Comunidade Balneário dos Prazeres: caminhar, fotografar e micro-ações-eco-artísticas

Abstract

The research project in visual poetics entitled Comunidade Balneário dos Prazeres: Walking, photographing and eco-artistic-micro-actions investigates a place called Balneário dos Prazeres in Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, focusing on the problem: How can one problematize and sensitize a community about local environmental destruction through artistic practice? My concern about ecological losses in this region and in this community where I live, made me look for ways to cultivate environmental and ecological awareness with my neighbors, first with authorial photography and, later, with the eco-artistic-micro-actions, which are art proposals for community participation. Walking and photography are means for seeking closeness with the local community, as well as a way to visualize environmental damage in this context, and the disappearance of the Native Forest. Documentation is also a way to visualize the time of degradation of plastic materials, as well show the visual grandeur of the Figueira trees of this region on the banks of the Patos lagoon [lagoa dos Patos]. Photographs document the marks of destruction on century-old trees and erosion on the banks of the lake. Together with community participation, we carry out microactions in group, which include video productions, walks, tree planting, observation practices, workshops with children and their families, meetings and the collaboration of residents.