turn vote|1

with the children, for democracy

It is shown here a group of photographs that register scenes of a political act organized by FPEI (Fórum Paulista de Educação Infantil, lit. São Paulo Forum of Child Education). This act stands out by its intention, rarely present in social movements, even in the fight for children’s and education’s rights: the initiative incorporated children as members, alongside the other sympathizers, students, professors, friends and fighters, participants in the process of the construction of democracy in the country.

The act happened at Dom José Gaspar Square, a region recognized as central of São Paulo city. The main goal was to discuss the ongoing democratic processes, on the eve of the second turn of the 2018 presidential elections. In this act there was an invitation for the children passing by the square to draw and paint in big paper holders and other available materials. The calling for the collective political participation of children, along with the adults, even if not made objectively, was present there, placed among the practice of the present people and their dialogues, shoulder by shoulder, with whomever passed by.

 Why use paintings and drawings? This expressive manifestation allowed the meeting of those who were at the demonstration and the hurried passers-by that at times stopped to look and listen to the conversations. A suspension of time amid the daily dynamic of the city, especially in this region. The acts of drawing and painting provoked different relations among people and made them closer in a certain way, regardless of age group. The drawings and paintings weren’t simply a result of the observation of the surroundings, but multiple on their subjects. Ephemeral, they let the visual record of a protest that wished to, among other things, consider voices, traces, matters brought by the children that passed by and stopped, on the sketch of a practice still not so frequent on political manifestations: the children, their yearnings, their voices, their plastic creations that remains on the memory when kept and provoke reflections about political participation and the presence that is also political of the children in the city.  

1|In the original, “VIRA VOTO”, is a big social manifestation in Brazil organized and executed by the general population in order to make people switch their chosen candidate in the elections to another running candidate. It was very present in the 2018 presidential elections, especially by Fernando Haddad (PT) supporters, who were voting against his main competitor, Jair Bolsonaro (no political party). It’s huge importance was mainly due to the discrepancy between what the candidates represented at the time: democracy, education and basic human rights (Haddad) against dictatorship, sexism, racism, LGBTphobia, violence and fascism (Bolsonaro).