Carnival, Dystopia and Revolution. On Demian Schopf's Minor Choirs
Abstract
This essay tries to reflect on the series of photographs that make up the work The minor choirs (2010-2011) by the Chilean-German artist Demian Schopf (Frankfurt am Main, 1975). In methodological terms, the research uses as reading keys the notions of carnival, dystopia and revolution. Firstly, this paper analyzes the elements that make up the carnival of the Middle Ages: permissiveness, excess, transvestism and inversion; to then think its plot with the Latin American Carnival of Oruro (where some of the characters in the photographs come from) and determine the specificity of the "party" that would take place in The minor choirs. Secondly, the work explores the conventional notion of dystopia, in order to recognize the elements that allow it to be understood as a dystopian projection. Finally, both paths converge in a third one, which is the intelligence of the work as the symbol of a devastating Revolution that would be occurring in the world today. This development finally allows the essay to take a different position compared to previous readings of the work.
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