Carnaval-Ritual: Carlos Vergara and Cacique de Ramos

In Carnaval-Ritual: Carlos Vergara and Cacique de Ramos, Maurício Barros de Castro, writer, professor and curator, brings to readers a critical analysis of the meeting between artist Vergara and Cacique (one of the most traditional landmarks of Rio’s carnival), and reflects on the issues which led the artist to look outside his studio and search for popular culture. In the 1970s, Carlos Vergara turned his eye and camera to the Rio de Janeiro’s street Carnival, more precisely to Cacique de Ramos. The images Vergara produced with Cacique constitute one of the most important series of his career and Brazilian contemporary art, and celebrate one of the fundamental blocos1 in the Rio Carnaval. In fluent writing, the author draws an analysis following the artist’s actions with the bloco from the harshest period of the military dictatorship to the beginning of the country’s redemocratization. In addition to the sharp criticism by Maurício Barros de Castro, a specialist in art history and popular culture, the book brings essential writing to understanding the “Vergara-Cacique” universe, per the expression coined by Hélio Oiticica, such as the essay “O igual e o diferente”, by anthropologists Eduardo Viveiros de Castro about Cacique de Ramos and the transcript of Rap in Progress, a conversation between Oiticica and Vergara, centered on Vergara’s experience with the Rio Carnival. The book closes with a meeting between Bira Presidente – leader and founder of Cacique de Ramos – and Carlos Vergara, conducted in 2020 beneath the famous tamarindo tree at the bloco’s headquarters at Uranos street, to celebrate this beautiful partnership. “All of it makes this book a precious historical document and piece of cultural criticism”, states in the foreword curator Luiz Camillo Osório.

About the author
Maurício Barros de Castro was born in 1973, in Niterói (RJ), and lives in Rio de Janeiro. He’s a writer, researcher and independent curator. With a doctorate in History from USP, he’s a professor at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) arts institute and arts and art history graduate programs. He was a visiting professor at UC Berkeley. He curated the exhibitions Carlos Vergara: Carnavais Revelados (Galeria Índica, 2016), Esqueleto: Uma História do Rio (with Fred Coelho, Galeria Aymoré, 2019) and ESQUELE70 (with Analu Cunha and Marcelo Campos, Paço Imperial, 2019-2020). Among other books, he’s the author of Zicartola: Política e samba na casa de Cartola e Dona Zica (2a ed., 2013). With Cobogó, he published Arte e cultura: Ensaios (2019) and Gilberto Gil: Refavela (2017).

Specifications
Artist Carlos Vergara
Author Maurício Barros de Castro
Language Portuguese
Page count 192
ISBN 9786556910253
Cover Daniel Trench
Format Softcover
Size 14 x 21 cm
Year 2021