Performance artists are masters at perking up ears. From nudity to crucifixion, vagina knitting to intentionally getting shot in the arm with a rifle (all of which have happened), the more shocking your piece is the more people will see it. And in the latest effort to fight Brazil’s sewage dumping epidemic, one group has taken a tip from the performance artist’s handbook to get their message across.
Instituto-e, a Brazilian-based eco advocate group, has tapped big wave charger Carlos Burle for their newest PSA. Typically Burle is known for surfing one of the biggest waves ever at Nazaré and saving Maya Gabeira’s life, but now he’s branching out and doing bizarre art house films for his home country’s environmental restoration. The 80-second spot features him tarp surfing, pulling into a faux barrel, and getting “spit out” smothered in sewage sludge – all the while bathed in black and white and to the tune of Zoë Keating’s emotional sonata “Escape Artist.”
By many accounts, Brazil’s pollution treatment policies are verging on environmental catastrophe. According to the video, a whopping 53 percent of Rio de Janeiro’s sewage is dumped into the ocean without any treatment whatsoever. So it’s no exaggeration to show Burle literally surfing in shit.
And as Brazil gears up to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, global concern surrounding the safety of the local bodies of water, Rio de Janeiro in particular, have been swirling. Over the summer an entire U.S. rowing team fell ill after a competition was held in Rio’s Freitas lagoon.
What better way to shed light on the issue, right? A muscular professional surfer smothered in simulated feces like a Grecian god statue besmirched by the filth and negligence of man. Shock! Symbolism! Black and white! The call to arms is a petition with hopes of making policy makers amend the situation in Rio.
It just goes to show that to get something done, you have to first trudge (or surf) through a load of crap before people start to take notice.
