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About AIRE

[artistic co-creation with indigenous people through virtual residencies]

The Miller-Zillmer Foundation, in partnership with the NGO Thydêwá, supports the project "AIRE" - Art with Indigenous People in Electronic Residencies.
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AIRE is an open educational, socio-cultural and artistic innovative project, for exchanges and reflections between indigenous and non-indigenous communities.
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23 artists from Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Columbia and Bolivia create different artworks within a digital exchange, using different formats, languages and concepts. The works will be displayed here and opened for dialogue with the public.
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The diversity of the group consists in its composition of indigenous peoples of Mapuche, Mocovi, Tulián, Xukuru, Terena, Desana, Kariri-Xocó, Kaingang, Guarani, Palta and others.
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Through the diverse cultural backgrounds, the artists use an artistic variety of music, poetry, writings, illustration, photography, collages and video. The works encourage the dialogue and reflection on our connection with history, nature and our relationship with the planet. In Abya Yala's indigenous cosmovisions, everything is part of nature, everything is part of the "Great Spirit". We are all one.
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Nature, the soil, Mother Earth (Pachamama) began thousands of years ago. The artistic "Electronic Residencies" with indigenous peoples take this theme and the need for our consciousness to the earth and our reconnection as a task in their work.

Team

Andres Peralta – Mapuche/ Chile, Ángel Ramírez – Palta/ Equador, Ângela Berlinde – Portugal, Anna Campagnac –Brasil, aruma – Bolívia, Carina – Desana Brasil, Dayanne Pereira – Jornalista/ BR, Eduardo Simas – Brasil, Elias Caurey – Guarani/Bolívia, Helder Câmara Jr. – Brasil, Kadu – Xucuru/Brasil, Margareth Teixeira – Brasil, Mariela Tulián – Comechingón/Argentina, Naine, Terena/Brasil, Nayra Yasi – Mocovi/Argentina, Nhenety – Kariri-Xocó/ Brasil, ozZO Ukumari – Bolívia, Sebastian Gerlic – Brasil, Sheilla Souza – Brasil, Shiraigo – Mocovi Argentina, Tadeu – Kaingang/Brasil, Thea Pitman – UK, Valéria Scornaienchi – Brasil

NGO
Thydêwá

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Thydêwá was founded in 2002 by indigenous people from different ethnic groups in the Brazilian Northeast working together with non-indigenous people. It is a non-governmental organization that organizes programs, projects and campaigns to raise awareness of discrimination against indigenous people and promote a culture of peace.
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Thydêwá uses intercultural dialogue to promote dignity and wellbeing for all. It has also garnered a very strong track record for encouraging critical appropriation of new technologies by indigenous communities, particularly through the ethnojournalist platform Indios Online, set up in 2004. In this way, it aims to reduce prejudices on both sides and promote the valorisation of cultural diversity in dialogue.
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The projects cover the following dimensions: Appreciation of cultural diversity, protection of traditional and ecological knowledge, artistic creation, human rights, education, appropriation of new technologies and communication.
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Since 2002 until 2021 they have realised more than 60 projects. The educational actions of the indigenous peoples were honoured in 2007 with the Human Rights Award in the category Promotion of

Sebastián Gerlic

director of Thydêwá, project coordinator, curator

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Interview with Sebastián Gerlic

Sebastián Gerlic was born in Buenos Aires - Argentina in 1969. He worked in the film and advertising industry, attended video and cinema workshops, made fiction films, documentaries and experimental videos. Since 1994, Sebastián has been living and working in Brazil, where he founded the NGO Thydêwá in 2001 together with several activists, artists and educators, including many indigenous people of different ethnicities.
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He is dedicated to facilitating the appropriation of new information and communication technologies for indigenous communities. He acts as a cultural mediator and as a social entrepreneur and has idealised and coordinated more than 60 projects that promote cultural diversity in dialogue inside and outside Brazil and support planetary awareness and peace.

Thoughts

"AIRE is an artistic community that allows us to share the feelings, the knowledge and the cosmovisions of our peoples. It is a space that has allowed us to get to know the potential of musicians, writers and other artistic expressions of our indigenous brothers and sisters."
– Angel Ramírez, Ecuador, Pueblo Palta

“It is undoubtedly a new experience, everyone has different challenges to overcome, in my case I had already left creation using only the computer. Being a weaver I always use my hands and the materiality of the fibres to create. So getting back to creating images this time with a tablet or mobile is a challenge. Just as it is a challenge to use digital platforms that I didn't know and didn't have time to explore."
– Aruma (Sandra De Berduccy), Bolivia

“Air is elevation, circulation, renewal, direction... communication that vibrates in our body when it echoes sounds in our throat. It is the sacred tuning of the tones that come out of our body, in the ancestral wisdom of the Guarani people. The air is always light and the good winds are giving way to the sharing of much richness in this meeting.“
– Sheila Souza, Coletivo Kókir, Tupinamba community in Olivença, Bahia/Brazil