Azizi Cypriano is an artist and researcher. With an emphasis on performance, she weaves poetics and elaborates structures related to Yoruba epistemologies and their ecological dimensions. In the spiral of time, she investigates the multiple ways of building things with her own hands, in symbiosis with clay, stems, herbs and trunks to trace scriptures and rituals that summon ancestral presences. With a degree in art from EAV/Parque Lage and a degree in Art History from UERJ and Fine Arts from Université Paris VIII, her work has already been exhibited in different institutions, such as the Rio Art Museum, Sesc Quitandinha, Solar dos Abacaxis and Galpão Bela Maré.
Lorena Portela is an artist and researcher. Interested in the permeability of notions such as nature, spirituality, time and dreams, she investigates the potential of art in collective processes, as an emancipatory social practice. She uses different supports and materials, bringing together the perishable and the inorganic. She graduated from the Parque Lage School of Visual Arts (EAV). She has taught visual arts workshops to users of the mental health network, women and children. She is currently studying for a PhD in Public Health (Ensp/Fiocruz), where she is investigating the place of art in the production of knowledge in collective health. She co-coordinates the Providência Agroecológica initiative, in Morro da Providência, RJ, and coordinates a national project on health and urban agriculture at Fiocruz's Vice-Presidency for the Environment. She has been a yoga teacher and practitioner for 20 years.
Rubens Takamine is an artist, image researcher, essayist, and curator. He lives and works in Rio de Janeiro. Cross-cutting dialogues between art, technology, nature, and spirituality inspire his practices, which often emerge from encounters with plants, stones, shadows, projections and disused technical objects. He is fascinated by phenomena that can only be observed in the dark. Since 2017, he has participated in exhibitions and film festivals in Brazil, Latin America and Europe. In 2022, he formed the coolmeia art cooperative (@coolmeia.art) with the aim of establishing experimental curatorial practices, proposing ephemeral exhibitions with no fixed location - just like a swarm of bees that gather and disperse. He has a master's degree in Visual Arts (PPGAV-EBA-UFRJ) and is studying for a PhD in Communication and Culture (PPGCOM-ECO-UFRJ), where he investigates the relationship between art, herbal medicine and sleep in contemporary societies.
Should Yaminaah Abayomi talk about herself in the third person? Sometimes presenting myself in a work environment is so strange that I've created a CV just with my appearances in other people's dreams. What can I say? I work when I'm asleep. While awake, I create in video, virtual reality, acrylic paint and watercolor. Always revisiting themes: the female body; neuro-atypes; pleasures; healing and illness; dreams and altered states of consciousness; ancient mythologies and nature.
