Sunday, December 09, 2007

A day off




Once i had recovered from my hangover yesterday, I walked to SESC and set up the final exhibition will stay here for a couple of weeks more. Paulo drove me to the centre of Sao Paulo where we were all meeting for lunch. Unfortunately the car broke down on the way, we dumped it in a car park and jumped in a taxi (there is a car park nearly every other building as there are so many cars on the road).

Went to a great restuarant in the centre of Sao Paulo, traditional food and live samba, everyone dancing around the tables, feishoja (i think it is called) beans, rice, deep fried banana, orange (meat for meat eaters) and this powdery stuff which was all delicious, my sides hurt from eating so much. Marina explained it comes from slave food and has all the key ingredients in it. I could eat it everyday.

Marina offered to take me to some different places in the afternoon and I had a fantastic time, she reminds me of my family and can talk as much as I can, so we spent the most lovely afternoon chatting about everything, exploring and shopping. She took me to the artist area that is covered with really cool graffiti that changes daily. Then nearby to a street market that has all kinds of hand made things, really beautiful stuff i bought hundreds of christmas presents.

Had a celebrity moment at the market I heard my name being called out, it was a woman who has seen my talk. She is a clothes designer and had a stall there, she makes amazing clothes and I was attempted to by this really cool tartan dress, but was determined to stay focused on the christmas shopping list. did buy myself a couple of things though (:

We then drove to Paulo and Marina's studio/house. It is stunning. It is on a small mews and was owned by Paulo's grandparents, the front garden is full of tropical flowers with a jasmine tree twisted around the door and my favourite red heart shaped flowers with the strange yellow sticky out bits.

We stopped for a drink and chatted about Ali G, Doctor Who and all kinds of things. Marina lived in England for many years. We then went to their favourite Italian restaurant (Marina comes from an Italian background) where we had the most amazing deep fried courgettes and aubergines with mint, the best olives i have had in years, i had proper spaghetti peas and mushrooms in white sauce, and then for dessert fresh fruit to die for.

Paulo then took me back to the artist area where a happening/event was going on. His friend is involved in it who is an artist activist, it was great to meet him. He has been doing interventions between artists, the favelas, occupying buildings and worked with wives of criminals in the favelas to stop them from being evicted. All as art interventions. He is sending my a DVD of his film to show people in the UK. The event was in the garden and out buildings of a house in this area that had a great feel, you could sense the community just from walking down the graffitti painted streets. We unfortunately had missed the performance art, although there were still some performers asleep on a balcony.

Today I woke up early having had a proper night's sleep finally and went to find a super market, I also found a fruit and food market with stalls and stalls of bananas!

Off to the Japanese area to lunch with Paulo and Marina and then my flight home... I hope that I have made great friends here with Paulo and Marina and hope to be able to get back here soon, and collaborate in the future. Back to blighty and the cold.

No pictures yet it is taking forever to upload from here for some reason, will add them on my return.

1 comment:

marina said...

Dear Rachel, I just wanted to say how glad I am that Mobilefest has brought you to SP. Having you here with us was great and believe me, this is just the beginning of a longlasting friendship. We're alooking forward to meeting you again soon- wherever life provides our reencounter :-) much love from Brazil! Marina