Chorus

"Chorus" is a poetic documentary about the voices of trans, non-binary, gender disobedient and/or people outside the parameters of hegemonic power. Stories of silence and selective mutism are at the root of this research.

A 5-year-old child stops talking and eating after going through a sexual related violence; a 64-year-old trans woman who can't speak in front of a crowd; a child who was beaten by his father for having a faggot voice. The testimonies become an inseparable element that carries both the conscience and the purpose of the work. In addition, Masina, one of the artists in the duo, has faced significant challenges related to their voice throughout their life including remaining silent for years in different social contexts and having had, due to hormonal issues, a high-pitched, childish voice until the age of 22.

This work is composed of photographs, videos, sculptures and written testimonies that examines real stories through a poetic construction, as a form of docufiction, mixing daydreams and archival material. This is also often done to protect some identities that appear anonymous, especially those of children, and to expand the visual imagination linked to experiences of violence. Our visual inspiration always comes from children's books, illustrations that work with synthesis and simplicity.

In order to talk about LGBTIQIAPN+ voices, we started collecting handmade wooden whistles, designed to imitate the sound of birds. For us, the handmade nature of the sound (something that can be shaped by us to become what we want) refers to the formations, modulations, control and transitions encountered by gender-dissident voices.

The wooden whistles are the chorus of the series. The closest thing to music. A deliberate repetition throughout the editing process. Their usually long and cylindrical format is also our chorus. The same shape of a helium gas cylinder (for us, in the series, a symbol of ridicule and jokes), a neck, a body that stands for the camera… Those whistles are also very traditional to Brazilian culture, associated with indigenous crafts and childhood. 

Voice is a social influence, an imposition of gender performance, partly shaped by hereditary factors, but for queer people voice can mean life or death, it can be a determining factor in the job market, and it can define countless issues that contribute to marginalization.

This work resulted, however, in something close to an autobiography. It brings together many perspectives to create a broader picture of the community as a whole, examining patterns of silence without ignoring the significant differences within each testimony, each social and identity marker, while also grounding the artists' personal accounts in a reality that cannot be understood in isolation. “Chorus” is ongoing.