Bongar e vencer nos editais: políticas públicas culturais, mercado e grupos artísticos populares

Abstract

This work results from the combination of two researches, done separately, but oriented by the third author that subscribes. Both are related to popular culture and its relations with public policies of culture through biddings, which may require new strategies of organization of these groups, as well as imply in their probable insertion, successful or not, in the market and cultural industry, and may have consequences for the autonomy of ritual meanings expressed by such groups. Both researches were based on the methods of anthropology, through field work, which included participant observation, field diary preparation, document collection, interviews. Data analysis was based on the interpretation of meanings, the manner of Geertz (1989), and on the theory of practice, according to Ortner (2007, 2011). We use the theoretical debates of Jose Jorge de Carvalho (2010) on the tensions and inequalities that feature the relations between masters and groups of popular culture, State and market of culture, especially the cultural industry. In order to analyze these questions, we take as reference the case that seems to us quite emblematic of the Bongar group. The foundation and performance of Bongar highlight important aspects of public policies aimed at popular cultures in the state of Pernambuco in the last decades, whose relations are guided by the bureaucratic instruments of the calls for incentive. We have tried to gather suggestions to avoid that the biddings make demands that create obstacles to the financial and ritual autonomy of popular culture groups.Keywords: Popular culture; Cultural policies; biddings; artistic professionalization; Bongar