2009
Stephen Rimmer
Gisela Domschke provided the essential link to the critical and practice based arena, ensuring the relevance of the work to the specific Brazilian context; Louise Wright, whose championship within the British Council in favour of new media, and specifically her insistence on the importance of supporting research and development in the area, ensured both internal and external engagement with the project in the UK; Annette Wolfsberger of the Virtueel Platform in the Netherlands brought an extensive European knowledge and perspective of the area which enriched both participation and the range of topics addressed; Roberta Mahfuz’s sophisticated understanding of the need of artists and institutions for meaningful partnerships and for cross-disciplinary research opportunities developed from her shepherding of the Artist Links programme ensured, in particular, that the intense conversations started in Paralelo will continue to resonate through this publication and beyond. The project developed and matured, adding further partners to the long and impressive final role call of financial and intellectual contributors, stimulating articulation and debate and creating an inquisitive setting for thought-provoking discussions to emerge. The Museu da Imagem e do Som de São Paulo embraced the project early and gave it the institutional home so vital for success. The Mondriaan Foundation enthusiastically gave us the support which enabled us to extend the boundaries of the project well beyond those originally contemplated. The São Paulo Cultural Centre provided an extended space to house the wide programme 10
of intense discussion and presentation. A crucial partner in the UK – the Arts and Humanities Research Council - provided vital financial support and credibility with the research community which we believe has validated much of what has happened. The Forum Permanente, the unique fruit of a long-term Brazilian–European partnership, added elements of connectivity and access to the event and a critical eye that have been essential to the developing of post-event conversations. Many other organisations and individuals contributed to this project and not all can be mentioned here. They will all be found in the acknowledgements pages and we would like to thank them, collectively, for their support, without which the event and this publication would not have been possible. Why publish? In many cases, publications such as this come from the desire to register an event, to recognise the enormous effort that was needed to make them happen. The publication then gathers dust on a shelf. Our desire to publish is fuelled by the reverberations of the event itself, which amplified and built on what happened then. In the few months following it, over 4000 emails flew around the world - enveloping ideas, suggestions, critical opinions, collaborations. A desire to record some of that thinking and to take it forward in more considered writing soon emerged and the body of work that constitutes this publication is an impressive testament to the continued process of research and development of the original participants in Paralelo. New thinking, new ideas, new approaches can only happen if informed by the ideas and work of others who have gone before, and access to those