Perto de Lá <> Close to There, 2019/2020
Close to There < > Perto de Lá is an international artist exchange project I co-founded in 2015 with Lanussi Pasquali and Joãozito Pereira. The 2019/2020 edition was an expanded project between Comfort Station (Chicago, USA) and Projeto Ativa (Salvador, Brazil), in collaboration with Harmonipan (Mexico City, Salvador), made possible by the MacArthur Foundation International Connections Fund. By bringing members of these two artistic communities in proximity with one another, this project aims to gestate long-term artistic collaborations between the participants, share arts-organizing models from their respective socio-political-artistic contexts, and encourage creative discourse around ideas such as the African Diaspora and contemporary Latinx/Latin American identities.
The exchange began with a multi-disciplinary group of Salvador-based artists visiting Chicago August 9th - 19th 2019, carrying out a variety of programs, performances, and research through Comfort Station and its partner spaces across the city. In February of 2020, a group of Chicago-based artists in turn visited Salvador to engage with the city’s creative landscape via Projeto Ativa’s network of artists and cultural institutions.
Participating artists include:
Chicago, USA
Angel Bat Dawid (music)
Alexandria Eregbu (visual art, performance)
Rob Frye (music)
Ben Lamar Gay (music)
Damon Locks (visual art, music)
Josh Rios (visual art, performance, sound)
Amina Ross (visual art)
Edra Soto (visual art)
Anna Martine Whitehead (dance)
Ayanna Woods (music)
Sadie Woods (sound/visual artist)
Salvador, Brazil
Patricia Almeida (visual art, architecture, urbanism)
Adriana Araujo (visual art)
EdBrass Brasil (music)
Candai Calmon (dance, performance)
Vanessa Sousa Coelho (Coletivo Zeferinas, poetry/performance)
Inaê Moreira (dance, performance)
Edgard Oliva (visual art)
João Oliveira (visual art, printmaking)
Daniel Saboia (visual art, architecture, urbanism)
Alex Simões (poetry)
Other artists and collaborating institutions involved in the 2019/2020 edition include:
The Poetry Foundation
Links Hall
Rebuild Foundation (Stony Island Arts Bank, Dorchester Art + Housing Project)
Spudnik Press
Co Prosperity Sphere
6018 North
Arts Incubator (University of Chicago’s Arts + Public Life initiative)
The Franklin
Chicago Parks District
Ken Vandermark
Jason Roebke
Latham Zearfoss
Kim Alpert
Odoyá Experience
Ayrson Heráclito
Marepe
Coletivo Novos Cachoeiranos
Casa Rosada
Mercadão CC
Mouraria 53
Eric Barbosa
Heitor Dantas
Laila Rosa
Tina Melo
Romulo Alexis
Paulo Roberto Pitta
Mangaio