São Paulo – The collective group Lente Cultural is organizing three lectures on Arab culture in December, in São Paulo. The lecture “Palestine – the Endless Saga” will cover the conflict in the region and the loss of territories by the Palestinian people since the United Nations (UN) launched the Partition Plan, in 1947, which hasn’t been implemented since then. Professor and PhD Arlene Clemesha, who teaches Arab History at the University of São Paulo (USP), will speak on Friday, December 14, from 7 pm to 9:30 pm, at the auditorium of bookstore Martins Fontes, in Avenida Paulista. The event has the support of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce.
Professor and MSc in History at USP, Plinio Freire Gomes will give the other two lectures at Espaço Lente Cultural, on Avenida Brigadeiro Faria Lima. On December 10, the topic will be the “Nefertiti Bust-Portrait” (picture above), a 3,400-year-old limestone bust of the Great Royal Wife of Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten. Since its discovery by German archeologists in 1912, the work has become a icon of female beauty, and it represents the period of largest territorial expansion of Ancient Egypt. Currently, the work is on display at the Neues Museum, in Berlin, Germany. The lecture is part of a series of events called “History in Icons”, which aims to revive the relations between the works and their historical context, to find out its original meaning and understand its artistic and historical relevance.
“The Veil and the Visibility Conflict” is the topic of the lecture on December 18, also at Espaço Lente Cultural. It will discuss the wearing of veils by Muslim women and the historical background of this habit. “In the Islamic culture there is a distrust of the eyes, since they are the ‘door of desire’. If women are subtracted from the visible, it is because they are considered sacred and precious but, in the Western culture, they accuse the veil of being a backward, fanatic and freedom-restricting item. It is like veil-wearing Muslim women put our values in short circuit, since they simply show that they hide,” said Gomes on the topic.
The lectures cost BRL 45 (USD 11.83) and registrations are open on Lente Cultural’s website.
Quick info
Lecture “Palestine – the Endless Saga”
December 14, from 7 pm to 9:30 pm
Professor Arlene Clemesha
Auditorium of bookstore Martins Fontes
Avenida Paulista, 509, 2nd floor
Lecture “Nefertiti Bust-Portrait”
December 10, from 7:30 pm to 10 pm
Professor Plinio Freire Gomes
Espaço Lente Cultural
Avenida Brigadeiro Faria Lima, 1690, cj. 41
Lecture “The Veil and the Visibility Conflict”
December 18, from 7:30 pm to 10 pm
Professor Plinio Freire Gomes
Espaço Lente Cultural
Avenida Brigadeiro Faria Lima, 1690, cj. 41
Each lecture costs BRL 45 (USD 11.83)
Registrations open
Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
