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