Gigantic vulva sculpture sparks controversy in Brazil 3 minutes read
By Waldheim Garcia Montoya
Agua Preta, Brazil, Jan 6 (efe-epa).- The gigantic sculpture of a vulva, established in a mountainous area in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco by artist Juliana Notari, is designed to serve as a protest against the “secular abuse” suffered by women and “opens (the) wounds” of a culture pummeled by the current government, the work of art’s creator said.
The controversial sculpture of bright red resin is 33 meters (108 feet) long and 11 m (36 feet) wide and was created starting with an excavation six meters (20 feet) deep on a small mountain in the Mata Sul ecosystem, near the border between the states of Pernambuco and Alagoas, in northeastern Brazil and within the Usina das Artes museum-park.
2 minutes read
By Waldheim Garcia Montoya
Recife, Brazil, Dec 24 (efe-epa).- Defying the received wisdom of his time that Italian was the only language suitable for art song, Alberto Nepomuceno (1864-1920) dared to embrace Portuguese and folk genres such as samba in the process of creating a truly Brazilian tradition of classical music.
A century after his death in Rio de Janeiro at 56, the “father of Brazilian music” remains unknown to many of his compatriots.
“Among the principal characteristics of the maestro is that he devoted himself to writing music with a nationalist aim that encompassed the pluri-culture of Brazil,” Edwin Pitre Vasquez, head of the Ethnomusicology Research Group at Parana Federal University, told Efe.