MASP

Video Room: Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca

8.26–11.13.22

Working together for a decade now, Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca have been producing films and video-installations in dialogue with other artists connected to sound and stage. The duo has developed a research method based on documentary research and observation, but building the direction, the script, the costumes, and the soundtrack in a tight-knit collaboration with the protagonists of each project.

The artists portrayed in Pernambuco professional Frevo dancers, a record label of Brega singers, swingueira battles in public school courts, and evangelical gospel preachers immersed in environments that recall images reproduced in churches; as well as rappers in the subway in Toronto, Canada, and traditional musicians in the German and Irish countryside.

In these videos, these artists-characters are transported into their rehearsal and performance universe, emphasizing the drama and vocabulary of their everyday performances. The setting is both their workplace, the city itself, and inspired by the visual iconography of these places. By revisiting the genres of opera or musical, the lines of these films are the songs themselves, fictions about conflict, real bodies, and subjects engaged in amplifying their expression and visibility.

Fala da Terra [Voice of the Earth] (2022) is the most recent project of the duo, and has its national premiere at MASP. The video presents the work of Coletivo Banzeiros, a theater group composed of members of the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST, in the Portuguese acronym) who live and work in the rural and urban areas of Marabá and Parauapebas, in the southeast of Pará.

Based on traditional rural imagery, Fala da Terra establishes through their work chants the importance of cooperation and collectivity among farmers and actors, whether in the field or in dressing rooms. The enemies are represented by archetypes: the shepherd, the governor, the hitmen, the airplane, and the statue in the department store. In this allegory of social types, the drama of the current Brazilian political dispute is established, as if we could see it all there, staged.

The audience behind (in the video) and in front (in the room) reinforces the theatrical space, like an arena with bleachers on both sides. In reference to the radical propositions of playwrights Augusto Boal (1931-2009) and Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), the spectators in and of the film are involved in the same process of listening and awareness. The imageless scene – containing only the sound of the massacre of Eldorado dos Carajás (1996), and the handheld camera at the end in a demonstration of the MST reveal the commitment of the artists in this struggle that cries out for change. ‘The dream is not killed.’

Video Room: Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca is curated by Guilherme Giufrida, assistant curator at MASP.

PRODUCTION CREDITS

VOICE OF THE LAND, 2022

2K HD video, color, 5.1 sound; 17 min


Courtesy the artists and

Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo/Rio de Janeiro


With the theatre collective Banzeiros

Alan Leite, Aline Silva, Kananda Rocha, Luciana Melo, Maria Luísa, Maria Raimunda César, Mileny Alves Bezerra, Pablo Neri, Révero Ribeiro, Rodrigues Silva, Romário Rodrigues, Vangela Pereira Silva, Wildianei Celiniclis


With the support of

Fundação de Incentivo à Cultura do Estado de Pernambuco (Funcultura), Arts Council of Ireland (Visual Arts Bursary 2022)


Exhibition Design

Marcus Vinícius Santos (em colaboração com / in coll aboration with Aline Arroyo)


Studio Coordinator

Camila Goulart


Produced by

Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca, Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel


Executive Producers

Dora Amorim, Júlia Machado (Ponte Produtoras)


Special appearance

Agnes De Almeida Muniz Bezerra, Batista Do Nascimento

, Deusa Sales, Eliene Silva, Giselda Coelho, Izabel Rodrigues, Joari Procópio, Laurindo Costa, Luzenira Paula Da Silva, Maria Goreth, Maria Gouveia, Maria Olinda De Almeida, Maria Zelzuita, Suely Gomes

Cinematographer

Pedro Sotero


Production Designer

Benjamin de Burca


Editor

Daniela de Lamare


Assistant Director

Gabriel Domingues


Cast Preparation

Douglas Estevam, Maria Raimunda César


Production Manager

Henrique Lapa


Production Coordinator

João Lucas


Costume Designer

Rita Azevedo


Costume Designer Assistant

Luciana Melo


Makeup Artists

Victória Tavares, Roptykwyi Kuxware Bebka


Set Designer

Hemerson Souza


Sound Mixer

Lucas Caminha


Boom Operator

Daniel Moraes


Sound Design Mixing

Nicolau Domingues


Dialogue Editing

Caio Domingues


Mixing Studio

Carranca


Original Soundtrack

Carlos Sá


Finishing Studio

Estúdio Arco


Colourist 

Brunno Schiavon


Visual Effects

Henrique Fernandes


Edit Consultant

Eduardo Serrano


Additional Editing

Caio Zatti


Additional Photography

Benjamin De Burca


Drone Operator

Pablo Carvalho


2st Assistant Director

Daniela de Lamare


Researcher

André Telles do Rosário


Assistant Researcher

Alan Leite


Local Production Coordinator

Maria Raimunda César


Production Assistant

Davi Fleury


Local Production Assistant

Trevo Ribeiro


1st Camera Assistant

Maíra Iabrudi


2st Camera Assistant

Tainá Bicalho


Logger

Liz Dórea


Gaffer

Vitinho Espínola


Light Assistant

Almir Costa


Key Grip

Alex Índio


Grip

Aldo Cardoso


Drivers

Clesio Nunes de Souza, David Gerônimo, Izabel Rodrigues, Jefeson André Sobrinho de Souza, Robson Souza Santos, Sandro Gomes


Translation

Adriana Morelli, Mayumi Matsumiya


Proofreading

Eva Bourke, Helio De Mello Filho, Miriam De Burca


Subtitles

Ivich


Special Thanks

Acampamento Dalcídio Jurandir, Acampamento Frei Henri, Acampamento Helenira Resende, Acampamento Hugo Chávez, Acampamento Pedagógico Oziel Alves Pereira, Assentamento 17 De Abril, Assentamento 26 De Março, Assentamento Palmares Ii, Brigada Nacional De Teatro Patativa Do Assaré, Coletivo Nacional De Cultura Do Mst, Escola Nacional Florestan Fernandes, Fundação Cabanagem, Instituto De Agroecologia Latinoamericano Amazônico (IALA), Instituto Chico Mendes De Conservação Da Biodiversidade (ICMBio), Instituto Federal De Educação, Ciência E Tecnologia Do Pará (IFPA), Movimento Dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), Secretaria De Cultura Do MST - Pará, Rafael Villas Boas, Douglas Estevam, Dan Baron Cohen, Haroldo de Souza, Benedito de Jesus Bastos, Luzinete Nunes Pinto, Etevaldo Arantes, Manuel Fábio Matos Barros, Ian Almeida Borella, Rosilda Bezerra Nogueira, Cici Ferraz


Thanks

Abdoral do Frei Henri , Alysson de Sousa Batista do Nascimento, Antônio Costa Lena, Ayala Ferreira, Carlon Santos, Clívia Regina da Silva, Diego Bresani, Edileuza Souza Gomes, Eliene Neres, Enivaldo Alves do Nascimento, Etevaldo Arantes, Geuza da Cunha Morgado, Glauco Brito, Gurjão Souza, Joari Procópio, Ivagno Brito Gardeny Santos Trocate, Izabel Rodrigues, Júlia Iara, Laurindo Costa, Lindomar de Jesus Cunha, Manoel Silva, Maria de Fatima Cruz Lima, Maria Enilde Lopes de Assunção, Maria Lúcia Soares, Maria Zelzuita, Maurilio da Silva Soares, Naélia Melo, Nieves Rodrigues, Paulo Roberto Correia da Silva, Professor Frank, Raimundo dos Santos Gouveia, Rosa Reis, Suely Gomes, Tito Moura


Sound Track

CANTO DA TERRA SAGRADA- Paulo Amorim / Coletivo Banzeiros, 2022

FUNERAL DE UM LAVRADOR- João Cabral de Melo Neto, 1955 / Chico Buarque de Hollanda, RGE, 1968

POR ESTES SANTOS LATIFÚNDIOS- Guillermo Maldonado, 1975 / Coletivo Banzeiros, 2021

COBRANÇA- Araci Cachoeira / Coletivo Banzeiros, 2022

A FALA DA TERRA- Pedro Tierra, 1977 / Maria Raimunda César, 2022

ÁRVORE- Edson Gomes, EMI, 1992

ÁUDIO DO MASSACRE DE ELDORADO DOS CARAJÁS- Marisa Romão, Arquivo TV Liberal, 1996

CANTO DO LAVRADOR- Benedicto Monteiro, 1962 / Coletivo Banzeiros, 2022


Shot in

Marabá, Serra Pelada and Parauapebas - Pará - Brasil