Magic Nature
At the meeting titled Magical Nature, a part of Focus 2, Vectors and Inflections, of the 18th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil, the Brazilian artists Ayrson Heráclito and Roberto Winter, and Bakary Diallo, from Mali, discussed the issue of the representation of nature and magic in art production, particularly in the constructing of fictional worlds.
Bakary Diallo tells that in his culture “nature and magic are one and the same. Man represents his soul in a tree, then an animal, and finally a person,” he says. “The mental world and belief walk hand in hand. This is how I see magic.” To him, the pejorative terminology of superstition and belief originates from Northern-Western culture. Belief, he says, is a key component of art production, and in the world today, magic and art must come together with technology, which he defined as “a virgin woman.”
Roberto Winter quoted the American writer Arthur C. Clarke by stating that “all advanced technologies are indistinguishable from magic” and cited economics in the Western world as a case in point. “It is so advanced a technology that some people mistake it for magic,” he says. “Most people don’t understand how the 2008 crisis took place. What derivatives are (for example).”
He also said that the act of magic, in its various conceptions, relates to the act of the word. Only the word can turn something – a belief, for instance – into a material reality, and the word and belief are very closely connected with issues from our reality. “It is not speech that makes things happen, but rather the belief people have in the sentences uttered. Whenever a judge says someone is condemned to the electric chair, even before the verdict is applied, it is as though the person were already dead.”
The artist and professor Ayrson Heráclito, who was born in Macaúba, in the Brazilian state of Bahia, and later moved to the state capital Salvador, says his cultural background and identity formation have always involved two worlds – the world of ideas and the world of beliefs in Bahia. “This relationship between art and magic has always been there, even after the desacralization of the world.”
With regard to politics, Bakary spoke for a deepening of democracy in Africa. “Our democracy is imprisoned; it is not free,” said the artist, who also hopes for a better coexistence of different cultures and realities. Although he agrees that there a need for improving democracy, including Brazil, Winter said that perhaps peaceful coexistence between peoples is not the solution. “We have been led to believe that there is only either absolute peace or war. We need other perspectives from which to view conflict,” he said.
At the Magical Nature meeting, which is a part of Focus 2, Vectors and Inflections, of the 18th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil, the Brazilian artists Ayrson Heráclito and Roberto Winter, and Bakary Diallo, from Mali, discussed the issue of the representation of nature and magic in art production, particularly in the construction of fictional worlds.