O Caseiro [The Housekeeper]

The video work O Caseiro takes up the 1959 film O Mestre de Apipucos [The Masters and the Slaves] by Joaquim Pedro de Andrade. In O Caseiro the screen is divided symmetrically into two narratives. On the left, the 1959 film shows the everyday life of Gilberto Freyre, the famous Brazilian writer and sociologist, in his house in the Apipucos district of Recife, where the artist currently lives and works. On the right, de Andrade creates a simultaneous mirroring of the film’s scenes, replacing Freyre with the caretaker of the sociologist’s wealthy residence. The parallel between the two figures, one historical and one fictional, brings out the differences of class and race that are also among the themes most often addressed in Freyre’s sociological writings.