Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Bollywood Diary
Dear friend Nataly Cabanas Galeazzo is member of a Brazilian film crew which is shooting in India at the moment. She has been posting wonderful pictures of the country on her Facebook Profile and I'm happy to spread her point-of-view all over :)
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Undeclared War
Bosnian writer Zlata Filipovic was one of the main guests of the 20th International Book Biennial, taken place in Sao Paulo this month. She became recognized after launching “Zlata Diary”, which I’ve mentioned about it before here. Throughout 1991 to 1993, she reported her dreadful daily life under the Siege of Sarajevo. From the description of the first bombshell to the period of starvation, it is painful to observe the aspirations of an innocent child colliding with unreasonable military choices. It scares me just to think of myself discontinuing third grade in order to run away from snipers, being imprisoned 24/7 in a dirty cellar, unprovided of Math classes and dance practices. I’ve got more impressed by Zlata’s narrative than Anne Frank’s; for the silly reason that she was my peer. In 1991, I was enjoying my first trip to Disney, filling up my Hello Kitty bag with a dozen of Barbie dolls. After reading the book, I felt bad and guilty for that.
Last Friday, a Brazilian TV channel broadcasted Zlata giving a moving speech regarding the tough situation of children in the country. She highlighted the importance of every civilian to be aware of the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights. After her feverous discourse, it seemed that the TV presenter wasn’t touched enough as me. “Bla…bla…bla… As if anyone in Brazil will ever give a damn about Human Rights”, she said.
Holy Jesus! I’ve never seen someone pronouncing such sharpened words on TV. It is good to notice that at least we have freedom of speech. The lady has completed: “Every time I see a fire from my flat window in Rio, I’m not sure if it is wood or someone being burnt.” The other guest added: “It’s been 15 years since I started driving to the food shop situated one block from where I live. It is too dangerous to walk.” The debate was on. Do Brazilians live under an undeclared war?
It was not necessary more than 2 seconds for me to answer the question. As the debate had given a short break for commercials and I quickly changed to the news channel, I paid attention to a horrible headline: a 16 year-old thief killed an 82 year-old lady that same day. He shot the women in the head after asking her to squat and give him her purse. She couldn’t move down, as she suffered from rheumatism. So he pulled the trigger.
Then I realized that taking news as reference is going a bit further to confirm that I have ever lived at a cellar in the shape of a country. Now I’m back to my hometown, Fortaleza: a city of 2 million people situated at the Northeast of Brazil, framed with wonderful natural beaches and clogged by Italians looking for sexual adventures. My flat is placed 30 seconds from an incredible white sandy beach, covered by a blue shallow sea. And do you know why I never go there? It is too dangerous. As I’m warming up for a run at the beach sidewalk, my dad advised me: don’t take your Ipod with you; you’re going to look “kidnappable”. I’ve bought a nice camera in the UK and was longing to take lovely pictures from the fish men and boats. I haven’t. I’m going to be robbed if I do this. Why the hell our president keep saying that Brazilian economy is improving, that people’s purchase power is increasing, if we simply cannot make use of what we buy?
Another little secret: I have never driven a car without carefully lock all the doors and windows. Forty seconds on the red light it is an eternity. It is the favourite instant for the bad guys to rob you. I’ve been threatened with a knife once. A skinny boy was shouting on my years, demanding my radio. Luckily, the traffic light became green and I crazily pull the accelerator pedals and cried, thinking that if he was carrying a gun, I wasn’t been conscious at that moment.
And who will forget the August 13th of 2006? The day the PCC, the most active criminal organization in the territory, decided to set fire to hundred of buses around Sao Paulo and throw Molotov cocktails on to bank agencies and shop windows? I received an email from my Creative Director asking: “Please, everyone must go home as soon as possible. And be careful.” I drove back home watching the people frightened, struggling to commute and be safe at home. At evening, Sao Paulo was like a desert. There was not a single shop or restaurant opened. Everyone was at their sofas watching a video à là Bin Laden showing the leader of the PCC announcing he would only bring the attacks to an end if the police stop torture his partners inside the prisons.
It is just like Zlata’s war. And we don’t even have Red Cross, Humanitarian Aid and ONU interventions. An undeclared war it is tricky, cause you are never aware of when a catastrophe can happen.
I wish I had started to write diary. But to be honest, no one would ever have persistence to read a war history that it is never going to end.
Last Friday, a Brazilian TV channel broadcasted Zlata giving a moving speech regarding the tough situation of children in the country. She highlighted the importance of every civilian to be aware of the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights. After her feverous discourse, it seemed that the TV presenter wasn’t touched enough as me. “Bla…bla…bla… As if anyone in Brazil will ever give a damn about Human Rights”, she said.
Holy Jesus! I’ve never seen someone pronouncing such sharpened words on TV. It is good to notice that at least we have freedom of speech. The lady has completed: “Every time I see a fire from my flat window in Rio, I’m not sure if it is wood or someone being burnt.” The other guest added: “It’s been 15 years since I started driving to the food shop situated one block from where I live. It is too dangerous to walk.” The debate was on. Do Brazilians live under an undeclared war?
It was not necessary more than 2 seconds for me to answer the question. As the debate had given a short break for commercials and I quickly changed to the news channel, I paid attention to a horrible headline: a 16 year-old thief killed an 82 year-old lady that same day. He shot the women in the head after asking her to squat and give him her purse. She couldn’t move down, as she suffered from rheumatism. So he pulled the trigger.
Then I realized that taking news as reference is going a bit further to confirm that I have ever lived at a cellar in the shape of a country. Now I’m back to my hometown, Fortaleza: a city of 2 million people situated at the Northeast of Brazil, framed with wonderful natural beaches and clogged by Italians looking for sexual adventures. My flat is placed 30 seconds from an incredible white sandy beach, covered by a blue shallow sea. And do you know why I never go there? It is too dangerous. As I’m warming up for a run at the beach sidewalk, my dad advised me: don’t take your Ipod with you; you’re going to look “kidnappable”. I’ve bought a nice camera in the UK and was longing to take lovely pictures from the fish men and boats. I haven’t. I’m going to be robbed if I do this. Why the hell our president keep saying that Brazilian economy is improving, that people’s purchase power is increasing, if we simply cannot make use of what we buy?
Another little secret: I have never driven a car without carefully lock all the doors and windows. Forty seconds on the red light it is an eternity. It is the favourite instant for the bad guys to rob you. I’ve been threatened with a knife once. A skinny boy was shouting on my years, demanding my radio. Luckily, the traffic light became green and I crazily pull the accelerator pedals and cried, thinking that if he was carrying a gun, I wasn’t been conscious at that moment.
And who will forget the August 13th of 2006? The day the PCC, the most active criminal organization in the territory, decided to set fire to hundred of buses around Sao Paulo and throw Molotov cocktails on to bank agencies and shop windows? I received an email from my Creative Director asking: “Please, everyone must go home as soon as possible. And be careful.” I drove back home watching the people frightened, struggling to commute and be safe at home. At evening, Sao Paulo was like a desert. There was not a single shop or restaurant opened. Everyone was at their sofas watching a video à là Bin Laden showing the leader of the PCC announcing he would only bring the attacks to an end if the police stop torture his partners inside the prisons.
It is just like Zlata’s war. And we don’t even have Red Cross, Humanitarian Aid and ONU interventions. An undeclared war it is tricky, cause you are never aware of when a catastrophe can happen.
I wish I had started to write diary. But to be honest, no one would ever have persistence to read a war history that it is never going to end.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Another ego post.
I love this picture I took somewhere in London.
It looks so old...
Nikon FM2/ Digital Media
It looks so old...
Nikon FM2/ Digital Media
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
My picture and article at ArtKnowledgeNews.com
Monday, August 11, 2008
A Georgian man cries as he holds the body of his relative after a bombardment in Gori.
If you flickered through tabloids web pages this weekend you might have seen this picture in one of the articles reporting violence in Georgia. I couldn’t find the name of the photojournalist who shot that. Reuters has its credit now. I just want to say that whoever took this picture could capture the essence of a dreadful and unreasonable conflict as no other war photographer has done lately.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Fashion Outraging
Feted Brazilian stylist Alexandre Herchcovitch put across his concerns about territorial conflicts around the globe in an outstanding fashion show at the São Paulo Fashion Week 2009/2. In a pitch dark stage setting, including five black hoisted flags demonstrating bereavement in each continent, Alexandre mixed patterns from rival ethnic groups in a same outfit and was raved and highly praised by the critics.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
After Nature - New Museum NY
"After Nature" surveys a landscape of wilderness and ruins, darkened by uncertain catastrophe. It is a story of abandonment, regression, and rapture—an epic of humanity and nature coming apart under the pressure of obscure forces and not-so-distant environmental disasters. Bringing together an international and multigenerational group of artists, filmmakers, writers, and outsiders, the exhibition depicts a universe in which humankind is being eclipsed and new ecological systems struggle to find a precarious balance."
Saturday, July 19, 2008
The Arles Photography Festival
Anyone to be found at south of France from July 8 to Sept 14 can't miss the opportunity to visit the Arles Photography Festival. The event has been receiving rave reviews and it was curated by none other than Christian Lacroix, originally from the town himself.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Elite Squad, now in UK.
Elite Squad is an out-of-date topic among newspapers and TV programs at the moment in Brazil. We can almost forget that 10 months ago, when the first bootleg copy of the movie was released to the pirate market, the production was a compulsory theme between every folk’s meetings throughout this country. Everyone got astonished due to the cruelty within BOPE (the police commando force which combats crime in Rio's slums), showed by José Padilha, film director.
Elite Squad is headline of today’s issue of The Telegraph. It seems that the gringo’s are also outraged with this dark reality that surrounds my country.
Read The Telegraph article here.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Cambodia by David Silveira
At first, this place can intimidate visitors for its poverty and destruction. But it takes one or two hours for you to walk barefoot through the sandy pavements and have a long conversation with local people, as reported my brother, David Silveira.
From one view, kids wear T-shirts with the message: Adopt-me. From the other, religious buildings considered one of the Seven Wonders of The World. David described Cambodia as the most amazing place of all the countries he has visited on his enviable Asian Trip.
From one view, kids wear T-shirts with the message: Adopt-me. From the other, religious buildings considered one of the Seven Wonders of The World. David described Cambodia as the most amazing place of all the countries he has visited on his enviable Asian Trip.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Street art Locator
This website uses Google Maps technology to track the coolest graffiti s location.
http://streetartlocator.com
http://streetartlocator.com
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Once more, with feeling.
Colombia has lately surprised me with good contemporary photography. The country must be very proud of having 6 of his artists in the exhibition "Once more, with feeling" at Photographer's Gallery. The world is definetely recognising this very well-thinked art.
More about it:
18 April - 15 June 2008 At The Photographers Gallery
"Once more, with feeling explores the interwoven themes of memory, repetition and performance found in each artists’ work. Using video, photography and performance, the artists explore all aspects of life in Colombia – from the violent internal conflict to the humour, youth and playfulness of this troubled country."
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Hands at work, Gemeos.
I love pretending to be a Tour Guide. I'm pleased to show London's greatest sightseeing to every friend from Brazil that comes visit me. On Monday I had a big surprise. Strolling around Millenium Bridge, me and my friends could see very talented Brazilian artists "Os Gemeos" graffiting Tate's building. The siblings and many other artists are preparing the gallery for its new exhibition "Street Art", starting today.
Monday, May 19, 2008
The present I did't get last Xmas.
I'm happy. I've got a new camera. And suddenly everything has become shootable.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Congrats, Reconstruction!
It has been one year since I've started posting on Reconstruction Blog. It was 120 posts, hundreds of interesting pictures, art, exhibitions, politics, bad news, good news, good ideas, more than 2 thousand unique visitors from 749 different cities all over the word, loads of good comments, loyal visitors (Thanks Ju, Alex, Luiz, Fred, Puga, Tati, Bella, etc!!), one very grateful award (Thanks Uniqlo), a lot of research and curiosity.
Congratulations!!!!
Congratulations!!!!
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