Author Description

This book includes the text (based on The Birds, by Aristophanes), as well as a selection of images from the video Augusta (Vasco Araújo, 2008); an adaptation of the transcription of two dialogues of Alexandre Melo, with Vasco Araújo and with André e. Theodosius; and two of these letters commenting on the conversations. The themes under discussion, motivated by the analysis of the video, are the notions of power, utopia, criticism, and artistic creation, as manifested in the legacy of reflections on the historical notions of ideal city and Empire and in the practices of the worlds of art and society in general. The conversations took place in an apartment in Chiado, Lisbon, on February 10 and 18, 2011. The authors combine the records of theatrical fiction, abstract speculation, and current commentary. While moving their personal experiences and specific professionals, the actors represent their own characters and call, without concern for historical rigor, the figures of Caesar, Octávio, and Cicero. Being an autonomous work, this book is also the second volume of a series of works by the authors, who find in Rome its generic theme. It was understood that the references to Rome and the Roman Empire and the adoption of a hybrid methodology, in the discussion and presentation of the book, could contribute to a widening of the space of interpretation and invention also on the part of the readers.