Brazil in a nutshell - Rio de Janeiro

Rio definately lived up to its expectations. The bustling party town that never sleeps set in beautiful surroundings of the sea and mountains. I stayed in a hostel in Ipanema which was in a great location, but actually getting to sleep was out of the question. It was a party hostel, and quite a contrast to the hostel in Sao Paulo!

 http://www.ipanemahouse.com/site/

I had the great opportunity to spend two full days with Roberto Maranhao, and his lovely family. I learnt all about Roberto's work with puppets, and how he's used them in care home settings in America. I was also interviewed by one of his puppets for a t.v. channel which was great fun!

https://m.facebook.com/pages/Roberto-Maranhao-Puppet-Ministry/421422811346154

http://www.tvbatista.com.br/

I really wanted to go and visit a Favela after seeing the one Haas and Hahn had painted.
https://www.ted.com/talks/haas_hahn_how_painting_can_transform_communities?language=en

Sadly, I wasn't able to go up this one, but I was able to get on a tour to go up Brazil's biggest favela Rocinha. Little did I know that it would involve me holding on for dear life to a motobike taxi. It was one of those moments where I thought I might actually die, as the motorbike swerved in and out of traffic on narrow steep winding roads.

Well I lived to tell the tale and it was worth it. The views from the top were amazing! Even in these basic unfinished houses, arts and crafts are still prevalent. Painted walls, sculpture and colour is everywhere.

Brazil in a nutshell - Sao Paulo

I've been in Brazil for three weeks and I've fell in love with the country! The arts, culture and the lovely people. For the first week I stayed in Sao Paulo, in a fabulous hostel in Vila Mariana.

http://wehostel.com.br/photos/

This is the arty bit of Sao Paulo. Vila Magdelena is only a few stops on the metro, which is where all the fabulous boho shops and bars are.

I spent a day with Cris Anauate. A wonderful art therapist who has a fabulous arts centre who runs art sessions with people with dementia.

https://m.facebook.com/EspacoViverComArte

The centre is decorated by lots of beautiful art works both from Cris and her students. It is a warm, inspiring and inviting place and you can feel the love and care of people there when you walk in.

I ran a storytelling project over three days with Dividiane Sa Goncalves. Divi is a talented photographer and set up meetings for me with three older people. She also was my translator as my Potuguese is not existent! 

In Brazil older people are looked after by relatives, as the care homes are too expensive. 

We recorded these ladies stories as well as taking photos of them with the objects or  photos they wanted to speak about.

Europe Reflections

As I blog, I am awear of how many interesting people I have met and places I have visited. At the begining of June I was in Copenhagen, then Amsterdam, Switzerland and now Germany. I am six weeks into my project, and fly out tomorrow to Brazil for three weeks to continue my investigations.

I have been thinking about the best ways to represent my findings when I return from my travels to England.  I am currently thinking that a small book sharing my experiences and ways of linking artists and care homes up to run projects will be a good way of doing this. I have met fascinating and inspiring people, and it would be lovely to share and celebrate their work and show the scope of artistic projects that can happen in care home settings.

I have had the opportunity to run two projects with Sara Riesenmeny, a Swiss based artist.

The first project 'Immersion à la Chaumiere' looked at how every day objects could be used to record extracts of people's life histories. The second looked at the power of objects to tell lifestories, which we then photographed, annotated and printed out and framed for people.

Teapot on tour

Yes, the 'Storytelling with a Twist' teapot continues its travels. It is currently at the Christian Artists Seminar in Bad Honnef, Germany, meeting these fabulous people...

Berlin

It was a special time in Berlin. I had the opportunity to interview Pia Lanzinger, as well as visit Checkpoint Charlie and the Jewish museum.

Pia works on site specific paticipatory arts projects. She has done a number of projects with elders, and has an amazing wealth of knowledge. It was wonderful to hear about her method of working and committment to her art.

http://www.pialanzinger.de/text/inhalt.html

Pia Lanzinger at her studio in Berlin

Saw this Chappie at Checkpoint Charlie...

http://www.mauermuseum.de/

The Jewish museum is a spectacular piece of architecture, with its sloping floors and walls and voids. I've never been anywhere quite like it. It was interesting to see the varying thoughtful ways of storytelling, from using recovered objects of Jewish families from the concentration camps, to stories of their grandchildren represented in light boxes with audio snippets, to room installations. I spent the whole day there, but felt to do it justice you would need at least two days.

http://www.jmberlin.de/main/EN/homepage-EN.php

I also visited an exhibition on 'Obedience' while I was there. I was 15 room installations on the theme of the story of Abraham and Isaac, when God calls Abraham to sacrifice his son, but at the last moment stops him. This story is represented in Jewish, Christian and Muslim tradition.

The exhibition was so unusual, and multi sensory. Fascinating and intriguing yet uncomfortable and dark. Walking through the rooms on my own meant I become totally emersed in the world that was created. It is very hard to explain and so check out the links to get a flavour.

http://www.jmberlin.de/main/EN/01-Exhibitions/02-Special-Exhibitions/2015/akedah.php

Hundertwasser

I have always loved vivid colours, patterns and textures. When I was 17 I discovered in Carmel College Library a book on Hundertwasser. It was in german, but had many pictures of his work. It inspired me and spoke to my heart. The celebration of colour and print technique fascinated me and I based my Alevel textile piece around his work.

When I was in Geneva I was very excited to see that there was a small Hunterwasser exhibition on at the gallery near the lake. I spent an hour and a half gazing at posters and beautiful models of buildings he had wanted to build. 

Hundertwasser was ethically minded. He was passionated about ecology and the power of trees and nature. His political views influenced his work, and he has always been a source of inspiration to me. 

To my delight, a week later I had the opportuning to visit one of his realised buildings. It was in the next town to where we were staying in the german part of Switzerland, in St. Gallen.

Artist Sara Riesenmey 

www.hundertwasser.com

Artist Interview with Nina Haab

Over my time in Switzerland I had the opportunity to visit Nina Haab at one of her residencies in Jura and then a her studio in Geneva. 

Nina is interested in storytelling and has worked on many different themes including recording her grandma's decline with alzheimers. She uses instalations and enlarged photographs and fragments of stories to lead the viewers imagination.

She is currently working to tell the story of Le Grande Dixence, a large dam, which I had the opportunity to visit a week previous to our meeting.

www.ninahaab.ch