DEVIATION AND CONSEQUENCE, towards a new revolution, 2008, DV video, color, sound, 10min, double-video installation
Deviation and Consequence (towards a new revolution) is an installation that works as the remake of an earlier piece: IT’S OK (united), #1 #2 #3. The video consists of a double projection showing the co-creation process of new phrases for the Portuguese national anthem: the protagonists of such action are African-Portuguese, and the main scenario is the impoverished Cova da Moura neighborhood, in Lisbon. The process is accompanied by questions pertaining to identity, cultural differences, as well as to exile and affiliation, and all those issues are revealed and intensified during the video. In the new ‘trans-national’ anthem, the lyrics make visible what each one of the performers feel and think of the hosting culture.
…) By focusing on dialogue and collaboration, Teixeira is mostly concerned with generating an encounter, and framing the moment without absolute control of the outcome. Open to what the situation and the participants might offer, he is interested in creating moments where co-authorship might occur. Inhabiting such a realm, “Deviation and Consequence”, from 2008, is a community-based project that functions as the remake of an earlier piece: “IT’S OK (united)”. If the latter presented a critical analysis of the Western educational system, with new lyrics applied to the American anthem, the Portuguese version follows a similar premise, while further expanding on issues of post-colonialism, immigration, representation and democracy. However, it does so by fostering a stronger space for community and collective production of meaning, and less of a “speaking on other’s behalf” situation. To be screened in its entirety during this presentation, the double-channel video documents the collaborative process of writing new phrases for the national song: the protagonists are African-Portuguese, and the main scenario is the impoverished Cova da Moura neighborhood, in Lisbon. In the new trans-national anthem, the lyrics render visible what each performer feels and thinks of the hosting culture, introducing other identities and temporalities. As an example of a context-specific and socially-engaged project, Deviation & Consequence attempts to negotiate a space for participation and dissent, appropriating and subverting a national icon, and commenting on the general failure of democratic ideals. By insisting on the concept of revolution, it operates within the public sphere of the city, enabling political activism and the citizens’ right for self-expression and determination.