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Memorando, 2020

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                The work Memorando proposed for the first edition of MAPA – No calor da hora [Map, in the heat of the moment], seeks to discuss poetically and politically the notions of access and attempted interdiction – censorship – of reading. 
                
                 When I received the invitation and the challenge to produce a work that would deal with the dimension of advertising and circulation on an expressway in the city of Porto Velho, it immediately asked myself: what do I know about Porto Velho? What do I really know about Porto Velho beyond its location on the map, beyond the Madeira-Mamoré Railway? How can I produce something ethical and poetic, at the same time, respectful and critical, for a place I have never been to, at least physically? Physically because, yes, Porto Velho has already been accessed in other ways. And the most memorable experience I had with Porto Velho was through reading – the book – through the “always hurt” traveler, or even, in his own terms, the “anti-traveller”, Mário de Andrade (1893-1945). Therefore, in this case, the brief access I had to Porto Velho was via the pages of “O Turista Aprendiz” and photographs taken by Mário de Andrade with his “codaque” (as the author called his Kodak camera) present in the book.

                It was by resuming the markings I made in the two editions of the book “O Turista Aprendiz” that I have in my library, and searching for information on the internet about Mário de Andrade’s relationship with Porto Velho, that I came across recent news, in the heat of the moment, of 2020, related to Mário de Andrade and Rondônia, based on “Memorando-Circular n.º 4/2020/SEDUC-DGE”. According to the news I read, this memo was addressed to the Regional Education Coordinators by the Rondônia Department of Education on February 6, 2020. In this document, the Department of Education of Rondônia orders the ban of the book “Macunaíma” by Mário de Andrade  in schools, as well as 42 other books (such as “The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas” by Machado de Assis, and “Rebellion in the Backlands”, by Euclides da Cunha, among others). “Memorandum 4/2020, signed by the Secretary of Education Suamy Vivecananda Lacerda de Abreu was addressed to the regional education coordinators of Rondônia. The argument, in the document, was that the books presented ‘inappropriate content for children and adolescents’”. According to one of the reports consulted “the secretary confirmed the existence of the document – ​​he revealed that it was a ‘draft’ made by ‘technicians’ that was never issued”.
                
                 How can we consider the possibility of censoring in 2020 literary classics written in the last century, almost a hundred years ago? How can we not question this attempt to ban the work of Mário de Andrade and other authors?

                Memorando, proposed for the billboard and for the “lambe” (street poster), seeks to articulate the notions of access to a place through reading, through books, and the attempt to ban classic literature books in public schools, by the State Secretariat of Rondônia, in February 2020.

                Memorando takes the place of overexposure of the billboard to publicize and encourage reading based on the book, the places and conditions created by the “learning tourist” Mário de Andrade, in a process of constant learning and search.

Thiago Honório, August 28, 2020.


                 

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