Opening Cocktail – July 4, 2025, at 7:00 PM
Rouanet Institute – 248 Right Street – Tiradentes, MG
The Rouanet Institute invites you to the opening of the exhibition “The Universe Within Us”, a vibrant celebration of Brazilian ancestry, origin, and identity through contemporary art. Curated by João Pavese, with co-curators Kássia Borges Karajá and Andrey Guainá Zignnattoo, the show features artists such as Aurelino dos Santos, Carmezia Emiliano, Duhigó, Dolino, Emanuel Araújo, Lídia Lisboa, Luiz 83, and many others.
This exhibition presents powerful and poetic works that reflect the creative force of artists from diverse voices and regions across Brazil. It is an encounter with our roots, our plurality, and our collective imagination.
Supported by the Rouanet Law and sponsored by Itaú and Swarovski, the show is part of Tiradentes’ cultural calendar and highlights art as a living expression of collective memory.
“The Universe Within Us”
Time doesn’t walk here, no.
Here, time twists, gnaws, spins,
bends, knots, loops around.
Past?
Ain’t buried, no sir.
It’s alive — sparking, crackling,
like ember no rain can put out.
Future?
Future’s like dough, rising in secret,
quiet, feeding on its own will to become.
This gathering that welcomes you
is a terreiro, a crossroads, a drumbeat of souls.
It’s clay, it’s leather, it’s spray paint, crooked lines and straight.
It’s a song from afar, a scream up close.
It’s vine, it’s antenna, it’s a cord that never snaps.
Art here ain’t made to hang pretty, no.
Art here is creature, is body, is prayer, is apparition.
It’s a way to remember who birthed us all.
It’s all right here, look:
Aurelino dos Santos, Carmezia Emiliano, Duhigó, Dolino, Emanoel Araújo,
Lídia Lisboa, Luiz 83, Marga Ledora, Monica Ventura, Monik,
Rubens Valentim, Sanipã, Gejo, and Zé Bezerra.
Each with their hands, their prayers, their visions.
Here, the ancient ain’t old — it’s an open vein.
The modern ain’t novelty — it’s the fold of the ancestral.
Brazil?
Brazil was never just one. Never will be.
It’s a stumble that dances.
It’s a broth of everything.
It’s people stitched together in cracks, in gaps, in threads — and in celebration.
These works come asking —
with that sly tone of who already knows:
Who birthed us? Who breaks us? Who replants us?
Come. Step closer.
Pull up a seat.
Step soft.
The universe within us —
is yours too.
by João Pavese
Free admission.
