Priscila Lena Farias / Anna Calvera Marcos da Costa ... - Blucher

“Go you too to Amazonia”: analysis of a poster designed by Jean-Pierre Chabloz for the “Rubber Campaign”
which, therefore, men would be clearly posing for the photograph,
most likely after the request of some SEMTA’s employee.
Figure 7. Migrants in the Mucuripe harbor, in Fortaleza, on
February 1, 1943 (photo by Abafilm).
Another image recorded during the first departure makes us doubt
of the feeling of collective euphoria shown in the first photographs
I mentioned. We see in this picture a diagonal view of the right
side of a SEMTA’s truck, where there are some sitting men (fig. 8).
One of them is asleep; his right side neighbor has a contemplative
and distant look. Just two of the men, the only ones who seem to
be aware of the camera, or minimally care about being depicted,
show with their fingers a very timid and unconvincing “v” of victory.
Figure 8. Aspect of one of the trucks on a Fortaleza’s
street (photo by Abafilm).
We see, therefore, a sharp contrast between the photographs
taken to illustrate periodicals and those which depict migrants
at more casual moments. Indeed, the most painful aspects of
departures - sadness, loneliness, fatigue, uncertainty - were not
exploited by press or by official advertising.
The poster Go you too to Amazonia, protected by SEMTA, as official
advertising, obviously emphasizes the joy and euphoria of migrants,
who had then been turned into national heroes. Although
many of them are sitting in the truck, those who stand out are the
ones standing and waving to their distant companion. This one, in
turn, is directly affected by the poster’s textual message, which
invites him to do the same as their fellows in the trucks: migrate to
Amazonia, under the protection of SEMTA.
The poster is intended to dismiss possible doubts and hesitations
by potential migrants. What is being said through its image and
text is: “If so many people decided to migrate to Amazonia under
the tutelage of SEMTA, it is because that is a really good opportu-
nity. Thus, why don’t you do the same?”. The duality between the
internal environment, in which the man in the foreground is situated,
and the outdoor environment, where the departure scene
takes place, seems to enhance the invitation, presenting the migration
to Amazonia as an attitude of freedom.
In this way, the analyzed poster emphasizes the glorious aspects
of the departure: the joy and vibration of migrants, the patriotic nature
of their attitude, the sense of freedom associated to their gesture.
However, by comparing photographs taken during the first
departure of men from Ceará for Amazonia, I highlighted the dual
aspect of that ritualistic act: the official version of events versus
another version, not made public at that time, seen in images that
show faces and bodies of migrants expressing feelings of uncertainty,
distrust, tiredness, loss. Perhaps both versions have their
share of truth, given that contradictory feelings such as joy and
pain, excitement and fear are often simultaneously associated to
those rites of passage.
References
Chabloz, J. P. 1943a. Enumération des TRAVAUX exécutés pour le S.E.M.T.A.
Dessins etc. en relation +- directe avec ce service. – S. Luiz – Belém – Teresina
– Fortaleza – dès le 2 janvier 1943. Manuscript. MAUC. Translation by
Ana Carolina Moraes.
________________. 1943b. Letter from Chabloz to Moser. Fortaleza, February 6,
1943. Typescript. MAUC. Translation by Ana Carolina Moraes.
Gonçalves, A. & Costa, P. E. B. (Orgs.). 2008. Mais borracha para a vitória.
Fortaleza: MAUC/NUDOC; Brasília: Ideal Gráfica.
Morales, L. A. 2002. Vai e vem, vira e volta. As rotas dos Soldados da Borracha.
São Paulo: Annablume; Fortaleza: Secretaria da Cultura e Desporto
do Estado do Ceará.
About the author(s)
Ana Carolina Albuquerque de Moraes is working towards her Masters
degree in Visual Arts at UNICAMP and holds a CNPq scholarship.
Her publications most relevant to the conference theme
are Jean-Pierre Chabloz e a Campanha de Mobilização de Trabalhadores
para a Amazônia (1943): cartaz e estudo preliminar em
confronto (Jean-Pierre Chabloz and the Campaign of Mobilization
of Workers for Amazonia (1943): poster and preliminary study in
confrontation) () and Vida Nova na Amazônia: a cor
como elemento de persuasão em cartaz da “Campanha da Borracha”
(New Life in Amazonia: color as an element of persuasion in
a “Rubber Campaign” poster) ().
Design Frontiers: Territiories, Concepts, Technologies 489