POETIC AND POLITICAL REFLECTIONS ON STREET PROTESTS

PERFORMATIVITY CREATED IN COLLECTIVE ACTION

Abstract

In the Brazilian history supported by the neoliberal logic, numerous are the conservative tactics to silence and marginalize specific sectors of society. The project is, openly, based in an idea of freedom curtailment, defenses to traditionalist ideologies and diversity discrimination. It is in the present context of the ultraconservative ascending in Brazil that, in the recent years, many social groups are in a process of occupation of the streets aiming to defend rights and to repudiate actions which attack the democratic system. Thus, these individuals unhappy with this scenario, try to make themselves visible in spaces of invisibility through their meetings and assemblies – as Judith Butler affirms, by thinking of bodies in alliance and their performative connections. From this view of a structural crisis, this works has the objective to reflect on some street protests, considering the variety of mobilization modalities as: walks, occupations, avenues’ interdiction in direct actions and, from the idea of performativity, the movement of these groups are going to be analyzed, groups which get together on the streets, many times with distinct agendas, but fighting for the freedom of apparition and human rights get connected (in)voluntarily. It is going to be used some actions realized in João Pessoa-PB, which were observed in the second semester of 2020 as part of an initiation scientific research (ongoing project), which seeks to analyze the protests with the objective to create a performing composition. In these terms, the concept of “Bodymap”, idealized by the researcher Líria Morais, turns to be a useful ground for this discussion in respect of the poetic mapping from the space, analyzing its concrete nature, and also the subjective ignitions which take specific bodies to compose on the streets their indignation dances in the face of social, economic, political and cultural crisis.