Carnival: The Free Body

All the photographs in this exhibition have been taken in Rio de Janeiro.

In the dynamics of Carnival, the notions of "home" and "street" have very tenuous borders, as the sociologist Roberto DaMatta points out in his studies on the theme. In this sense, the space filled by "the house" or "the street", across the history of Carnival in Brazil, varies and mingle. The three sections highlighted here, therefore, aim to mark dimensions of the same ritual. Already in its origins at the turn of the 19th century to the 20th century, the backyard batuque, a "proto-samba", spread to the streets of the neighborhoods, when houses were opened and neighbors joined the dance.

However, the greater motivation of the suspension of everyday reality, transgression, naturally exploded. The frenzy never ceased to invade the party houses, whether they were popular terreiros or elite halls.

This is what helps in understanding the resurgence of the blocos (blocks) - pageant groups associated with particular neighborhoods - a kind of contemporary cords. Following the increasing commercialization of the official parade since the 1970s and the decrease in attendance at clubs, the blocos returned strongly in the late 1990s. The streets of the city were invaded by crowds, mostly young people, who in less than 5 years became the largest concentration of people in public space among the country's festivals. A little more slowly, there was an affirmative "reafricanization" among these groups, a movement that in Salvador, Bahia, the other huge regional carnival, occurs since the end of the 1940s.

Feast and rite, so intensely profane that it attracts a horde of faithful, Carnival in Brazil brings with it meanings that go far beyond the holiday and the celebration. House and street. Party with no owner, in it emerge the power of creativity and the vocation for integration of a culture formed by sharp differences. If "Brazil is not for beginners", as Tom Jobim said, living the days of Carnival can be a good way to begin to understand it.