Letters to the Art System

Letter to Richard Barbrook

20/06/2003
Hi Richard,

I think class is what makes this place so particularly different. I read on the paper this week that sales of products aimed at the upper class are on the increase.

While the middle and working classes are finding it hard to pay bills and buy food Class A is buying more than ever. Mont Blanc pens cost here around R$ 3,000.00 (US$1,000.00) and had a 30% increased in sales last year. These people are the ones that make policies, and if things are working "wonders" for them they don't want things to change.
The conservative parties have started a media campaign to criminalize MST in defense of private property.
120million hectares of unproductive land is in the hands of 838 Large Land owners. These people won't let go. There's too much money to be made. They will organize as they are and kill, torture and slave people.

While the elite is able to afford a Mont Blanc pen, a Versacce or a Kenzo, it still pays R$240,00 - US$80.00 (minimum wage) to maids, gardeners, nannies. The largest occupation for women in this country is house servant.

The manufacture industry is entering the sweatshop era. I was getting a visa at the Bolivian embassy here when I heard the attendant discussing on the phone about an allegation. Apparently Bolivians were held hostage in a factory. The woman dismissed the case saying that she had spoken to the boss, a Korean , and he denied all charges, and that was the end of it. A few months later I read in the paper that they had discovered several apartments where Bolivians including children, lived and worked in slave regime. They were locked inside and were not allowed to go out without permission. The boss was Korean!

Reebok is producing trainers in this country now.

Working for factories won't increase people's buying power. PT is talking about turning the poor into consumers, I don't know how that can be done in this scenario.

Have you seen the films "Cidade de Deus" and "Carandiru"? Those films were blockbusters here, never mind the rest of the world. They talk about what people want to see about the poor. Desperate, trapped, dehumanized people, that cannot be rescued and might as well be pushed to some dirty corner in big cities and forgotten.

Now there was a wonderful documentary called "Onibus 174" - Jose Padilha. Well Bus 174 is the story a young man in Rio, that is trying to rob a bus when the police turns up. He then gets the people on the bus as hostages. It was all documented on TV. People watched it all live for 7 or 8 hours. In the end he killed a pregnant teacher and was killed. Those are the facts. The director then decided to study this "monster". The film talks about a perverse social structure that fabricates excluded people and victims. The film then recounts his life and reveals that, at the age of 9 he saw his mother being stabbed to death, then became a street child and at the age of 16 survived a famous children slaughter in Rio called "Chacina da Candelária". The film shows what the ruling class does not want to see. That these"violent" people are traumatized victims.It didn't do well of course.

Well I started writing about class structure in this country and veered into other directions.. All of them of great importance I believe.

All the best.

Take care.

Ana Amorim

Reply to Richard Barbrook's email

30/05/2003
Hi Richard*,

It was good to hear from you. You mentioned PT in your email.
I don't know what to think of Lula and PT these days...
-During his political campaign Lula chose a rich industrialist for his vice president.
-When elected, Lula chose for president of Central Bank the former president of Bank of Boston - Henrique Meirelles. Meirelles and PT started a political campaign to privatise the central bank, following an american model - after strong opposition from Party members the decision was postponed to 2004. It is very dangerous to have a private central bank in a country where banks have record profits already.
-Then, attending IMF demands, PT started a political campaign for pension reform.
-To avoid serious inflation levels, bank interest rates were raised to almost 26something% and kept there.
The consequences of that are bad for the industry, social programmes and people. But very good for
banks. An overdraft facility now charges 178.5% interest a year ( I did not get this wrong! It's 178.9%).
The government is now working on new bankruptcy laws, trying to help companies going through
financial difficulties to recover step by step. But massive business closures are expected.
-Unemployment in São Paulo has raised to 20% - 1.940 million people unemployed only in São Paulo.
-PT is preparing to expel 4 members out of an internal opposition of 30 or so members that oppose government measures. They are being expelled for defending PT's ideas!

I went to the first meeting in São Paulo for the Culture International Forum, that will be next year in June. São Paulo PT Mayor - Marta was the only woman among the organisers (and left after 1/2 hour), Gil was the only artist, only stayed for 1/2 hour and talked about his songs during that time. The rest were only business people and politicians. Things won't change, where money can be made.

I don't know what to think, really ! This seems to be a liberal government. They are talking about "continuism", because you can't rock the boat .. I can understand the impact international financial markets can have on local week economies such as this. But there are permanent liberal measures being taken, such as pension reform, central bank privatisation that won't change this country in any positive way.
May me they need more time to realise that they are using the wrong TEMPLATE .
Good to hear from you
Bye now,
Ana Amorim

*Richard Barbrook: CYBER-COMMUNISM: how the Americans are superseding capitalism in
cyberspace

Letter to Al Giordano - Narconews

Email written in reply to John Perry Barlow's emails to narconews.
Barlow's emails are at :http://www.narconews.com/Issue29/article728.html
April 8th, 2203

Hi Giordano,
We met briefly at Media tatica talk. I am the artist. Are you
ok?
I was deeply bothered by Barlow's writings. It was again the foreigner that sees only what he would like the world to be, who doesn't speak the language but "knows" what people are saying! I understand the
fact that he didn't stay here long, but he should be more careful than to make statements like:
Besides, it seems to have an instinct for peace that runs the length of its history and is wisely aware that even opposing the bellicose behavior of less enlightened cultures addsenergy to the cyclone of war. Brazil doesn't study war no more. The onlyorganized conflict Brazil is likely to enter involves no weapon more lethal than a soccer ball."

What is he talking about? People are dying in the countryside all the time in the hands of private militia controlled by powerful land owners. No one can roam in the countryside, the fences of private property are everywhere. There are approximately 20000 people living in slavery conditions (that they have
actually caught). Indians are being taken out of what was left of their land and being killed. Where's Barlow's brazilian haven of piece and justice for all? I can pretty much guess. Expensive, comfortable
'pousadas' that "feel" very close to poverty for a gringo but most of us could never afford! I respect you liking his messages but making us Brazilians read that, is sickening. About Gil he should research a bit more. Gil defends corporate sponsorship and the privatization of art institutions. He also declared that he could not live on the R$8000,00 (reais) - US$2500 - salary that a minister gets.
He's as close to the people as banks to their clients - vampires. I am in no position to say that, but I don't think you should have it in your bulletin.

All the best,
Ana Amorim

Statement sent to ZMI 2003

Z Media Institue
May 7th, 2003

Ana Amorim
Biography:

In the early 90's I refused to allow my work to be exhibited in the Gallery system which is controlled by elites.

Since then I have declined an offer to publish my work in an Art Journal sponsored by Wyeth and wrote a public statement about my reasons for doing so.
I have applied for an art contest sponsored by the second largest private bank in S?o Paulo only to submit a contract in which the company could not use its logo, or any of their sponsor's logos wherever my work was exhibited.

This anti-corporate approach has taken over and I use my art work and the anti-logo contract as a 'bait' to raise discussion and debate about the role of art in society. The art system is a tool for capitalism and I believe artists must focuse their efforts on the methods of distribution they use.

I also took my work out of an exhibition, when the logo of the largest private bank in Brazil was displayed in the venue guide and performed at the door of the event. It caused an angry reaction from a few artists.
More recently I have been writing a series of letters to the largest commercial gallery in S?o Paulo. It has initiated a very good debate.

Al Giordano's reply

April 8th, 2003
Hi Ana,

I'm still here in Brasil... in Rio. I would like to reply in portugês, but, alas, am still struggling to learn the language.

I appreciate your note. I've forwarded it to Barlow to think about. You write very well and convincingly.

How would you like to write a longer essay for Narco News, along the same lines, kind of a guide for gringos visiting Brazil on what we really do need to understand about this country and people and land? Youcould write it in Portugês and we would translate it, or you could also write it in
English, your choice.

You seem to be a subscriber already to our English mailing list... If so, you know that I repeat, repeat, repeat, from all over Latin América, telling my former paisanos that we should not try to measure the
rest of América by North American concepts, that we should not believe the commercial media, that we have to come not to teach, but to learn... It really pisses some of them off... I do think the Barlow essay
was eloquent and honest in capturing how HE feels, and he admits he is just entering the equation (he is coming back here in May)... but I also think a dialogue or counterpoint about the assumptions we gringos make about Brasil would be very helpful to our readers.

Would you like to write it?

After all, the idea behind Narco News is not to speak for anybody, but to facilitate that all of us can speak for ourselves and reach a wide audience doing so, without commercial interruption.

saude e abraço,

Alberto