Chris Stults: Travel Diary

In October 2012, Chris Stults (along with Jennifer Lange, co-curator of the Cruzamentos: Contemporary Art in Brazil exhibition) made his first trip to Brazil to make general introductions and begin research for the Cruzamentos: Contemporary Brazilian Documentary film series. The trip, which ambitiously saw Stults traveling to five cities in 12 days, was timed around the overlap of two mammoth events: the São Paulo Film Festival and the São Paulo Bienal. Lots of meetings with gallerists, curators, writers, and Cinemateca Brasiliera archivists filled out the São Paulo leg of the trip.

A quick visit to the northeast offered an opportunity to visit the Cinema Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, a wonderful cinema in Recife run by filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho. Kleber had visited the Wexner Center the month before to introduce his film Neighboring Sounds. His cinema is a hub for the burgeoning Recife film scene, nearly all of whom showed up with DVDs of their work for Stults to take home with him. One never knows who will be passing through the area; during this brief visit the great Russian filmmaker Sergei Loznita and a cultural minister from Brasília were also visiting the cinema. The next day saw more meetings with filmmakers, curators, and artists, capped by Lange and Stults giving a presentation to the local artist and filmmaker community about the Wexner Center’s Via Brasil project.

In Belo Horizonte, the third largest city in the country, the meetings and studio visits continued, including memorable stops at the impressive filmmaking collective Teia and the studio of the impressive Cinthia Marcelle and Tiago Mata Machado. Belo Horizonte allows for some wonderful quick side trips across the countryside of the historic Minas Gerais region, including Inhotim—a contemporary art park that’s an essential stop for anyone interested in contemporary art (and even those who aren’t!)—and Ouro Preto, a beautifully preserved colonial city. The trip concluded with a brief stop in Rio to meet up with Paulo Venancio Filho, another co-curator of the Cruzamentos exhibition. Among the trips to various museums and institutions, the impressive facilities at the Instituto Moreira Salles stood out on this visit. Upon the return home, the landscape and diversity of Brazil seems as inexhaustible as the energy of the people there.

Stults took a second, more focused trip to the country in May 2013 (again, with Lange). The pace of the first trip seemed leisurely compared to the dense itineraries of this experience. In ten days, he and Lange visited four cities (São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Recife, and Rio), met with 19 artists and filmmakers, nine gallerists, and four curators! Many of the results of these specific meetings can be seen in the upcoming film series and exhibition. The frustrations of navigating some of the difficulties of traveling in Brazil became lessened after a second trip, and became a more natural and expected part of the journey. (Except for the traffic in Rio. It’s usually bad, but all the construction for the 2016 Summer Olympics has created short-term traffic jams that could give you nightmares.)

A third trip took place in October 2013 to visit the São Paulo Film Festival (honoring the great documentarian Eduardo Coutinho) and conclude some final business before the Cruzamentos: Contemporary Brazilian Documentary film series starts in early 2014.