sol archer
“One enters a room and history follows; one enters a room and history precedes.”
Dionne Brand
Caminhar ao Redor, Caminhar para Longe To Walk Around, to Walk Afar
3 channel UHD 4K film
Stereo Audio
with
Cristina Ribas, Lucas S. Icó, and Vila Autodromo
The self-built neighbourhood was established in the 1960s by labourers in the fishing and construction industries, between nature reserves and the lagoon. The neighbourhood, coveted by real estate developers since the city has grown to envelop the region, was subjected to particularly brutal military police action during the development of the Olympic site.
Artists Cristina Ribas and Lucas S. Icó have been working with the community during and since their eviction, collecting a glossary of the struggle, and aiding in the birth of the Museu das Remoções - The Museum of Evictions, a grass roots organisation linking, supporting, and memorialising evicted communities in Rio. In 2018 the Museu das Remoções, Cristina, Lucas, myself, and members of the Vila community organised a number of workshops utilising techniques from Boals Theatre of the Oppressed to re-enact and memorialise the theatrical practices of the dispersed Vila Autódromo community.
Engaging with collective acts of memory, play, and improvisation these workshops form the basis for theatrical re-telling, re-inscribing and re-orientating communal experience.