Page 57 - Art Review

Terreyro Coreográfico selected by Bernardo Mosqueira

Bernardo Mosqueira is an independent curator based in Rio de Janeiro where, in 2017, he cofounded the off-space Solar dos Abacaxis

Celebração da Terra Vermelha (Celebration of the Red Earth), a choreography led by the Tupinambás and Guaraní people at the 2016 Baixo Libertas happening

Terreyro Coreográfico is an ever-evolving group of artists based in developed there – meetings and social activities, held together under
São Paulo that was founded in 2014 with the goal of investigating and the title Canteyro de Obras – was a constant process of learning from the
shaping public space. This they do using various means, among them place, remodelling the environment, dealing with visible and invis-
architecture, choreography and public programming. Their aim is ible forces, inviting other groups to collaborate, developing multi-
to create public space that is not defined relative to ‘private space’, artistic practices and working on collective ways of learning.
developing temporary learning communities that mix ecologies of This experimental, insurgent and celebrative character was inher-
marginal knowledge: people, references and practices co-present in ited directly from the nearby Teat(r)o Oficina Uzyna Uzona. As with
Brazil, including those related to the Afro-Brazilian religious matrix, the seminal tropicalist theatre company, TC strives to create its own
native Brazilian social wisdom, different oriental philosophies and rituals and vocabulary in which mythology, philosophy and the mate-
spiritualities, classical Greek theatre, the anthropophagy of Brazilian rial exist in parity.
Modernism, the digital culture, contemporary dance, permaculture Taking as its motto the phrase ‘To the public what is of the public’,
principles, etc. the TC is currently fighting for the creation of a new park, in an area
In 2015 the group occupied an empty space under an overpass, of 11,000sqm attached to the Teatro Oficina, on which two towers, each
Baixo Libertas, in the Bixiga district of São Paulo. It spent several more than 100 metres tall, are on the verge of being erected. In a time
months engaging with and listening to the flows of humanity and that is witnessing violent reinforcement of identity and the evident
capital that passed by: from the needs of homeless people to the failure of the traditional strategies of political struggle, the TC shows its
desires of the real-estate market, from the memory and official history relevance by cultivating radical co-presence, dealing with the material
of the site to the orixá, ghosts, animal spirits and old indigenous forces and magical contradictions and believing in the collective transforma-
that haunt and impregnate the surrounding architecture. The work tion of spaces in the direction of a fairer and more pleasant togetherness.

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