Cyclical Movements Around the Heart
The technology of the Brazilian Roda de Samba
In March this year (2025), I did an artwork inside the Art Share container that I initiated at the Soil Factory in 2024, titled “Coração.” This artwork is a continuation of 'Food For The Spirit,' which I created with the same group in September 2024, and is part of a series of social artworks titled Pyrocolengos that follow my 'Corporeality Manifesto.' I used the same canvas on which everyone had painted before during “Food For The Spirit" to create a painting that positioned people in a circle, with one person at the center. The logic I followed was that of a Roda de Samba, in which a group of people make a circle while dancing, and one person is invited to dance in the center.
I came to realize that the Roda de Samba is a social technology that creates space to value each person in a group individually, forging an opportunity for each one to express themselves and be seen by all the others. The dynamic is simple: the person at the center stays there for as long as they wish and then chooses someone from the circle to substitute for them. The assumption is that everyone present in the circle will at some point be the one in the center, which creates a feeling of anticipation and wonder: “When will I be the one in the center?” For some personality types, being at the center isn’t desirable, in which case the Roda de Samba is perfectly democratic; some folks, when chosen to be the one in the middle of the circle, will simply walk by and choose someone else to take up the center position. By contrast, those who enjoy the attention can linger for as long as they wish in the middle, putting up a show and experiencing their visibility. Regardless, the Roda de Samba creates the possibility of being seen and the value of one’s presence.
The Roda de Samba is a technology because it brings up the value of one’s life and presence in its diversity. Through its simple arrangement, it offers the possibility of interaction while also upholding consent. In the artwork “Coração,” the painting establishes a suspended visual field in which people stop being concerned with how their bodies look while moving. The person at the center positions the painting on their waist, exposing their heart at the center of the circle. At the Soil Factory, I chose the song “Coração do Brasil” by Jards Macalé, which is a samba in which the singer repeats the word coração in a crescendo, followed by an expressive “ahhh.”
For a new iteration of this work, I hope to have a larger canvas that is more richly painted, allowing for a greater distance between members and coverage of their bodies.
