Relativizing the identities: Vitor Ramil and the aesthetic of the cold

Abstract

This article presents the questions raised in the essay A estética do frio (The aesthetics of the cold) (2004), written and published by the musician and composer from Rio Grande do Sul, Vitor Ramil. In the essay, the author exposes some cultural differences existing in Brazil, showing that southern cultural production has more affinity with neighboring countries, Uruguay and Argentina, than with other Brazilian regions. For Ramil, this happens due a symbolic division of the country between hot Brazil and cold Brazil, in which cultural products that are not related to the representation of a warm and tropical aesthetic tend to be restricted to regional consumption. In parallel, throughout the text, we seek to analyze how this cold aesthetic defended by Ramil is dependent of the hot aesthetic to exist as a cultural representation. Although there are divergences and contrasts (of climate, landscape, territory, identity), this apparent antagonism is complementary regarding of the construction of artistic identity for the pampas musicians, functioning as a game of mirrors among the actors involved.