Censura e ataques contra artistas do corpo no Brasil com a ascensão da extrema direita na política: uma análise de casos entre os anos de 2017/2020

Abstract

This research has as its subject the attacks and censorship against body and performance artists in the context of the rise of the extreme right-wing in Brazil between the years 2017 and 2020. This thesis aims to understand the political use that neoconservatism has made of body and performance arts to assert moral agendas. To do so, this research proposes a dialogue between critical theory and post-structuralism in order to understand the paradigms between art and politics. Through interviews conducted with artists who have been victims of attacks and censorship, producers and cultural agents, as well as journalistic articles and other documentary sources, it was possible to analyze these events. The production of fake news has characterized the persecutions against various artists. Likewise, police violence, and different forms of censorship have occurred through judicial and political decisions giving insight into the implications between body, institutions, art, authoritarianism, neoliberalism, and state. Since the most recent experience of censorship on the arts in Brazil was the military dictatorship of 1964-84, the recurrence or visibility of dance and performance between that period and the recent context offer us clues about the establishment and transformation of these languages at the social level. Considering these points, the research also addresses how body and performance arts have created ways to resist the reactive forces in politics.