"Ao Relento" is an essay read during the 20th Encontros da Primavera – Anthropology, Arts and Senses 2025: Artistic Impulses, Materials and Creative People, as part of the joint session with João Carvalho: "Astronomical Observation, the Right to the Stars".
The text explores the social construction of the culture of fear, especially in urban contexts, where the night becomes a restricted territory for certain bodies that dare to inhabit public space and nocturnal time. Fear is analysed as a disciplinary device that limits freedoms in the name of safety, ultimately serving economic and political interests.
The reading coincided with civil demonstrations taking place across the country, protesting against the violent attacks that occurred days earlier during the June 10th celebrations — which heightened the essay’s political and social resonance. "Ao Relento" thus asserts that we must not yield to fear, but rather confront the ideologies that uphold it.
The text explores the social construction of the culture of fear, especially in urban contexts, where the night becomes a restricted territory for certain bodies that dare to inhabit public space and nocturnal time. Fear is analysed as a disciplinary device that limits freedoms in the name of safety, ultimately serving economic and political interests.
The reading coincided with civil demonstrations taking place across the country, protesting against the violent attacks that occurred days earlier during the June 10th celebrations — which heightened the essay’s political and social resonance. "Ao Relento" thus asserts that we must not yield to fear, but rather confront the ideologies that uphold it.
2025