Finally I get to South America
Visiting Brazil has been high on my list of things to do before I die. As a Lagosian from the Brazilian quarters, I always had this deep affinity for Brazil and as soon as I was invited by the Prince Claus to Brazil, Argentina and Peru, I cleared my schedule and jumped at the opportunity.
I am travelling with an interesting group of over 20 curators with some artists from Holland, Belgium and Norway invited by the Mondriaan Foundation in association with OCA (Norway) and BAM (Belgium) The Prince Claus Fund has invited 4 of us from regions in which they work - namely myself, Kossi Assou, Togo, Wang Baoju, China and Agung Koerniawan, Indonesia.
The first stop was Sao Paolo. An incredible city of approximately 20million people. I thought Lagos was a megacity but this is really the megacity. It spreads for what seems and is probably miles and miles and miles. The buildings are incredible though i found it slightly suffocating. Whilst skyscrappers do not seem as invasive in New York, the narrow (european style) streets of Sao Paolo made them seem as if they were touching each other. But that minor issue apart, it was one place that I really, really enjoyed for its fusion of cultures, peoples, building, art and more. The restaurants - at least the one we went to - were excellent. As for the art spaces they were huge and impressive. I have rarely seen art centres as big as the ones in Brazil. Unfortunately during our 4 days we didn't see as much contemporary art as we would have liked to as most venues were in between exhibitions. We didn't do any studio visits which is sort of understandable as it would have taken hours to go from one studio to another. Therefore the focus was on institutions and we were able to meet colleagues working at the highest level. My hope is that in the future I will be able to collaborate on curatorial projects in Brazil.
The visits have been incredible intensive and unfortunately i won't have the time to update the blog as I would like. However there is a lot of information available. For the background of the orientation trip and for frequently updated information and pictures about the trip, visit the specially created blog at orientationtrip2009
I am travelling with an interesting group of over 20 curators with some artists from Holland, Belgium and Norway invited by the Mondriaan Foundation in association with OCA (Norway) and BAM (Belgium) The Prince Claus Fund has invited 4 of us from regions in which they work - namely myself, Kossi Assou, Togo, Wang Baoju, China and Agung Koerniawan, Indonesia.
The first stop was Sao Paolo. An incredible city of approximately 20million people. I thought Lagos was a megacity but this is really the megacity. It spreads for what seems and is probably miles and miles and miles. The buildings are incredible though i found it slightly suffocating. Whilst skyscrappers do not seem as invasive in New York, the narrow (european style) streets of Sao Paolo made them seem as if they were touching each other. But that minor issue apart, it was one place that I really, really enjoyed for its fusion of cultures, peoples, building, art and more. The restaurants - at least the one we went to - were excellent. As for the art spaces they were huge and impressive. I have rarely seen art centres as big as the ones in Brazil. Unfortunately during our 4 days we didn't see as much contemporary art as we would have liked to as most venues were in between exhibitions. We didn't do any studio visits which is sort of understandable as it would have taken hours to go from one studio to another. Therefore the focus was on institutions and we were able to meet colleagues working at the highest level. My hope is that in the future I will be able to collaborate on curatorial projects in Brazil.
The visits have been incredible intensive and unfortunately i won't have the time to update the blog as I would like. However there is a lot of information available. For the background of the orientation trip and for frequently updated information and pictures about the trip, visit the specially created blog at orientationtrip2009
posted by Bisi at
02:26
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