“Aqui há (nada)… Atravesse a passarela e conhecida a Ouvidor.” (There is nothing here… Cross the bridge and meet Ouvidor, ed). This is the graffiti on the facade of the bridge connecting São Paulo’s Red Bull Station and the artists’ residence of Ouvidor 63. It sums up the dynamics of the organic artistic ecosystem created in an abandoned building. The building was transformed into a communal settlement area for artists from various countries facing all kinds of outside threats, from the eviction threats from the Brazilian government apparatus, which at the time was occupied by a right-wing national group, to the intervention of their art practice by the multinational corporation Red Bull. Ouvidor (Matias Borgström, 2023) wraps a discourse on the issue of the scarcity of established housing infrastructure for millions of Brazilians, especially in São Paulo. The scarcity then puts people in a risky condition for them to occupy abandoned buildings that do not have safety assurance.
From the eyes of Ouvidor 63’s resident artists, we are invited to experience the intricacies of their struggle to make Ouvidor a symbol of resistance to government repression that–at that time–could not even consider the fulfillment of the basic needs of its people. These artists had experienced an encounter that put them in a corner, fortunately they did not have to face the police alone. Many parties eventually came together with the artists, including everyone from the São Paulo Community Housing Movement (Center of People’s Movement) to human rights commission agencies.
Besides these external problems, Ouvidor 53 as the stage of the social revolution also reminds us that life’s mysterious dynamics never stop and can arise from any direction. The second time a challenge was presented to test the relationship between artists in order to maintain their home despite sometimes differing in principles. The challenge comes when there is a great opportunity such as the Biennial art exhibition at Ouvidor 36 for the second time in 2022, this time “backed” by Red Bull. In the process of working on the Biennial, we find that the artists have their own positions in response to the presence of the Biennial and Red Bull. In a broad sense, the artists formulate this event as a decisive point regarding where the Ouvidor is heading.
The process was filled with complicated feelings of pressure from both the Biennial and Ouvidor’s fellow artists. However, in the long run, once again, these artists were able to prove the integrity of their fighting spirit to grow and utilize the momentum to articulate this building into a multi-purpose building that could serve as an epicenter of cultural creation in all forms of transformation.
Through Ouvidor (2023), Director Matias Borgström composes a view on how artists are also ultimately human beings like us, having a point of recognition and familiarization with something we have never encountered in certain situations, needing help from everyone, and needing to blend in with various societies. Beyond this humanity, there is the realization that artists are always looking for some form of freedom, even if it means facing various forms of confinement. (Gantar Sinaga) (Ed/Trans. Vanis)
Film Details
Ouvidor
Matias Borgström | 74 Min | 2023 | Brazil
In Competition for International Feature-Length
Festival Film Dokumenter 2024
Screening Schedule
Nov. 4 | 19:00 WIB | Amphitheater, TBY
Nov. 8 | 19:00 WIB | Ruang Seminar, TBY
