Colombia's minister of culture visits Rio

On her first official trip to Brazil since she was appointed the Colombian Minister of Culture in 2010, Mariana Garcés Córdoba met local governmental authorities in Rio de Janeiro and visited the exhibition Cantos Cuentos Colombianos [Colombian Songs and Tales]that features 10 artists from Colombia at Casa Daros. At this new space dedicated to Latin American art in Rio de Janeiro the Minister was welcomed byHans-Michael Herzog, artistic director and curator of the Daros Latinamerica Collection, Isabella Rosado Nunes, Casa Daros general director and Eugenio Valdés Figueroa,its art and education director. While there, Mariana Garcés Córdoba had a conversation with Cláudia Pedrozo, Head of Office of the Municipal Secretariat of Culture (representing its Secretary Sérgio Sá Leitão), Tatiana Richard, Culture incentive law superintend of the State Culture Department and Vera Saboya Superintend of Literature and Knowledge of the State Culture Department.

Besides being introduced to the newly-opened Casa Daros – the minister had been invited to the inauguration in March but couldn't be present due to international agenda commitments – the purpose of the meeting was to discuss cultural policy and public funding for the arts. As an example of a well-succeeded policy in her country, the Minister mentioned the valued added tax paid by telephone companies, from which a percentage is applied to support cultural projects, as for instance the noteworthy public library program. In Colombia there is at least one library in every town, a figure still far from being reached in Brazil, and for this reason the experience was of great interest to the local authorities in Rio. Brazil, in turn, developed a relevant legislation of tax incentives that simplified the transfer of private funding to public cultural projects and has been facilitating diverse cultural activities. In the particular case of Rio de Janeiro city, Cláudia Pedrozo talked about the incentive law which isa municipal tax on services payable by companies that also allows the private investor to obtain a return in terms of marketing when funding a cultural initiative. She also described the project Cine Carioca, a network of cinema theaters that has been built in lower-income areas, revitalizing urban surroundings and offering culture and leisure to the communities. Regarding the efficacy of such meetings to exchange experiences, Cláudia Pedrozo commented: "Each project needs to be adapted to its regional peculiarities, however, knowing its essence and motivations drives us to gain insights as to what can be done to improve its displacement to different contexts."

The Minister also took the opportunity to strengthen culturalties between Brazil and Colombia. The visit to Casa Daros was fundamental to highlight this point, since the project was designed to unite Latin America with the goal of generating better communication amongst the art of neighbouring nations. The curatorial selection of Cantos Cuentos Colombianos in which prevail artworks made during the 1990s and 2000s reinforces the aforementioned intention: most of the names in this group show such as Doris Salcedo, Fernando Arias, Oscar Muñoz, Nadín Ospina, Maria Fernanda Cardoso and Oswaldo Macià have a consolidated international career, but their works had rarely been seen in Brazil before. "The Minister showed appreciation on observing that art from Colombia was the starting point for the whole series of art and education projects that Casa Daros has been generating here and that we will be developing. These projects will not cease with the end of the exhibition in September. Following the Minister's visit we realized there is immense potential to cultivate more activities in partnership with the Colombian Cultural Ministry." said Isabella Rosado i...