This text is a re-post of Camila Rosa's message first published on Facebook on December 4, 2018 in response to Free Translation exhibition held at MAA-tila in November 2018. The original version and selected responses from Camila's post, written in Portuguese, are below.

Last week I went to an art exhibition in Helsinki, made of works of prisoners from several places @FreeTranslation. Overall, the works dealt with the themes of loneliness, fear, longing, depression, time and death. Obvious consequences of confinement time.

It got me thinking about how such an exhibition would be important in Brazil, how I would love to take my students there and have following discussions about crime and punishment. Crime in general, even those kinds of crimes that benefit the students, or those socially accepted crimes, that the white majority of the middle class people easily tolerate.

But then, I realized that to discuss these issues it's needed to overcome the colonial reasoning / sadistic instinct that wishes the suffering of prisoners. As if all prisoners were murderers and rapists. As if these crimes made the majority of the prison population. As if the crimes of trafficking, selling drugs should only be punished if they involve black and poor people. 
"Whitened" crimes (violence against women, tax evasion, money laundering - especially in my former home town, Gramado, for example), seem to be more gentle causing greater empathy. I imagine that in a fictional prison setting for crimes like these, associated with white middle / upper classes, overcrowding, police violence, or rape would render greater opposition from society.

All that because people do not understand that to be arrested is to be excluded, to be alone, not to have freedom. And that by itself is punishment, and more, an opportunity to reflect and regret.

When are we going to end this sadistic spirit that is only happy in the humiliation and in seeing the blood of those who are already fucked?

Thank you, Arlene and Anastasia for the initiative and for facilitating this!
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Response to Camila's post:
Letícia - super important the questions you bring. Why not to plan something with the prison population? Especially in prisons for women. Here (in Germany) there's a theater project that works in juvenile prisons that is incredible. I would love to do such a project in the future.

Letícia - The situation of women in detention is fucked. Already begins that most often female prisons receive the same budget as male prisons, and women have other needs that men do not have (menstruation, every person with an uterus needs care in those days, needing to be careful with their pussies to not get sick every two weeks, baby care that can be born while a woman is locked up ...). This is not entirely disregarded in prisons for women in Brazil in general. By saying this I do not mean that male prisons are wonderful, but rather they reproduce the patriarchal structure that is extremely cruel to the woman. That's why I think this work in general is important, especially when it's made with women. 

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Camila Rosa is a Helsinki-based researcher, educator and performing artist. She is continuously investigating the approximation between art and critical pedagogies, focusing on the intersection of art and public spheres and institutional contexts. As an investigator, she is mostly dedicated to exploring postcolonial epistemology in the framework of performance art. She has been associating multiple art forms in artistic and pedagogical processes in different Brazilian and Finnish contexts. https://camilrosa.wixsite.com/camilarosa

Na semana passada eu fui numa exposição em Helsinki, de arte feita por presidiárixs de vários lugares. @FreeTranslation 
Num geral as obras tratavam de solidão, medo, saudade, depressão, tempo e morte. Consequências óbvias do tempo de confinamento.

Fiquei pensando em como uma exposição assim seria importante no Brasil, em como eu adoria levar alunxs e discutir sobre crime e punição. Crime no geral, até aquele que traz benefícios pra alunxs, ou aqueles crimes socialmente aceitos pela maioria branca das classe médias.

Mas logo me veio na cabeça que pra discutir isso tem que superar aquele raciocínio /instinto colonial de sadismo, e de anseio pelo sofrimento ds detentxs. Como se todos presidiários fossem assassinxs e estupradores. Como se esses crimes fizessem a maioria da população prisional. Como se os crimes de tráfico, venda de drogas só devessem ser punidos se envolver negrs e pobrs. Os crimes "branquizados" (violência contra mulheres, sonegação, lavagem de dinheiro - em especial em Gramado por exemplo-), parecem mais delicados e devem causar maior empatia. Imagino que num cenário fictício de uma prisão pra crimes como esses - associados a classes médias/altas brancas - super lotação, violência policial, estupros sofressem maior oposição da sociedade.

Porque as pessoas não entendem que estar preso é estar excluídx, ser sozinhx, não ter liberdade. E isso sem si é castigo, e mais, oportunidade pra refletir e arrepender.
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Quando vamos matar esse espírito sádico que só é feliz na humilhação e no correr de sangue de quem já tá merda?

Resposta ao post da Camila:
Letícia - super importante teu questionamento. Pq não planejar algo com a população prisional mesmo? Especialmente nos presídios para mulheres. Aqui tem um projeto de teatro que trabalha em presídios juvenis que é incrível. Eu adoraria fazer um projeto assim no futuro.

Letícia - ​A situação de mulheres em situação de reclusão é muito foda. Já começa que na maioria das vezes presídios femininos recebem o mesmo orçamento que presídios masculinos, sendo que mulheres tem outras necessidades que homens não tem (menstruação e que toda pessoa com útero precisa naqueles dias, cuidado com a ppk pra não ficar doente a cada duas semanas, cuidado com bebe que podem nascer enquanto uma mulher está trancafiada...). Isso não é totalmente desconsiderado em presídios para mulheres no Brasil em geral. Com isso não quero dizer que presídios masculinos são uma maravilha, mas sim que a estrutura patriarcal é extremamente cruel com a mulher. Por isso acho importante esse trabalho em geral, ainda mais com mulheres

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Camila Rosa é pesquisadora, educadora e performer vivendo em Helsinque. Ela continuamente investiga a aproximação entre arte e pedagogias críticas, enfoque na intersecção entre arte e o esferas públicas e seus contextos institucionais. Como pesquisadora, ela explora principalmente epistemologias pós-coloniais nas artes performáticas. Ela tem combinado várias linguagens de arte em processos artísticos e pedagógicos, em diferentes contextos no Brasil e na Finlândia. https://camilrosa.wixsite.com/camilarosa

Intersemiotic Journeys: book launch and poetry performance on June 26th from 18:30-20:00
King's College London, River Room, 2nd floor, King's Building, Strand Campus

The event is free, but please register here: 
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/intersemiotic-journeys-book-launch-and-poetry-performance-tickets-62637794329 

Madeleine Campbell and Ricarda Vidal will present their book Translating across Sensory and Linguistic Borders: Intersemiotic Journeys between Media, which explores translation as a creative, self-reflective and transformative method. Drawing on first-person narratives from artists and performers, Madeleine and Ricarda will examine how an artefact can be translated from one medium to another, for example from poetry to collage, from music to mediated performance or from video art to experimental narrative. The book seeks to understand the creative processes involved in the individual act of translation, and more generally in the perception and expression of art works. This will be followed by a performance by poet and translator Jen Calleja, who will present her feminist intersemiotic translation of Christian Marclay’s The Clock into poetry, which she composed as part of her contribution to Intersemiotic Journeys. 

Wine and soft drinks will be available during this event.

The introduction and conclusion to Intersemiotic Journeys can be downloaded for free by clicking the link below and selecting 'Front Matter'  and 'End Matter' from the table of contents
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-97244-2

The launch is supported and hosted by the Department of Culture, Media & Creative Industries, King’s College London.