MAR (Museu de Arte do Rio)
FUNK: A CRY OF BOLDNESS and FREEDOM.
On one of the afternoons of meeting with the curatorship and consulting team about this exhibition, Deize Tigrona, one of our consultants, challenges us with the observation that Funk would be "a cry of boldness and freedom". From the story we will tell in this exhibition, this statement was confirmed.
Rio de Janeiro, boldly, sheltered the associativism of black people, living in the centre and suburbs of the city, who organised themselves for leisure in clubs and gymnasiums. Fun has always been a vilified factor for blacks, because Afro-descendants were marked by work. In addition, in a post-abolitionist context, black people had, and still have, their right to come and go challenged by racist police approaches, by looks and comments that seek to prevent circulation in certain elite environments. With this, clubs, gyms, athletic associations begin to harbour the black parties that begin with the simple transport of a sound equipment to the so-called hi-fi parties and reach the large structures, the sound walls, of today. Thus, from soul to funk, many stories were drawn, of black empowerment, protests and cries for freedom incorporated into Black Power hair, stepping shoes and, above all, in the extraordinary way of dancing and reinventing freedom in body performances. Under the command of great sound teams, such as the Soul Grand Prix, Cash Box, Hurricane 2000, among others, the black and poor population crowded the balls of clubs in the north and suburb of the city. The influence of James Brown thus goes through the black movement that sees a youth face social structures and the military dictatorship with elegance and attitude.
From the soul, more movements arise, such as Hip Hop, Break, still with strong international influence. However, another geography is being drawn, entertaining a large part of the Rio de Janeiro population that did not access the elitised areas and that, even so, produced its own logic of doing dance, with tarpaulins, walls of speakers, audiovisual projections and great stars of music and dance. The sound brought a beat generated by Hip Hop, internationally influential, Miami bass, but with the African ancestry already lived by Maculelê and the touches of Avamunha, lived in the terreiros of Brazil. The art of FUNK spreads in fashion, dance, in the empowerment of women and in the inclusion of the LGBTQIA+ community. The favela ball begins with the great runners, of strong expression of dance and battle, and expands by the media self-produced by the community itself, launching great personalities, emerged in the favelas and suburbs, to the national and international scene of FUNK.
The artists gathered here reflect critically on the world in which they are inserted, in which funk is an inseparable part. We find portrayed in the paintings, photographs, collages and videos, the universe of soul, favela and funk, with its dances, the Black style, the discolouration of the hair, the gang pants, the funkeiras women, the canvases of the parties, the denunciation of violence, the famous wall.
FUNK no MAR is, then, an exhibition that responds to the popular clamor, finding in this museum one of its many resonance boxes.
Amanda Bonan and Marcelo Campos
Copyright © Tara Luty 2024