The
two governments of France and Brazil have decided to
organize this season of Brazil in France (March-December
2005) so that the French can, thanks to various manifestations
all over the country, discover and get to know better
the vitality and diversity of the ever-changing Brazilian
culture. |
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Behind the theme “Brésil, Brésils”,
from the singular to the plural form, is hidden the ambition
to show the diversity and the modernity of a huge country
of more than 180 million inhabitants, as well as presenting
Brazil under all its angles: cultural of course, as well as
economic, social or touristic.
France and Brazil have always kept in touch over the past
five centuries. The nature of these exchanges is exceptional
in a North-South context, since relations between France and
Brazil were never that of colonizer with colonized.
Mario Carelli, an historian of “crossed cultures”,
divided these relations between three periods: the distant
look, the acclimatization and the myths.
1) The “distant look” is to begin with that of
the French living at the time Brazil was discovered, or rather
“invented”, as Brazilians say: André Thevet,
Jean de Léry or Montaigne. During the Age of Enlightenment
the writers La Condamine and Bougainville high lightened these
visions of Brazil. Later on, the “travelling painters”
of the 19th century brought back from Brazil watercolours
and engravings that played a big role in the diffusion of
this exotism.
2) In the second period, the “acclimatisation”
of French models is tricky. The call for European colonisers
enable the French to export their ideologies, such as the
positivism of Auguste Comte, that became a state religion
in Brazil after the proclamation of the Republic in 1889.
“Ordem e progresso” and the Brazilian flag
The
motto of Brazil is “order and progress” since
the Republic was proclaimed in 1889 by Brazilian disciples
of Auguste Comte, who proclaimed the principle "Order
and progress, and above all else love". The disciples
exalted love in the new national anthem, which is probably
the most humane national anthem in the world and created the
flag. On its green field symbolising the natural abundance
of Brazil, there is a large yellow diamond symbolising the
country's mineral wealth (gold…). In the middle is a
blue globe, blue being in Brazil the colour of happy order.
On it appear 26 stars (one for each state of Brazil) including
the Southern Cross constellation, which is crossed by a white
band with the words "Order and progress". The flag
thus symbolises the happy order to which Brazil has long aspired.
3) What is following is a fascination for the Brazilian “myth”.
On the 20st century, the Brazilians tame the Paris of the
Belle Epoque and, paradoxically, discover that their Brazilian
nature in Paris. Reciprocally, the power of the tropics will
haunt the renowned French residing in Brazil: Paul Claudel,
Darius Milhaud, Blaise Cendrars… It would also be the
compost of original thoughts: those of George Bernanos, Roger
Caillois, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Roger Bastide or Pierre
Verger. The travels back and forth between the two sides of
the ocean of the “Brazilian anthropophagists”
have also regularly enriched these exchanges. These latter
renewed and reinvented, for their own use, a tradition of
exchanges and they initiated a road that lasted all through
the past century: we only need to cite Mario de Andrade, Tarsila
do Amaral, Cicero Dias, Frans Krajcberg or Tunga to realise
to what extent we feeled each other, beyond the Atlantic ocean,
through various shared experiences.
This reciprocal enchantment is actually a “re-enchantment”
of our bloodless modernism, jaded academies. Year 2005 is
the opportunity to expand further dialogues between the two
countries and to arouse new links, capable to give a new momentum
to French-Brazilian relationships in the decades to come.
Art
- BRASILIANA COLLECTION
The Romantic travelling painters in Brazil (1820-1870)
Until
27th November 2005
A
hundred paintings, watercolours and drawings are gathered
in the Brasiliana collection and lent is lent with the collaboration
of the Art Gallery of Sao Paulo. They will be on display in
Europe for the first time. When Lisbon’s court arrived
in Brazil in 1808, the wide country started to welcome “friendly
missions”. These paintings come directly from the romantic
vision of some French artists, but also Swiss, Germans, Italians
and British… (Biard, Chamberlain, Coindet, Debret, Facchinetti,
Hildebrandt…)
Musée
de la Vie Romantique
16 rue Chaptal
75009 Paris
Tel: +33 (0) 155 319 567
www.paris.fr |
Rio
de Janeiro, 1844
Alexandro Ciccarelli |
Photography
MIGUEL RIO BRANCO
28th
September – 27th November 2005
Born
in 1946 in a family of diplomats, Miguel Rio Branco grew up
in the Canaries islands, in Portugal, Brazil, Switzerland
and in the US. He started to express himself through painting
and drawing, and then decided, in 1968, to carry on his career
as a photograph and film maker. He settles in New York before
going back to Brazil as an independent artist. He starts working
as a correspondent for Magnum in 1978, but loses all his black
and white archives in a fire two years later. Is it for this
reason that he is now processing his pictures with bright
colours, very expressive, sometime qualified as “lyric”?
Miguel’s philosophy is to be inspired by the social
framework. “But I enjoy taking poetic pictures, and
this can lead to a conceptual work. If it succeeds, the result
overpasses the limits of journalism.” Miguel Rio Branco
received the Kodak Premium of Critic Photograph in 1982.
Maison
Européenne de la Photographie
5-7 rue de Fourcy
75004 Paris
www.mep-fr.org
Theatre
BERIMBAU – The history of Capoeira
Until
18th September 2005
This
show tells us, thanks to the rhythm of a berimbau (musical
instrument used for capoeria) the history of capoeira, its
traditions, its music… It shows the history of a population
whose suffering turns into strength.
Théatre
de l’Opprimé
78, rue du Charolais
75012 Paris
Tel: +33 (0) 143 404 444
www.bresil-off.com
Photography
PIERRE VERGER Works from 1933 to the mid-1950s
From
13th September to 25th December 2005
This
exhibition is organised in three parts and offers a new vision
of the photographer Pierre Verger (1902-1996), emphasizing
on the originality and modernity of the pictures. He learnt
photography within the Parisian artistic environment at the
beginning of the 30s and during his travels around the world
until he arrived in Brazil in 1946.
In the late 40s, Pierre Verger is charmed by Salvador de Bahia
and his inhabitants, and decides to settle there, where he
works as a journalist for the newspaper O’Cruzeiro.
IN his pictures from Brazil we discover the real art of Pierre
Verger for instantaneous composition and humoristic looks.
From the 50s onwards, he starts to be interested by the Afro-Brazilian
religion and starts ethnology searches on the Yoruba religion.
Jeu
de Paume – Hôtel de Sully
62 rue Saint-Antoine
75004 Paris
www.jeudepaume.org
Architecture/design
FAVELITÉ
From
23rd September till 31st December 2005
This
photo exhibition of the favela Providencia in Rio de
Janeiro, is set up in the tube station of Luxembourg
in the RER B in Paris.
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Photo-montage
of the project |
It deals with the issue of sustainable development, frontiers
and social inequalities. Some big boards show on a real scale
the favela and its little streets, stairways, houses, inhabitants…
Pedro Evora, Laura Taves and Pedro Rivera, two architects,
created this installation, with the collaboration of ENDA
Brasil as well as the associations Inscrire and Quartiers
du monde.
Tube
Station “Luxembourg” on the RER B (Paris 5th and
6th arrondissements)
Contemporary
Art
JULIO VILLANI : « I’M NOT FROM HERE»
From
27th September to 7th December 2005 (Monday-Friday, 10am to
7pm)
Exhibitions
of paintings, videos, settings… Julio Vilani creates
a poetical universe where image plays get mixed with word
plays to lead to a some thoughts about the history of art,
identity, ownership, migration…
Maison
de l’Amérique Latine
217 boulevard Saint-Germain
75006 Paris
Tel: +33 (0) 149 547 500
www.mal217.org/agenda
NELLY
SANTOS
Photo
Exhibitions
Salle
Pavillon mairie d'Aix-en-Provence
du lundi 1er au samedi 13 août 2005
Vernissage : vendredi 5 Août avec musiciens et
danseuses.
Le rêve au pays du carnaval
Hôtel de Ville
Aix-en-Provence
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Bahia
,Métisse et Mystique
du 17 septembre au 30 octobre 2005
7 octobre : Conférence Le Candomblé de Bahia
Villa Aurélienne
Fréjus |
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Gardens
Tribute to Burle Marx, 30th April till 16th October
2005
Roberto Burle Marx was born in São Paulo, but it was
in Rio de Janeiro that Brazil’s greatest landscape gardener
found himself at home. At his place, Brazil is green, yellow,
whites and indigo blue: more than 3,500 species of plants
are representing all the country’s different ecosystems
and spread across the woodland, a bit like when Brazil was
discovered. Following an extended observation of the nature
he loved so much, Burle Marx started drawing, painting and
sculpting what was his vision of Brazil. As he once put it:
“A garden is a live work of art, the result of a combination
of different forms and colours, like in a painting or a song”.
Conservatoire International des Parcs et Jardins, Castle of
Chaumont-sur-Loire
Tel: + 33 254 20 99 22
www.chaumont-jardins.com
BRAZIL
YEAR IN FRANCE
Selected events listings
From
our contributor Alexandra Cunin
Alexandra Cunin is French,
24-years old and has been working in London for sometime.
She spent a year in Rio de Janeiro studying administration,
working in a company specialised in investments in the Brazilian
cinema (production and exhibition) and travelling in the North-East,
Amazonas, South-East… She is a grand aficionada of the
Brazilian culture, especially music (samba, choro), cinema
and capoeira.
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