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rogério duarte

rogério duarte

Interviews

Ana de Oliveira – Rogério, from you point of view, what is the spiritual significance of Tropicália?

Rogério Duarte – To me, Tropicália meant the awareness of spirituality. At that moment, we were going through a political and social transformation. We renounced the religious discourse that had pervaded us since our childhood to assume the Marxist discourse as our panacea. Dialectics was the magic key. Yet when Tropicalismo came out the country’s situation made the Marxist prescriptions seem unfeasible, becoming a dilemma. We felt that the dictatorship had developed an antidote against Marxism. To change society, we had to search for other ways. We saw Marxism as a liberation, but suddenly those prescriptions kept my unconscious from acting. There was an excess of rationality and creation demands a dose of irrationality, it enters into the religious sphere.

Ana de Oliveira – How did you act while Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil were on exile?

Rogério Duarte – Between 70 and 72, we crazily tried to resist. This was the underground Tropicália. At that time I wrote a hymn, a sort of rock song which begins like that: “I’m going home, so long guys, today was a violent day, though nothing really happened.” Almost all my companions from this time are dead.

Ana de Oliveira – How were your spiritual experiences in the 70’s?

Rogério Duarte – Spirituality grew during my Tropicalista adventure. I didn’t put reason aside, but my creativity survives much longer within themes of religiosity. Not Western, but Eastern. I spent two years in a Buddhist monastery, between 73 and 74, I guess. Buddhism and Marxism were compatible. It offered the mystical wonder without the alienating charge of the Western religion, the opium of the people. It was a way out for me.

Ana de Oliveira – What’s the relation between Tropicalismo and this symbiosis that you were able to make between religiosity and Marxism?

Rogério Duarte – To me, Tropicalismo represented the synthesis between spirituality and Marxism, the people’s naive creativity and the political militancy. It took everything out of its compartments whereas the left-wing put everything in order. Samba do morro was respected, but it was not a supreme art. We, the Tropicalistas, subverted this hierarchy. Oswald de Andrade talked about the millionaire contribution of all the mistakes. We used the millionaire contribution of all our illusions. Caetano used to sing: “I put all my flops into the hit parades.”

Ana de Oliveira – So, the Tropicalista revolution really happened?

Rogério Duarte – Any revolution happens entirely. Rimbaud used to say: “True love is to be invented.” So is the true Tropicália. It covered a good part of the revolution, modernizing Brazil in terms of ethics.

Ana de Oliveira – Tropicália was not restricted only to music, it evolved from many art fields. Could you talk about it a little?

Rogério Duarte – This is what gives strength to any movement of the Post-Industrial-Revolution modernity. Here in Brazil, in 22, there was a single front of many aspects, from literature to architecture. The aesthetic modifications can never restrict themselves to one art field only. The current popular deformation of what Tropicalismo is comes from this mentality which restricts it to the popular music field only.

Ana de Oliveira – What about your specific contribution as a designer?

Rogério Duarte – It was triumphant, though I did not stay. Even because the designer is committed to anonymity, like the artisans who are recognized by their work and not by their names. I have changed the visual arts in Brazil and I am acknowledged for it to a certain extent, but not popularly because my work is more erudite. I want much more, though, not out of vanity, but for the veracity of the things for which I keep fighting.

Ana de Oliveira – Are you still a Tropicalista?

Rogério Duarte – I have been myself. Since people have labeled me as Tropicalista and I keep being myself, the label is still valid.