Rich Cat Dies of Heart Attack in Chicago

During the agitated year of 1968 the situation in Brazil was much more difficult and repressive than that of Western Europe during that period. On 13th December of that same year, the Fifth Institutional Act was passed conferring full dictatorial powers on president Costa e Silva. No media was able to inform on the events that had taken place, or even offer any opinion regarding what had occurred. The Correio da Manha hit the streets with the following title: “Gato rico morreu en Chicago” (“Rich Cat Dies in Chicago”).

Fernando Sánchez Castillo uses this absurd phrase as a title that describes the various images of a strange and confused coup d’état. We see a series of sequences in which various choreographs and games are articulated with a bronze head that appears to be at the centre of a strange activity.