ART-ETNOGRAPHY AND THE THEATER OF THE OPRESSED

educational dialogues in non-formal spaces with the MareMoTO group

Abstract

The article focuses on the practices of the Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) in the struggle to transform the local context and power relations in the communities of Rio de Janeiro through the ethnography of a journey with the MareMoTO group.  Specifically, the ethnography seeks to understand how dialogic relationships take place from a Freirean perspective and in the production of knowledge within a TO group. It also seeks to explore the power of the TO practice in deepening articulations between formal and non-formal educational spaces, which overcome symbolic exclusion and cognitive injustice by proposing other ways of producing knowledge, based on polyphonic narratives. To this end, we delve into the intersections of five concepts characteristic of ethnography and Augusto Boal's pedagogical-political-theatrical practice to investigate how relationships occur in groups and how an open and dialogical relation with alterity, characteristic of these collectives, enhances aesthetic-epistemological creations that trigger another understanding of reality and ways of transforming it. Based on the observations and analysis of the rehearsals, presentations, and workshops by MareMoTO, we understand the characteristics that make TO, such as the transformation of the passive spectator into an active protagonist, the modification of reality through invisible languages, the expansion of synaesthetic dialogue, the decentralization of the voice that produces knowledge, the establishment of a horizontal space inviting dialogue that proposes transformation at different levels, and the broadening of aesthetic production as key to knowledge production.