A Arte dos Quilombos 2015
Video (excerpt: 1:18 of 5:14);
Single channel video, 7'06'', sound.
Life-size projection. Luanda, Angola;
Stuttgart, Germany
This film was inspired by capoeira groups practicing in public places in Luanda. It is a reflection or reinterpretation on this art form
in the African context of today. The sound was recorded outdoor in collaboration with Abadá Capoeira Angola. The camera observes first a single performer, then two, only to finally zoom into details. The songs accompanying the dances still reflect on Afro-Brazilian historical links.
African slaves in Brazil and other South American countries developed capoeira as a form of fighting disguised as dance, involving full body motions such as leg sweeps, slapping, kicking, punching, acrobatics and strikes. More than a fighting style, capoeira signifies hope: hope of survival, a tool with which an escaped slave, completely unequipped, might survive in hostile, unknown land and face the hunt of the “capitães-do-mato”, the armed and mounted colonial guards who would find and capture escapees.
Several groups of escaped slaves would gather and establish quilombos; settlements in far and hard to reach places. Some quilombos grew, attracting more fugitive slaves, Brazilian natives and even Europeans escaping the law or Chris-
tian extremism. Sometimes a quilombo devel-
oped as an independent multi-ethnic state. Everyday life in a quilombo offered freedom and the opportunity to revive traditional cul-
tures beyond colonial oppression. In this kind of multi-ethic community, constantly threatened by Portuguese colonial troops, capoeira evolved from a survival tool to a martial art focused
on conflict.
Portuguese soldiers were known to say that it took more than one dragoon to capture a quil-
ombo warrior, since they would defend them-
selves with a “strangely moving fighting technique”. The governor from that province declared “it is harder to defeat a quilombo
than the Dutch invaders”.
As I wrote my diploma on rooms of political willingness, the Quilombos intrested me as they have been a space free of the usual oppression of the time.
Performers
Mestre Dedé, Mauricio Ferreira da Luz and his student Abutre Mar Vissa
José Manuel do Nascimento
Sound
Abadá Capoeira Angola:
Anisabel Costa (Nani)
Augusto Delgado (Verga)
Bivofue Augostinho (Torres)
Báunto Lourenço
Divel Teixeira (Di)
Elvira Tandala (Amarelinha)
Esperança Cardoso (Cabaça)
Estevão Daniel (Do Brinco)
Gilberto Franscisco (Guilly)
Janguinda Moniz (Cabuenha)
Macário Francisco (Mocho)
Marcelina Ndonga (Luzolo)
Marcia Tavares (Preguiça)
Neide Tsenane
Pedro Tendo (Escama)
Serafim Leleo (Senga)
Yuri O. de Mho Araujo (Kamba)
Valdmir Cuimpolo (Montes)
Acknowledgements
Lothar Heinrich
Natalie Weber
Helena Alves
Filmlovers, Angola