The Tranca-Ruas Generation: Afro-Brazilian Strategies of Resistance in Art of 1970's Brazil

In 1970, a group of artists presented some of the most radical works created during the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964–1985) in the exhibition, Do Corpo à Terra (From Body to Earth) in Belo Horizonte. Curator, Frederico Morais had called artists to act as guerrilla agents and take a critical position towards the socio-political context at that time. Among the most provocative responses, Artur Barrio scattered bloody bundles filled with cow meat and bones along a sewer, and Cildo Meireles sacrificed hens by burning them alive. Art critic, Francisco Bittencourt, writing in 1970 about the event, praised the participating artists’ fierce and vital expressions and called them, “The Tranca-Ruas Generation.” Tranca-Ruas is the name given to the Umbanda deity, Exú, the guardian of order and disorder, often described as a malandro (trickster). In recent years, scholarship on these artists has grown significantly and the appellative, Tranca-Ruas has become part of mainstream narratives of the exhibition. However, any reference to Afro-Brazilian religion has been blatantly suppressed in these narratives. Starting in the 1970s, art historians have used the analogy of guerrilla, as proposed by Morais to interpret the strategies adopted by artists to resist repression during the dictatorship. Drawing from Bittencourt’s observation, I contend instead that artists who wanted to be critical of the authoritarian regime looked at the malandro Tranca-Ruas, rather than the guerrilla, as a source of inspiration, and embraced malandragem (trickery), understood as an Afro-Brazilian strategy of resistance, in bending the rules to oppose adversities.