O Gato Acorrentado a um Só Traçado

The the cat Chained to a Single Stroke

My commentary

In bed in 1977, with operated knee and a lot of pain, I see in the window a the cat staring at me. The next day and the next day and the next, at about the same time, there was the cat. When I tried to turn around to see it better, I moaned (sometimes screamed) in pain and, in fear, it ran away.
One day I got ready in a good position, with paper and pencil, and quickly sketched the visitor.
Later, much better, already out of bed, carefully I draw it again trying to maintain the careless of the original

The drawing was used for the video O Gato Acorrentado a um Só Traçado (The Cat Chained to a Single Stroke). Behind a frosted glass, I repeated the drawing and videotaped it as I repeated it a few times, to the sound of a shout expressing meow-shaped pain. The instruction is to loop it.

I used a MAC USP portapack, Museu de Arte Contenporãnea da Universidade de São Paulo (Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo), if memory does not betray me, within a program of the Museum, directed to video art, organized by Cacilda Teixeira da Costa.

Four shots were taken in search of the difficult adjustment of the frame. The best frame is in the second shot, where you can see the complete drawing, almost to the tip of the cat's tail. The last two shots have been discarded. The lack of editing capability available at the time, forced the first shot to remain. In this case IMR with sticky tape as I did in Nós (versão II), for exemple was not used.

In 1978, with the convocation organized by Marcelo Nitsche to donate engravings to be auctioned to finance the electoral campaign of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (he was the second most voted and, according to the rule, became alternate of the most voted of the same party , Franco Montoro), some of us wondered "why do not we do something like this for ourselves?" It was the embryo of the Cooperativa de Artista Plásticos de São Paulo (São Paulo Cooperative for Fine Artists)
We united a good number of artists and with mutual help, cooperated, we produced a number of engravings that would integrate the initial capital of the Cooperative. I took the drawing of The Cat Chained ... and, with the help of Ubirajara Ribeiro, in his studio, I made a lithographic print ...Wich can be seen here.

The exhibition for the Cooperative of Artists was entitled Papeis & Cia (Paper & Cia) and each artist presented himself with 30 signed copies, put up for sale with a single price, without distinguishing consecrated artists from the beginners. The fact, regarded as "market dumping," caused enormous discomfort in the galleries that had cooperated in its cast and started what the newspapers called the Engraving War, ripping out engravings in the presence of invited journalists.

Established the Cooperative, the first board of directors was composed by Ubirajara Ribeiro, Carlos Fajardo and I, chosen by our personal skills.

_{Gabriel Borba, 2019}