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of space from the schedule, the proposition of actions encompassing the diversities, the multiple identities, the desires and the utopias that somehow create an urban, structured condition by languages and rites of coexistence, for these different audiences. The schedule was, then, conceived as a space of citizenship and public culture, the beginning of the construction of an imaginary with appropriation, identification, recognition and a symbolic-psychic space of belonging. Our arrival at the territory moved both the urban and social collectivity. We take all tensions in the urban space into account, including transportation problems and dynamics, urban conservation, security, cleaning, housing dynamics, trade organization and other economic activities. And with that, we became one of the elements in the requalification process of a specific area of the city, more specifically this territory in São Paulo downtown. We were faced with the challenge to think and propose a new schedule for the different audiences, people from different backgrounds, with different personal and family history, different conditions and distinctions of rights imposed in terms of social classes, cultural experiences and habits, ages, ethnicities, sexualities and genders. People with their own conflicts, fears, joys and passions. Being novel, having the chance to work in a different dynamic, a Unit arriving at a new territory, being able to have this contact with the people, being able to introduce Sesc and show our work. The community feels suburban - suburb meaning a space with socially vulnerable, articulated individuals questioning their political, social and cultural reality – existing in the center of the capital. Its various conflicts, social tensions and matters to be dealt with also became a particularity for the teams and for the design of the schedule, to reach different audiences and to think about effective actions that would contribute to the improvement of these people’s daily lives. It is a different experience, because unlike a definitive unit, a provisional unit
gives us the freedom to think and create the most diverse schedule, considering that the possibility of creation transcends the specificities of a given locus, of a space specific. As we practically only had the floor, the asphalt, we were allowed to do everything, and so we did: from a drive-in theater with a giant screen and people watching the movie from inside their cars, on bicycles or on the beanbags and beach chairs arranged throughout the space, even a soccer match or a skate, rugby, floorball, baseball performance or any other sport unusual in our culture or reality, including a procession that included a Theater performance, workshops to build a Rocket, to build a soap box cart, to emboider, a course for making terrariums, create an Agroecological Garden, more experiences in contemporary and urban dances. We even had Circus and Trapeze performance, since we could, as said in circus language, lift the canvas, stake and drill the floor to fix the Trapeze structures without worrying about any architectural issues. And so everyone who passed by the avenues, by car, motorcycle, bicycle, truck, bus or even on foot could also enjoy those scenes, even if fortuitous, of the Dancer, the Poet, the Athlete or the Acrobat throwing themselves in the middle of nowhere, letting go of the Trapeze's hand to find another hand, causing many to get butterflies in their stomachs with their passage through the air. It was an open, permeable unit, a breather right in the middle of the city, the contact with the harsh and chaotic urban nature, with the good and the bad, the odds and evens, the pain and the delight of being what you are. The burden of rain, cold, intense winds and especially heat, pollution, noise. But also the bonus of being able to experience the most different artistic, sporting and socio-educational proposals, the bonus of encounters, smiles, looks and exchanges with artists, groups and companies, with children, young people and families who have come to assume and take the new space as their own, making the unit their piece, the bonus
of the approximations and affections established with the workers of the territory, with passersby, with neighbors, the homeless, street vendors, with people in precarious situations who momentarily lived on the streets. And that they felt welcomed and invited to participate in shows, performances, courses and workshops, in this schedule that both delighted and caused strangeness. A schedule thought out, prepared and woven by several hands with a wish to show Sesc’s diversity, and showing as far as possible, this diversity of possibilities for actions. Aware of our privilege to have Culture and Education in our values, we provide and share our expertise to the benefit of different audiences, the people. Also seen as an element to mediate and negotiate with purposeful actions to contribute to the process of formation and expansion of the possibilities of cultural life for different audiences, the schedule includes activities as a gateway to other more specific knowledge, taking advantage of the experience of unpretentious sociability situations such as those experienced in the time-space-moment of Leisure, and which allow the exchange of information and knowledge between people, the creation of a basic network of sociability plus the possibilities of expression and realization of each people. This was our room for action, to allow the public to appropriate the Unit as their space for leisure and sociability, breaking some symbolic barriers, barriers of estrangement - either through mediation from an open space, whose architecture and layout of the physical spaces contributed to this result, either through the reception and formation of social networks which offered the coexistence of spaces allowing the transition to different possibilities of enjoyment of experiences and activities. The unit operated as mediator, understanding that space is not passive, but is constituted as a system of dynamic signs and meanings, establishing a policy of relationship with the public. It also operated with active listening and
dialogue established with the people. No less important, through spontaneous encounters with friends and acquaintances in this new space, which generated a relationship of appropriation not only of the unit’s physical space, but also the proposed activities and a more intimate relationship between these different audiences. We loved to see there, on a daily basis, the different appropriations by each one: the gentleman who came to “chill”, the father and son who asked to play chess, “or one of those challenges and strategy games that the teacher presented the other day”, the guys who came daily to “play ball”, the women who worked in the Cereal Market stores and used their lunch break to “read a newspaper, a magazine and browse through the books”, the family that came to “check out the exhibition” on weekends, the basketball boys and girls who adopted the new space as their own, the neighbor-students from São Paulo School who came to play basketball or rehearse a few steps of a dance choreography or even when they skipped classes and just hang out, the ladies who attended the São Vito Church, which was very close to the unit, and did the technology and arts activities or, as they said, the “internet and computer” activities, in addition to sewing, customization and design classes, the “ball players” who faithfully participated in futsal tournaments and championships on Saturdays and Sundays, groups of students from schools in the countryside of São Paulo who came to walk and meet our other neighbors, the Catavento Museum and the Mercadão, who invariably passed through the Unit and played Ping-Pong, Badminton, Chess, Soccer, Basketball – to the dismay of the teachers who certainly had an appointment not for these spontaneous moments but also for official events; the crowd arriving in groups for the concerts, first the fans, who insisted on being glued to the stage and then the other 4,000, 5,000, 10,000 spectators that packed the unit, bringing that great, positive tension of so many people together with the same
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