Fernando Denti

"INFERNO VERDE" is one nifty twenty-minute Sony VX-1000 trip to Manaus, Brazil, essentially the pulsating metropolitan heart of the Amazon, round trip and all expenses paid by Costume, the local brand LIVE hasn't been without sharing some of the former productions from before, itself led by Adonis Perfeito and his intrinsic drive to represent. To the equally-on-point platform Black Media Skate, he recites:

"« Green hell, green paradise; this is the classic Amazon where the past is common and synonymous with gigantic snakes and magic fish... » once said Glauber Rocha in his short film 'AMAZONAS, AMAZONAS' (1966).

For five years, we've been conducting ethnological studies, digging deep searching Manaus' alleys and landscapes for the summits of this 'green hell'.

A region rooted into the very old world, entranced by its situation in between water aplenty and luxurious vegetation that cracks concrete and asphalt, where alligators, jaguars and sloths fight for civility. One odd mix of creation and creatures, natural life and artificial death."

For the average skater now, this notably translates under the form of original - and crazy - spots, duly exploited by a collective of efficient and creative individuals, including Felipe Oliveira, Cotinz, Luis Moschioni and many more remarkable stylers. Ah and the editing and soundtrack are top notch, too!

After plenty of references already to Francesco Careri, Le Corbusier and Guy Debord - amongst others - throughout the past few years and the corresponding output of video productions, Brazilian collective Flanantes is back "FLANATOPIAS" and this time, it is a concept forged by French philosopher Michel Foucault that gets explored, for the sake of a nearly half-hour-long piece that doesn't fail at pairing up H.D. documentation with experimental editing. Of course, as always, the skateboarding is remarkable and that's despite the rough spots and sketchy year; an impressive number of faces make an appearance, too, representing just as many unique styles - although, the best observers will quickly spot the likes of Luis Moschioni, Sergio Santoro or Hernando "Nańo" Ramirez (ASCO Skateboarding C.E.O.), as they've regularly been featured on LIVE before too. All produced by Brazilian magazine CemporcentoSKATE, with an exclusive photo gallery here, alongside words of introduction by Leonardo Brandão :

"Heterotopia is a concept created by French philosopher Michel Foucault; the term means the invention of new spaces within the pre-existing spaces themselves.

Skateboarding, for example, is heterotopic. With it, a handrail is no longer a handrail, nor is a bench just a bench.

In addition, we must not forget the great heterotopy mentioned by Foucault: the ship, which is the quintessential figure of the nineteenth century. The English ships in the seas, or the transatlantic ships, those large pieces of space that float in the immense space of the sea.

According to this logic, heterotopia can also be the skateboard itself: a tiny piece of space compared to the ship, a metaphor for what is happening today - unlike the ship, the space it traverses offers comfort, luxury and security, carrying its own charge of insecurity, survival instict, scarcity of resources and rarefied space.

Skateboard sends imagination back to the time of the first boatmen who had nothing but row boats. Except skaters aren't in the seas or oceans - they are in the cities, their heterotopias are urban, drifting - they are flanantopias." Leonardo Brandão for CemporcentoSKATE.

Oh and, word on the street is a brand new Flanantes edit - again another one! - might be just about to drop, soon...