The Refluxman
The Diário Refluxo (reflux diary) project began in São Paulo in 2003. It started with an original idea from multimedia artist Peri Pane.
From August 28 to September 4, the Refluxo (reflux) group, made up of performers, artists, and video artists, held a performance in which a person went for seven days without taking out their own trash, accumulating bottles, papers, jars, newspapers, cans, plastics, cigarette filters and, in short, all of their inorganic waste, containers and packaging. Every day, all of this was placed into a special garment with 43 pockets of varying sizes that allowed for the garbage to be attached to the performer's person. Because the garment was made of transparent plastic, the garbage was visible to everyone. Thus, everywhere that the so-called "reflux-man" went, he produced diverse reactions from the other inhabitants, causing a reflection on consumerism in urban centers.
The idea of the performance was precisely this, to shed a new light on the out of control industrial production of solid wastes, using the smallest cell in society: the individual. Each person operates as an island within a "sea" of consumption. There is a visible and frightening "flow" of consumption in our current way of living, yet no one notices this "reflux," which is always isolated from our eyes and noses.
PARANGOLIXOLUXO
We call the garment, designed by artist Marina Reis, the parangolixo-luxo in honor of the "parangolés" created by 70s Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica. In Portuguese, the words lixo (garbage) and luxo (luxury) write similarly, making for a simple and direct play on words. Unfortunately, we have not yet managed to translate this. The name refluxo (reflux), in Portuguese, also provides a clear allusion to the performance group of the 60: Fluxus. After all, the ideas of Oiticica and the Fluxus are present in this project.
EXPOSITION AT SÃO PAULO
The experience was recorded on video and described in a diary using Polaroid pictures that the artist took during the process, resulting in a multimedia exposition put on by the SESC, one of the largest cultural centers in São Paulo (www.sescsp.org.br). The exposition, which opened on September 9, 2003, was composed of the trash-filled garment, the diary, the video and conversations with the reflux-man. Furthermore, on the trashcans and paper bins at the cultural center, there were stickers with "reflux-phrases" - provocative phrases that incite the public to think a little about the production of trash at the very moment when they are throwing it away.
REPERCUSSION
The exposition ended successfully and had great repercussion in the press and on TV. Articles were written in heavily circulated magazines such as TPM (revistatpm.uol.com.br) and in the Folha de São Paulo newspaper (www.folha.uol.com.br). The reflux-man also took part in the "Buzina" program on MTV-Brazil (mtv.terra.com.br) The Refluxo group was invited to speak at schools and other centers that promote the environment and art.
THE VIDEO
The video "Homem Refluxo" (reflux man), written by José Luiz Sampaio and Daniel Seda and produced by Rita Wirtti, was shown in several film festivals, such as the "Festival de Cinema de Porto Alegre - Cine Esquema Novo 2004" (www.cineesquemanovo.org), "Filme + Fashion" (www.filmefashion.com.br), put on by the Banco do Brasil Cultural Center in 2004, the "XVIII Mostra do Audivisual Paulista" (www.mostradoaudiovisual.com.br), at the MIS (São Paulo museum of image and sound), and at the "CineAmazônia - Mostra de Cinema e Vídeo Ambiental" (www.cineamazonia.com), in Porto Velho, Rondonia.
IN BARCELONA
In 2006, the performance took part in the Festival Drap Art, at the Center of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona, where the visitors were able to see and talk to the performers in person and follow the evolution of the trash accumulated day by day. This time there were two performers: the reflux-man (Peri Pane) and the reflux-woman (Renata Caos). Moreover, images recorded while the pair went about their daily activities in Barcelona, filmed by german artist and video artist David Rusek, were shown. The performance was news in the El País newspaper and on the TVE (Televisión Española) network news, Spain's government television network. In addition to the festival, the garments were put on exhibition at the La Carboneria gallery in Barcelona, where they are currently housed. In August of 2007, the project took part in the 10th Festival of Contemporary Art "Massart," in Massanet de Cabrenys.
IN NAPLES
In 2009, Peri Pane was invited to took part in the Napoli Teatro Festival Italia. During seven days, the performance happened in the streets of Napoli and was news in newspapers, on TV (like RAI 3 TV) and also in a germanic newspaper.
The accion was registrated in photos by the artistic partner David Rusek and recorded by Federico Gravina and Roberto Sommella, from the NFI Napoli Festival Imagine team. This project would not be posible without the Stefania Iovivo assistance.
At the end of seven days, the garments and the video (directed by Federico) were put on exhibition at the PAN (Palazzo delle Arti Napoli).
Artigo: The Refluxman