Gnashing of teeth, banging of pans
Performance - Video - 2020
The work is a video call produced in a period of social isolation. During the quarantine period, the city’s landscape has changed radically. During the day, the silence in a big city like São Paulo (Brazil) is so striking that we can hear even the grinding of our anxious and uncertain teeth. During the night, a symphony of panelaços (people protesting against the government by making noise with pots and pans) emerges from the windows of buildings.
In a moment in which all encounters become virtual, the artist makes a video call with himself and with the street in front of his house, confronting the images of the deserted street, the sound of protest in the windows, the sound of teeth clinking in the pan and the noise of sound interference that the proximity of these electronic devices causes.
Between March and June, we carried out a sound mapping of the city of São Paulo, in different points, recording the sounds from the windows at specific times of the day. On nights when there were protests against the denialist stance of the then president, Jair Bolsonaro, we could hear screams and banging pots all over the city center.
In a moment when our isolated bodies became a warning signal, we restricted ourselves in contact and in touch, trying to escape from the invisible virus that circulated through the emptied cities. Redoubled attention to our hands, which become enemies of our mouths.