February 20, 2022

09:02

Malu Dacio – Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – It’s not new that the internet helps the democratization of knowledge and the amplitude of social debates. Investing in a collective good – and a little less empowering – the Amazonian artist Ananda Guimarães saw on the internet the opportunity to talk about her own condition in a very different format in the segment. The clown Neneca, a persona created by the artist in 2016, talks didactically about issues that were previously a source of shame for Ananda.

Many names can define the eye disease Ananda discovered as a teenager: Stargardt’s condition, Stargardt’s disease, or juvenile macular atrophy. The artist says that she was born with the condition and that it may or may not develop. It was in school that she noticed the first symptoms.

“In a Portuguese class I blinked harder and my vision went all dark. I thought I had gone blind, I made a scandal in the middle of the class. It was horrible, but then it slowly came back. After a series of exams, I was diagnosed”, recalls Ananda.

Stargardt’s disease is characterized as the loss of central field vision. Ananda has the support of her peripheral vision, but the “middle” is left with a kind of blur.

‘Seeing the Invisible’

The idea of using the clown Neneca as a voice to talk about the experiences of people with disabilities came about because the artist is preparing her clowning solo entitled “Enxergando o invisível” (Seeing the invisible), which should debut on stage between March and April. The process of the persona’s birth came well before the acceptance.

Sagittarius, Neneca was born in November 2016. Ananda was already an actress and also knew about her condition when the persona took life. “I didn’t talk about it and it was a trigger for me because in the artistic processes, sometimes we would play in a few places and that was a point that always affected me. I only took ownership to talk about my disability in college”, explains the artist.

Ananda is a student of Theater, at the Amazonas State University (UEA), since 2018. “Since I started talking about it very recently, it’s still in the process. It’s a way to reach out not only within the theater arts class and use social media. We took doubts that existed in our environment and the reception from people was very good,” Ananda points out.

Laughable yes, but not ridiculous

As defined before, Ananda doesn’t have Neneca as a mere character. “For me she is not a character, she is a persona. She is not just a version of me, I believe she is the totality of me. When I had my acceptance process in other places like my hair, my tooth or other places other than disability, it was from clowning that I was able to accept, deal with and love. It was no different with my condition”, says the artist.

“I knew I could make something laughable without ridiculing or reproducing a discourse of oppression, but by bringing comedy to people who really don’t know what it is like to be in this condition”, she comments.

She also explains that she was very afraid and used to hide her disability from other people. “I would turn around because I didn’t want to bother, because I was ashamed, and because of a hundred socializations that made me think that my body wouldn’t be accepted, and we know it isn’t”, emphasizes the actress.

Many people who already knew Ananda learned of her disability through social networks and through Neneca. “People associate disability with something apparent. Many people said that when they saw ‘woman with disability’ in my Instagram bio, they would go to my feed looking for something physical,” recalls Ananda.

For her, Neneca is a bridge to reach people who understand the “roll” of the person with disability in a lighter way. “There is a view that the person with a disability is a magical, pure being. Or not, sometimes there is a victimhood. Neneca makes people not afraid of being willing to learn,” she highlights.

“I also think that the clown, because it has a very strong and sometimes grotesque image, can reach a place of marginalization that will reverberate in society. When a child looks at a being that is the clown, very different aesthetically, and feels a love, an empathy, it is much calmer for him to understand that any “different” person that appears, he will follow that same path,” says the artist.

Importance of spaces

The artist recalls that the work was only possible because of the support network she found at the Trilhares Company, to which she belongs. Ananda’s sister, Rafaela Margarido, is the artist’s main supporter and produces the actions, videos, and shows.

“It was the company and arts company that took me in. My sister, as coordinator, used the leadership space she has and the sensitive vision for me to be able to occupy spaces where I am today. I know that in other places I wouldn’t have, or it would be very difficult,” she concludes.