Reinventing roots : a pilot version of the fictional documentary methodology

Abstract

This research delves into the conceptualization, design and implementation of an artistic pedagogic methodology: the 'Fictional Documentary' (FD). Its justification and theoretical framework are in the context of artist's education and autobiographical performance, by outlining the author's background to translate postcolonial theory into pedagogical practice. FD has two main goals: to facilitate the review of one's self-perception in the face of outer contexts and to develop empathy bridges to prevent hierarchized relationships with the Other, opposing the perpetuation of cultural, racial and geopolitical biases. The FD's empirical pilot project, the 'Reinventing Roots' workshop, will be also analyzed, commenting on how it negotiated with complex issues of identity, collaboration and ownership in a context of North-South dialogue. As the author's master thesis international project, the five-days' workshop was held at the Theater Department of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in January 2018. The Reinventing Roots workshop associated postcolonial epistemology, specially focused on Spivak's notions of self-reflexivity and deconstruction (1994, 2008) with a set of multimodal arts-based pedagogical proposals. The workshop's practices encompassed creative writing, performance art, theater improvisation and video-making exercises, from the participants' autobiographical family memories, more precisely the gaps in those memories, potential for fictional, and yet, documental creation. Accordingly, those memories evoke questions related to the paths taken to perpetuate some memory narratives and not others. The methodological structure is set to dissect forms of colonial powers by the observation of the perspectives privileged on personal memory narratives, testing the presence of colonial reasonings. The processes happening in the Reinventing Roots workshop tackled the identity of the individual through approaches based on collaborative practices, embracing one's memories 'not-knowingness' as a provoking state for rebuilding narrative gaps through those practices, embodying the uncompletedness and partiality of the self.