Making Space in Brasília: Cultural Texts from 2009 to 2014

Abstract

Abstract:In learning about Brasília, we learn about the power of place, not as deriving from some static, unchanging location, but from the dynamic negotiations that unfold there.Drawing on theory related to social space and cultural geography, particularly that of Henri Lefebvre and Doreen Massey, this study analyzes music, music videos, creative nonfiction, and poetry concerned with the negotiations that imbue the city with meaning. Most research on the intersections of contemporary cultural production and urban space in Brazil focuses on the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. 1 Brasília often is overlooked in these analyses because it is associated more strongly with politics than with artistic production. Moreover, the capital's architecture and design are so emblematic of the late 1950s and early 1960s that critics tend to view Brasília as a living museum and modernist icon more than a city where art continues to be made. However, art does continue to be made. And, Brasília's art-especially music and literature-is being made in ways that are intriguingly bound up with spatial relations.Five of Brasília's contemporary cultural texts shed light on the spatial negotiations that continuously transform the city and shape the subjectivities 56 ellipsis 13 of its residents. The first is plant specialist and poet Nicolas Behr's book of vignettes about Brasília, BrasíliA-Z: cidade palavra (2014). Behr registers the negotiations among people and trees, denaturalizing the city's green space by showing the extent to which it is the product of individuals' choices. The second is Ellen Oléria's song "Senzala (a feira da Ceilândia), " on her debut album Peça (2009), a fusion of soul, funk, and hip hop, recorded with her band Pret.utu. Oléria showcases the way in which negotiations related to race, class, and gender affect how people circulate within the city. Third is 1990s-style rap group Viela 17's single "20 de 40" and the song's music video, both released in 2012. The video for "20 de 40" presents Ceilândia, where current blight can be understood as the result of top-down planning that has left little room for residents to negotiate for better living conditions. The fourth is indie rock band Sexy Fi's 2012 debut album Nunca te vi de boa and its first music video, for the song "Pequeno dicionário das ruas. " In Sexy Fi's music and video, adolescents growing up on the large residential blocks known as superquadras negotiate their living environment in ways that shape their subjectivities. Fifth is Augusto Rodrigues's third poetry collection Do livro de carne (brasílias invisíveis), published in 2011. It integrates the actual layout of the Plano Piloto (Lucio Costa's original plan for the city, known for its airplane shape) and more fantastical poetic representations of it. The negotiation between real and imaginary makes for startling poems that, in turn, highlight the defamiliarizing effect of the actual Plano Piloto. In learning about Brasília through these texts, we discover how the city is the product of the co...

Candangos: teoria da reconstrução ocupacional como uma ferramenta para a compreensão de problemas sociais e ações transformativas na utópica cidade de Brasília

“…Social movements asserting black pride have flourished, sharpening the racial dimensions of local identity and denouncing police violence, abandonment by the state, and other social injustices (Procopio et al, 2019;Tavares, 2009). Participants have resisted marginalization and created alternative 'cultural texts' through music, events and educational initiatives (Beal, 2015). In 2012, for example, the group Viela 17 (the name of a street in Ceilândia) released a video of its song "20 for 40" that expresses a common theme in Brazilian hip-hop, the contestation and renegotiation of claims to territory (Beal, 2015).…”

“…Participants have resisted marginalization and created alternative 'cultural texts' through music, events and educational initiatives (Beal, 2015). In 2012, for example, the group Viela 17 (the name of a street in Ceilândia) released a video of its song "20 for 40" that expresses a common theme in Brazilian hip-hop, the contestation and renegotiation of claims to territory (Beal, 2015).…”