Towards the Post-Modern Art Week: Anthropophagic Reflexes in the Brazilian Larp Scenes

Abstract

The Brazilian Modern Art Week of 1922, a milestone in the Brazilian artistic avant-garde, completed its centenary last year. The intention of this text is to reflect on larp using the concept of anthropophagy: a cultural metaphor created by Oswald de Andrade, one of the members of the Art Week. Anthropophagy is characterized by the de-hierarchization of the hegemonic places of culture and by the critical digestion of the Other. Andrade’s reflections crossed time: they influenced literature, theater, painting, cinema and music, to name a few. Applied to larps, the concept of anthropophagy is discussed from the point of view of the communicology of Vilém Flusser, who was also influenced by Andrade’s thought. Finally, this essay seeks to reveal larp’s resonance with the Theatre of the Oppressed, proposed by Augusto Boal – also one of those influenced by anthropophagic thinking. With this resonance, I seek to highlight the transformative potential of anthropophagy, here considered inherent to larps, interpreting one Brazilian larp as a case study. Although this essay does not commit the naivety of treating larp as a panacea, its ultimate intention is to highlight the dialogical and social character of larps, as well as their potential to challenge power structures.