Nthe new episode of the Videobrasil Commented Collection, the curator and researcher Moacir dos Anjos [1] talk about The Spirit of TV, Vincent Carelli, presented at the 9th Videobrasil Festival, in 1990.
The documentary was made by the project Video in the Villages and shows the reactions of the Waiãpi indigenous group (contacted in 1973, during the construction of the Perimetral-Norte highway in Amapá) when they saw their own image and that of the Gavião, Nhambiquara, Krahô, Guarani and Kaiapó Indians on TV.
Without a reporter or narrator, the film is made in such a way as to interfere as little as possible in the testimonies. The title of the work refers to the shaman's statement that he felt affected when he saw images of a ritual of evocation of spirits on the screen. Recognition of similar tribes; the image of their tribe before the whites and prospectors who threaten them; and the conservation of image and memory through video fascinate and worry the Indians who recognize not only the effects and threats of video, but above all its effectiveness and power.
Videobrasil Commented Collection is a new partnership between arte!brasileiros and Associação Cultural Videobrasil. Every 15 days we will publish, on our platform and on our social networks, a part of its important collection of works, gathered in more than 30 years of trajectory.
A institution was created in 1991 by Solange Farkas, the result of the desire to host a growing collection of works and publications, which has been gathered since the first edition of the Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil (still Videobrasil Festival, in 1983). Since its creation, the association has worked systematically to activate this collection, which brings together works from the so-called geopolitical South of the world – Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East –, especially video art classics, own productions and a vast collection. of art publications.
O new project contributes to “rediscovering and relating works from the Videobrasil collection, and thematic aspects, in the voice of critics, curators and thinkers, illuminating urgent contemporary issues”, says Farkas.
