Open Windows: Conversations About Art, Politics, and Life

Janelas Abertas collects great names of contemporary arts and culture in conversations that take art, politics, and live as springing boards. Edited by Eleonora Fabião and Adriana Schneider, professors at the Rio de Janeiro Federal University School for Communications (Escola de Comunicação da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro — UFRJ), the book is an offshoot of a series of weekly online meetings that brought audiences together around pairs of intellectuals and artists, opening the windows shut by the isolation caused by the pandemic started in 2020. The result is a polyphonic and timeless mosaic of ideas about culture, society, one’s role in the world, and the impact world changes have in existence, art, writing and performing.

The book features dialogues between 42 guests, professors, artists, researchers, curators, masters of traditional knowledge, and students, many of whom have been in intellectual and artistic conversation for many years: Leda Maria Martins and Marcio Abreu; Cabelo and Gabriela Gusmão; André Lepecki and José Fernando Azevedo; Carla Guagliardi and Keyna Eleison; Tania Rivera and Vladimir Safatle; Danielle Almeida and Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz; Francisco Mallmann and Miro Spinelli; Luiz Rufino and Thiago Florencio; Grace Passô and Ricardo Aleixo; Carmen Luz and Silvia Soter; Arto Lindsay and Barbara Browning; Amilcar Packer and Negro Leo; Jaciara Augusto Martim and Valéria Macedo; Enrique Diaz and Mariana Lima; Luiz Camillo Osorio and Patrick Pessoa; in addition to a roundtable between the twelve members of the UFRJ Experimental Performance Center (Núcleo Experimental de Performance — NEP). The series is then closed out by a conversation between the two editors, focused on the project and its effects.

Following a performance program, the talks happened on Wednesday afternoons, always at five — “in the middle of the middle of the week, in the twilight, as the sun goes down and screen lights come up”. Although they were transmitted live on YouTube, the recordings weren’t made available later on the platform: as if performances themselves, they had an ephemeral aspect, as a happening that could only be considered in relationship and through the meeting, with its material specificities. Now transcribed, these dialogues transcend the time they occurred, and point towards the future. Much like during the nearly four months of live transmissions, Janelas Abertas, the book, instigates, charms, embraces, and provokes us.

About the editors

Eleonora Fabião is a performer and a performance theorist. She conducts actions, exhibits and seminars, as well as teaching and publishing her work both nationally and internationally. She performs in various contexts — galleries, theaters, biennales, festivals, and, in particular, in the streets. Things That Must Be Done (Performa Biennial, New York 2015) is both the title of one of her works, and a way of referring to her practice. She’s a professor of Theater Direction and of the Graduate Program of Performing Arts at the Rio de Janeiro Federal University School for Communications (Programa de Pós-Graduação em Artes da Cena da Escola de Comunicação da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro — ECO/UFRJ). She holds a Masters and a Doctorate degree in Performance Studies from New York University (NYU), as well as a masters in Cultural Social History from PUC-Rio. She conducted her PhD research at NYU. In 2015, she published AÇÕES/ACTIONS with support from the Programa Rumos Itaú Cultural, and, in 2021, ARTE BRA Eleonora Fabião, by Automatica Edições. She is a level 2 CNPq researcher.

Adriana Schneider is an artist, actor, director and theater researcher. She’s a professor of Theater Direction and of the Graduate Program of Performing Arts at the Rio de Janeiro Federal University School for Communications (Programa de Pós-Graduação em Artes da Cena da Escola de Comunicação da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro — ECO/UFRJ). She is a Doctor of Human Sciences (Cultural Anthropology) from the Sociology and Anthropology Department of IFCS/UFRJ, having conducted her doctoral work at Freie Universität Berlin, and a Master of Theater from the Performing Arts Department of Unirio. She conducted her PhD research at Universität Bonn and she is a member of the Akademie der Künste der Welt, Köln. She’s a part of Coletivo Bonobando, Grupo Pedras de Teatro, Muda Outras Economias and Boi Cascudo.

Specifications
Title Janelas Abertas: Conversas sobre arte, política e vida [Open Windows: Conversations About Art, Politics, and Life]
Authors Adriana Schneider, Amilcar Packer, André Lepecki, Arto Lindsay, Barbara Browning, Cabelo, Carla Guagliardi, Carmen Luz, Danielle Almeida, Eleonora Fabião, Enrique Diaz, Francisco Mallmann, Gabriela Gusmão, Grace Passô, Jaciara Augusto Martim, José Fernando Peixoto de Azevedo, Keyna Eleison, Leda Maria Martins, Luiz Camillo Osorio, Luiz Rufino, Marcio Abreu, Mariana Lima, Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz, Miro
Spinelli, Negro Leo, Núcleo Experimental de Performance, Patrick Pessoa, Ricardo Aleixo, Silvia Soter, Tania Rivera, Thiago Florencio, Valéria Macedo, Vladimir Safatle
Editors Eleonora Fabião and Adriana Schneider
Language Portuguese
Page count 336
ISBN 978-65-5691-096-3
Cover Radiográfico
Format Softcover
Size 14 x 21 cm
Year 2023