Criacionices de um mundo doido: um estudo sobre as performances e as performatividades das infâncias

Abstract

The aim of this thesis, which is written in a performative and subjective way, is to study performances and performativity through the prism of childhood. Starting from a creative process that gave rise to the performance "Criacionices de um mundo doido" (Creations of a crazy world), performed with child performers and adults (their parents), the aim is to understand the ways of creating evoked by childhood performativities, whether that childhood is presented in its freshness of the present moment, exercised by the children who created it, or childhoods evoked by the memory of adults. Through the interaction of these possible childhoods inhabiting the same creative space, it was possible to observe the nuances, characteristics and powers of an artistic, performative, contemporary creation that is inscribed in time in an aesthetic form inspired by play. Some subjective and autobiographical memories also emerge like fireflies that illuminate small moments when certain paths taken help us understand the choices made. In order to look at and analyze this process, the thesis identifies four (4) focal points that bring different perceptions to its understanding. The first of these is the Sociology of Childhood (Corsaro, 2011; Sarmento, 2004, 2005), which provides a basis for understanding the relationships that are established between children and between children and adults in society and, consequently, which were also established in this group gathered to create art, through an understanding of agency (Corsaro, 2011; Sarmento, 2005, Freitas, 2022), childhood cultures (Sarmento, 2004, 2005; Silva, Silva, 2016), play (Borba, 2006; Gouvêa, 2011), play and art (Holm, 2004) and performative play (Santos, Carvalho, 2023), then arriving at the concepts of aesthetics (Merleau-Ponty, 1999; Dewey, 2010) to then unfold this thought in the aesthetics of play (Silva, 2021; Cunha, Gonçalves, 2015). The second focus of analysis is on studies of performance and performativity (Turner, 1974; Austin, 1990; Schechner, 2013; Féral, 2015; Fisher-Lichte, 2011) and, among other topics, delves into themes such as presence and representation (Fisher-Lichte, 2011), imitation and referentiality (Bonfitto, 2013). The third focal point comes from Afro-referenced worldviews, through which the concepts of “infancialização” (Noguera; Barreto, 2018) and knowledge in a wheel (Noguera, 2019), spiral time, body-screen and oral reading (Martins, 2022) are presented. Finally, we look at the process from the point of view of the elaboration of knowledge, going through the understanding of what is created in and through the encounter (Porteiro; Bonfitto, 2021), breaking logics as in the understanding of aesthetic (reverse)education (Gonçalves; Gonçalves, 2022) and the notions of knowledge that are elaborated in and through practice (Lave, 2008, 2015, Gomes, 2019). The conclusions point to the limits between play and performance, as well as looking at the whole process, filling in the gaps left, taking new risks and new possibilities.