PERFORMANCE AS AN EDUCATIONAL TOOL – INTERVIEW WITH NAU VEGAR

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Imagine a small town in the state of Amapá, far north of Brazil, then imagine a school, where the children during art hour study performance...now think of those who, with dexterity, extreme delicacy and patience teach these children this wonderful way of living and being educated in art. 

That's it!!! What you have just reconstructed in your minds is one of the faces of the artist and performer Nau Vegar.

Whenever I think about the talk we had and find myself telling others his story, what I always come up with to say is " but how proud does it make me to know that there is a person in Brazil who is so forward-thinking that he can educate kids this way? How lucky are they? And how lucky will be the one who can come into contact with these kids in the future?" 

 

 

But who is Nau?
Meanwhile, he is the one who for two hours kept us glued to the PC screen as he spoke. He made us laugh but also reason and emote. 

He has a degree in visual arts and specializes in gender diversity in the educational system. He currently works as a professor of art in the Amapá State Public Schools Network.

His work focuses on artistic research through the use of the body, employing performance as the medium of restitution in his investigation, as well as exploring the link between art and gender diversity. 

 

 

The centrality of the body
In performance, the body becomes central; it is the tool the artist relies on to return her research. 

In fact, for Nau, too, the use of the body is fundamental in the development of his work, becoming, in fact, the focus of every project he creates.

An interesting and highly impactful example is the project Ficções (fictions):

"A strange body transgressing a space...breaking the appearances of those who usually experience the market or are just passing through, causing a small opening in their gaze!"

The performance took place in front of the do Buritizal market, Macapá-AP.

Here I propose again the exercise at the beginning of this text, try just for a minute to imagine a man, almost completely naked, tied from head to toe, being left in front of the entrance to the city market, at the mercy of everyone.

How would you guys react to the scene? It is extremely important to try to intuit the feelings that such a moment might cause us...because it is not a given that each of us will have a different reaction. We are suddenly caught by the situation and it is normal to wonder whether it is reality or just fiction. 

Important, I would say fundamental, is the perception of the place where it is carried out, in this case the entrance of a market where so many people of different ages and genders pass by. 

On that occasion, Nau told us that he almost succeeded in stopping the city. People each reacted in a different way.

"There were those who watched me from afar helplessly, those who tried at all costs to untie me...there were even people who wanted to hurt me.  I remember these two guys who when they saw them unloading me from the car tied up and half-naked ran and carefully and gently tried to untie me...I didn't say anything...I let them! Finally one of them covered me with his jacket and at that moment a colleague of mine arrived and told him the whole story. Needless to deny that before he had a laugh he got quite angry!" 

Performance shared with the community

The action of performance very often is a shared action. It becomes sometimes even a theatrical gesture studied in detail.

Other times, however, it can turn into a social moment of sharing, where everyone is called upon to be a protagonist of the performance act. 

"Deixe-me ouvir teu coração" (let me listen to your heart) is a very delicate project, where the spectator is called upon to tell, without saying a word, the deepest side of himself.

The set design is simple, perhaps one already seen by many as well, that is, two chairs one in front of the other, the first houses the artist who is equipped with a device to listen to heartbeats connected to speakers, the second anyone who feels like having their heartbeats listened to. 

Extremely striking is the venue: a rock music concert in a large square. 

At each break of the band, the sound of the heartbeat of the person who was the star of the performance at that moment could be heard in the amplifiers. 

"After the big noise of the music everyone was silent, and then the tum tum tum of the heart. Some people went anxious and then you could hear that fast-paced rhythm, others were quiet and at ease. I am reminded of that boy who had the slowest beats! He looks at me and says, "I must go to the cardiologist tomorrow!" "

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