Isaura Daniel*
isaura.daniel@anba.com.br
São Paulo – Group of artists Coletivo Madeirista, from the city of Porto Velho, capital of the northern Brazilian state of Rondônia, is going to make a documentary showing the different forms of art of different parts of the world, among them Morocco. A group of seven artists is going to produce, with funds supplied by the Ministry of Culture, a 12-minute digital video that will include from poems to images and footage from various countries.
According to the coordinator of Coletivo Madeirista, Joesér Alvarez, the material will later be transferred to film and be promoted abroad on the Internet and in international festivals. The content of the documentary varies from the experiences of Coletivo Madeirista itself and of artists from several places with which the group has been in contact and exchanging information in recent years, like the United States, Portugal, Morocco, Spain and Thailand.
The artists from Rondônia won the Digital Art Award 2007, this year, granted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), whose objective is recognizing initiatives that join art and technology. The recognition was for an urban integration project named "Inventory of Shadows", developed around three years ago by the team.
The project works more or less like this: in public areas, artists from the Coletivo Madeirista ask passers-by if they can draw their shadows on the pavement. While they draw the contour, they talk to the person about his relations with art, and then ask the person himself to paint the shadow. The process is filmed and those who become artists, at the end, are the pedestrians. "We are establishing public art galleries," stated Alvarez. The experience has already taken place in Porto Velho, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Vitória, in the state of Espírito Santo (SE Brazil).
The idea started being developed by the artists from Porto Velho after a workshop given by the National Art Foundation (Funarte). It started with four people, but grew to eight, twenty and now has fallen to seven. "They are poets, musicians, plastic artists, graffiti artists, and none of us have technical training," explained Alvarez. It is people from the world, who have similar experiences, who will be part of the Coletivo Madeirista documentary. They send their work to the group on the Internet.
The Moroccans, according to Alvarez, got in contact through e-mail, in June, and should send their works with urban intervention to be included in the documentary up to the end of the month. They are part of a group called Upart, which includes two ballerinas from Casablanca and seven professionals from Tetouan. Some international contributions are by people who promoted the shade painting in their countries, as did the citizens of Rondônia.
The group from Morocco heard about Coletivo Madeirista because the Brazilians were scheduled to participate in the Biennial of Sharjah, which took place in March this year, in the United Arab Emirates. Participation was scheduled to take place due to the Unesco award, but bureaucratic problems made it impossible for the group to go.
Contact
Coletivo Madeirista
Site: www.coletivomadeirista.tk
E-mail: coletivomadeirista@yahoo.com.br
*Translated by Mark Ament
