NEIGHBORHOOD EARTH: The Taste of Tradition and Arts…
Pastries from Belém, Portugal
By Leila Kaas
Since many of our readers are Brazilian, Portuguese or Americans with Portuguese, Brazilian or Cape Verdean heritage, this month’s column will bring a little of Portugal’s culture and what is happening in their arts scene.
In Portugal’s capital, Lisbon, one of the many essential activities to do is to eat a delicious and traditional pastry in the historically significant Belém neighborhood. The pastry has existed since 1837 and only a few people know its recipe which has passed through generation to generation in secret. Today, the taste of tradition of the “pastéis de Belém“, this delicate Portuguese delight that has a fascinating history related to hard times, shares space with contemporary art.
Karmitz Exhibition at CCB
Right there near the “pastelaria” (bakery) and the old “Mosteiro dos Jerônimos” (Heironymite Monastery), we can visit the Cultural Center of Belém (CCB). Last month as I enjoyed a delicious pastel de Belém in this timeless neighborhood, I also had the opportunity to see the exhibitions “Six Prototypes for a Screensaver (A Retroactive History)” and “Film Award for Films on Art – What Dreams are Left? Talk to me!”
Through these exhibits I experienced an inspiring visual and audio stimulus of reflections about time moving in loops more than in a straight line and insights about artists’ loneliness in their imaginative universes.
Also, the exhibit “Silences”, a collection of 14 artists reunited by the film producer and distributor Marin Karmitz, bridged many unexpected creative disciplines. Within rooms organized in a dark labyrinth we are invited to get lost among sounds and visual stimulus, producing a fascinating reflective experience through our senses. Marin Karmitz has spent much of his career bridging film with disciplines like sculpture, painting, photography and music. This exhibition is a fascinating example of bringing these worlds together.
An interesting side note is it was Karmitz’s distribution company, MK2, who the Charles Chaplin estate contacted when they were looking for a partner with a fine sense of artistic taste to release a definitive DVD set of the film genius’ timeless work. Definitely check out Karmitz’s writeup on his exhibition in Belém at the link below.
You can check a little of each exhibition at:
“Six Prototypes for a Screensaver (A Retroactive History)”
“Film Award for Films on Art – What Dreams are Left? Talk to me!”
http://www.tempsdimages-portugal.com/2009/projec_premios_eng.html
“Silences, a view by Marin Karmitz”
http://www.museuberardo.com/Files/MCB_Silencios_2009.pdf
Tags: Belém, Centro Cultural de Belém, Charles Chaplin, literature, Marin Karmitz, painting, pastéis de Belém, photography, Portugal, sculpture, Six Prototypes for a Screensaver
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