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The Carnival of Bahia, Brazil:
"from the inside looking out"
A photographic exposition by Piers Armstrong
Jan. 12 - Feb. 27, 2001
at the Museum of Cultural Diversity, Los Angeles
This exposition shows scenes from the carnival of the city of Salvador, capital of the state of Bahia in Brazil.
Beside the photos you will find short texts with explanations of the photos and
brief discussions of related points of interest. Key Brazilian words that are
used in the texts are marked with an asterisk, and are listed in the
glossary.
Carnival was originally a Catholic festival, lasting for 3-5 days, just
prior to the 40 days of Lent, which precedes Easter. There is no general word
in English for the carnival festival ("carnival" usually refers to
a temporary amusement park), so we use the French term used in New Orleans, mardi gras
("Fat Tuesday", the last day before Lent - people would eat up all
the meat and fat and then not eat meat during Lent). Since Lent was a time of
penance and discipline, the preceding days became, in contrast, a time of
liberation from the usual social and moral constraints, a public party. In
medieval times, carnival was part of an organic cycle of discipline and
liberation. Some people consider that the temporary liberation of carnival
was politically useful as an escape valve for oppressed people and thus
actually helped maintain the status quo. For a day the fool became king and
the king a fool. While carnival is still celebrated in Europe,
it has lost its cultural importance in a world of prosperous consumption. In Latin America the old patterns last longer. Carnival is
psychologically important particularly for poor people, who look forward to
it for a whole year and see it as a magical time of release and pleasure.
Another aspect to carnival, especially in Brazil, is the way its
development has been influenced by black cultural practices. Afro-Brazilians
(around 40% of the population) are not well represented in most professional
activities, but in carnival they are very prominent, and have created or been
the best exponents of many of the most characteristic activities and
attitudes. Bahia is the oldest state in Brazil and its culture is
strongly Afro-Brazilian. Salvador, its
capital, has been called the "Black Rome" of the Americas because of its strong
Afro-Brazilian religious heritage. The carnival is the highpoint of a cycle
of festivals through the summer, and carnival clubs known as blocos afro are
the most visible and socially affirmative organs of racial identity. But the
carnival involves the whole city and most of the carnival clubs are dominated
by the Euro-Brazilian elite. Still, most tourist interest focuses on the
consciously Afro-Brazilian expressions. Thus, carnival is a vehicle for a
range of social expressions and differences. In Salvador cultural expression through
carnival evolves considerably each year. The merits of the changes are
debated and carnival is considered pivotal in how the city represents itself.
While the carnival of Rio with its huge floats, extravagant costumes and
dancing, semi-naked women is more internationally famous, the carnival of Salvador is considered
the most dynamic in the world in terms of popular participation. Hundreds of
thousands of people from around the country and abroad descend on the city.
The main feature of Salvador's
carnival is not as a spectacle but as an event to join in. In this sense, it maintains
the traditional notion of carnival as a time when rules can be broken and
social barriers crossed.
The photos were taken during the 2000 carnival (in March). The theme of
this carnaval was "500 anos" - the 500 years of Portuguese
settlement since discovery of the Brazilian coast by Pedro Cabral in April of
the year 1500, at a bay which was given the name Porto Seguro (Safe Haven) in
the south of the state of Bahia. April 2000 saw major celebrations of the
Portuguese settlement and of Brazilian statehood generally, centered in Porto
Seguro. As with the 1992 celebrations across the Americas
of the 500th anniversary of Columbus'
discovery, there was much questioning by alternative groups as to the
validity of the notion of discovery. More specifically, a range of
organizations, including the Movimento Sem Terra (landless rural workers'
movement), indigenous groups and others, undertook protest marches to Porto
Seguro, which were prevented, in many cases with violence, from reaching the
town and embarrassing the government. While Brazil dispensed with its
military regime and became a democracy in 1985, these events revealed again
the contradictions of Brazilian contemporary society - on the one hand
liberal, harmoniously cordial, exuberant and uniquely creative, and, on the
other, intolerant, desperately unjust, and semi-feudal. The spirit of the
carnaval of Bahia - in a state of constant evolution, balancing community
ties which reach back in time and beyond Brazil to Africa and Portugal, and
simultaneously a constantly expanding series of business franchises -
captures many of these contradictions, though usually in the form of
mascarade, intentional or not. The exhibit focuses on social interaction
outside the bounds of the large carnival clubs, on smaller or more innovative
groups, and on individuals who take the opportunity to express themselves and
be seen by others: children and adults in costumes, heterosexual men
cross-dressed as women, small troupes of musicians and performers, poor
people who occupy spaces on the periphery of the carnival to sell food or
drink (and are pressured by local authorities to leave), and foreigners who
come to learn about and engage in the unique expression and social ambience
of Salvador. The intention is to show the carnival as it is lived and seen by
locals and visitors, and not as it is shown on television or in tourist
brochures. The title, from the inside looking out, refers to the broad mix of
local and global in carnival culture. But it is also about getting away from
the official, commercialized spectacle and seeking a more subjective and
traditional carnival psychology. It is about the individual more than the
group, and the external projection of the inner self through a costume, or
through more subtle forms of expression and social behavior. Carnival is a
time for fun, but also a time when we show what we would like to be, and
reveal our personal fantasies about what qualifies as beautiful - in
ourselves and in others.
The Australian-born photographer, Piers Armstrong, studied and taught
Brazilian literature at UCLA, before moving to Salvador, teaching at the
Federal University of Bahia, and then the Universidade Estadual de Feira de
Santana. . He now teaches at Dartmouth
College. His research
focuses on aesthetic and social aspects of the popular cultural expression of
the region.
The camera was a Pentax ZX50, the film Fuji stock Black and White (ASA 100 SS-619;
ASA 400 PR 253). Some have been printed on to color paper, producing a sepia
effect (a brown, yellow or red hue). These Jpegs of the photos may be
downloaded and used freely, with the proviso that the photographer and the
siteare clearly listed with the photos in any usage which involves any form
of digital or material redistribution. Reprints of the photos from the
negatives are available from the photographer.
Contacts and information - To contact the
photographer directly, please email Piers
Armstrong (piersarmstrong@yahoo.com)
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