E A FESTA CONTINUA | Mariana Pinho | TEDxRio Salon
Who knows where the fantasies end up after the greatest show on earth? Before talking about Carnival, I'll explain what this has to do with me . I am a 1.5 m tall woman, a single mother, and self-taught. And Carnival has always been a part of my life . I come from a family that helped build Brasília. They left Rio and dedicated their lives to labor justice, but at the same time they were artisan women. So I grew up in a large studio where mixing techniques and materials, going out with a balloon bag, a silver tape skirt, was normal. That's because creating with what you had was the norm. My grandmother Deia presided over a Federal Council for the Regulation of Artists in the 1970s. Imagine a time when artists had no labor rights. In press releases, there was what seemed almost absurd, a criticism. How can a clown have the same rights as a doctor? Today I'm wearing her dress, made of a timeless, synthetic fabric. And I learned that breaking down barriers was part of our mission. Believe it or not, I've been working with dance, costume design, and artistic direction in Brazil, the UK, and Europe for over 20 years. But it was by observing Carnival from the outside that I better understood my role within it . My first job was inside a samba school's warehouse in Rio. Amidst that beautiful, intense, collective, creative process, I was already aware of the issue of waste and collected everything to take home, which became an extension of the warehouse. But back then I didn't think that was sustainability, because it was more of an instinct. Years later I returned to work at SUPCA, this time as a translator for a publication. And decades later I realized that the same situation was happening, because imagine, every 90 minutes, thousands of people will be leaving the Sambadrome at the same time. And for logistical reasons, several thousand more were still headed for the compactor truck, their final destination: the landfill. And there begins a process of decomposition that lasts for centuries; in other words, our great-grandchildren will be born and the fantasy will still be there, decomposing. During Rio's Carnival, the samba schools in the Gold Series and Special Groups produce an average of over 100,000 costumes per year. It is worth noting that more than 90% of this volume is already reused by the organizations. So, I did what anyone who is passionate about and understands the value of reusing these materials would do. I used to fill my suitcase every night, and that's how the "Sustain Carnival" project was born. During the pandemic, I intensified my research and went from being the queen of glitter to a sustainability nerd, understanding, through research and consulting, the relationship between synthetic materials and their life cycle. I borrowed some money and during the post-pandemic Carnival, I picked up a truckload of food every night with my friends. We went to the house of other friends in Cabo Frio. 3 tons. It was a quarter of the head, the coastal quarter, that's how it was. Then I borrowed more money and this time we removed all the costumes, 23 tons. I froze, didn't I? Did I just say something? Because it was a sentence in a PDF that suddenly turned into this mountain of fantasies, and it was all too big, too bulky, too heavy, too real to turn back. Then it happened that I think what saves the whole story from turning into a tragedy, right? What do you think? What did I do? Therapy. Lots of therapy, but what really saved me was the people of Carnival, our partners, collaborators, my godparents, mentors, people who understood even before I finished . And so we signed a cooperation agreement, legitimizing the mission of this action. Ah, years later, here we are. Today we are located in an office in the port area of Rio de Janeiro. Please, welcome. And so far we have removed 66 tons of waste that had been diverted from disposal. Of that total, 20 tons have already been reintroduced into the circular economy through donation, sale, rental, new products, and export, demonstrating that costumes are not just a product, but also a tool. Still on the subject of numbers, let's consider that for every kilogram of fantasy in its life cycle, remember that number, not my smile. For every kilogram of costumes, there is an impact of 47.2 kg of CO2 equivalent. This refers to almost 1000 km driven by a car, or the daily impact of one person, three people, or the impact of three days of one person, sorry. While this was happening in Brazil, the project crossed the Atlantic. We've been to France and the United Kingdom, participating in schools, museums, festivals, and educational initiatives with vulnerable groups such as refugee women, Latina women, and victims of domestic violence, as well as artistic residencies and a fashion university. There, fantasy served as a starting point for a discussion about creation, consumption, concept, and responsibility. Furthermore, the costumes returned to the parade, but this time on the streets of the Notting Rio carnival in London, where the Afro Dendation group, for three consecutive years, reused materials from our collection and achieved first place last year. demonstrating that circularity is not local, it is transferable, it creates, acts and transforms by crossing these bridges. Our project aims to mitigate the impact of these textile waste products, often caused by excessive consumption justified by the content of the item – which we now have to buy, wear, photograph, and throw away. The numbers don't add up; the planet is suffocating from plastic. So what do we propose? a new perspective. The argument demonstrates that the project's potential is linked to cross-cutting themes, from carnival to fashion, cinema, theater, and so we base ourselves on the three pillars of sustainability: environmental, economic, and social. But I want to create a room, a room for cherished memories, because these fantasies aren't trash; they're a collection of months of study, art history, references, and research. So, let's get the party started. Let's go. But suddenly, with what already exists, we look around, realize that what we need doesn't have to come from something new, and we understand our role. And in a small way, little by little, to consciously think about reducing the impact of our consumption so that future generations will find a better planet. Celebrating is not the problem. The problem is starting from scratch. So, for me, the message is: long live samba, long live its pillars, long live the women, long live Rio de Janeiro, because life is a party.