The Art of Embodied Politics: Street Performances and Citizenship Practices in a polarised Brazil
How can citizenship be practised in a context of uncertainty, misinformation and strong polarisation? The year 2022 marked the culmination of several conditions that affected directly the everyday lives of Brazilians: the gradual return to in-person activities after two years of conflicting scientific advice and official guidance regarding safety and public health during the covid-19 pandemic; the rhetorical radicalisation of then-president Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters, which increasingly challenged the legitimacy of the country’s democratic institutions and processes; and the presidential election, contested by politicians and voters alike both before and after the results were announced. The pervasiveness of politics as a subject matter in most Brazilians’ lives, through an unceasing flow of news highlighting the economic, social and political crisis the country endured, created an environment of seemingly constant dispute and antagonism between those supportive of Bolsonaro’s administration and those critical to it, ultimately fomenting a feeling, as my interlocutors described, of ‘living in chaos’. Accepting citizenship as one’s belonging to and relationship with a particular political community, this thesis takes as its starting point the notion of citizenship practices, that is, the practical manners in which such relationships come into fruition. This thesis shows how women-led artistic street performances were mobilised as tools of activism and resistance by left-wing Brazilians in the southern city of Florianópolis, the capital of one Brazil’s most traditionally conservative states, in the turbulent period comprising the months leading up to and the aftermath of the highly disputed presidential election of 2022 The first three chapters compose Part I, providing the political and social context (Chapter 1), drawing on ethnographic work with Carnaval blocs’ and street theatre groups’ processes and rehearsals (Chapter 2) and their performances (Chapter 3). Part II analyses the two main events happening in Brazil during fieldwork: the presidential election (Chapter 4) and Carnaval (Chapter 5). Weaving throughout all five chapters are the threads of belonging and the sense of community, pillars to all practices of citizenship. In a country immersed in deep socio-economic disparities and scarred by the trials of colonialism, dictatorship, corruption and chaos, actively engaging in political debates and activism can be a heavy burden, often impacting one’s personal relationships and wellbeing. The art created and embodied by these women at that moment thus became both a recognition of hardship and a commitment to creating spaces and experiences where political activism intertwined with joy, laughter, and collectivist ideals and practices. Far from a romanticisation of political struggle or naïveté towards the very precarious reality of a large portion of Brazilians’ lives, it is an acknowledgement of the complexity of existing and resisting within chaos, the acceptance of the fact that there is hardship, suffering, fight and struggle, and there is also laughter, joy and beauty.
Artistic performance, Brazil, Citizenship practices, Political polarisation
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