FELIXLÂNDIA

FELIXLÂNDIA is the result of workshops held with low-income people who struggle hard for basic survival, live in neighbourhood FELIXLÂNDIA, Ribeirão das Neves, peripheral region of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, a large city without access to cultural events, however, this condition is undoubtedly also culture! They are genuine, sensitive, intelligent, expressive people with the dream of just not “working, eating, sleeping and dying”.

I have been working with art, always trying to take it to levels that make me part of a community and that my work can fulfill its role of communication with the public that recognizes me, via sensitive and pertinent questions for a better world. I think that the way of providing opportunities for disadvantaged groups can intensify social action as well as the displacement of these people in another context-- not as extras-- but interpreters of themselves, which in turn can be a powerful factor in the awakening and improvement of society.

The intention of this project was to “make visible the invisible group” providing them with the opportunity to be protagonists of their potential, not the automatic trained, addicted, posted look, full of likes that often explores poverty, misfortunes and the precarious conditions in which these groups live, even as a visual spectacle, without considering them human beings worthy of respect, with rights to voice, choices and desires. Prior, the people photographed in this project never had an opportunity to participate and be photographed in this way.

Because the cruel and dominant reality of the political systems in which they live, are slow to improve and are unlikely to achieve realistic solutions to inequalities by income class.

As the singer and composer Milton Nascimento used to say” ... Of people who laugh things off

When they are supposed to be crying and end up not living, just keep enduring…”

Beings who will not have the opportunity in life to improve their lot for themselves and their families.

From this viewpoint-- what are the perspectives of these groups in the face of capitalist domination that invaded the world, wars, oppressive political systems, conflicts, which increasingly expand and do not provide solutions for most of the population?

So, would these people see any difference, from yesterday to today and even tomorrow?