however, something right was done
under the baton of Brecht and Helene Weigel. What leads us to another interrogation: is it necessary, at
some point to centralize? Is it necessary, at some point to elect a leader? Cannot an artistic group survive,
or prosper, with a high degree of decentralization? Something amongst a presidentialism and anarchy?
Let us investigate the example available of the Pussy Riot group, more ahead.

Moves and mannerisms of society figures and even of ghettoes are included in the performances of
groups, and it is a natural process, since art mirrors life. Wendy Brown draws a parallel between neo-
liberalism, the human capital – the surplus over daily life routine and over characteristics of the citizens –,
and how austerity policies interfere in the creative conditions and in the ecology of a society, which turns

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each time more banal the sacrifice of peoples wishes, personality and their very biological bodies. It is a
way of understanding modern life necessities, and the creation of artists assemblages, mainly in the first
fifteen years of the XXI century has adopted a distributive, heterodox, welfare and socialist based
formula, in opposition to centralizing, orthodox, segregate and free market based model which cause so
much inequality in the past. But Brown alerts, and artists portrait, exactly the current risk of getting back
to an unfair economical model.

Gilles Lipovetsky, in “World Aestheticization” talks about the phenomenon of putting the visual and
sensorial aspects before other debatable parameter. The malls, centers of consumption, the hermetic and
impersonal architecture of buildings or design of products and objetcs, the sensational appeal, the
consumer’s impoverishment face to the super valuation of art-pieces; these are all circumstances we have
been forced to accept. The spectacular society, of which tells us Guy Débord, explains a lot of this trend.
Bounds of collective groups, even the most posh ones, are compelled to present themselves in these new
spaces of capitalization and money worship. It is not rare to find performances of really gifted artists in
unconventional spaces. Not bars or night-clubs, where many of them come up, usually, but in fashionable
restaurants, shops, and even as window-shopping elements in majors conglomerates and fancy stores like
the Tiffany’s, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and others.

In a way, it can be understood that the artists must go wherever the audiences are. But also, it may be
diminishing for the activity of creating and transcending old standards, to be constantly moving from the
places the artists are supposed to present (prepared and proper spaces, such as Italian stages, theaters and
arenas). Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen tells us about aesthetics in larger senses and in plural dimensions, he is
keen on classifying and explaining the genesis and the future of aesthetics in the World.

Wendy Brown tells us about a sacrificial citizenship, about how neo-liberalism may pervert human
capital when prescript in ultra-orthodox and austerity formulas. The welfare, social beauty and a couple’s
brightness shall be the beacons of state and private actions, which include the premises of artistic groups.

Do we watch an “Edipianization” of society, in the sense that audiences and consumers in general are
being victims of their own complexes and egotist willingness to only see themselves onstage or on
pictures or on sculptures? Gilles Lipovetsky and Damian Hirst talks about aesthetization eras of the world
and the artistic ritual flowing into a trans-aesthetics age, when plural forms of living and being are
accepted and displayed onstage. The artist capitalism is mentioned as an entity capable of adding value to
innumerable sorts of relationships and contact. An economic-aesthetical complex nurtured by incredible
diversity selects style as latest marketing imperative and the ephemerid gains in scale. What is art and
what is industry is undistinguishable and art as profession becomes a must-do. De-territorialization comes

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as every corner of the world seems to obey equal values and equal symmetry, far from picturesque
originality. The beautification of thyself unfolds into a dictatorship of progressive structures and of
straight lines, the harmony of the curve is forgotten.

A not unified hypermodernity exposes cultural antithesis. Hedonist values, the preponderance of
amenities in the cities for the population, the art made in the bodies of people, with tattoos and gymnastics
took seriously, these are all irreversible pros of new times and mark the transition of a homo festivus to a
homo aestheticus. What are the cons? Lipovetsky considers “everywhere, the real is built as an image,
integrating in this aesthetical-emotional dimension turned into summit for the competition of brands – it is
what is called artist capitalism”.

The Professor Laura Erber has emphasized the role of the Futuristic movement, born in the last
century, fruit of the rebellion of François Dorin, who proposed “a sociological experiment”, mobilizing
the vanguards and opposing the rive droite to the rive gauche (right and left banks of an imaginary social
river). An ostensive expelling of things was proposed, and a French theatrical bourgeois quality was
affirmed. Pretension, bluffing take part in a spirit of seriousness and melancholy. Simultaneously, the
manifests at Le Figaro, at L’Aurore, L’Express and at other newspapers at the time preached the
incommunicability between people as an alpha and an omega of contemporary theater. Sasha Giltry and
the low level moves of Feydeau to the obscure underground, exemplified by the works of Margheritte
Duras. The futuristic manifest stubbles of course in the urgency of living the present, instead of keep
yourself planning the future, however, the contribution of these thinkers outstand further worries of
scarcity and fear of Armageddon, once it was stated the future will happen and we are safe in our wishes
for another century.

Of course the so called drolle power of the word is and will always be source to theater, and the
mirror offered by Jean Piat and his flawless virtuosity fights back against conformism, the ridicule of
excessive seriousness and the fraud of tedious and boredom. The trickle down effect of the economics
can be transposed to fashion, to class guilds and to Art: opposing old and new, expensive and cheap,
classic and practical, the groups of today avoid the traps of exhaustive thinking and empty questioning.
Committed and enclosed in internal fights which oppose them, the producers convinced that, in praxis,
their investments limit to specific behalves, may thus reckon themselves as totally uninterested. We shall
state the miracle of a choice and the courage not of rupture or of transforming into something else, but the
force and courage to endure in a determined status quo. Bourdieu blows the wisle of the Homology
Effect, and the Social Contemporary Theory of Juliana Closel Miraldi

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The artist capitalism is a smart answer to ancient defies in terms of civilization. No doubt remains on
the evolution and betterment of modern societies within their check and balances mechanisms and
freedom and individual warrants. The possibilities of making art today are really larger than in the past.
Are we afterwards creating a world of artists? A world of artists is possible? Very probably, the reality of
global cities such as New York or London have sponsored more individuals and groups have engaged in
an artistic existence and made entire neighborhoods based on artistic experiences. The advertisement, the
cuisine, the clothing segment, everything seem to be each time more transcendental and made to prompt
passion, to stimulate senses.

Brigida Campbell, in her writings on “Art for a sensitive city”, states the role of artistic actions and
thought to build a fairer and more pleasant environment, mainly in the urban sphere. She defines the very
conception of Art nowadays and its plural meanings, depending on context, time and place. The critical
Art is also an issue to her: it would foster dissention and, bring visibility to matters the mainstream
consensus usually keeps aside or tries to erase or hide. This reviewing and questioning art would aim to
destabilize the status quo and to show new ways of thinking and of producing, mostly prompting a certain
inventiveness and alternatives or reactions to political, social and cultural circumstances. Campbell
mentions the verb “articulate” as empowering, potentializing actions, being a tool to build networks of
people and initiatives, which together are stronger and shape solidarity bonds.

Another concern of Brigida is the so called political Art, expression linked to social and contesting
works, that, however, for Chantal Mouffe, are undistinguishable from non-political Art, since all artistic
manifestations bring a certain level of ideology within themselves. Further on, the relevance of relational
aesthetics is scrutinized – “ an activity which consists of creating relationships with the world, with the
world, with the aid of signs, shapes, gestures or objects”, following the acceptation of Nicholas
Bourriaud. It is described as a way of creating art which taked into consideration a greater concern with
human relations, including the artist’s relationship with their surroundings and their audience. Individual
repertoires are overshadowed by collective meanings and participation is a pivotal factor.

The artistic activism is another element approached by Campbell and she defines it as a path to build
sensitive experiences breaking grounds with hegemonic patterns and consensual imagery, unleashing
unspectacular practices. Art and activism is a topic which seems to be each time more up-to-date and the
work of Andre Mesquita is mentioned as a source (“Insurgências Poéticas: Arte ativista e ação coletiva”,
Sao Paulo, Annablume/Fapesp, 2011). The city, according to Hannah Arendt is not just defined by its
land extent and its skyscrapers, but first and foremost, as a site of relations and relationships – “a place
created for Man for meetings, exchanges, alterity, conversations and dialogues”. Collaborating is crucial

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in such scene, and it occurs when a group of people gathers to do what one cannot do alone. The counter-
information, in this context, can be seen as an appropriation of the means of circulation and production of
information, done with the intention of delegitimizing the state of power of the official press. Other
concepts are navigated by Campbell, such as right to the city, documentation/record, drift, spectacle,
gentrification, groups, insertions into ideological circles, situationist international (conference in Corsio
D’Aroscia, by letrists and the Bauhaus), intervention, free information, landscape, psychogeography,
TAZ (Temporary Autonomous Zones), unitary urbanism and utopia.

In “Art for a sensitive city”, Brigida sails through realities which are bricked in the very walls of the
towns worldwide, as the blood and organs exposed in the work of Adriana Varejão, and she wonders how
Art cops with the obstacles of hermetic and practical life, how it actually gives birth to new modes of
behavior, how it builds the public space. New ways of life coexist with old ones. “Occupy, affect and co-
create” is a motto used towards achieving a sensitive urban space, as Art becomes more than a storytelling
about sensations, but a straight order of superior sensations, letting us produce ourselves and not things
which enslave us. Collectives, network, circuits,

Martha Rosler, duely reporting “the artistic mode of revolution (from gentrification to occupation)”,
notices macro aspects of art incidence in the XXI century societies. She identifies a creative class,
especially in the field of visual arts, and relates inequality to economic cruelty against which artists seem
to wrestle, in movements such as Occupy Wall Street, Greek Sintagma square, etc – demonstrations and
riots are put as extreme measures. The universities are seen as a place for creating solutions and peace for
these tensions. The British punk subculture is mentioned as a case in which a new aesthetic emerged from
the rebellion against perished and malfunctioning rules. Globalization, as conceptualized in Marketing
Imagination, by Theodor Levitt, was a powerful guideline still remaining despite alt-right tries to block
immigration and other fluxes, afraid of the changes it may represent. High touch goods, forward thinking,
homogenization by accepting differences, these are some consequences of an integrated economy. The
hypsterism, another aesthetical and lifestyle response to post-modernity, could be entitled the triumph of
surface over substance, in the view of Rosler.

Other mottos and logics as the DIY culture, portable expositions, open-air and low-budget concerts,
expos, markets and food events become current. Neighborhoods as the Meat-packing an Williamsburg
district becomes a magnet to inventive minds. The Group Creative Class is a boutique company,
composed by the highest researchers, to offer consultancy to a tall range of clients about even taller
matters. Rosler develops her ideas in other texts such as “work of crowds” and “the political economy of
social creativity” (poorly translated from the Portuguese).

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To improve relations amongst people and to adapt the public space into a lab socio-political-
environmental livings is a tonic of groups of design, architecture, landscape, and also of groups of video
and theater, who profit from a well-designed and cared urban furniture. In this point groups of all kinds
feed from the actions of the other, and even outcast actions can be inferred within the city big picture,
despite being constantly denied for upper classes.

Brazil has an immense portifolio of expos and events ready to boost the most diverse groups. The
Salão de Maio (Salvador, Brazil), Multiplicidade (Vitoria, Brazil) are some. The city of Sao Paolo has a
lot teach concernings senstitive initiatives and keen events. Some of these are the Semana EIA de imersão
Ambiental, Festival Submidialogias, Festival Reverberações, C.O.R.O Coletivo.

Everyday Revolution, and the microphysics of Power, as tauch by M. Foucault, are ways to see this
web of relations happening in the cities, in the fields and elsewhere. It is very important that our will to
put order and hierarchy to the masses do not overshadow the necessities of families and of cellular groups
who give the true power of society. When living a beautiful and aesthetical life, the individual, the
average person, is in fact revolutionizing the entire system and the collectivity of people. It is a model
based system that works also for visual, plastic, performance and scene artists gathered in productive
groups and all-sizes spheres. Co-work offices, brain storms sessions and collective creations become
more frequent, as solution to changing conditions in the making of more or less artistic oevres.

The city as producer of ways of life. People and goods fluxes are central in urban logistics, and every
idea sustaining mobility is welcome – adhering to bicycles and to wider subway systems is an accurate
answer. The examples of the Olympics and the World Cup in Rio are unquestionable as genitors of
development, new spaces, progression and better use of urban equipment and prosthesis. The
gentrification phenomenon has been deeply debated, nevertheless smart solutions and the recovery of
strategic areas of the cities can never backfire.

Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen has plenty of works on the topic of aesthetics and art history, forged the
concept of the great refusal and essayed on Trump’s supposed counter-revolution. He strikingly read the
presence, or absence, of modern day avant-garde’s transgressive impulse directly proportional to social
transformation ability. That may seem ground-breaking, whereas absolutely true. During Prof. Erber’s
course it became clear some degree of rupture with the past and with rusty rules lead to existential success
and artistic results. Prof. Karl Erik Schollhammer alerts to a de-aesthetization or an aesthetics of the ugly
and morbid. This ain’t good at first look, thought it shows us rules of art and of life are unprintable, they
do not bound to static classes, to sedimentation or to solidifying commands. They don’t obey the pre-
established and intellective orders.

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The landscape anesthesia of Rio de Janeiro, for example, with the beautiful hills, the sea, lagoons and
clear architecture, represents certain purity as background for performers of several kinds. When an artist
used to the gelid, polluted and over-informed sight of saturated urban realities, it may very well empire,
shine, glow her/his brightest in the carioca virgin nature. The opposite may be just alike: an artist/group
habituated with minimalist, warm and vibrant landscape of Rio, may simply dilate in greyer towns. It is
just an example of how the scenery is very important, and sometimes defines the work of the artist/group.

Damien Hirst, who explores the relations between art, religion, science and, life in the British Young
Artists group exposes in the Ullens Center, in China, paintings that might be just ordinary in Europe. This
logic of displacing, exporting, adapting or transplanting artists is well-known and sometimes work. In
theater, to travel is mostly a necessity, since cities audiences get tired or bored easily with some plays.

Christopher Balm, in “The Theatrical Public Sphere”, pledges the right of citizens to public debate and to
contribute for wider and social discussions. In this sense, the concept of collectivity artistic production is
outstandingly adequate. These gatherings of relating individuals are the very pillar of social physiology
and kinetics. New groups mean new breath to society.

We have Comic-on drawing groups which are responsible for a huge industry and the creation of
superheroes for infants and grown-ups. They are proof an idea of some folks united may take the world
aback and shape uses, clothes, language, everything. Marvel or DC lie as reference but more recently
founded cartoon companies struggle to have prestige.

The title “Coletivos Artísticos: Procedimentos criativos e estratégias criativas” Práticas Dramatúrgicas
na Cena Moderna e Contemporânea” is very adequate to refer to certain procedures and strategies
adopted by groups in several areas. It is more comfortable and compatible to the repertoire of this author
who writes to you to focus on theatrical manifestations above others. Currently, efforts are being put in
revealing the gesamtkunstwerk of Berthold Brecht and his verfremdungseffekt. This way, to cite Heiner
Müller, Maeterlinck, E. Piskator, J. Grotowsky, P. Szondi, A. Artaud, A. Antoine, K. Stanislaviski, S.
Adler, L. Strasberg, A. Tchekov, H. Ibsen, Strindberg, J. Cocteau, Mdm. Maurineau, Y. Mickawsky, Z.
Ziembinski, P. Brook and B. Wilson. Almost all these major metteurs-en-scène and directors haad their
own groups and worked in progression with known artists, searching evolution within a given circle of
actors. In Rio de Janeiro, it is possible to list the work of the Actor’s Institute, lead by Celina Sodré, as
vanguard and as deep dive into the actors profession.

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Diese instituitionen in der kunst (art institutions, art prizes, formalization of the art) are exquisite to
laureate and to form artists and audiences. Levi Strauss, talking about playwright in “Le cru et le cuit”,
offers a solid view on the role of written word to the job of lifting a dramatic spectacle.

There are traits crossed between Arte & Revolution, sexual revolution, uses & tradition, juridical,
economical, aesthetical and energetic issues. But the truth is that just a handful of artistic groups reached
an excellence level and are, besides than respected or admired, well-paid for their productions. It is an old
complaint and it must be heard: artists, in group or in couples, shall be better remunerated, be it for
random awards or for substantial salaries in big conglomerates of communication and of entertainment.
The financial return to the work of the artists should be considered a mere compensation, but a fair return
of the wonders one’s Art may do for society, and a bet for artists keep doing good art in dignity.

Coletivos de video: Gomez-Peña videos

Coletivos de arte-protesto: Pussy Riot, Vojna, Gutai. Even some action of Greenpeace, of Gay movement
and religious could be considered artistic while their protesting and contesting purposes.

Coletivos de teatro: Vertigem, Galpão, Corpo, Cia do Latão, ... Exemplos de práticas: a)encenação de
peças nas ruas, oferecendo fones ao espectador.

O Happenning, teatro invisível, teatro foro, teatro do oprimido, o teatro legislativo.

Relational Art (the one told us by Nicolas Bourriaud), the parangolés (Hélio Oiticica and Lígia Clarck),
the visual patterns by Mondrian, eye-tricking drawings of Escher and the intent of optical illusion, the
unfolding surrealists influenced by Dalí, … until the edgy actions proposed by Marina Abramovic, out
of chronological order, they are very probably interconnected, mutually feeding, cumulative and
descending outcomes nurturing societal needs to different modes of thought, to fresher and fresher
guidelines to common life.

Flash mobs are amazingly illustrative to what performance actors and common people are able to
accomplish within the urban space and using urban furniture. Not only in cities, surely, but also art in
crops, fields of corn, cane, flowers: sculptures seen from the sky and the space have artistic quality too.

Braille paintings, or, for some, sculptures in the walls, floor and urban objects: such as a noses in the
façades of London shops, crochet embracing trees and poles in Sao Paolo, flags missing details or
incorporating others, flyers distributing people dressed in a curious or provoking way, outdoors and
advertisement intended to cause a smile more than too sell something. Almost imperceptible actions for
the macroscopic eye addicted to super structures, mega pieces, neon lights, these urban artists produce

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something more seemed to pills, precisely activating for the eyes of some who are used to looking down
and to smaller things.

Protests and dissatisfaction are major reasons for active associations. Some of these may achieve artistic
status, depending on the quality of their production. It is possible to enclose primary avant-garde
movements – surrealism, situationism, lettrism – with activities of influential contemporary groups –
Fluxus, Hi Red Center, Ant Farm. The communitarian imaginary shelters levels of counter-culture and
institutional criticism.

Punctual performances in providential sights.

There are imaginary handling techniques in all urban societies, as said by David Harvey in “The Right to
the city” (term coined by Henry Lefrebvre), the freedom of oneself to benefit from the web of affections a
town represent, and also to provide benefit to one’s equals is the very basis of this right and wish to
change the city parting from the desire of our hearts, because when remaking the town we’re remaking
ourselves.

Carlos Augusto Serbena (author of “Imaginário, ideologia e representação social”), Cassio Hissa (author
of “Ambiente e vida na cidade”) are also quoted by Brigida. Hissa will further state that “men are what
they produce for themselves”. Such lucubrations send us to the notorious argument opposing public and
private territories, about what Lefebvre has declared “urbanism does not seek to shape space as a work of
Art, not even by technical reasons, what it develops is a political space”.

In a dialogue set by Vera Pallamin (professor at USP Architecture and Urbanism School) matters such as
economic growth, Health system, and about all the modern and contemporary dynamics of art and
society, she assimilates Art as a social mediator. Founding the MAR and the Tomorrow Museum (both in
the once impoverished harbor area of this Brazilian major city) is shown as the effort to balance the
concerns with urban tasks and aesthetical ones. Krzysztof Wodiczko, a well-known critic of gentrification
processes may be considered debunked when some true harmony is found, conciliating the demands of all
sides.

How skate, graffiti, rap are integrated within the culture of major cities? Not only Tunga, L. Clarck, H.
Oiticica, Cildo Meirelles, Beatriz Milhazes, the Gêmeos, Adriana Varejão, Vik Muniz or Banksy are
actors of innovation, producers of culture, transgression descents, and plastic visual civilian urban icons
of creativity; still candid artists in the quebradas of Sao Paolo, such as Raphael Escobar. Galleries in
major cities have embraced innovative artists. Prof. Laura Erber talks about a disruptiveness of the book
JAZZ by Henri Matisse, certainly plastic and visual fields of the arts support disruptive characterization

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by many observers and critics, but it should impeach them from being shown and enjoyed by the public.
The popular audiences most of time don not distinguish, judge or segregate the exposed art: they mostly
make it of scenario for their daily and affective lives which simply happen in front of the work exposed –
in the case of plastic art, mainly, but also at cinema and at less fancy theater, where couples hold hands
and bond in front of the spectacle presented.

Styles and aesthetics such as the burlesque, the pin-up girls, Japanese anime and cosplaying, the geek
universe, hipsters, yuppies, the office suits, these are all sources for the work of young artists exposing in
fairs like the Art-Rio or being sold in an Sotheby’s auction. Furthermore, it can be observed above all the
work of individual and solo artists, more than collective groups, or at least the efforts of collective groups
tend to be eclipsed when the credits are quickly shown at the cinema or when a single person is called
onstage to receive a prize.

Selling the picture of Pollock, the MAM secured budget for the next thirty years. Some say it was a
miscalculation and the tableau is worthy more than that, yet certain tactical decisions must be took in
order to maintain an institution. The same happens in a smaller scale with theatrical and other artistic
groups which face difficulties at some point. When the state does not boost them, as it happens in France
and in other developed countries, they have to count on the private sector add, otherwise it becomes
painful to go on.

The post-modernity, post-drama and post-structuralism are commonly posted as marks of our
blossoming age, even so many artists resist in accepting the idea of overcoming past experiences and of
dodging old references the prefix “post” may suggest. Many say we live in a fluid modernity – held the
concept of Bauman – and that art in our time may take any form, any name, any purpose, and everything
is acceptable. Is it?

Boris Groys conceptualizes due fluxes of art, he verses on an evanescence of present time, uncovering
themes as the activism in art, examples of the revolutionary Kazemir Malevic, the engineer Clement , he
risks contemplating the theme of internet art and teaches what modernity and contemporary would mean
eventually.

Contemporary artists face mostly the same challenges of the past, what probably occurs is the profusion
of artists and of artistic works claims attention and recognition. Thus, the criteria for legitimizing these
artists becomes more complex and it is harder to identify patterns, to fixate commandments, since art may
appear everywhere.

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Plastic and visual arts are more commonly carried on by single artists signatures but one must not forget
the team work most of pieces demand. A sculpture as the Chicagoan Bean, the Bilbao Guggenheim
sketch, the men gigantic statues over the water in Hamburg’s Harbor, they demanded operative
professionals, the little ouvriers ants who take the idea out of paper.

And less architectural, more conceptual, works as the installation of Tomás Saraceno, doing spider webs
shine in a piece of art that incorporates the natural world to the museological universe, also need the
acquiescence others, ought them be colleague artists, the public or the critics. Neither functional nor
merely conceptual works seem to be rejected by popular taste or academia, what are the criteria for
rejoice remains an enigma.

Art strikes unconventional spaces, streets and malls, without overshadowing traditional museums as the
Rijks, Prado, Alte-Pinakotek, Picasso, Louvre, Orsay, Hermitage, British Museum, Metropolitan,
MALBA, MAM, MAR, MAC, MASP, Inhotim, nor the Fine Arts museums. The profusion of new
museums in France is even a concern and authorities ask if it devalues the status a museum must have and
the respect the visitors have for the exposed collections?

Guy Débord has alerted and described the circumstance of a Spectacle Society, a notion seemingly
preponderant in the XXI century. Every action of individuals, enterprises or State seems to aspire
apotheosis and the citizens/consumers are idyllically stuck in a sensorial over-stimulating dimension, only
broken by the punches of reality – commonly materialized as credit card invoices.

The example of the forensics under-sort of art (explained by Prof. Karl Schollhammer): certain practices:
buying the pierced tongue of young punk man; the wash of bodies with water and soap after used to make
bubbles later spread in a crowd; the tiled wall of Adriana Varejão whose guts blood and viscera are
exposed instead of bricks or concrete, etc. Do we watch the aesthetization of violence? Can an
antiaesthetics be identified? Is it a de-aesthetization? Are there rigid and absolute aesthetical values?

The juridical view may sometimes condemn certain practices and behaviors, according with
traditionalists, legislators or judges would consist in crimes, however, the open mind and liberal thought
of many sections of society host and allow these practices, at least they can understand them, justify or
explain, even though they resist themselves to join the practices or truly approve them.

The search for the beauty, the sublime, new aesthetics is something that can be noticed in the works of
many collective groups – from the past initiatives of Blue Men Group. Estéticas ligadas às nacionalidades
e culturas regionais e locais, estética ligada a grupos etários e gerações, estética ligada a grupos
identitários que se perpetuam no tempo, com novas adesões, sendo atemporais e identitários (punk,

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grunje, hyppie, hypster, youppie, methal, nerd, geek, futuristic, retrô, manga pin-ups, indie). Some
spectacles from de Cirque du Soleil, since Santimbanco, to Love, Zumanity, Alegria, Aluma, Corteo,
Bazzar, Crystal, KÀ, Mistère, Joyá, to Ovo.

Performing groups as Enra, the Ming Hwa Yuan group, the scrap Art Music, the Stage School Australia,
the Theater train, they are all countable as artistic collectives. The same way fashion shows with
surprising cloths and catwalk, holding the brands of Jean Paul Gautier, Prada, Armani, Louis Vuitton,
Osklen, Burberry or Victoria Secrets are certainly examples of well-succeed gatherings.

Specific Ballet descendent groups, classic or contemporary, even new styles seem to gain sympathy, like
stiletto, passinho (carioca funk derived), and an operistic status has been conferred to fresh manifestations
– the same way once the Milanese Scala Theater welcomed Carlos Gomes The Guarani accepting the
Amerindian aesthetics, the art temples of our times are being called to give space to fair work of
newcomers.

Rap groups seem not to cede in pulse in the megalopolis outskirts, being felt as an enduring wave of what
Jazz, Soul, Rock and Pop music represented once in terms of innovation. If the subject is music, very
probably we should mention the country music effects in South America fostering the Sertanejo genre and
its several denominations as universitario, viola which took Brazil by struck. Other sacred Brazilian
rhythms as Samba, Forró, Maxixe, Chorinho are felt in each and every where in such nation and are used
in major productions such as “O Auto do Reino”, a true Brazilian musical based on the oevre of Ariano
Suassuna. The work of organized theater groups mainly in Rio, Sao Paolo, Curitiba, Porto Alegre,
spreading also to Montevideo, Buenos Aires and Santiago is of sine qua non energy to the continent
scene. The work with masks of the Maschere Atelié, carried on by Eduardo Vacarri in Rio, the Rodapalco
Theater Group, in Sao Paolo are punctual examples of a widespread effervescence in Latin America.

The Tablado Theater school is already an icon of tradition set decades ago by Maria Clara Machado and
prepares great improvisation artists. Other Theater schools such as The Casa de Artes de Laranjeiras and
the Wolf Maya School, the Martins Pena School, and the Drama program of some schools in Rio de
Janeiro provide the force and the tools to the talent of hundreds of great artists, those who majorly unite in
well-succeed collective groups afterwards.

In the past, the TBC, the Arena, the Paulistan EAD, were fertile cradle for Brazilian stage artists. The
Today, the Mar Theater Group, the Corpo Dance Group (lead by D. Colker), the Armazém group, the
Latão Cia, the gorgeous and acclaimed Galpão Cia, these are all collective groups responsible for great
allurement to the world and pride to the nation.

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The Japanese post-war Gutai Group, explained by Prof. Anna Berstein, is a solid model of how strength
and resilient the junction of talents under the same scope can be. They were axial in the Japanese recovery
and development of a modern society, portraying radical spectacles and favoring immediacy in
performance, pledged by Shozo Yamamoto an Jiro Yoshihara.

The artistic groups not always are known for their integral composition, commonly only a few belonging
artists becomes notorious – example in Brazil of the Ornitorrinco group (headed by M. Alice Vergueiro
and Cacá Rosset), Asdrúbal trouxe o trombone (headed in the past by Regina Cazé, L. F. Guimarães, P.
Travassos, E. Mesquita) –, not least they are a true productive web of creators deserving proper mention:
Chelpa Ferro, Opavivará, Projeto Editadona/Xanadona (Rio de Janeiro), Guerrilla Girls e Miss
Rockaway Armada (EUA), Presença Negra (São Paulo), Superflex e Solvogn (Dinamarca),
Mujeres Creando (Bolívia) e teamLab (Japão), Assemble (Reino Unido), to name a handful.

The theorists who are busy studying and trying to rationalize contemporary methods and strategies of
artists, their consequences in society and the social starting point feeding them are numerous. Aracy
Amaral discriminates what is art and what is métier, the same way Maria Angélica Melendi talks about
artistic strategies in a catastrophic era. Reinaldo Laddaga conceives an emergency aesthetics and André
Luís Mesquita eviscerates poetical insurgencies issues, dictating what activist art and collective actions
would be. Finally Han Buyng-Chul exclaims modernity has brought a tired, bored, exhausted society,
while Lionel Ruffel alerts us about brouhaha in the contemporary worlds.

It is possible to see patterns repeated in History, but what can also be seen is the absoluteness of a welfare
pursuit how the association of creators is benefic in this sense. The search for better visages, better
sounds, better textures, and better air is unstoppable. Once more collective groups have the chance to see
aesthetics as an evolution of mankind and the answer to new challenges and the break of ancient
paradigm.

Study Case

The Russian group Pussy Riot became famous in the last decades for giving voice and face to feminist
movement in Eastern Europe and worldwide. They started as five women in 2012 in a blasphemy,
profaning the cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Serguei Prozarov writes an compilation about the
and about how they interfere in politics, mainly in Slavic countries.

They make presence in controversial trials and in official summits, mainly contesting the supposed male
hegemony in these forums. Lawfully or unlawfully they have been sending a message of women

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empowerment and irreverent (not bowing) profile. In spite of what is expected from women’s behavior,
they tend to aggression and to harsh posture facing the dichotomy of sexes.

As their main tactics lies the intoning of made-up songs. For example, in the occasion of the orthodox
cathedral profaning, they sung “Mother of God, drive Putin away”, as a punk prayer, whether such a thing
exists or not.

Pussy Riot is definitely not a conventional artistic group. For many, they are not even artistic, they would
be only turmoil causing handful of rebellious blond girls. Nonetheless they came up with original
messages and original modus operandi. They mobilize themselves through digital networks, through
volunteering adhesion and a proto-recruitment made amongst unsatisfied females. They certainly have
their own strategies and procedures, used majorly to create surprise, sometimes laughter, and other times
fear. Some traditionalist men find in them a sort of threat. But they are very probably a statement of
female force.

Other strategies and creative procedure involves producing videos for You-tube and other content
channels. The video “Straight outta Vagina” is a provoking exhibit of what the word vagina mean and
how it can break taboos. In the length of commercial pop music clips and with a certain visual virtue, the
cheeks from Russia take aback younger audiences, send a gender equality message and put at stake the
before mentioned question of what is art. They probably have reached an uncontestable artistic status.

Their videos are not highly produced yet, but the parody “Make America Great Again” is a charged
pressed against the authoritarian traits of Trump administration. Aganbem in his Sacrament of Language
states aspects of blasphemy, and Serguei affirms Pussy Riot is different from such notion of blasphemy.

In “Chaika”, the structure of one singing hostess, rapping more than singing, and scenes commenting the
political and social paradoxes of modern Russia is strikingly effective. Allusions to torture, rights
burglary and other violence forms are shown within mockery and indifference basis. The matter of
patriotism is attacked, showing the icy giant nation hides no more than what is real in other countries.

Initially, the group was treated with apprehension and accused of several misconducts. The council of
Laodicea prosecuted anti-systemic vocals and it became even more clear the clash between free
expression and keeping a repressive status quo. Official intelligence organs involved, aggression was not
rare in the past of the Pussy Riot, however, today the group enjoys some recognition and it is even
identified within Russian culture by foreigners. Herein it follows an extract of one of their songs:

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“The Church’s praise of rotten dictators

The cross-bearer procession of black limousines,

A teacher preacher will meet you at school, go to class – bring him money

Go to class – bring him money!

Patriarck Gundyaev believes in Putin

Bitch, better believe in God instead

The belt of the Virgin can’t replace mass meetings”

Mary is with us in protest

(Pussy Riot, 2012)

Cultural forms of protest in Russia is the title of a printed edition, by B. Beumers, A. Etkins and others,
trying to unveil and categorize these boiling pot of divergence in that country. Since the time of ancient
Soviet Union, even KGB efforts were put in asphyxiating protesting groups, and the Pussy Riot followed
the same track, but afterwards they seem much like a group of unworried girls trying desperately to have
fun. In some interviews it rests clear they lack in political conscious and education, plus the fact that they
are constantly renewing themselves in a way that only young girls with no greater commitments in life
assume responsibility for the actions.

Anyhow, Pussy Riot and other artistic groups are positively actors of world order in the field of
communication and of constructive transgression. The need of countries, internally and internationally, to
change such perceptions of their realities and the imperativeness to shout out laud something we believe
is true shape relations on Earth. Countries have each time more frequently benefited from vivid
demonstrations, since they oxygenate the static knots of society and exchanging this content with other
countries speeds conciliation and peaceful talks.

Making a structural analysis of modern day world politics one could state this urgent necessity of fluidity
and interpenetration amongst cultures and artistic productions of the various nations of the world. And it
seems clear that in every corner of the world these groups of contesting nature, be them feminist or else,
are each time more common and, in fact, are the very reality of what is produced in art and vehicle by
Cinema, TV or internet. Coletivos like Vojna or the Pussy Riot are a trend difficult to undo.

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Bibliography

BEUMERS, Brigit. Cultural Forms of Protest in Russia.

BOURDIEU, Pierre. Homologia Estrutural entre os Campos Sociais. https://docplayer.com.br/38096878-


A-teoria-de-bourdieu-e-o-problema-da-homologia-estrutural-entre-os-campos-sociais.html

BROWN, Wendy. Sacrificial Citizenship.

CAMPBELL, Brigida. A Arte para uma Cidade Sensível.

ERBER, Laura. O Demônio da Possibilidade. Revista Sala Preta. Available at:


http://www.revistas.usp.br/celeuma/article/view/87710/0

GROYS, Boris. Arte en fujo. BA: Caja Negra, 2016.

HARTOG, François. Regimes de Historicidade. BH: Autêntica, 2013

LIPOVETSKY, Gilles. A Estetização do Mundo. SP: Cia das Letras, 2013.

MIGLIORIN, Cezar. O que é um coletivo.

MURY, Fellipe. Globalização e Cultura. (link:


https://www.scribd.com/document/366827210/Globalizacao-e-Cultura-Artigo-de-Felipe-M-Mury)

OSÓRIO, Luís Camilo. Meio arte, meio não, meio talvez.

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RASMUSSEN, Mikkel Bolt. Critique's Persistence: An Interview with Sianne Ngai, by Mikkel Bolt

Rasmussen and Devika Sharma (Kultur & Klasse / Politics and Letters, 2017).

ROSLER, Martha. O modo artístico de revolução: da gentrificação à ocupação. Revista Lugar Comum n°
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