3 months babyyyyy
Countries you were in: Portugal, Brazil
Countries for next quarter: Brazil, Timor Leste
Current location: Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Your Quarterly Report:
Bom dia!
I am in the capital of Minas Gerais during election day and the air is extremely tense. Aside from art and museums, I have been learning a lot about how to have conversations with locals about their politics. These conversations help with my Portuguese, but not always my sanity.
Phew, it's for sure been a wild three months! I began my Watson year in Lisbon, Portugal, and dove head first into the street art scene. I visited the largest open-air gallery in Europe in a public housing neighborhood outside the city. Right away, I was introduced to the social issues that plague neighborhoods with a majority of residents from the ex-colonies. My local guide stressed that this is a neighborhood of street art, not a gallery— a term only the government ascribes to the area. This tour really set the tone for my year where I constantly remind myself that politics, history, and people are key to getting to know a space. I must always ask myself who is this space made for? What are the social issues at hand? Sometimes, this would mess with my head. Art starts to spiral into everything, which is intellectually stimulating but at the same time, I feel overwhelmed trying to get a grasp of it all. I am not sure if I should embrace that chaos or try to gain more focus.
I was also surprised by several spaces in Portugal that I visited on a whim. For example, the Puppet Museum has an immense international collection, and Casa da Cerca is a lovely community center that focuses on the drawing medium. The center also has a beautiful garden with the best view of Lisbon and is full of plants solely used for art materials. An exhibit at the Museum of Art Architecture and Technology, Interferences, tied together a lot of my experiences with street art in Portugal. Interferences merged the museum and street art world together and it was great for me as an outsider who needed more context. However, several of the artists that I heard speak at the exhibit, stressed how it is impossible to have the same political and personal impact when bringing urban art into a gallery space. I will never forget the street artists’ perspective from this exhibit.
Last week, I was at Inhotim (a contemporary open-air art museum). I visited this space with my mom in 2019, however, this time I entered it with a more critical eye. I learned that Inhotim can never be a decolonized art space. It is forever marked by the violent mining company which funds it. 34 homes were also vacated from the land. It is depressing to think about, especially since Inhotim was a major motivator for my project, but now I am starting to accept history so that I can move forward with more solutions. The head of the education department, Luiza, told me about how her team approaches programming from a multidisciplinary background. After our conversation, I want to learn a bit of Brazilian Sign Language (LIBRAS). I love how so many museums in Brazil are starting to include supplementary videos and programming with LIBRAS. I think it would also be a great way to expand my viewpoint on accessibility within these spaces.
When Luiza told me about Inhotim’s teen leadership program (jovens, agentes, ambientais), I was reminded how some of my most impactful experiences so far have been talking to teenagers. In Portugal, I was invited on a whim to a poetry circle made up of several Portuguese teenagers (they thought I was their age). This sacred space led to an invitation to the Portuguese Communist Festival, where I got to place their art in the political context and dance the night away. In Belo Horizonte, I stayed with a lovely host family for two weeks. The eldest daughter and I talked about ways that we can hold space for those that feel left out. I shared with her my visual diary and now she has started to do the same. I think many of the answers that I’ve been looking for when it comes to inclusivity and accessibility of creative spaces lie within the younger generation. I hope to get a grasp of the issues young people face when it comes to creating art and space in the following countries that I visit. I think this will be extremely relevant in my next destination, Timor Leste, where the population is extremely young as well as the country.
I’ve also met several inspiring women photographers and curators. An amazing photographer, Pauliana Valente Pimental, invited me to join her workshop and mentorship program and another, Camilla Watson, invited me to stay with her and help her implement her public art project. I feel so lucky that I’ve quickly gained so much trust and love from strangers. These sweet interactions helped me gain more confidence in my project. I am less afraid to speak Portuguese, ask questions, and create art.
On a more personal note, the highs and lows of solo travel sometimes really get to me. I’ve been learning more about how to process things in my own way and take care of myself when I feel overstimulated. Even as an introvert, I also realized how little time I’ve truly spent alone and it is a whole other challenge when you are living in a new country. The dilemma of a deliverable has also come up a lot for me. I feel selfish not creating something that’s tangible and shareable, but it also feels difficult to create my initial tool kit idea. My website is still a WIP but I am wondering if doing something like an installation or a collaged book would be more worthwhile. But then I try to remember the Watson ethos that the deliverable isn’t the motive. Although, I am still taking notes like crazy, recording sounds, and capturing pictures.
I’ll end this letter here with my one-second of the day and my Lisbon map attached below. These last three months are definitely some of the best videos yet.
Sending love,
Beijinhos !
Vivian B.
