São Paulo – Photographs portraying cultural ties between South American and Arab countries will be selected for a contest. The event is sponsored by the Library and Research Center of South American-Arab Countries (Bibliaspa) and the selected photos will be featured in an exhibition on the subject at the São Paulo Cultural Center, as part of the 6th South American Festival of Arab Culture. Entries will be accepted until March 2nd.
“The idea is to showcase the historical and cultural ties between South America and the Arab countries, considering that at this time there is a lot of disinformation about the latter,” says Bibliaspa director Paulo Daniel Farah regarding the news of extremism and conflicts related to the Arab world, which elicit widespread negative perception from society.
According to Farah, Brazil goes against the grain when it comes to this perception, since Arabs have integrated seamlessly into the country, thereby proving that immigrant groups can contribute to a nation’s society and culture. The photo exhibit is intended to show the arrival of Arabs in South America and of South Americans in Arab countries in contemporary times. Farah says a new migratory flow is taking place.
The exhibit will run from March 18th to 31st. After the festival, the photos will probably be shown in other cities throughout Brazil, the Bibliaspa director says. Titled Diálogos Sul-Sul (South-South Dialogues), the contest will award book and T-shirt kits to the winners, among other prizes, plus a participation certificate.
One needn’t be a professional photographer to compete, and the photos can be of any of the 22 Arab countries or the 12 South American ones. However, the pictures must be previously unpublished and never entered into contests. Black and white and color entries will be accepted. According to information from Bibliaspa, the aspects that will be looked into are concept, clarity of communication, visual impact and originality.
Registration and submission is available on the Bibliaspa website and must include subtitles, time and place information, type of device used in taking the photograph, title of the photograph, and an explanatory text of up to 100 words. Photos will be accepted in JPG or JPEG format and 10MB maximum size.
BibliASPA is a non-profit organization whose mission statement is to spur reflection on Arab, African and South American peoples. The organization brings together researchers and scholars from 30-plus countries and offers specialized libraries, book publications, research, consulting for special projects, film and theater festivals, courses, and exhibitions, among other actions. It was established following the Summit of Latin American-Arab Countries (Aspa), whose first edition was held in 2005 in Brazil, as a cultural endeavor designed to bring the two regions closer together.
The festival of which the photo exhibit will be a part will feature a wide range of activities in 12 cities across Brazil, including lectures, a film festival, and activities involving poetry and literature.
South-South Dialogues photograph contest
Entries accepted from December 20th 2014 to March 2nd, 2015
Results announcement: March 6th, 2015
Online registration: http://bibliaspa.org/2014/12/20/concurso-de-fotografia-dialogos-sul-sul/ (in Portuguese)
Additional information: +55 (11) 99609-3188
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
