RIO TRANSEXCITY | Marco Manunta

Marco Manunta-Lidia Savioli-Alice Braggion-Alessandro Carabini Ronald moved close to the window, pushing a gun in my mouth and saying “the first step to eternal life is you have to die”. For a long time now, Ronald and I had been best friends. People were always asking, did I know about Ronald McDonald. The barrel of the gun pressed against the back of my throat, Ronald says “We won’t really die”. Ronald McDonald’s fall began a many decades ago, with all that Transexity stuff. He’s dying because of that. I remembered the first time when I landed in Transexity. Ten years ago. Transexity was once known as Rio de Janeiro, but nobody really cares anymore. Ronald was already there with a couple of friends. He co-founded a new religion based on making dollars. He extended his empire for years. People were dumbed and Ronald was pleased. Nonetheless, Olympic Games wrecked his plans. He pretended to settle in what they called “favelas”. Never ever assume you can take advantage where people have the strongest community power in the world. Inhabitants were evicted from their houses. They reacted. They sent Ronald and his friends directly to hell. Once I got there, a friend told me what was going on. Plastic surgery, prosthesis and body care were the new beliefs. This was absolutely in contrast with all Ronald’s stereotypes. It was about love as self caring. This wasn’t about propriety as an ownership anymore. People own themselves. People began considering themselves and their body as pure self-expression. At first glance Transexity was an inimitable twisted version of human perversion. Its streets reminded me of grotesque movies mixed with the best and brightest colors of mankind. Human mind can be dangerously grotesque. Human mind can also be very bright and creative. Nevertheless, on a closer look one would just notice a single thing. Mutation. People resembled both wounded soldiers and marvelous phoenixes rising from their own ashes: Nothing in the world gives you thrills more than living exactly in between sick and wonder. People decided to build themselves. Accessorize their bodies.Their homes. No style at all. Style and commitment. Building has always been better than choosing. So the dawn of a new society was there. People were allowed to change their identity, and so the city. Architecture became all about prosthesis, amputations and all that plastic stuff. We were celebrating a wedding between formality and informality. We were celebrating a revolution: Identity as Mutation, Mutation as Identity. “…You know what I mean” Ronald said. “All of a sudden the world became just tiny. Tiny people who makes tiny stuff. Every man, woman and those mixed ones, are little tiny masterpieces. It just screws with me.” With my tongue I can feel the silencer holes into the barrel of the gun….. “…finally people decided to cook their stuff at home rather than buying Royal Deluxe..”