From Haydn to Brazil

This autumn, The Pharos Trust is bringing an array of Brazilian culture to entertain, in addition to its regular concert series. VASILIKI ARISTON-TOUHOULIOTIS reports

FROM Haydn to Brazil, The Pharos Trust Autumn/Winter 2004 programme promises a delectable array of art and culture certain to tempt and please all palates. Based in Cyprus, The Pharos Trust is a non-profit cultural and educational foundation dedicated to the promotion of a wide range of activities in the fields of the humanities and the arts. It has been active since 1995 in nurturing the creative process and advocating a strong commitment to artistic excellence and intercultural exchange. This year, in addition to their regular concert series, the Trust is presenting various aspects of Brazilian art and culture throughout the month of October. Organised in collaboration with the Brazilian Consulate, audiences in Cyprus will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the history, traditions and culture of Brazil through its films, music, dance, photography and literature. So what to expect in the following months?

The narratives and images that comprise Brazilian films will give us our first introduction to the cultural repertoire of this Latin American country. As part of the Brazilian Cultural Days, The Weaving Mill will screen seven Brazilian films between October 4 and October 29 that portray the complexities of social reality and human relations amidst Brazil’s stunning, though often destitute, urban and rural landscapes.

If films give us Brazil in images and narratives, then Capoeira will offer us Brazil through mesmerizing movement. More than just a dance, a fight or an aerobic exercise, the jogo or game of Capoeira combines movement, music and self-expression. Its roots can be traced to the era of Portuguese colonisation when African slaves needed an effective, but not easily recognisable, fighting form and means of expression. Since then, Capoeira has continued to develop and thrives on the streets of many cities of the world as an expression of life and resistance.

In Cyprus for the first time, the London School of Capoeira will employ daring and intricate Capoeira techniques to invoke a journey of return through the dense rainforests of Brazil to the free communities of escaped slaves that developed and refined the fighting skill we now know as Capoeira. The London School of Capoeira has come not only to perform in Cyprus but also to offer audiences a free, hands-on introduction to the art form they practice with mastery.
Seabstiao Salgado’s images may be silent and still but they will likely comprise the most potent example of Brazilian art represented in this cultural festival. Considered one of the best documentary photographers in the world, the exhibition of this Brazilian born artist will consist of twenty images excerpted from his 1997 book Terra. In Terra, Salgado employs images to narrate the struggle of survival faced by peasants plagued by extreme poverty and chronic unemployment. He follows their efforts to reclaim the arable land they regard as their natural heritage and chronicles the often bloody and violent outcomes of this struggle. Salgado’s pictorial narrative of the displaced and dispossessed is lauded for its respectfully compassionate and poignant photographs and promises to deeply affect its viewers.

Brazilian Book Month, made possible by the cooperation of the Moufflon Bookshop, will serve to complement this cultural programme. A selection of books in English showcasing Brazilian history, art and literature will be made available at Moufflon and at each cultural event.

The annual concert series of The Pharos Trust returns this year with yet another impressive selection of works and performers. This season begins on October 6 with a performance of Haydn, Mendelssohn and Beethoven by the highly acclaimed Belcea Quartet from the UK. The November concert will be a performance by Polish pianist Piotr Anderszewski, whose latest recording was selected as CD of the month by Gramophone magazine in August 2004. Finally, the season will end with a concert in December by England’s Gould Piano Trio.

n For more information on The Pharos Trust Autumn/Winter 2004 programme, contact 22-663871, email [email protected] or visit www.thepharostrust.org

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