“Passagens – Centro”: lugares intersticiais de um Rio de Janeiro submerso

Abstract

The photographic series “Passages” is an artistic research in progress. The series works with the ideas of insertion and continuity among images, and the notions of superimposition and interweaving different times and spaces. Its images are assembled from a collection composed of appropriated photos as well as photos taken by the artist. To create the sets of images that will form a condensation of the series, it is necessary to: 1) investigate the history of the place with which the work intends to connect; 2) select interests by going to that place, living in it, and then photographing it; 3) search for photographs from other periods associated with the context with which the set aims to establish a dialogue. By proposing a development of the “Passages series” for her doctorate, the artist aimed a territory she has been in touch with for years: downtown Rio de Janeiro. The turn of the twentieth century was the period chosen as object of study on which “Passages – Downtown Rio’s” first set of images is based. Working with texts related to the social and cultural history of the downtown area in such an ebullient moment (with the creation of samba and modern carnival), and significant changes in the urban fabric, she collected fragments that are rarely cited features of these places.The iconographic research in public archives that participates in this set of images focuses on the history of Rio, favoring its lesser-remembered agents, founders of a Carioca modernity that doesn’t necessarily involve the idea of progress. They are Black and immigrant working class people who, by force of circumstance, lived in tenements in the downtown area and its vicinity. Throughout the 20th century, this contingent of the population was evicted from the central area by the state and pushed to the outskirts or to the favelas (shanty towns) that were established on the slopes of the hills. The main interest of “Passages – Downtown” (“Passagens – Centro”) lies in the process of erasure of habits, customs and the “porous” culture which originally permeated Rio and that has been gradually diluted due to socio-spatial segregation. The second part of the research established a collaboration with current residents of the Port Zone and Little Africa, bringing the “Passagens – Centro” into the present. The intention was to gather photographs of people who live in the central part of the city that has remained residential: photos that contain memories and affections, thus establishing ties with the inhabitants of these neighborhoods. These are communities that underwent another major urban “requalification” of the region, the so-called “Porto Maravilha” (Wonder Port). It was carried out for the mega sporting events hosted in Rio between 2014 and 2016. This redevelopment brought back the long past of this territory, bringing up pressing political issues such as the proper preservation of the Afro-diasporic memory and culture that make up Little Africa. For the second group of “Passagens – Centro” images, superimposition and associations were created based on the universe of photos by residents who were willing to collaborate with the project. In addition to generating a set of images for the series, the second phase of the research was laid out to create an archive of vernacular photographs donated by Port Zone residents. The idea is to narrate the everyday history of this region from the point of view of its contemporary inhabitants