Fabiana Werneck Barcinski

Maurício Dias & Walter Riedweg often say the streets are their studio. From the observation of them and of those who populate them there arise installations about encounters, identity and territoriality. The Brazilian-born Dias met the Swiss Riedweg in 1993. Together they learned that they could boost one another’s ideas. “This marriage became Mau Wal,” says Dias. In this documentary, they present their works and the many characters behind them: people who make day-to-day living in the big cities. Street vendors at a Northeast Brazilian fair in São Paulo, illegal immigrants in their quest for the European dream, street kids and their memories. In stories or in the role it plays, the human element is always a centerpiece to the duo’s work.

Monte Castelo is a fluvial shell midden, an artificial island, which was built and occupied from at least 6 thousand years. Located in the Guaporé river basin, in Rondônia, this site was excavated for the first time by archaeologist Eurico Miller in the 1980s. Thirty years later, it was located again by a team of archaeologists and the excavations were resumed, starting a new stage of surprising discoveries.

Marina Abramović travels through Brazil, in search of personal healing and artistic inspiration, experiencing sacred rituals and revealing her creative process. The route is comprised of poignant encounters with healers and sages from the Brazilian countryside, exploring the limits between art and spirituality. This external trip triggers in Marina a profound introspective journey through memories, pain and past experiences. 

Marepe, an artist from Bahia, produces art with anything he comes across in the town he lives in, Santo Antônio de Jesus. Packs of cigarettes, coconut palms, walls, and memories taken from the streets, go into putting together a personal archeology for this young artist.

Enio is a middle-aged man who lives in solitude after a failed relationship. Pedro, 30, dates Teresa, who is moving to her home. He inherited a carpentry from his father and a taste for the pool. When a traffic accident crosses the parallel trajectories of the two, the imponderable imposes itself and the uncontrol begins.

This is the story of Vicente, a successful, married, economist with a nine-year-old son. It also tells the story of Antônio, the same man, living as a hugadores—one of the homeless, trash scavengers who live and work in Brazil’s enormous garbage dumps. Vicente seems to have it all, but as we watch his life begins to crumble little by little. Meanwhile, Antônio, already at rock bottom, struggles to rebuild his life.