Opereta

Opereta, 1980

The Price of Money is Average Balance

My commentary

In a presentation entitled Opereta Buférrima — O Preço do Dinheiro é o Saldo Médio (The Price of Money is Average Balance)  that took place in August 1980 at Pinacoteca of the State of Sao Paulo, I parodied the situation I had experienced in a Bank - cluttered noises of heels on a wooden floor, the clickety-clack of typewriters, whispered conversations and resounding ones while hearing from a manager that I was unqualified for any banking operations because I had no Average Balance. With a huge rattle, (one of those instruments with which biscuit vendors draw attention at traffic lights, image beside. A “rattle” being also said of people who clatter on and on); and with varied party whistles, separated by types in unlabeled boxes to be distributed to the rhythm of the action. I invited Aguilar to act as a partner, wearing a T shirt emblazoned with The Manager, and I wearing a T shirt with written The People In General, the giant rattle on the floor between us. And the rattle was thrown from one of us to the other with tremendous noise and party whistles, distributed to the attendance in batches to each of the audience groups, leading the ensuing clamor into a competition for the loudest group.
This performance was not documented in video or film as far as I know, with a few remaining photographs, one of which, the colorful one, by photographer Loris Machado, offered to me by Paulo Portela, artist and educator.

Operetta was presented in different places on other occasions.

_{Gabriel Borba, 2018}