Mapas elementares 1

[Elemental Maps 1] aka [Elementary Maps 1] 1976

Video.  B&W.       
Sound : Music, excerpts from pop song, male singer plus accompaniment  
Duration :  3’13”                               
Camera : Davi Geiger

Summary 
The artist’s drawing and the lyrics of a popular song in the background, intertwine to covertly comment on living under a repressive regime.

Overview
What Initially this appears to be a benign, over-the-shoulder view of a woman drawing while listening to the radio is actually slyly subversive. The artist is tracing a Mercator map. She outlines the continents, then Latin America, then Brazil and darkens that area. The song lyrics are related as if in a letter, Meu caro amigo (My Dear Friend). Chico Buarque’s bouncy samba disguises this intimate report to a colleague in exile about the dire conditions of living in Brazil.

ABG reflects
The words sung by Chico Buarque in Meu caro amigo sort of motivate my gestures, so the words are associated with my performance.  From an exhibition catalog, Mostra de Arte Experimental de Films Super-8, Audiovisual e Videotape (Galeria Maison France, Rio de Janeiro, 1975). P78