Artistic practices in the prison context: A look at the pedagogy of the arts beyond the bars that separate us (Atena Editora)

Abstract

This research aims to observe and analyze pedagogical artistic practices carried out in prison environments with women in situations of deprivation of liberty. The temporal cut of the research refers to practices carried out between the years 2016 to 2018, when still in a face-to-face module, carried out in two penitentiaries in two states of Brazil: one in a female penitentiary in the city of Belo Horizonte with the creation and performance of women from Zula Co. Theater, which inspired the work “Banho de Sol” and another one at the Capital Women’s Penitentiary (PFC), in São Paulo, with the creation of artists from Coletivo Teatro Dodecafônico and Rubro Obsceno, which originated the project “Mulheres Possíveis”. During the months of research, notes on the readings and interviews carried out with the artists of the two aforementioned projects and with two former participants of one of the workshops, when they were in a prison context, were taken up and analyzed. This research has a specific focus on women, as they are the ones who suffer the greatest penalties and are subject to numerous situations of disrespect and lack of structure by prison institutions, when compared to the situation of men in the same context. The issue of art against current policy will also be brought to the discussion - the concept of Necropolitics raised by the contemporary philosopher Achille Mbembe - the importance of artistic pedagogical practices in prison environments, their provocations and challenges in this context and the impact of such practices on daily routine of these women.

Finally, the implications of these projects will be analyzed a posteriori - in the lives of these women already in a condition of freedom - their reintegration into society and the effects of such proposals in a broader context, encompassing the free population. At the end of the file, there are, in full, the interviews with the two art educators and the two graduates participating in one of the projects.