Breaking down barriers

DARK Mofo’s nocturnal neighbourhood Night Mass includes a sneak peek into the underground queer electronic music scene of Brazil, where centre stage is confrontation in the form of the human body.

As part of Dark Mofo, Red Bull is presenting Via Sao Paulo, with exclusive performances from Teto Preto, Badsista and Cashu, artists who have been breaking boundaries in their communities back home, where they stand in resistance to the current political climate.

Creative director Pepper Keen said the underground scene allowed artists from LGBT, queer and black communities to express themselves.

“It is fantastic to be able to really find a place with each other to celebrate and safely be together and exist within Sao Paulo in a time that carries such political weight,” Keen said.

Loic Koutana, of Teto Preto, who as part of the band’s performance interacts with audience members, said the reception at Night Mass was different to what they received back home.

“We are performing in front of people who don’t know the background, so I feel like sometimes it’s a bit of a shock,” he said. “Each time people take about 25 to 30 minutes to get into the show.”

Keen said that while the performances were sung and spoken in Portuguese, the visuals spoke as loud and clear.

“The strength and power of the performance stands outside the boundaries that we hold within language barriers,’’ he said.

Keen said this involved audiences seeing the human body in a more revealed manner than they may be used to, but that this was key to the message the artists were sending.

“The human body is very much a key tool of the performance,” he said.

“The initial confrontation is a key part of your introduction to normalising the body and taking away the preconceived ideas of something we need to cover up and hide.”

Via Sao Paulo is one of the major performances at Night Mass.

Tickets to both tomorrow and Saturday night are sold out but can be bought at the door from 10pm for $95 (subject to capacity).