This video is the outcome of a challenge issued by the Instituto franco-português to the Maumaus Visual Arts School, as part of its activities in celebration of the 30th anniversary of Michel Foucault’s book “Discipline and Punish”.

Foucault’s analyses had become an important benchmark in the political thinking of the artist, especially as regards power relations in a social context. Such reflections made it necessary for the artist to react to the conditions imposed by society and, particularly, to those originating from the public institutions and their officials who have authority to discipline and supervise. In pursuit of a space for liberty, the artist makes use in this video of the power that the camera can give in a world fascinated by images.

First, several interviews were conducted with officers of the civil (PSP) and military police (GNR), of both sexes, of different ages and positions in the hierarchy of their institutions. Subsequently, in the stage of editing the interviews, everything but the preliminary shots was discarded. The selected shots show police officers in uniform moving around while trying to follow the artist’s instructions. The final outcome is a kind of choreography performed in front of the camera by various officers representing public authority, and this strange dance is directed by the artist’s voice. We participate here in a humorous subversion – and inversion - of the usual direction of power.

These images also capture the peculiarities of each individual police officer, like personal portraits do, and this exposure of their frailty, behind the institutional uniform, makes them in turn more human.