Actor, director, producer and playwright Sérgio Mamberti attracted a large audience to the auditorium of the Unicamp Convention Center this Wednesday (11) for a lecture on “The Crisis of Culture”, sharing his experience of six decades of career as an artist , activist and cultural manager. During the meeting, he made a historical analysis of the struggles of the artistic class for the democratization of culture and freedom of expression and defined as essential the mobilization of the category against the ongoing setbacks at the federal level.
Despite classifying himself as averse to pessimism, Mamberti expressed great concern about the dismantling of culture undertaken by the Jair Bolsonaro government. Looking back on his career since the fight against the military dictatorship established by the 1964 coup, the actor sees parallels between the past and the present. “This same threat is here today, on a much more humiliating level, because it occurs in a much more institutional way, and today there is a large portion of the population that has joined this process”, he lamented, reaffirming the need for resistance.
“The crisis of culture is not a specific crisis in relation to cultural production, it is a cultural crisis in the broadest possible sense. So, we have to talk about culture, education and we cannot stop talking about communication, at a time when it has assumed such strategic importance to the point that the government supports itself through Twitter”, he assessed.
Born in Santos (SP), in 1939, Mamberti graduated from the School of Dramatic Arts (EAD) in São Paulo and built a successful career in theater, cinema and television, in addition to having held several positions in the Ministry of Culture, between 2003 and 2014, among them, president of the National Arts Foundation (Funarte).
At the extinct MinC, Mamberti was also head of several departments, such as Music and Performing Arts, Cultural Policies, and Identity and Cultural Diversity. In the current federal administration, the former Ministry of Culture is restricted to a Special Secretariat within the structure of the Ministry of Tourism, now having actress Regina Duarte as secretary.
“I'm not here as a lecturer in the academic sense, it's much more an exchange of experiences. I think it is in this type of exchange that we establish a process of resistance to this cruel process that we are going through today. It is so humiliating for us, after the historic achievements we have had in recent years, to be subjected to the clown's fart. It’s a very sad thing”, criticized Mamberti in reference to Regina Duarte.
During her inauguration speech at the head of the Special Secretariat for Culture, on March 4, the actress listed as manifestations of culture, among other things, the “fart produced with talcum powder splashing from the clown's behind”. Despite expressing his professional respect for Regina Duarte, with whom he worked on several occasions, Mamberti considered it “a tragedy” that a person who worked so closely with him was subjecting himself to the “humiliation of playing the role of a marketer for an authoritarian government”.
Going over his personal history and his interactions with important characters from the art world, Mamberti was moved when he mentioned his friendship with the writer and activist Patrícia Galvão (1910-1962), Pagu, his neighbor when he was still a teenager in Santos. Recently, the octogenarian actor and playwright gave a series of testimonials that were brought together in a biography by Edições Sesc, scheduled for release at the next Paraty International Literary Festival (Flip), in July.
The Santos actor's conference marks the resumption of the “A Crise Brasileira” cycle programming after the vacation period. In 2019, IdEA hosted lectures by economist Luiz Gonzaga Belluzzo (Economy), philosopher João Carlos Salles (University), educator Mozart Neves Ramos (Education), diplomat Rubens Ricupero (International Relations) and former minister Ciro Gomes (Policy). This Wednesday's meeting was moderated by the poet and linguist Carlos Vogt, president of the Scientific and Cultural Council of IdEA.
Since September last year, “The Brazilian Crisis” has been bringing prominent names from different areas of knowledge to Unicamp to encourage discussion of current topics in search of diagnoses and solutions for the various crises that afflict the country. Every month, the event features a lecture by one or two experts, who address relevant topics with space for debate with the public.
Watch the video below and here the Rádio Unicamp podcast with the full version of the actor's interview.
