Halfway in Dili
Quarterly Report #2
Countries Visited: Brazil, Timor-Leste
Countries for next quarter: Cabo Verde, Angola
Current Location: Dili, Timor-Leste
01/31/23
Bondia manas/mauns!
I love staying in a capital city that feels like a small town. Dili is so different from anywhere I’ve ever been before. Everyone calls each other sister/brother (mana/maun) and whenever I am with a Timorese they run into at least one family member on the street.
In early November, I made my way to Rio de Janeiro in the midst of an election. I was relieved to arrive in Rio surrounded by more progressive minds, but overall I did learn a lot about how to have tough conversations surrounding politics in a different cultural context. I think this prepared me in many ways to discuss the politics of art and space within the city. I started off a bit overwhelmed and lost because of the noise in Rio. Then, a contact fell through because of covid. I had to start from scratch, but this led to a happy accident where I was living with a renowned photographer who started to introduce me to his niche community. I arrived at the perfect time. In November, there was the FotoRio festival and the first ever Carioca Analog Photography Festival. I hadn’t experienced yet many photography exclusive spaces until Rio and I was blown away by the diversity of the community and the medium.
One of my favorite programs, Lambe das Manas, took place in the periphery of Rio, where there is a huge lack of artistic spaces. This program used Lambe Lambe (paste-ups) with cellular photography to teach primarily women, nonbinary, and trans folk how to think conceptually about photography. The founder, Ana Bia, highlights how we all have a powerful tool of expression right at our fingertips that can be brought to the streets to create an explosive and radical effect. On my last day in Rio, I was honored to experience their three final murals where each student chose their favorite photos to paste up. The result felt energetic and historical, even through a medium that is so temporal. During my interview with Ana Bia, I asked her what advice she had for other artists and leaders and she really stressed that you need to be in conversation and study other kinds of spaces and programs. This really stuck with me and gave me more motivation toward the intention and direction of my project.
In between Rio and the long journey to Dili, I ran into several travel mishaps; the Australia transit visa was a must that I didn’t have at first, I lost my phone to the ocean, and after finally arriving in Timor-Leste to meet my sister and mom for Christmas, we got COVID. The upside to this tumultuous experience was that I got to take time for real rest and reset before I headed into the chaos of Dili.
So far, I have learned so much in Dili in such a short amount of time. I could really stay here for so much longer. The arts community is tight-knit and everyone is so passionate about their culture, art, and community. The two spaces that I focused on the most during my time here are the free art school, Arte Moris (living art), and the more formal and institutional space, Fundação Oriente, where I get to stay for free as a researcher. Arte Moris is very free for all, with friends having fun and finding their voice, while Fundação is trying to further the conversations in the country about what is Timorese contemporary art. The main questions that came up for me between these two spaces are: to what extent does an artistic space need to become more “serious” with the formal conversations and current debates? And what do these conversations look like in a new country with no formal fine arts education or even an art supply store?
I had a fan girl moment talking to Maria Madeira, one of the most prolific contemporary Timorese artists in the diaspora. When I brought up my observations about gender exclusion in the one free art school here, she told me about her future plans to combat that once she returns to Timor-Leste this year. Through Maria's experiences in the Timor-Leste arts scene, I learned a lot about the direction of where the contemporary art scene is headed here. People like Maria want to teach art history and theory, and ask questions to younger artists about why they do what they do. My favorite question that she encouraged me to provoke was how does your work honor and center Timorese women? Especially when most paintings from Arte Moris reference the women artisans of this country.
Culturally, Timor-Leste has flipped my head upside down many many times over, especially on concepts about religion, gender, boundaries, and time. I have been dealing with how to handle my limits. When am I being challenged and when is a boundary of mine being broken? Sometimes the lines blur a bit here and I tend to crash very fast. However, I have found stability and joy in the little things, like meeting my friend at the university for lunch, trying the impeccable Timorese coffee, and riding the mikrolete even just for a couple of blocks.
In my last week here, my goal is to interview a couple more women artists and continue to learn as much as I can about the culturally rich and complex history of Timor-Leste. I will also be presenting a bit of my project at the Fundação Oriente and hope to further open the dialogue about art, space, and accessibility. I am very nervous but blessed to have this opportunity to be in community and conversation. That is really what matters most and I am more motivated than ever to share the work of Timorese artists and leaders through my website and then plan to come back one day. Attached below is my presentation for tomorrow. It is full of pictures and stories. My main goal now is to get through it without crying. I always get emotional when leaving a country and talking about my Watson journey.
Sending peace and love. Até orasida/até logo/see you soon,
Vivian B.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1mI21DkrC3sQWDgkq3E9McXIQGvmpob-x_pa_iUbtrgg/edit?usp=sharing
