São Paulo – The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Unrwa) brings to São Paulo the exhibition The Long Journey, with 40 images and five short films revealing the trajectory of the agency and the history of the Palestinian people. The exhibition runs from January 24 to March 15 at Centro Cultural São Paulo (São Paulo Cultural Centre).
The event was planned in partnership with the United Nations Information Centre for Brazil (UNIC RIO), São Paulo’s secretariats of Human Rights and Citizenship, Foreign and Federative Relations and Culture and the Institute of Arab Culture (Icarabe).
“The [exhibition’s] goal is the awareness and information about the agency’s projects and the Palestinian refugees”, says Thereza Jatobá, Unrwa’s fund raising advisor and exhibition’s producer.
She highlights Brazil’s admission, in December, in the UN’s agency Advisory Commission. The commission is the body that advises the agency about its main strategic decisions, helping Unrwa’s Commissioner General in fulfilling the institution’s mandate.
“It shows the importance of Brazil’s cooperation with the agency, since the members are admitted according to their cooperation and donations made to Unrwa’s project”, says Jatobá.
The pictures that will be on display for the public portray many periods of the history of Palestinian refugees and Unrwa. The pictures reveal moments since August 1948, when 700,000 people were displaced because of the conflict with Israel, going through the two Intifadas (Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation) in 1987 and 2000, to the present day, when the Palestinian refugees are being affected by Syria’s civil war.
The images are part of Unrwa’s collection, made up of 430,000 negatives, 10,000 photos, 85,000 slides, 75 films and 730 VHS tapes. In 2009, the collection was digitized and included in the program Memory of the World, from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco). The concept of the exhibition in Brazil was created by the architect Marko Brajovic.
São Paulo is the first city in Latin America to host the exhibition The Long Journey. The exhibition was put on display for the first time in 2013, in Jerusalem, followed by Amman, Dubai, Gaza, Rome, Turin, New York, Jakarta and Marrakesh. Plans are being made to take it to Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia.
Public debate
The exhibition opening is scheduled for the 24th, at 3 PM, at Praça da Biblioteca of Centro Cultural São Paulo (São Paulo Cultural Centre). At the same day and place, at 4 PM, the debate “Palestinians Refugees: humanitarian aid and the role of Brazil”.
The meeting will be attended by Milton Rondó, head of the General Coordination of International Action Against Hunger, from the Ministry of External Relations, and Rogério Sottili, city secretary of Human Rights and Citizenship of São Paulo. Also invited are Salem Nasser, president of the Icarabe, Paz Fernandez, Unrwa’s Foreign Relations advisor, and Giancarlo Summa, UNIC Rio’s director.
At the event, a partnership between Unrwa and São Paulo’s Secretariat of Human Rights will be formalized.
Service
“The Long Journey” exhibition
Opening: January 24thm, 2015, 3 PM
Praça da Biblioteca of Centro Cultural São Paulo (São Paulo Cultural Centre)
Rua Vergueiro 1000, Paraíso, São Paulo, SP
The exhibition will be open to the public, with free admission, from January 24h to March 15th, 2015, Tuesday through Friday, 10 AM to 20 PM (entrance allowed until 7:30 PM), and Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, from 10 AM to 6 PM (entrance allowed until 5:30 PM)
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
