Portugal Pavilion kicks off with acclaimed debate at Brazil’s largest literary fair
The programming of the pavilion dedicated to Portugal, the country honored at the 26th edition of the São Paulo International Book Biennial, in Brazil, started this Saturday in an acclaimed debate between authors Valter Hugo Mãe, Daniel Munduruku and Lilian Schwarcz.
The topic of the conversation “We talk about those who spoke in the other” presented the unusual use that occurs in the space dedicated to Portugal at the Brazil fair, which runs until July 10th.
Isabel Lucas, journalist and curator of the Portugal Pavilion programming, explained to Lusa that the activities were designed to bring authors and Brazilians together through interesting Portuguese people to stimulate the public to know about the literature produced in both countries.
“This participation [de Portugal] here, be it, be it, however many people can show that it is small, wants to bring and bring a diversity of literature made in Portugal and one of the concerns is that people can also find a little bit, and the books of authors that can to hear. here they are”, explains Isabel Lucas.
Speaking about the celebration of the bicentennial of the Independence of Brazil, which justified the choice of Portugal as a tribute, Isabel Lucas stressed that the celebrations are identical and will take place on both sides of the Atlantic.
“It is a symbolic perspective of who is an important act, affirmed by Portugal to be present year of data exchange that is important.
The curator said that she has a positive attention on the public that will participate in the activities of the Portugal Pavilion.
When the doors opened at 10:00 am (2:00 pm in Lisbon) the space was filled with a diverse audience.
Researcher Patricia Gomes, 36, came to the literary fair to buy books by Portuguese authors, praising the space.
“The space is very cool, it is very attractive and has a lot of options, many different types”, he said.
Professor João Florêncio Bastos, 65, said that the Portugal Pavilion “is very creative” and that “as you go through the partitions, within the space, you will have access to a lot of information”.
In the first one, mediated by Isabel Lucas, controversial questions about the idea of the self and the other, which passes through the history of Portugal and Brazil, led the Brazilian authors invited to reflect on the effects of colonialism in the formation of identity and the relationship of the southern country. -American with the European colonizing country.
“Brazil was built from a hegemonic thought, which became the different and the other, in a place that Daniel designed to be the Brazilian writer”, which he designed that Muniucu designed in the book and dedicated himself to a writer. children’s literature.
“It was the place of servant, of the wild and very rarely in its place of belonging to each of the cultures that ended up forming what we are”, he added.
Reflecting on the meaning of the theme proposed by a Brazilian anthropologist, which is one of the stories in the work “Brazil, a biography”, she explains that the concept of the self and the other in the author and in life can only be understood in a relationship.
“In this hateful time, so hateful, so intolerant and given to us with respect to another identification. You go to this other so deeply that you also build it to alter it profoundly. Our good utopia should be to familiarize the other in order to make yourself strange” , maintained.
Hugo Mãe launched the book Past do Brasil”, highlighted that he always doubted and identified the problem that exists in leaving Portugal in relation to history because, after a certain peace, the effects were not affected that “colonialism produced in Brazil and in other parts of the world.
Throughout the debate, there were political demonstrations against the current President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, by the public and participants.
On Friday, the President informed that he canceled meetings that the Brazilian would have with the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in Brasília.
The diplomatic unease caused by the change in plans was not mentioned at the literary fair, which is expected to receive a visit from the Portuguese president on Sunday.
The event is organized by the Brazilian Book Chamber and Portugal’s participation is the responsibility of Camões – Institute for Cooperation and Language, the Directorate-General for Books, Archives and Libraries (DGLAB), Turismo de Portugal and AICEP – Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade of Portugal, with the Embassy of Portugal in Brasília and the Consulate General of Portugal in São Paulo.