São Paulo – Today (20th) and tomorrow (21st), Arab and South American ministers will be in Rio de Janeiro to outline a joint action plan for the cultural field. According to information supplied by the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, nine Arab ministers – from Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, Egypt and Sudan – will be at the meeting. The remaining Arab countries should send representatives, some of which are vice-ministers. The Brazilian minister of Culture, Juca Ferreira, will host the meeting.
According to the Foreign Relations director of the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, Marcelo Dantas, joint initiatives in various fields of culture will be discussed. One of them should involve museums. The idea is to increase cooperation between South American and Arab museums, by means of the exchange of exhibitions, including archaeological and historical items. “We have a lot to show in terms of contemporary art, and they have a lot to show when it comes to archaeology. Egypt, Iraq, Jordan are cradles of civilisation,” says Dantas.
The action plan also forecasts cooperation in the audiovisual field, promotion of festivals and concerts, fostering for translations and joint editions of books and magazines, and academic exchange. According to the Foreign Relations director at the Ministry of Culture, each country will be entrusted with some of the initiatives. Some projects are already being implemented by the countries, whereas others lack definition regarding issues such as who will be in charge and how they will be conducted. Such matters should be defined during the meeting in Rio de Janeiro.
The Brazilian Ministry of Culture, for instance, is carrying out the translation into Arabic of works by great Brazilian authors, such as Guimarães Rosa and Machado de Assis. The work is nearly concluded, according to Dantas. The Library and Centre of South American and Arab Research (BibliAspa) and Brazil are working on translating the Brazilian classic "Grande Sertão Veredas" into Arabic, and classic Arab poems into Portuguese. The Bibliaspa has headquarters in the city of São Paulo and also in Algeria.
Dantas underscores the importance of cultural exchange to a fully-fledged relations between the two countries. “Brazil ascribes the Summit of South American-Arab Countries (Aspa) a political and diplomatic significance that is strategic for promoting the dialogue between the regions. Culture adds to this economic, political and diplomatic dialogue, by expanding the possibilities for dialogue between societies,” says the director. He emphasizes that culture is the field in which people and societies dialogue, and also recalls the importance of culture in promoting respect for differences.
The meeting will take place at the National Museum of Fine Arts (MNBA). Today, only technical meetings will be held, and in the evening, the Aspa Cinema Exhibition will take place at Cine Odeon Petrobras. Tomorrow will see the ministerial meeting, to be opened by the Brazilian minister of Culture, Juca Ferreira. Besides discussing the agenda of multilateral action, there will be a panel on national policies for museums and public libraries, and guided tours of the collections of the MNBA, and of the National Historic Museum.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum