Cracolândia in printed photographs: the emergence of an art world around the Birico collective

Cracolândia em fotografias impressas: a emergência de um mundo da arte em torno do coletivo Birico

Production in visual arts by crack users, who reside in or frequent Cracolândia, as well as artistic interventions by activists and professionals who work with these people, have been present at least since 2014. Through description and analysis of the Birico collective, the purpose of this work is to understand how the emergence of an art world in Cracolândia was brought about, founded on its own characteristics and relations with the territory. To this end, throughout June 2021, we conducted an ethnographic research in the municipal area occupied by the Teatro de Contêiner Mungunzá in which we were able to interact daily with people from the different entities and collectives housed in the containers located on the land. We were able to observe how the Birico collective emerges, under the risks and difficulties imposed by COVID-19, in which the ‘law of the birico’, that came from the streets, with its imperative of exchange and refuge, was able to foster the ‘logic of the collective’ among activists who are also artists. An art world was able to emerge in São Paulo’s Cracolândia because this territory attracted activists dedicated to working with art, which ended up generating two movements: artists towards Cracolândia and crack users towards the arts.

Keywords:
Art; Cracolândia; COVID-19