Zirig dum Brasília – The Art and Dream of Renato Matos

Brazilian Renato Matos, a lively sixty-something with a huge mop of grey hair, is an all-rounder talent: poet, painter, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Since the 1970s, he has exerted a great influence on cultural life in Bahia, in the northeast of Brazil, as we learn from this portrait by André Luiz Oliveira. Matos turns everything that touches or interests him – from the war in Iraq to Justin Bieber using a bucket as a toilet in a New York restaurant – into images, paintings and music. Like a form of therapy, art allows him to survive.
In Zirig dum Brasília – The Art and Dream of Renato Matos, which takes its title from Matos’ last project, the camera follows Matos through performances, meetings with old friends and his ancient father and mother. His travels are interspersed with countless homages from those who know him and from fellow artists, photos, newspaper cuttings, flyers and archive footage of performances and images of his beautiful paintings.

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