The Orient In Research On The Coast Of São Paulo

(MENAFN- Brazil-Arab News Agency (ANBA)) São Paulo – Brazilian curator Monica Hirano will undertake a three-month residency at Kaaysa Art Residency , located on Boçucanga Beach in São Sebastião, on the coast of São Paulo state, to research how diasporas-especially from Eastern countries-have adapted to tropical territories, particularly Brazil. Titled Orients in the Tropics, the investigation is expected to result in an article and may even lead to exhibitions and artistic creations, though those outcomes are still to be defined.

“I started thinking about how I could contribute with my travels around the world. I lived in India for three years, and I'm of Japanese descent. I wondered how I wanted to tie these stories, these experiences together,” says the artist.“And with this word Orientalism, I began to reflect on how everything east of Europe tends to be lumped together as if it were the same concept. The Middle East is considered the Orient, and Asia is considered the Orient. These two geopolitical regions are completely different,” she says, referencing the term explored and discussed by Palestinian literary critic Edward Said (1935–2003).

In the text presenting her research, the artist defines the residency as a“space of friction” between worlds:“Where the Orient is not a distant 'other,' but an active-and at times invisible-presence in Brazilian daily life, from food to architecture, from medicine to rituals.”

To develop this project, Hirano and Kaaysa will invite artists and curators based in Brazil whose work relates to the Orient and diasporas. On the São Paulo coast, these artists will have the opportunity to exchange experiences with Hirano, though the initiative is still in need of sponsorship. Kaaysa Art Residency was founded in 2017 on the northern coast of São Paulo by Lourdina Jean Rabieh to host artists from diverse places, schools of thought, and skill sets. Among its past guests are Arab visual artists.

The question of how diasporas adapted to life in Brazil, Hirano explains, stems from both academic research and personal experience. Her grandmother, a Japanese woman of Shinto faith, was required to convert to Catholicism in Brazil so that her children could attend school. Monica Hirano herself has lived in India, Italy, and Egypt-countries where she studied, immersed herself in local cultures, and became involved in the arts scene.

In Egypt, she was co-curator of the exhibition Something Else in 2023, held in Cairo. She studied Arabic,“one of the most poetic languages in existence,” and says that part of her research aims to challenge and break certain stigmas.“I've never felt as safe in my life as I do in Egypt, because I know people there are grounded in principles of love and fraternity that are very different from what we have here,” she says.

By bringing together artists who explore the East and Orientalism, the goal is also to map contemporary art in Brazil that addresses this theme and to contribute to the development of thought on the subject. The residency begins later this month and runs through August. For more information on sponsorship, artistic exchange, and residencies, please contact the following email address: ... .

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Translated by Guilherme Miranda

Alexandre Furcolin/Supplied

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