Photo by: Gleydson Virgulino
An interdimensional portal, a ceremonial liturgy, a communal state of intoxication? Much more than a protocol-based celebration of the Catholic calendar, Carnival in Brazil is an extremely complex aesthetic and political web in which society celebrates and dances its contradictions, pains and beauties. This is based on a social - and poetic - pact that has emerged as inevitable throughout Brazil's history and is now considered one of the main symbols of the Brazilian spirit.
It is difficult for a person who has never experienced Carnival in Brazil to explain this invigorating force that marks a kind of ritual of renewal at the beginning of each new year: These are four sacred days imbued with a dreamlike atmosphere in which nothing is forbidden and everything is permitted. The drums take the public space by storm and reconnect with the spirits of the street through the grammars and alphabets handed down by their ancestors.
By: Navio Pirata 2024, BaianaSystem , Anderson Carvalho
Human bodies, in turmoil and half-naked, dance, sweat, laugh and cry, in an emotional intensity full of libido and the urge to live.Carnival mixes and rearranges everything out of chaos - like a big, creative blender that catalyzes the emergence of new visions and new perspectives. After attempts to elitize this colourful festival throughout history, it is always important to make it clear that carnival is a child of the street. It is a festival where the voice of the working class resonates much more strongly than that of the boardroom. It is a popular rally that feeds on the rebellion of resistance. “The festival and the struggle have always been siblings,” said the Brazilian scholar Luiz Antonio Simas, but there are of course also those who turn up their noses and say that carnival is for underemployed people.
By: Raiana Pires
Anyone who says this has simply not understood the festival. Because in addition to the gigantic economic importance that carnival has now achieved, it is also - and above all - a collective, psychomagical work, a great syncretic magic, something typically Brazilian. It is like a lyrical rift in time and space, in which the traumas of our colonial past - of slavery and social inequality - are given a chance to enter into harmony, if only for a short time.
Because yes: carnival is like a whirlwind charged with emotions. Like a circle in which our ancestors are conjured back for a while and whose actions take place in a very clever interweaving of the sacred and the profane. It is both a spiritual celebration and a celebrated spirituality. Like a kind of cultural medicine that has been decanted during centuries of colonial oppression and as a result has produced advanced technologies for a good life.
By: Glaydson Virgulino, Rafael Paz
Carnival is a wisdom that allows people to dance with the tragic dimension of life and overcome it through the miracle of joy, as the Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso sings: “Samba is the father of pleasure, the son of pain and the great transforming force.” Like samba, carnival walks this fine line. It should be seen as an instrument born from the profound knowledge of our ancestors, an essential intangible heritage for the human experience on our planet. Like a copyleft technology that Brazil hopes can also serve to heal other societies in other countries from their equally difficult past.
Text: Alyne Emanuella Silva and Luiz Gabriel Lopes
Translation: Daniel Vizentini
The Brazilian cultural association Adalu believes in the strength and value of Brazilian carnival as a way of enchantment and for rebuilding a collective sense of life.
This year, the group is hosting the fifth edition of “Tropikaos”: on March 14 from 8.30 pm at Moods, with several musical, dance and visual performances.
Bleiben Sie mit den neuesten brasilianischen Musikveröffentlichungen auf dem Laufenden!
Folgen Sie der Playlist von Rádio Adalu
auf Spotify.
