DISTANT AFFINITIES is a project I'm developing about the export image of my country, Brazil.
The final product will be a 4 channel video-installation.
I invite everyone (who is not Brazilian and has never been to Brazil) to participate, posting comments about the image you have of Brazil and Brazilian people.
Since I'm going to develop this project during the Sumu Art Residency in Turku, Finland, I'm particularly interested in the opinion of the Finish people.
How do you imagine Brazil and Brazilians? What pops into your mind?
It can be an idea, a sentence, a list of words, an essay, a poetry, or even a photo or video. Whatever format you prefer to respond with.
Please leave also your name and country.
hot! full of colours and joy!
ReplyDeletepoverty and money.
beauty of human and nature!
thanks, daniel, for being the first participant!
ReplyDelete:))
kika
So many shades of green,
ReplyDeleteso many shades of blue,
warm skins and rithmical beating hearts!
Dulce María Rivas
MEXICO
message by Erwin Van Doorn, Netherlands
ReplyDeletewhen i start to imagine i start from what i know from our dutch history connected with brazil which is that we exported slaves from ghana in exchange for coffee this could mean that those who derive from former slaves never had family possesions this would make them not care abouth it but more abouth human relations therefore i imagine brazil is all abouth coming together and having parties and never work but be self sufficient growing their own vegatables and taking care of some stock maybe a chicken a cow ore a sheep a society in the forrest next to the beach of selfmade homes made from the leftovers that the colonial powers left behind a structure without hierarchy all smiling people with beautiful children raised by whomever is around everybody feeling responsible for eachother but there is also a group off native indians mostly have become shamans they want to be in control cause they feel they own the spirits of the land and make the new people do sacrifies to not make
them use bad spells on them the shamans live deep in the forrest in caves of some mountain and do nothing all day but get stoned and waisted and when one of them gets an agressive mood ore a bad trip this person takes it outh on the children of the newcomers the person kidnaps a child and experiments on it with hypnosis to try to make the child turn against the newcomers and start to terrorize the friendly society of the self organized happy people they don t understand the terror and suffer from the actions without reaction only hoping that it will stop but it doesn t and the group of hypnotized become the hierarchy they start making slaves of their parents but the newborn start to resist and run away to form a geurillia war from within the forrest finding the shamans when they figure out what happened they find a way to break the spell and everything starts all over again
View As Web Page
ReplyDeleteYou asked for it Kika! I think you will be laughing at this...When I was in the 6th grade(1962), the school curriculum for a social studies class focused on Latin America. This was the first time I studied Brazil. I remember being told that Brazilians were the only S. American people who spoke Portuguese, because of early Portuguese explorers. My teacher said the country decided to build a capital, Brasilia, in the middle of nowhere in order to attract people to settle the interior of this enormous country that was rich with natural resources. It was supposedly all new and glamorous. I also knew the big export then was coffee. Of course the Amazon River and the jungle have continued to intrigue Americans. I think there is a lot of lore about discovering medicinal plants there -- and maybe some to increase sexual prowess:) I had a student, Joao, a few years ago, who described his life in Brazil as being typical for a young man of twenty from his social class. He would wake up every morning and go to the beach and surf all day with his friends, and then they would party into the wee hours, only to awake and go through the whole routine again.Day after day until school started again. Sounded luxuriously decadent to me! I think it was non-stop Carnival. And this story - Kika, you will get a big kick out of -- I have a friend who is quite the womanizer... has traveled all over the world. He told me the most fantastic sexual experience he ever had was with a Brazilian woman, and he was convinced she had some supernatural powers. I imagined that everytime he made love with a new woman, he was remembering the Brazilian and likely no one ever measured up. I am wondering if maybe it was something he drank, or maybe he was on drugs:) In recent years I have been told it's dangerous to be out on the streets in Rio as one might get mugged, even if in a large group. I was robbed in the middle of Rome, so I don't think this is particularly unusual if a person is looking like an American tourist. Other than that, my mental visions are of jungles, beaches, waterfalls and modern cities with the typical urban problems of poverty/wealth. Knowing you has definitely put a face to the country, and I am impressed that you are such an independent woman. You are not afraid to say what you think. This leaves me thinking quite positively about your country.
Brazil is....
ReplyDeleteBahia, magic, capoeira, vaudou, Ogun Ferraille and Africa!
Brazil: I think of enormous blackness with pockets of utter lawlessness, beauty, machismo/anti condom wearing men and thong clad women with perfectly round black asses holding pineapple on crowded beaches.
ReplyDelete-zachary (brooklyn, USA)
Brazil is a country that is much like my own, Australia. It is not part of the G8, not a huge player in the world military economy and is a distant plane ride from Asia and Europe. There are also many stereotypes which Brazil and Australia have - we in Oz apparently all ride on kangaroos and eat prawns from the 'barby' - and that Brazilians all are tanned goddesses, over sexed and like to party hard. While the rest of the world may view both our countries in terms of a good holiday destination there are obviously many deeper levels that are distant from the media attention both our lands share.
ReplyDeleteWith Brazil, I immediately think of a very old and rich culture that has survived natural disasters, political unrest, brutal colonialism and environmental devastation. It seems to be a country that hosts a very intelligent and proud community that holds core values much like any other country does, and from this I have yet to meet a Brazillian who did not display a sense of warmth, compassion and integrity although Im sure you all have a large population percentage of arseholes like my country certainly carries! I would love to come over and visit your galleries and museums because many artists I have dealt with from Brazil produce some of the most interesting video art in the world - especially Video Brazil. Wishing you all the very best in your pending project
Shaun Wilson (Melbourne, Australia)
Brasil is a mystery for me. My idea is that it's probably the lost Paradise. The landscape seems to be very beautiful and rich in its difference; as well as the people.
ReplyDeleteBut the richness of Brasil is probably the people - a mix of ethnicities originated in a turbulent past and which still marks the present a little bit.
Nevertheless, all the differences seem to be forgotten when it comes to Carnaval and Soccer.
Capoeira could be only perfected at Brasil, even that is original from Angola. There's always one strong energy at a "roda".
It's also nice to see that the people from the south of Brasil or from Rio still talk more or less like us (I'm Portuguese, by the way).
Despite the several colonial occupations - first the geo-political and not a long ago, economical, Brasilian people have been creating a stronger identity that welds them as one People. Wherever there's a Brasilian person even tears are happy.
Kika, its very unclear from the main page how to post a comment. It took me ages to figure it out. Maybe you should put instructions up.
ReplyDeleteBrazil is a cultural melting pot. A certain relative of mine went to Brazil to some remote jungle area and he couldn't stop talking about all the blond beautiful women there in the middle of the forest, apparently the area had been settled by Germans. There is more to the story, but I can't tell it, only that his wife doesn't let him travel on his own anymore.
ReplyDeleteMy mother went on an artist's residency at the Sacatar Foundation near Bahia and when she came back home she had those little ribbons with her, from the Santeria, except you don't call it Santeria or Vodoo in Brazil, its got a different name. The woman who tied a blue ribbon around my mother's wrist told her that her wish would come true when the ribbon came off. She wore that ribbon for months and gave all the different coloured ribbons away to friends, but I don't know if any of their wishes came true. I guess we all need good wishes. Loads of them. She also had those touristy silver bells in the shape of shells and fruit, rattles to chase evil spirits away. As a special gift for me, she brought me a tin of olive oil, all the way from Brazil. I was so disappointed, but I couldn't show it.
Brazil contains a large part of the tropical rainforest which we have been so alarmed about since the eighties. Rural populations practise slash and burn agriculture, in which whole areas are rapidly logged, burnt down and the relatively nutrient poor soil exploited for a year, until crops are bad, and then they move on to the next forested patch to knock it down. Huge corporations still have logging operations in these areas, which have been declared the green lung of the world.
Then there is the sad sad story of Brasilia, which everyone will know. There is the Christ statue overlooking Rio De Janeiro, during which time women apparently get really horny and flash their breasts at passers by on the street. I once came across a whole amateu porn collection online of women from Rio flashing their breasts during the carnival.
Hi Kika! Here's my (stereotypical) list of words that come into my mind when thinking of Brazil:
ReplyDeleteAmazon,jungle versus huge cities, favelas, City of God (the movie), beautiful women on the beach with tiny bikinis, the Christ statue in Rio, carneval, lots of sound and colour and delicious fruit and drinks, hot hot hot (both people and climate)!
Mari (Turku, Finland)
I think of music and warm weather. When I was living in Finland, I am pretty sure I dreamed of Brazil daily because it was so freaking cold. As a dancer, Brazil represents so much music and movement. As a language lover, I think of all the tongues and people who live there. I imagine it to be a place of tension.
ReplyDeleteMackenzie Bristow (Elmira, NY)
I think of undulating, scantily-clad samba dancers wearing enormous, beautiful feather headdresses, with a wiggling march step special to Brazilians. I think of Amira's Feijoada, that food so often ordered at the night club in New York City, Sounds of Brazil, where I have gone dancing so often. I think of soccer, and seeing happy clusters of people waving the Brazilian flag in the streets of NYC during The World Cup.
ReplyDeleteposted by Carol in New York, USA
Warm, beautiful and lush. People dancing in the street of an ancient history. Loving passionately on the beaches naked. Singing into the the sun and loving life.Vibrant Colors moving in a sea of happiness. Poetry and poverty. A uniquely spiritual place.
ReplyDeleteCarol Caputo
New York City, USA
The first picture coming up is Cristo Redentor statue at Corcovado. Second picture is a map over amazonas and a hot sweaty djungel with pygmys that shooting poison arrows. This is pictures in my head from when i was a child.
ReplyDeleteWhen i get older i heard about the carneval in Rio, millions of people dancing and having fun and get killed in the most dangerous town in the world.
And now i will sit in some bar somewhere in Brasil, far a way from the cold Scandinavia. Just alone with millions of people around me.
Niclas, Sweden
Hi Kika, I will challenge your brief with a small exercise:
ReplyDelete1. Turn down the lights.
2. Sit down in a quiet place.
3. Close your eyes.
4. Start focusing on your breath.
5. Try to stop thinking.
6. Let any thought, that pop up in your mind, go.
7. Don't hold on to any thing that pops up in your mind.
8. Pause your brain for the next few minutes, let everything wait.
9. Focus on your inhalation and your exhalation.
10. Sit like this for awhile.
11. Connect with your breath (your spirit) via 100% pure attention.
12. Just to be attentive of your slow and natural breath for the next few moments, nothing else.
13. You will enter a sacred place. This is your place in the universe and you can always return to it. It is a calm place connecting you with everything via your breath on a spiritual level.
— If you succeed, you will realize, the true nature of any Brazilian.
Møs,
— Michael
Dear Kika,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all: I usually don't like to say anything based on my prejudice alone, so the the following is only because you really asked for it; I have never been to Brazil but I know from experience with people from a lot of other places that they're probably as diverse as anywhere else in the world. Anyhow, since you're forcing me I will try with this short generelizing description:
I reckon Brazilian people focus on appearance/looks, food and social interaction; not worrying too much about tomorrow, if they can afford not to worry. Brazil is a place where both genders focuses on the difference between them, more than what unites them [both physically and mentally]. It's a country with a lot of mixed genes from different parts of the world. This [hopefully] makes a lot of the typical "race/cultural heritage debates" from many other countries meaningless. But I'm quite curious if I'm mistaken here..!?
To compliment my short description I have made a free association list of words that passes my mind about Brazil:
Brasilia
Carnival
Coffee
Color
Crime
Christianity
Diversity
Heat
Meat
Poverty
Portuguese
Prostitution
Rain Forest
Rio de Janeiro
Rush
Samba
Sex
Soccer
Social Interaction
Social Unequality
I haven't been to Finland either, but from what I'm being told I believe it's pretty close to be opposite to Brazil: a somewhat complimentary country...!
Best of luck with your project!
Mads Ljungdahl, Denmark EU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqtL58M8-28
ReplyDeleteCheers Ulf Kristiansen, Norway
My wife and I spent almost month in Buenos Aires and five days in Rio de Janeiro filming a documentary about singer Silvia Nakkach. While in Rio we got to know areas as diverse as Ipanema, Lapa, Santa Teresa, Flamengo, and the Puerto district. The richness of people, food, and music was wonderful. We also attended a "gira" high in the mountains, which was a healing ceremony that was nine hours of singing, dancing, and drumming. Very intense. Nowhere else have I experienced the verve, the gusto, the RASA that the people of Brazil have. And that's just the beginning. We'll be back in August.
ReplyDeletebeautiful woman with
ReplyDeletebeautiful butt in
beautiful sun
Christian Leduc, Canada
"City of God" is my first image of Brazil.
ReplyDeleteThe power of struggling between the best and the worst.
Nung
I think of Brasilia... the planned capital in the heart of the country... its modernist enormity and its layout from a bird's eye view. I think of the jungle. I think of farming where jungle once stood. I think of the struggle between the heartland and the hinterland. (from Newfoundland, Canada)
ReplyDeleteSounds like a sad song.
ReplyDeleteKirsi Alaniva (Turku, Finland)
Brazil: dancing, outdoor living, sun, brown, yellow, happy face, curly hair, crafts
ReplyDeleteMaria from Finland
Amazon, rainforest. Ayahuasca, vegetalista. The very first photograph I have seen from Brazil: my grandparents bathing naked in Amazon (1930..). Utopia. Finnish ideal-colony Penedo. Samba. Football.
ReplyDeleteTuula/Salo Finland
Green and yellow.
ReplyDeleteHappy beautiful smiling people.
Strange contrast between beautiful untouched nature and crowded, dangerous cities.
Warm and sunny.
Sandra from Finland (see you at Titanik!)
Dagrún Matthíasdóttir á Íslandi.
ReplyDeleteNýmalað og gott rjúkandi heitt kaffi umkringd glaðlyndum infæddum gestgjöfum. Heitt og notalegt gott veður:-)
samba, hot women, round bottoms, the brazilian wax, extreme wealth, extreme poverty, favelas, girls wanting to be models, boys wanting to be football stars, football, bright colours, the colour green, amazon rain forest, weird animals in the rain forest, capoeira, bossa nova, exotic drinks, lime fruit, other fruit, rio de janeiro, the christ statue, coffee... things like that popped into my mind.
ReplyDeletenunnu, turku, finland
I didn't want to read what others had said. I wanted to give you what images I see, souds I hear.
ReplyDeleteBrasilia to me is a vast country, politically it has been unstable, full of contradictions but the nature is breath-taking. The Amazon river would be something to see and experience.
Brasilia is music, samba, salsa - music I love. It's movement, it's dance. It's soft velvety nights. Sensuel, hot, sometimes cruel.
Brasilian women are beautiful, lovely hair, lovely features. Men in Brasilia are latin-american machos.
Brasilia has two faces: Brasilia is mythical, it is a saga, it creates strong visions. On the other hand it is a country that has for example commercial relationship with Finland, it is a modern country, too.
It is a land with carachter, it has its good and bad sides. It is a place I'd like to visit.
the coffee brand Brazil which you can find in any super market in Finland :)
ReplyDelete*maria finland*
Sohrab M. Kashani from Tehran, Iran
ReplyDeleteWell, this is the Brazil I kinda have in mind:
lots of green! amazon! warm weather! friendship! people dancing in the streets! cool outdoor cafes! parties everywhere! AIDS! poor people living in the suburbs! graffiti! tropical! houses made of wood! riding bicycles! sunny beaches! nice old walls! empty streets! flea markets! yellow taxis all over the cities! soldiers and police officers with weapons ready to break off political demonstrations! gangs! old hotels! secrets hidden all over towns and city ruins! grandmas with lots of great bedtime stories!
Amazon river,Samba. And the rain forest is disappearing!
ReplyDeleteBrazil makes me think about:
ReplyDelete- CSS (the band)
- Accomplished football
- Sun
- Heat
- Beautiful black curly hair
yellow (because of the flag)
ReplyDeletelife
football
barefeet
beautiful girls
plastic surgery!
poverty
beaches
vacations
it would be nice to go there sometimes actually :)
Hope I'm not too late with my comment (saw an article in Turun Sanomat just today and checked this out as it sounded so interesting!).
ReplyDeleteVery very stereotypical ideas (never been anywhere in South America):
COFFEE, the sun, ablaze with colours, very noisy, urban sprawl, slums, people have dark hair and beautiful brown skin, Rio de Janeiro, Rio carnival, a distinct beat in your music, dance, pick-pockets, poverty, Portuguese (not Spanish!), football, joy of life, smiles...
Sinikka (Turku, Finland)
Brasil is ...I don't know exactly.. I think to someone particulary I love..but I know is very faraway to me..
ReplyDeleteI miss Brasil and pan de queso
More Brazil for everyone!!!