Shock takes its name from the Brazilian antiriot police, also known as the Shock Battalion, a division trained and equipped to handle demonstrators and crowds. The videoinstallation, which is visually immensely powerful, casts a critical eye over the methods used by state powers to suppress resistance. Far from emerging as a symbol of protection, in Shock, the police forces convey a philosophy of fear, and although the work is conceptually rooted in Brazil’s specific political history, the visual narrative unfurled by Longo Bahía finds an echo in many similar cities in other corners of the planet.
