Rusá - Dançantes (2016-2017)

In the series of photographs titled Dançantes (2016-2017), Aguiar creates a device (a photographic studio in a garage) that primarily operates by inviting the congadeiros to pose for a portrait. In this approach, where each person photographed has greater control over their own image, layers are revealed that are hardly visible in the quick photographic records made by visitors during the procession. Jeans, sneakers, T-shirts, watches, as well as gazes and postures, appear beneath the uniforms, overflowing with the particularities of these subjects who are usually visualized only in the collective context. This choice is not accidental. The excess of photographs of the Congado as a public manifestation, especially after the advent of digital photography, has contributed to a certain reduction of the festival and dance to a dimension of spectacle, emptying it of the special devotion involved in the worship of Nossa Senhora do Rosário. Moreover, during the procession, the dancers are not given the choice to be photographed and are usually seen amidst the crowd, blended with other bodies, which further justifies the preference for the studio setting.