Art: Rio

From the lens of the French Rio-based photographer Elsa Leydier.

  

Summer sounds

I missed the fourth album by Brazilian singer Ceu when it first came out in July, but thanks to a fashion magazine’s ” best of 2016″ list (see below) I discovered it just in time to crown “Tropix” the album of ( my) Summer, with its winning formula – evident in the single above – of glacial bossa nova vocals, electronic tropical rhythms and just enough surprises to keep it out of the pleasant coffee table music that MPB can sometime slump into.

Arthur Verocai

The dreamy sounds of Brazilian cult favourite Arthur Verocai, whose self-titled 1972 MPB has just been re-issued.

Brazil, beach

Photography by David Alan Harvey.

 

BRAZIL. Rio de Janeiro. 2011.[lF][lF]Contact email: New York : photography@magnumphotos.com Paris : magnum@magnumphotos.fr London : magnum@magnumphotos.co.uk Tokyo : tokyo@magnumphotos.co.jp Contact phones: New York : +1 212 929 6000 Paris: + 33 1 53 42 50 00 London: + 44 20 7490 1771 Tokyo: + 81 3 3219 0771 Image URL: http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox_VPage&IID=2K7O3RKCWSKL&CT=Image&IT=ZoomImage01_VForm

The Rio Olympics

And so, the Olympics have come to an end. As someone who has such passionate memories of Rio, I was excited, and scared, as the games approached. Zika, water pollution, a bike path swept out to sea, a virtual coup, a deep recession: what else could go wrong for Rio?

But in the event the games were neither a disaster, nor – from my perspective – a triumph. The opening and closing ceremonies struck me as a little bland – in this least bland of cities. Of course, they were implemented on a much tighter budget than at other recent Olympics but with the incredible richness and breadth of Brazilian culture, it all seemed a bit anaemic. A bit obvious. I have to say that I was disappointed. Giselle Budchen walking to the “Girl from Ipanema” – really?

So what had I expected? I had visions of Carmen Miranda and the legend of Iracema, great black leaders like the Zumbi of Palmares, the Salvador Muslim slave revolts and Chico Rei, the slave who became a quasi-African king.  What of capoeira and candomble? The great national myths – the revolutions of Tiradentes, the teeth puller, and the rebels of the sertao badlands in the Northeast? I had imagined riotously costumed interpetations of the Amazonian folklore of the jungle peoples: the bumba meu boi, boto dolphin spirits, the minhacao and mula sem cabeca, as well as tributes to the literature of Machado de Assis, the Theatre of the Oppressed. This had been a great opportunity to recast Brazil  in its own imagination as a multiracial, but black, country,  a “new” Brazil. I had prayed for Caetano Veloso to kick off proceedings, spotlit on a stool singing his progressive anthem  “Tropicalia”…. but perhaps that was always naive. These things don’t necessarily “sell” to a worldwide audience. After all, Caetano was there but it was barely noted in the world media. Perhaps what they really needed was Jennifer Lopez?

The games themselves were engaging. The Brits made it rain gold and silver, China and Australia sank and bickered over the swimming and the Chinese team provided a great charmer in Fu Yuanhui and a love-to-hate villain in Sun Yang. Singapore scored a gold, and Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps secured their legacies. And then, in a final pleasing touch, the Brazilians faced their football nemesis, Germany, and finally triumphed at Maracana.

But now that it is over, was it worth it? Guanabana Bay didn’t get cleaned up. The promised new subway lines opened – just in time – but the fighting in the favelas goes on and the Rio taxpayers are left to foot a hefty bill. For a city that is used to throwing such amazing parties, this had all felt a little…forgettable.The fact that the highlight of the closing ceremony was Tokyo’s presentation for 2020 said it all.

Elke Maravilha: a marvellous life

Halfway through the Olympics came the news that a Rio icon had passed away. Elke Maravilha was a model and actress, famous for her flamboyance. Blonde and beautiful, she had a huge appetite for life, a magnetic smile and a mile-wide wild streak that had endeared her to generations of Brazilians.

Born Elke Giorgierena Grunnupp Evremides, (you can see why she used a stage name) she had emigrated to Brazil as a child from Leningrad. She came from an academic mixed Russian and German family, and grew up speaking nine European languages before breaking into showbiz as a ditzy blonde appearing on TV talent shows and the catwalk.

It was her work as a fashion model that led her to form a friendship with Zuzu Angel, the pre-eminent Brazilian fashion designer of the 70s and an unlikely rebel, who used her high profile as a constant thorn in the side of the military dictatorship after her activist son had been kidnapped, tortured and murdered by the regime. Elke was also arrested, after tearing down “wanted” posters offering a reward for his capture. She was held in an infamous prison and torture centre for five days and eventually stripped of her Brazilian citizenship, forcing her to fall back on her German passport.

Still, her show business career went on, often appearing on the television show of the hugely popular surrealist TV comic Chacrinha. She also landed a part as a brothel madam in a TV series that became her signature role. In addition to her huge gay following she was now crowned the godmother of Rio’s sex workers.

Elke married eight times, most recently to a man thirty years younger, and lived in a pink mansion in Copacabana near the beach, continuing her wild ways until she passed away aged 71, a shock-blonde rebel to the very end.

Life is beautiful

      

Olafur Eliasson’s installation at the Versailles palace, Mariko Mori’s Olympic installation in the Mangaratiba forest in Rio de Janeiro, unknown, the Kunsthaus in Bregenz in Austria, the beautiful 1951 Chapelle du Rosair a Vence by Matisse and a Casa Brutus fashion shoot in the concert hall in Tokyo’s Ueno Park.

Cultura de verao

With the long, lazy days of Summer I’ve been catching up on my reading and viewing: it has been a Summer of culture! And given that my brief hope of playing Pokemon Go has been quashed by the delay in its Asian release, I have been reading instead. As well as some students’ novels that I had to read for school, my eclectic June/July beach-and-cafe book list has consisted of:

The Quran. I figured it was time to get myself educated! Although its not a comfortable read for a Western liberal (not to mention rambling and repetitive) I was surprised to find room for interpretation that could lead to positive change…amid plenty of ammunition for those who would oppose it. It is a book full of contradictions.

Dancing with the Devil in the City of God by Juliana Barbassa. This book, an investigation of the many problems faced by Rio de Janeiro, is a primer for the upcoming Olympics in my beloved former playground. The city is seemingly reeling from an insurmountable list of problems at the moment, just as it should be taking its bow in the world’s limelight. Will a recession, the virtual coup against Dilma, pollution, rising crime and the zika virus dampen the finest moment for the cidade maravilhosa or will Rio manage, characteristically, to rise above its demons, just as it does every Carnaval, if only for a night or two?

Ways of Going Home, by Alejandra Zambra. Haven’t started yet.

A Dean Koontz thriller the boyfriend picked up for me at the second hand store.

Plus a viewing list of:

Orange is the New Black.

Magnifico 70 – a Brazil HBO miniseries on censorship in 1970s Sao Paulo, kind of Mad Men in Sampa.

And music:

Still Roisin Murphy.

Still Leah Dou.

Plus the new album from Japanese alt-chanteuse UA, titled JaPo (short for “Japonesia”), another album of lush harmonies, lo-fi bleeps, raw jazzy vocals and tribal beats. It doesn’t all work, but when it does, UA stakes a claim as the foremost quirky Japanese nineties-generation diva (sorry, Shiina Ringo and Chara).

 

Light trapping

Light trapping is a website devoted to the “night expeditions, escapades and chance encounters” of a Sao Paulo gay photographer, combining to spectacular effect his preoccupations with a) naked men b) architecture and c) striking lighting. Its mesmerising.

More images (some NSFW) after the jump

Carioca fever dream

… and Rio hipster

From the ghetto to glamour, with Rio de Janeiro director Kayhan Ozmen, featuring a favela girl-rap group, Paulista karaoke, a lurid Carioca sex dream and a surreal Buenos Aires party at the unicorn-festooned Faena Hotel, on a roller disco rink designed by fellow Brazilian artists Assume Vivid Astro Focus.

 

 

Nostalgia: Meu Infinito Particular

I spent a long, rather dull weekend hanging around, waiting for something to happen and dreaming nostalgically of South America: the bright yellow flowers waving in the hillside cemetery of Valparaiso with its colourful tin houses tumbling down the hillsides towards the briny sea, languid days on the streets of Copacabana and Botafogo, breakfasts of medialuna in Buenos Aires McDonalds … great memories…

Two worlds collide: Manha do carnaval

This year Chinese New Year coincides with Carnaval in Brazil: I spent the first day of the Chinese New Year break cleaning my house to this, the samba theme from Rio de Janeiro’s ‘escola da samba’ Mangueira, featuring Maria Bethania on lead vocals.

Princesa!

Paola de Orleans e Braganza, Princessa de Sapieha-Rozanski e Swiatopolk-Czetwertynski, the fantastically-named Brazilian princess (now resident of London) here seen resplendent not only in her title but in new season Gucci, at Brazilian Vogue’s Carnaval party this week in Rio de Janeiro.

Neighbouring sounds

New from Brazil, hipsterish gay hip hop from gritty São Paulo and dreamy indie bossa-rock from Rio.

Sailing into Summer

Down and out in Hong Kong and Rio

Two interesting recent movies:

“Insanity” is a new Hong Kong film featuring one of China’s hottest current stars, Huang Xiaoming, as a psychiatrist determined to help a patient who is struggling to turn his life around after committing a violent crime. Its a bit implausible in places, but generally entertaining with its stylishly filmed HK locations and appearances by indie it-girl Fiona Sit and Singapore actress, Alien Sun.

“A Wolf at the Door” is  Brazilian, and in its breezy camerawork and look at the lives of Brazil’s new middle class, it reminded me of last year’s great “Neighbouring Sounds”. This is a much more straightforward genre flick though – a dark war-of-the-sexes thriller about an abducted child in the aftermath of an affair. The hunky Juliano Caazrre appears as a gruff local cop.

 

Dônica – Casa 180

Caetano’s son looks so much like him is scary. This is his band, Dônica.

A Wolf at the door

The title reminds me of this. Can’t wait to see it, recommended by a friend in Rio (thanks Junior!)

Rio, Eu Te Amo

After several years of gestation, the latest installment of the “(insert city name), I love you” series is ready, and this time, its Rio. The film follows a now familiar format of short episodes each with a different director, telling a multitude of stories taking place in the same city. It will hit screens in September, running the risk of a world thats rather Rio-ed out after the World Cup but it’ll be interesting to see if it can hit some of the heights of the original “Paris, Je taime” (Gus Van Sant’s gay romance and Tom Tykwer’s quirky entry) without falling as flat as the often bland NY version. The cast has a mix of some great  Brazilian actors (Fernanda Montenegra, Rodrigo Santoro) and international B-list stars (Ryan Kwanten, Harvey Keitel, Vincent Cassel and Vanessa Paradis!) but the real star – of course – will be Rio.

No goal

Was it just me, or did the opening of the World Cup seem a little…flat? OH well, time to blast some old Brazilian tunes from my days in Rio instead…