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Vincent Rosenblatt

(1972 - Paris) lives and works in Rio de Janeiro

While studying History and Anthropology at the Sorbonne, he traveled several times to Poland and even Siberia, developing his first photographic work. He began working as a photojournalist, but entered the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1997, discovering Brazil during an exchange program with a scholarship from Collin-Lefranc, at FAAP, in São Paulo, between 1999 and 2000.

From 2002 to 2008, he developed the project "Olhares do Morro" in the Santa Marta favela, in Rio de Janeiro, from which young photographers would emerge who exhibited at the Rencontres d'Arles photography festival, at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, in Stockholm, and even at Art Basel / Miami Beach.

One of his main visual research areas is the Rio de Janeiro funk scene, which he has been documenting since 2005. In 2007, the protagonists of Rio funk led him to enter the Carnival of the bate-bola groups in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro. In 2008, he began photographing the sound system scene in Belém do Pará — long-term works, constantly evolving.

He wanted the guests and visitors of the Rosewood São Paulo to experience, while wandering through the corridors, a sudden encounter with creatures that populate the Carnival of the North and West Zones of Rio de Janeiro: the bate-bolas. Everything in their appearance affects the senses — the bold juxtaposition of bright colors, dresses inflated by meters and meters of fabric, glitter and sparkle, painted by hand or with screen prints that evoke scenes from American cartoons revisited or excerpts from the history of Brazil.

The spectacle of the bate-bolas leaving takes us to a state of primitive emotion — a rhythmic catharsis, whether by the terrifying sound they emit, or by the funk songs played by the Equipes (sound walls). In a sudden clamor, the river of colors of the "Clóvis", piled in multicolored clouds, makes the departure a deafening event, with fireworks, screams, the noise of balloons hitting the ground, of umbrellas whizzing through the air. The relative and symbolic aggressiveness of some groups is of the order of simulacrum, of rehearsal: catharsis of the real violence that crosses the city and the country. It sounds like the beginning of a revolt or a revolution about to take over the city.

During the days of departure and circulation of the bate-bolas, favelas and neighborhoods abandoned by the State reveal their irredentism and their true nature: they are the core of the city's soul, of its creativity, wealth, and genius. A self-sustaining street art transfigures everyday life. Wearing the costumes, the bate-boleiros seem to embody an entity: they tell us something about the human condition, about the vital need for more art in life.

Find out more: www.vincentrosenblatt.net

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