São Paulo – The São Paulo Museum of Image and Sound (MIS) will open the exhibition on African Arab culture titled “Tarikh al-Brasil.” The works are by Brazilian photographer Marcelo Schellini. The show will open on Saturday, May 1st, at MIS in Jardim Europa, São Paulo. Admission is free.
The exhibition is part of the project Nova Fotographia (New Photography), which features works by six other photographers selected by MIS. According to Marcelo Schellini, Tarikh al-Brasil is Arabic for “History of Brazil.”
Schellini has lived in Arab countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, but all shoots in ‘Tarikh al-Brasil’ were taken in Brazil, particularly in Arab and African communities around mosques in São Paulo downtown. “For approximately 10 years, I photographed these Muslim Arab and African communities until I could see their children grow as a first generation of Brazilians,” he told ANBA.
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For the show, the photographer developed a visual research on the presence of Muslims of African origin in the Brazilian history and society. The work bring together details such as regards and hands holding a tiny Quran. The artist thus sought to address the new and old African diasporas and show that, while this community has a significant cultural and social influence since their arrival to the Americas via the slave trade, they are still underrepresented.
For the artist, the Arabic was his first contact with the culture. “Despite not being an Arab descendant myself, I learned how other cultures (even in Europe, particularly in the Mediterranean countries) carry a huge Arab and Islamic heritage. Great feats and thinkers of the Renaissance were influenced by this legacy. For hundreds of years, the Arabic was the language of knowledge – scientific or philosophical texts were written in Arabic in several cultures from China to Spain,” the photographer explained.
Quick Facts
Tarikh al-Brasil exhibition
Opening: May 1st
Free admission
Museum of Image and Sound – Av. Europa, 158, Jd. Europa – São Paulo, Brasil
Find out more: mis-sp.org.br/
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
