Expanding Internationalism - A Conference on ... - Mary Jane Jacob

Aracy A. Amaral
Art Critic, Independent Curator
S~o Paulo, Brazil
In Latin America, and Brazil is no exception, we are relatively poor in
cultural events on an international level when compared to initiatives in
developed countries due to our pe:rmanent economic crisis. As everywhere, at
these moments the cultural field is always the most immediately affected among
the different areas of activity. Thus, while we constitute a large region of
intense artistic vitality, paradoxically, we are deprived of stable cultural
institutions and unable to organize international exhibitions for our
audiences.
As a consequence, artists and cultural milieu are limited to what
they see when able to travel: exhibitions organized by the First World.
And
this happens even when the theme of the international exhibition or objects in
it are produced in our countries. In this sense we are observers and
followers of what developed countries organize in terms of exhibitions, even
if very often our creative expression is more inventive than that of the
so-called developed countries. Only in the last two or three years have we
been assisting with a new demand for Brazilian group or individual exhibitions
abroad, chiefly in Europe, yet most of these are still organized by Europeans.
Sometimes creators who are precursors in our countries are "discovered"
very late by organizers of international exhibitions, making it seem as if we
were not aware of their quality and value. Truly speaking, there seems to
exist an advantage in being culturally "dependent":
to a certain degree, we
have a wider knowledge than those of the cultural milieu of First World
countries, since we know our production as well as that of the most-admired
developed world.
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