Drone photography by Felipe Brito
ANNUAL REPORT YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 2021 20th Year Anniversary Edition
Photo by Umniya Najaer
I remain so grateful for everything everything everything. Ed Madden (USA / Literature 2019)
CONTENTS
2
Mission
3
Artists From Around the World
4
Statements From the Founders
6
Sacatar 20 Years
12
Artists-in-Residence 2021
34
Donate to Sacatar
44
Statement of Financial Activities
46
Institutional Partners
47
Board of Directors & Staff
47
Photo by Marcelo Thomaz
“Sarau do Sacatar” - concert at the church in Alto de Santo Antonio, Itaparica
OUR MISSION IS...
• To provide residencies for seasoned and emerging artists to create new work; • To promote cross-cultural interaction and collaboration among the participating artists and the local communities; • To support artists in the creation of work that inspires across class and national boundaries; • To encourage art that returns us to where art began – to a wordless silence and a sense of wonder before all creation. 3
ARTISTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD The Sacatar Foundation, created in the
One of the group projects came from
As of December 2021, we have hosted 435
year 2000, supports and promotes the
Venezuela. It’s a curious thing how Brazil
artists from sixty-eight countries.
international artist residency program of
and the rest of South America, separated
the Instituto Sacatar, founded a year later
by jungle and mountains, interact like
in 2001. The Instituto occupies a stunning
North America
133 artists / 31%
two remote continents. These were our
Brazil
105 artists / 24%
beachside property on the island of
first artists ever from Venezuela. The
Europe
Itaparica, across the Bay of All Saints from
Venezuelans set a travel record. It took them
the colonial capital of Brazil and Brazil’s third
over a week to reach Bahia. With no flights
Australia/Asia
40 artists / 9%
largest city, Salvador da Bahia.
between the two countries due to covid,
Africa
32 artists / 7%
Latin America (not Brazil)
26 artists / 6%
they took a bus to Manaus, a bustling city in Despite the ongoing pandemic, we resumed
the heart of the Amazon Forest. Before they
Russia and Eastern Europe
23 artists / 5%
hosting artists in 2021. To limit travel and
reached Manaus, however, they were held
Middle East
11 artists / 3%
possible contagion, in April and May we
at the border with two thousand Venezuelan
hosted a group of mid-career professionals
refugees until we could provide the artists
from the state of Bahia. This was the first
with the necessary letters explaining their
time we had ever hosted a session of all
purpose in coming to Brazil. From Manaus,
Literature – English
60 artists / 14%
local artists. Beginning in late August, we
they caught planes to Brasília, then São
Music Composition
45 artists / 10%
hosted two more sessions specifically for
Paulo, then Salvador, a circuitous flight that
Film/Video
37 artists / 8%
group projects, thinking small groups could
took longer than flying from Dubai to Brazil.
Photography
36 artists / 8%
Dance/Choreography
26 artists / 6%
handle the covid protocols better in case of lockdown. The pandemic kept overturning
Visual Arts in General
168 artists / 39%
plans, and we filled group cancelations with
Theater/Performance/Circus 22 artists / 5%
invited artists, a former Fellow, and an artist
Literature – Portuguese
19 artists / 5%
whose 2020 Fellowship had been canceled
Literature-Other Languages
14 artists / 3%
due to covid-associated restrictions. 4
65 artists / 15%
Other Creative Acts
9 artists / 2%
5
Sacatar Archive
Photos by Taylor Van Horne
2019
2022
6
STATEMENTS FROM THE FOUNDERS Two years ago, the covid virus overturned ‘normal.’ The old ‘normal’ brought the covid pandemic, rampant global warming, and increased political authoritarianism. Why go ‘back’? At Sacatar, we want to usher in a fairer and more enriching ‘new normal.’ We need to determine the most effective role our artists’ residency program can play to achieve it. The ‘new normal’ will not be new. It will have characteristics of a ‘normal’ we failed to see before. Not a dog-eat-dog, ‘survival of the fittest’ world. Rather, a complex, interactive, and networked world, where the adaptable thrive. In March 2019, we planted one hundred saplings in an intentional reconstruction of the native Atlantic Forest. I have watched the astounding growth and interrelatedness of its trees. Some have withered and died while others have grown over ten meters tall. Suzanne Simard’s memoir, “Finding the Mother Tree,” helped me understand how this jungle could develop at such a phenomenal pace. The book details her exhaustive research in the fungal network — the mycorrhizal symbiosis — through which plants and trees communicate with each other. Trees communicate among themselves to defend the communal health of the forest.
Bahia has a cultural ‘mycorrhizal symbiosis.’ Its citizens share this land with the caboclos (indigenous spirits), orixás (West African deities), and Catholic saints, all invoked through rituals and ceremonies. And the eguns, celebrated uniquely in Brazil in the town of Itaparica. During ceremonies held since the 1830s, the ancestors of the local community return as eguns. These obstreperous columns of undulating fabric advise the living in guttural Yorubá. The culture of Bahia is rooted in these ancestors: the caboclos, orixás, saints, and eguns. Onto this hardy stock, the people of Bahia graft contemporary influences without fear. The culture of Bahia evolves by respecting this spiritual network. Sacatar already serves the community as a model of sustainable development. We have implemented proper recycling, photovoltaics, natural ventilation, etc. However, carbonintensive international travel is key to the value Sacatar brings to Itaparica. And vice versa. International artists return home inspired by the ‘mycorrhizal symbiosis’ of orixás, caboclos, eguns, and saints. This twoway transcultural conversation is Sacatar’s contribution to the ‘new normal.’ In a world scorched by a conflagration of change,
we can construct the new normal on solid foundations by tending to shared aspirations and building on the work of respected predecessors, as evidenced by the cultural vibrancy of Bahia. Taylor Van Horne Executive Director Instituto Sacatar Itaparica, Bahia, Brazil
The most incredible thing has been... the feeling of being able to sincerely connect with “the real world”. Get up with the sun and the birds, go to bed with the sunset, work aligned at that rate. The pandemic turned us into individuals locked in houses, screens, apartments. The possibility of connecting with something broader, more real, after a couple of years of pandemic, has been incredible and revitalizing. Taroa Zúñiga (Animation / Chile 2021) 7
STATEMENTS FROM THE FOUNDERS As one of the organization’s founders, I reflect on Sacatar’s first 20 years of operations and remind the reader that my experiences and perspectives are entirely my own. Has it been fun? – Yes, most of the time. Has it been difficult? – Yes, almost always, but don’t most of us tackle projects both to fuel our sense of purpose and to keep life interesting? Has it been rewarding? – Certainly, and thankfully. Any regrets? – No serious ones come to mind. Any big plans? – As always. The California location of the Sacatar Wilderness Area was known to one early Fellow – author Cheryl Strayed (USA, 2003) – whose published memoir of hiking the Pacific Coast Trail through Sacatar served as the source material for the movie “Wild.” I can state that the Instituto Sacatar, named after that high desert valley that inspired us founders, has been our attempt to create something “Wild” for the art world. Photo by unknown Ukranian waiter on December 25, 2019, in Kyiv
“I don’t believe in the wisdom of humans, but I believe in the stupidity of evil.” Oksana Zabuzhko (Sacatar Fellow 2016 / Literature / Ukraine) 8
I have always been spellbound by the town of Itaparica in Bahia, Brazil, during its off-season and late at night when it’s deserted and the streetlights are still on. Accompanying me on those walks, one Fellow whispered, “It’s like the town is this one big opera set. We’re waiting for performers to come onstage.
Groups at Sacatar are organized around the individual Fellows’ specific studio needs as well as their availability. One year, I remember looking around the dinner table of the Casa Central to see one Muslim, one Hindu, one Buddhist, one Jew, one Catholic, and an agnostic or atheist. Such diversity, not part of our planning, came together by serendipity. Many readers will agree that there has become a serious practice of including “land acknowledgements” at events such as conferences around the world. Sacatar shares with the Fellows what we know about the original inhabitants, the Tupinambá people of the island, as well as the history and effects of slavery in colonial Brazil. With that knowledge, the artists are better able to appreciate, interpret and pass on what they have seen of traditions that originated in Africa centuries ago and have melded with the pre-colonial culture. While traveling the planet, I’ve shared
time and space with Sacatar Fellows on their own turf. These experiences have helped me understand the impact that Itaparica has had on them and how Sacatar Fellows serve as teachers and cultural ambassadors. This last Friday, at rush hour on a Parisian metro train, I stood body-to-body with other travelers, many of them wearing backpacks and clutching suitcases or large plastic shopping bags. The mood was solemn. I chose to shut my eyes until I heard the announcement for my metro stop. I allowed other senses to guide me. The train rattling and braking, the indoor sounds of whispering, children’s chatter, the scent of a cheese sandwich… I allowed myself to imagine being a refugee fleeing my homeland in an overcrowded train. In late December 2019, while Covid news in China was first transmitted, Taylor and I visited Kyiv and dined with Sacatar Fellow and author Oksana Zabuzhko (Ukraine, 2016). Talking culture, politics, and the history of her country, Oksana said something then that she reiterated when a destructive war swept her country, creating millions of refugees, “I don’t believe in the wisdom of humans, but I believe in the stupidity of evil.” Artists are curious people, and they often move around or migrate by choice. All of us have been viewing TV footage of Ukrainians who did not
choose to leave home out of curiosity. And we count our blessings and continue to stand up for the fragile freedoms that allow us to be what we are, to strive for what we hope to accomplish, and to live where and with whom we want. And may creative individuals such as Oksana Zabuzhko continue to lead and inspire us all. Peace in Ukraine. Mitch Loch President Sacatar Foundation
Photo by Taylor Van Horne
We’re waiting for something to happen.” Itaparica can be magical. I notice that Sacatar Fellows are often inspired by rituals, ceremonies, and traditions associated with various religions practiced in Bahia. I believe that it’s important to state that Sacatar is a secular non-profit organization. I may be an adamant non-believer, but I too am often left speechless by certain experiences on the island.
Concert for Ukraine at Radio France, Paris, on March 4, 2022 9
STRONG LIKE THE BAOBAB Sacatar has always opened its doors to welcome interesting creative proposals without necessarily being linked to one of the formal “fine arts.” In this inclusive spirit, we welcomed a high priestess of the Bahian Candomblé, Ekedy Sinha. She participated in the session from November 2019 to January 2020, the last before the storm of the pandemic turned the world upside down. With no foreknowledge of what was to come, Ekedy Sinha made us a promise. She would bring us a baobab seedling – an African tree that her religion considers the tree of life – to be planted at the headquarters of Sacatar on the soil of the ancestors of Itaparica. Everything changed as the pandemic advanced throughout the world, breaking concepts of normality, transforming routines, and extinguishing lives. Human beings, naturally sociable, needed to distance themselves from their peers to preserve their own lives and their communities. We began to live in a time when fear and uncertainty were constant companions... However, surviving is human nature and adapting to new times was essential. New protocols, new accessories, and the enlightenment of science led us through the mists, opening paths to a new normality 10
Photos by Marcelo Thomaz
still under construction. And so it was, cautiously but courageously, that in April 2021, we reopened the doors of the Instituto Sacatar to residents, even amid the pandemic restrictions. To avoid the risks of long-distance travel, we held an Open Call limited to artists living in Bahia. We selected a group of five extraordinary mid-career professionals who observed health rules adapted to ensure a productive and safe coexistence during their residency session. At that moment, so full of emotions and uncertainties, we were once again blessed by the presence of Ekedy Sinha. She came to Sacatar to lead us in the celebration of a brief ceremony in which she planted the
baobab sapling in the middle of the coconut grove, in a circle of the employees and resident artists, in the middle of our faith and hopes. The planting of that small sacred seedling materialized our belief in the future and our hope that it can be better. Since then, the tree has grown, leaves have fallen and others have sprouted, illustrating well the continuation of the vital flow. We take care of it with the wish and prayer that we are longlived and strong like the baobab. Axé! Augusto Albuquerque Administrative Manager Instituto Sacatar 11
Photos by Taylor Van Horne
Sacatar Canyon, California
SACATAR 20 YEARS
12
Itaparica, Bahia
As we embark on our twenty-first year, we look back at the two decades with a sampling of our actions and interactions in Itaparica, Bahia, 2001-2021.
2000 Sacatar co-founders Mitch Loch and Taylor Van Horne conceived of establishing an artist residency program in Sacatar Canyon, high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Mitch and Taylor soon discovered that there were already over 100 residency programs across the United States – many of them located in equally extraordinary and inspiring locations – but that no formally structured ongoing residency programs were yet operating in South America. Mitch, an American media artist, teacher, and consultant, had extensive experience at artist residency programs and cross-cultural organizations around the world. Taylor, an American architect, had ten years’ experience living and working in Bahia and a deep connection to the culture and people of Bahia. Taylor admired the resistant, fecund culture of Bahia, which fearlessly adopts global influences and fluidly reinterprets them through its own cultural expressions. He felt that Bahia had much to teach the rest of the world in this regard.
Bahia. They believed that Sacatar would add greatly to the global community of artist residency programs and create unique opportunities for increased intercultural understanding through creative practice for artists from around the world. To learn more about the residency field, founders Mitch Loch and Taylor Van Horne toured the artist residency programs of the northeastern United States in the year 2000: Yaddo, MacDowell, Vermont Studio Center, Edward Albee, Art Omi, and Millay Arts. The director at Vermont Studio Center gave the best advice: “You will never figure out everything in advance. Just start, and make things happen.” And so they did. Sacatar invited three test artists while preparing the property for the first residency season in 2001.
Mitch and Taylor, 2002
Maintaining the name ‘Sacatar’ in homage to the organization’s Sierra Nevada beginnings, Mitch and Taylor decided to collaborate on the establishment of a residency program in 13
2001 • A. E. Peterson (USA) Sook Jin works
• Andrea Mason (USA)
with students
• Carlos Ferguson (USA)
creating a
• Carol Barton (USA)
mural based on
• Jane Coffey (USA)
the students’
• Jeremy Siefer (USA)
drawings of
• Patricia Chao (USA)
the island and
• Paulo Teixeira (Mozambique > Portugal)
composed of
• Ronaldo Macedo (Brazil)
beach garbage
• Sook Jin Jo (Korea > USA)
that the students collected, sorted and cleaned
On September 3, 2001, the Korean
Photos from Sacatar archives
sculptor Sook Jin Jo was the first Sacatar Fellow selected through an Open Call to disembark at the Salvador airport. With only the Casa Central to host artists, we used all five bedrooms with two additional rooms as studios for visual artists. During the first season, we made do with a laundry room without water and a staff bathroom without a door.
João Ubaldo Ribeiro, the acclaimed Brazilian author born in Itaparica, is second from the left
14
Photos by Taylor Van Horne
2002 • Chris Burrill (USA) • Eduardo Kac (Brazil > USA) • Effat Yehia (Egypt) • Faith Adiele (USA) • Gerald Cyrus (USA) • Gonzalo Vélez (Mexico) • Jane Ingram Allen (USA) • Janine Allen (South Africa) • Joe Sam (USA) • Lella Heins (Italy) • Myronn Hardy (USA) • Otavio Donasci (Brazil) • Peter Müller (Germany) • Regina Machado (Brazil) • Rigoberto Gonzalez (Mexico > USA) • Sigitas Staniunas (Lithuania) • Tim Whiten (USA > Canada) • Wilson Sukorski (Brazil)
In 2002, we built the Casa de Apoio, a staff support building. Sacatar could now function smoothly! UNESCO became our first international partner, cohosting twenty-four residencies at Sacatar until UNESCO terminated the Aschberg Bursary Program in 2015. 15
Photo from Sacatar archives
2003 • Adeyemi Olumegbon (Nigeria) • Brad Fox (USA) • Carlos Cons (Mexico) • Carlos Estévez (Cuba) • Charlotte McGowan-Griffin (UK) • Cheryl Strayed (USA) • Cora Almerino (Philippines) • Daniel Gwirtzman (USA) • Diana Blok (Uruguay > Netherlands) • Emily Raboteau (USA) • Frances Peebles (Brazil > USA) • Inês Raphaelian (Brazil) • Keith Lord (USA) • Maria Abegunde (USA) • Melanie Baker (USA) • Padma Viswanathan (Canada) • Rasheed Ali (Puerto Rico > USA) • Rodrigo Bueno (Brazil) • Sylvia Torti (USA) • Vince Agustinovich (USA)
16
While at Sacatar, Cheryl Strayed finished her book
In 2007, Frances Peebles published her Sacatar
“Torch,” prior to publication of her best-selling
book project “The Seamstress”. It was adapted
memoir, “Wild.” She told us she wanted Reese
for film and mini-series by Conspiração Films and
Witherspoon to play her in the movie to be made
acclaimed director Breno Silveira. The film, ENTRE
of “Wild,” which Reese did in 2014.
IRMÃS, premiered in Brazil in 2017.
Photos from Sacatar archives
2004 • Ana Maria S. Da Silva (Brazil) • Anna Murch (Scotland > USA) • Caetano Almeida (Brazil) • Celia De Villiers (South Africa) • Dilara Begum (Bangladesh) • Doug Hollis (USA) • Edward Barnes (USA) • Gema Hoyas Frontera (Spain) • Greg Beyer (USA) • Imran Hossain (Bangladesh) • Jane Coffey (USA) • Kristin Capp (USA) • Laura Andel (Argentina > USA)
Sunny Taylor with her local protégé Ricardo at Sacatar
• Margot Liebman (USA)
Sidiki Conde
• Maureen Fleming (USA) • Muthukrishnan Ramalingam (India) • Sérgio Alcides (Brazil) • Shelley Miller (Canada) • Sidiki Conde (Guinea > USA) • Sophie Lecomte (France) • Sunny Taylor (USA) • Tamara Guirado (USA) • Viga Gordilho (Brazil) In 2004, we rented a house in downtown Itaparica to serve as visual artist studios while planning onsite construction for 2005 17
Photos by Taylor Van Horne
2005 • Abhijit Gupta (India) • Ieda Oliveira (Brazil) • La Shawnda Crowe-Storm (USA) • Lisa Beatman (USA) • Long-Bin Chen (Taiwan) • Lucio Gregoretti (Italy) • Ngamanya Banda (Zambia) • Opal Palmer Adisa (Jamaica > USA) • Solange Lima (Brazil > France) • Vicky Shukuroglou (Australia)
We hosted two groups between October 2005 and February 2006 because of earlier multiple on-site construction projects. We built five structures around the coconut grove that faces the beach: an administration building, the writer’s studio Esfinge, the two visual arts studios Água and Terra, and a woodshop / maintenance building.
I love the energy of this place, Salvador and its amazing vibrant culture, then Itaparica and its laid-back ease, and its charm… My studio is a dream. I love the view from every angle. It loved my words.
Now each artist had a separate studio to work in, no longer just an annex next to the artist’s apartment. 18
Opal Palmer Adisa (Literature / Jamaica > USA 2005)
Photos by Taylor Van Horne
2006 • Andreia Pinto-Correia (Portugal) • Anindita Dutta (India) • Bernd Lichtenberg (Germany) • Diego Quemada-Diez (Spain > USA) • E. J. Levy (USA) • Elida Tessler (Brazil) • Erman Gonzalez (Cuba > USA) • Ersi Sotiropoulos (Greece) • Evan Eisenberg (USA) • Gabriel Kram (USA) • Heather Figi (USA) • Karl Ciesluk (Canada) • Kostana Banovic (Bosnia > Netherlands) • Lavonne Mueller (USA) • Mithu Sen (India) • Philomena Bohnenberger (Brazil) • Pinar Yolacan (Turkey > USA) • Reynold Reynolds (USA > Germany) • Roy Staab (USA) • Stacey Steers (USA)
Dona Dinalva, a local poet, lived on the Street of Heaven, located on a hill serrated by clay staircases in one of the island’s poorest neighborhoods. Sixty-six years old, she had never presented her poetry in public. In January 2006, the artists in residence created her first public performance and prepared a little chapbook of her poems, her first published work. They assembled a café-theatre around two coconut palms. Solange Lima (Brazil > France), a clown and circus performer, hung her silks between the palms and performed, while Dona Dinalva recited the poems she had written for the occasion to accompany Solange’s artistry. 19
Photos by Erik Goengrich
2007 • Colette Fu (USA) • Dawn Stetzel (USA) • Derek Bermel (USA) • Erica Harris (USA) • Erik Goengrich (Germany) • Giovana Dantas (Brazil) • Henrietta Mantooth (USA) • Hung-Chih Peng (Taiwan > USA) • Jacqueline Bouchard (Canada) • Jon Taylor (USA) • Marcos Zacariades (Brazil) • Maristela Ribeiro (Brazil)
public park in a poor neighborhood of Itaparica. He built the congressional office buildings out of sticks and clay, like the most primitive houses on the island. For the dome over the House of Representatives and the inverted dome over the
• Sang-Taek Oh (Korea)
Senate he used damaged wash basins. The models of the office buildings served as
• Sook Jin Jo (Korea > USA)
benches in the park.
• Soumer Daghistani (Syria) • Susana Marques (Portugal > UK) • Tomas Ribas (Brazil) • Virginia Medeiros (Brazil) • Walmor Correa (Brazil)
20
Erik Goengrich designed a replica of the governmental center of Brasília as a
Costumes by Pat Oleszko / photos by Tamara Burlando
2008 • Adriana Rojas Pretel (Colombia) • Andreia Wurzer (Germany > Colombia) • Andrew Mottershead (UK) • Be Ward (Australia) • David Poznanter (USA) • Dinu Flamand (Romania > France) • Hannah Morris (USA) • Ivania Kunzler (Brazil)
We curated a group of performers and acrobats who worked with local kids to put
• Jaako Heikkila (Finland)
on a circus and other happenings about town.
• Lauri Lyons (USA) • Marcelo Tchelli (Brazil) • Michael Atavar (UK) • Michael Lowenthal (USA) • Michelle Mercer (USA) • Mie Preckler (Belgium > USA) • Nathan Gray (Australia) • Nicolas Testoni (Argentina) • Pat Oleszko (USA) • Rahul Das Ananda (Bangladesh) • Rebecca French (UK) • Scott Barton (USA) • Shane Book (Peru > Canada) • Shivani Manghnani (USA) • Sue Anderson (USA) • Yumi Kori (Japan) • Zoltan Molnar (Hungary)
21
2009 • Anaisa Franco (Brazil) • Aneli Munteanu (Romania) • Dagmar Binder (Germany) • Rae Howell (Australia) • Gary Pozner (USA) • Isabel Ferrand (Portugal > Netherlands) • Jean Ranger (Canada) • Joan Szymko (USA) • Olek (Poland > USA) • Rodrigo Cass (Brazil) • Sandro Pimentel (Brazil) • Zahra Beigi (Iran)
The horse: photo by Jean-Marc Godès
YEAR OF FRANCE IN BRAZIL • Dany Leriche (France) • Etienne Yver (France) • Jean-Marc Godes (France) • Louis Pavageau (France) • Sophie Preveyraud (France)
The baiana: photo by Dany Leriche and Jean Michel Fickenger
As part of the Year of France in Brazil, we hosted five French artists who worked in five cities across Bahia. After their residencies in the interior of the state, the artists returned to Sacatar where they prepared an exhibition that opened in the Museu de Arte Moderna in Salvador, followed by exhibitions South: billboard by Louis Pavageau (1982 - 2009) in partnership with Group Gema - Feira de Santana, BA 22
that traveled to the five cities.
2010
At the eastern edge of the property, we built the performance/dance studio, Ar, and the multi-purpose/music studio, Mar. Sacatar was now equipped with five bed/
• Ariel De Bigault (France)
bath suites to house artists, and five studios arrayed around the coconut grove,
• Evan Eisenberg (USA)
plus the two rooms still available as studios in the Casa Central. Photo by Taylor Van Horne
• Faith Adiele (USA) • Gabriel Netto (Brazil) • Gaio Matos (Brazil) • Giovana Dantas (Brazil) • Jacinta Vlach (USA) • Jacki McInnes (South Africa) • Jamie Diamond (USA) • Jane Coffey (USA) • Ki Jin Park (Korea) • Marcio Harum (Brazil) • Ndhikumbule Ngqinambi (South Africa) • Raminta Serksnyte (Lithuania) • Revital Falke (Israel) • Shiau Chu Fang (Taiwan) • Sicelo Ziqubu (South Africa)
Derek Bermel (USA) had been a Sacatar Fellow in 2007-8. During his residency, he composed a gentle bossa nova song whose refrain went “Itaparica, Itaparica.” In April 2010, Gustavo Dudamel conducted the world premiere of Derek’s Canzones Americanas in the Disney Hall of Los Angeles. The Grammy Award winning singer Luciana Souza stepped forward and sang its fourth and final movement, “Itaparica.” Photo concept by Evan Eisenberg
• Rasoul Abbasi (Iran)
23
2011 • Alice Miceli (Brazil) • Ana Teixeira (Brazil) • Anne Fauteux (Canada) • Ash Bulayev (Ukraine > Greece) • Candice Lin (USA) • Damien Schumann (South Africa) • Felipe Barros (Brazil) • Felipe Lara (Brazil) • Gerald Cyrus (USA) • J. Michael Walker (USA) • Jonathan Pratt (USA) • Joseph Cavalieri (USA) • Karlien De Villiers (South Africa) • Lucimar Bello (Brazil) • Maggie Smith (USA) • Margriet Westerhof (Netherlands) • Marharyta Stashulionak (Belarus > Poland) • Mari Ogihara (Japan > USA) • Nancy Stamatopoulou (Greece)
Additional photos from the series “Off Season” by Damien Schumann Here
• Parisa Karimi (Germany) • Patrik Lerchmuller (Switzerland > France) • Rik Freeman (USA)
Through a partnership with Africa
• Sean Cawelti (USA)
Centre, we began offering Fellowships
• Vered Sivan (Israel)
specifically to artists born in Africa.
• Yoko Inoue (Japan > USA)
This partnership continued for nine successful years.
24
Photo by Augusto Albuquerque
2012 • Amy Campion (USA) • Claudia Joskowicz (Bolivia > USA) • Cristina Rascon-Castro (Mexico) • Ernesto Diaz (Mexico) • Felipe Góes (Brazil) • Ivan Juarez (Mexico) • Justin Shoulder (Australia) • Jyoti Mistry (South Africa) • Kitso Lelliott (Botswana > South Africa) • Linda Yudin (USA) • Maja Klaric (Croatia) • Matt Sheridan (USA) • Maya Watanabe (Peru > Spain) • Mustafa Kia (Iran > Afghanistan) • Sigitas Staniunas (Lithuania) KOREAN TRADITIONAL PERFORMING
In an interesting partnership with the Korean Traditional Performing Arts
ARTS FOUNDATION
Foundation, Sacatar hosted eight Korean dancers, sent to Bahia to strengthen
• Ahn Dae Cheon (Korea) • Heo Chang Yeol (Korea)
and deepen the traditional arts through exposure to new influences. Through
• Jun Inchul (Korea) • Kang Si Nae (Korea) • Kim Seo
Japanese occupation and suppression in the mid-twentieth century, Korean
Jin (Korea) • Lee Sang Yun (Korea) • Minho Choi (Korea) • Seon Young Uk (Korea)
traditional arts were nearly extinguished. Reconstructed after WWII, the performances tended toward static replications of historic precedents. Through this partnership, KTPAF sought to restore a vibrant and renewing evolution within the traditional performing arts.
25
• Anani Sanouvi (Togo) • April Banks (USA)
Photo by Augusto Albuquerque
2013
• Billy Keniston (USA) • Bisi Silva (Nigeria) • Daniel Gwirtzman (USA) • Daniel Melim (Portugal) • Françoise Choveaux (France) • Fred Martin (France) • Heather Boose (USA) • Karen Ostrom (USA) • Larissa Min (Brazil > USA) • Linda Franke (Germany) • Magnolia Wilson (New Zealand) • Maria-Saroja Ponnambalam (Canada) • Mark Greenfield (USA) • Mimi Ngok (Kenya) • Néle Azevedo (Brazil) • Nerize Portela (Brazil) • Okwei Odili (Nigeria > Brazil) • Scott Wallace (USA) • Shigeki Yoshida (Japan > USA) • Tendai Huchu (Zimbabwe > Scotland)
Under our partnership with UNESCO, we decided to give a chance to a young,
• Vilma Samulionyte (Lithuania)
self-taught Nigerian songwriter, Okwei Odili. A potent rising voice in afrobeat and
• William Wilson (France)
soul music, Okwei lives and performs between Salvador and Lagos to this day, as seen in her work with the West African-based Nigerian afrobeat band Ayetoro, her solo projects, and the success of her joint EP with the Brazilian band Ifá.
26
Photos by Camila Sposatti
2014 • Anthony Arrobo (Ecuador) • Basir Mahmood (Pakistan) • Bel Falleiros (Brazil) • Cécile Martin (Canada) • Cristina Megía (Spain) • Dany Leriche (France) • Ersi Sotiropoulos (Greece) • Eun Jung Choi (Korea > USA) • Germaine Ingram (USA) • Guillermo Ortega (Mexico > USA) • Jean-Michel Fickinger (France) • Jonathan Pfeffer (USA) • Karolina Karlic (Poland > USA) • Lina El-Mounzer (Lebanon) • Liutauras Janusaitis (Lithuania) • Marielson Carvalho (Brazil)
“Teatro Anatômico da Terra” by Camila Sposati in Itaparica
• Mário Macilau (Mozambique) • Niki Passath (Austria) • Romy Pocztaruk (Brazil)
3RD BIENAL DA BAHIA
Sacatar hosted fourteen artists who
• Camila Sposati (Brazil) • Charbel Boutros (Lebanon
prepared site-specific installations for
> Netherlands) • Eustáquio Neves (Brazil) • Gustavo
Carvalho (Brazil) • Milena Travassos (Brazil) • Omar Salomão (Brazil) • Renan Vieira Andrade (Brazil) • Giselle Beiguelman (Brazil) • Rodrigo Matheus (Brazil) • Lisette Lagnado (Congo > Brazil) • Luisa Mota (Portugal >Brazil) • Luis Berríos (Puerto Rico > Germany)
the 3rd Bienal da Bahia, held fortysix years after the Second Bienal, which was shut down by the military dictatorship during its opening week in 1968.
• Ícaro Lira (Brazil) • Paulo Nazareth (Brazil) 27
2015 • Ariel De Bigault (France) • Ayesha Attah (Ghana > Senegal) • Bruno Cançado (Brazil) • Colby Damon (USA) • Fran Siegel (USA) • Jacinta Vlach (USA) • Jean Ranger (Canada) • Karen Hampton (USA) • Luciany Aparecida (Brazil) • Michael Zelehoski (USA) • Odaraya Mello (Brazil) • Olaniyi Rasheed Akindiya (Nigeria > USA) • Olek (Poland > USA) • Paulo Pjota (Brazil) • Rik Freeman (USA) Upon leaving Bahia, Rik Freeman promised to donate a large-scale painting of the legendary heroine Maria Felipa, who expelled the Portuguese from the island of Itaparica by whipping them with branches of a poisonous plant. Rik finally By now, Sacatar had hosted forty-seven writers in English and other languages, but only three writers in Portuguese. To rectify this imbalance, we began a partnership with the Cultural Foundation of Bahia. The partnership, which will expand in 2022, annually awards one or more Fellowships to Portuguese language authors living in Bahia. 28
completed the painting, which was digitally reproduced at a scale of 2.40m x 4.00m and installed as a permanent panel in the auditorium of the Juracy Magalhães Júnior Library, in Itaparica. The official opening happened on the anniversary of the library’s founding.
Olek and Jean Ranger filming local dancers. Costumes by Olek Photo from Sacatar archives
• Tom Correia (Brazil)
Photo by Mitch Loch
2016 • Ana Paula Hofling (Brazil > USA) • Carol Rodrigues (Brazil) • Deisiane Barbosa (Brazil) • Elisabeth Zwimpfer (Switzerland > Germany) • Gabriella Smith (USA) • Gordana Hajinovic (Serbia) • Januibe Tejera (Brazil > France) • Kara Crombie (USA) • Karen Ostrom (Canada > USA) • Latasha Diggs (USA) • Lauren Adams (USA) • Lesley Huppert (Germany) • Luciana Magno (Brazil) • Maureen Fleming (Japan > USA) • Meredith Lackey (USA) • Nana Ayim (Ghana) • Oksana Zabuzhko (Ukraine) • Petri Kaivanto (Finland) • Philip Boehm (USA)
Laurie Anderson shoots the offerings to Yemanjá in the town of Misericórdia on the Island of Itaparica
SACATAR SOLO • Laurie Anderson (USA)
OLHARES BRASILEIROS • Eneida Sanches (Brazil)
Sacatar Solo is a program we
• Fabio Duarte (Brazil) • Virgilio Abreu Neto (Brazil)
launched to offer established artists an opportunity to have exclusive use of Sacatar’s facilities. During her solo
• Pieter Paul Pothoven (Netherlands)
residency, multimedia artist Laurie
• Roland Cros (France)
Anderson worked on multiple projects,
• Scott Hocking (USA)
including her book, “All the Things I
• Zohra Opoku (Germany > Ghana)
Lost in the Flood,” and “Letters to Jack,”
• Uelington Santana (Brazil) In partnership with the Brazilian Ministry of Arts, Sacatar organized an exchange of artists called Olhares Brasileiros. Far from the cultural centers of Rio and São Paulo, the program exchanged artists between residencies across northern, central and northeastern Brazil. Click link below.
a performance she premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the week she returned from Brazil. 29
• Bruce Odland (USA)
Photo by Joseph Cavalieri
2017
In response to US President Donald Trump’s travel ban, Sacatar sought artists from the predominantly Muslim majority countries whose
• Chandrahas Choudhury (India)
citizens were prohibited entry to
• Gleb Skubachevskiy (Russia)
the USA. We invited Hadia Gana of
• Hadia Gana (Libya)
Libya in 2017 and Ahmad Mahmoud
• Jessica Rimondi (Italy)
of Sudan in 2018.
• Joanna Bator (Poland) • Jori Lewis (USA) • Joseph Cavalieri (USA) • Jumatatu Poe (USA) • Kato Change (Kenya) • Ladee Hubbard (USA) • Laura Vandewynckel (Belgium) • Louise Botkay (Brazil) • Maria Teresa Crawford Cabral (Portugal > Germany) • Márcio Junqueira (Brazil) • Marija Stojnic (Serbia) • Matthew Burgess (USA) • Mauricio Adinolfi (Brazil) • Pat Oleszko (USA) • Paul Roth (USA > Canada) • Pedro H. Lemes da Silva (Brazil) • Precious Lovell (USA) • Renan Marcondes (Brazil) • Sam Auinger (Germany) • Sandra Brewster (Canada)
during the fight for Brazilian independence in 1823. The church to honor this saint
• Sergio Rodrigo (Brazil > Italy)
was built in 1923. Her statue was stolen from the church in 2011. In 2017, Joseph
• Seungjae Lee (Korea) • Suzanne Rivecca (USA) • Vilma Samulionyte (Lithuania) • Xavier Marrades (Catalonia) 30
Local legend claims Nossa Senhora da Piedade appeared on the beach of Itaparica
Cavalieri returned for a second residency during which he fabricated and donated to the Church of the Piedade a 1.9m-diameter stained glass window depicting the saint, returning her to her church.
Photo by Ahmad Mahmoud
2018 • Ahmad Mahmoud (Sudan) • Alexandra Pechman (USA) • Amara Tabor Smith (USA) • Bia Gayotto (Brazil > USA) • Cara Stacey (South Africa) • Caroline Rodrigues (Brazil) • Carolyne Wright (USA) • Deanna Witkowski (USA) • Diana Blok (Uruguay > Netherlands) • Erica Connerney (USA) • Estabrak Al-Ansari (Iran > Oman)
“Nau Frágil,” photo performance by Val Souza (Performance / Brazil 2018)
• Fábio Duarte (Brazil) • Florence Neal (USA)
SACATAR SOLO • Baiana System (Brazil)
• Fred Martin (France)
An innovative Bahian band that revolutionizes the local
• Isa Trigo (Brazil)
rhythms of afoxé and ijexá through electronics and
• Mikhael Tara Garver (USA)
video-branding. During their residency, they produced new work for their next album.
• Paul Roth (USA > Canada)
• Felipe Cartaxo (Brazil) • Marcelo Seco (Brazil) • Roberto Barreto (Brazil) • Russo Passapusso (Brazil)
• Pieter Paul Pothoven (Netherlands) • Sara Roberts (USA) • Tatiele Silva (Brazil) • Val Souza (Brazil) • Victoria Bulley (UK) • Victoria Udondian (Nigeria > USA)
Photo by Felipe Cartaxo
• Raminta Serksnyte (Lithuania)
Paul Roth (USA > Canada), the director of the Ryerson Image Centre in Toronto, worked on the 300-page catalog that accompanied the exhibition, “Gordon Parks: The Flávio Story.” This heart-breaking exhibition traveled to the Instituto Moreira Salles in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, the Ryerson Centre in Toronto, and the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The catalog explores a photo essay by Gordon Parks and the extraordinary chain of events it prompted. “Freedom’s Fearful Foe: Poverty,” published in Life magazine in June 1961, profiled the da Silva family, living in a hillside favela of Rio de Janeiro. Focused on the eldest son, Flávio, a twelve-year-old suffering from crippling asthma, the story elicited thousands of letters and $30,000 in donations from Life readers, relocating the family to a new home and moving Flávio to a hospital in the United States. 31
Photos by Marcelo Thomaz
2019 • Aline Xavier (Brazil) • Ana Devora (Spain) • Angele Etoundi Essamba (Cameroon > Netherlands) • Begoña Feijoó Fariña (Spain > Switzerland) • Brenda Rios (Mexico) • Deborah Ross (USA) • Dipika Mukherjee (India > USA) • Ed Madden (USA) • France-Luce Benson (Haiti > USA) • Gersonice Ekedy Sinha (Brazil)
A special residency session focused on ecology. The Fellows joined forces to
• Jamie McGhee (USA)
produce an event proposed by returning Fellow Maja Klaric (Croatia), the “Festival
• Kubra Khademi (Afghanistan > France) • Laura Gorski (Brazil) • Leticia Simoes (Brazil) • Lucimar Bello (Brazil) • Marina Fokidis (Greece)
of the Four Elements.” The Fellows and locals worked together to refurbish the Fonte dos Brasileiros, a natural spring in a poor neighborhood of Itaparica. The afternoon Festival at the Fonte dos Brasileiros featured paintings, poetry, film, performance, and music by local artists and the Sacatar Fellows.
• Shimon Attie (USA) • Stephanie Griffin (Canada > USA) • Valentina Homem (Brazil)
ECOLOGY RESIDENCY SESSION • Cristiane Mohallen (Brazil) • Maja Klaric (Croatia) • Mandy Morrison (USA) • Margriet Westerhof
Away from Itaparica, founders Mitch Loch and Taylor Van Horne met with Sacatar Fellows at alumni parties
(Netherlands) • Matheus Buranelli (Brazil) • Tre
in Los Angeles, New York
Lawrence (USA)
City, Washington DC, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, São Paulo, and Kyiv, Ukraine.
32
Photos by Taylor Van Horne
Photo by Mitch Loch
2020
Despite an absence of residents, 2020 was a significant and productive year. Click here to read the annual report.
The pandemic began, and we canceled all planned residencies. We used the downtime to build the Casa Jaali in the center of the Atlantic Forest planted the year before. This building, currently home to the founders, will one day convert into four additional artist studios. With the pandemic still ongoing, we renovated the century-old Casa Pequena, turning it into four additional artist apartments, providing Sacatar with nine artist apartments and seven studios. 33
Photo Igor Tiago
Photo Ricardo Melo
2021 ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE With appropriate pandemic protocols in place, we resumed hosting artists starting with a special session for artists from Bahia only, followed by two sessions for Group Projects, in which small groups worked on projects
Alejandra Hernández Muñoz
Chicco Assis
with limited local engagement.
Visual Arts, Curatorial Arts & Research
Literature, Multimedia & Performance
Uruguay > Brazil
Brazil
Sacatar Open Call for Artists Living in Bahia 2021
Sacatar Open Call for Artists Living in Bahia 2021
I researched the trajectory of the residency program at Sacatar during its first twenty years of activities, focusing primarily on the visual arts. Due to the pandemic restrictions, I intended to work with interviews and documents in the Instituto’s archives. But I soon realized the context of Itaparica and the complexity of the projects and events produced throughout the twenty years would require a more careful study beyond the period of the residency. Instead, I concentrated on the structure of the Instituto and the local history, so entwined with the history of Bahia and Brazil. I organized clippings, visited places where artists had realized interventions, and analyzed Fellows’ videos. I heard depositions from various artists, but I did not make a statistical analysis or questionnaire for interviews. I instead concentrated on those things that I could only access directly at the Instituto.
I reviewed my dissertation and research about the Afoxé Badauê (a carnaval drumming corps) to produce a book of short stories. After fifteen days, something seemed “off,” until under a mango tree, talking to Edbrass, I had the idea to write letters. Letters to remember Badauê. My talks with Tina Mello led me to consider ‘performative letters.’ To use my body as pages of these letters. I saw a fisherman, waist deep in water, pulling a boat and carrying an umbrella to keep his head dry. Anchored in front of my studio, his boat and his actions inspired a merging of peformance, text and photography, which Tina and I intend to collaborate on.
(The residency) was a radical change from the pandemic crisis: from a gaseous to a liquid state! Everything had been cloudy, and I was able to see a true oasis with infinite creative possibilities on the remote and simple island of Itaparica. Cau Gomez (Visual Arts / Brazil 2021) 34
Photo by Nathalia Miranda
Edbrass Brasil
Filipe Bezerra
Tina Melo
Music, Performance & Research
Visual Arts & Multimedia
Performance & Research
Brazil
Brazil
Brazil
Sacatar Open Call for Artists Living in Bahia 2021
Sacatar Open Call for Artists Living in Bahia 2021
Sacatar Open Call for Artists Living in Bahia 2021
I continued to research ways to articulate sound into environmental art. From site recordings and the collection of objects from the mineral and vegetable kingdoms, I intend to create an interactive installation in 2022. The immersion at Sacatar made it possible to go beyond my initial objective. The exuberant nature of Itaparica was my passion from day one. The experience opened new doors of perception that I only imagined existed. A period of intense development and an inner connection to nature surpassed my original idea for the project. The residency deeply impacted my artistic practice and has provided a powerful stimulus to my ongoing research.
I came to Sacatar with a theme but uncertain of the format: internet, cell phone or Instagram. My initial research led me to change my intentions. I had intended to do a work about social media, but my project gained new dimensions, linked more to video art and video installation. The environment and time at Sacatar were crucial for this study and investigation.
I worked on an ongoing project I call “Liquid Narratives,” in which I look for ways to present the black female body in performance that does not draw uniquely on pain. I intended to develop an audiovisual work based on positive images of black women’s bodies. In the course of the residency, I made a series of images that tell lovely stories, infused by the ambient nature of the island and its places of intense life. I made adaptations due to the pandemic. I usually work with my partner to make and edit photographs and vídeo imagery, but here the other artists in residence stepped in to help. This experience at Sacatar came at a propitious moment, as this research is part of my doctoral studies in visual art which I am close to concluding. This tranquil, welcoming, inspiring place allowed me to concentrate on research and creative work which would not have been as full or as potent in another setting. 35
Sacatar Open Call Group Projects 2021
“The Confessions of Bahia” Our group worked on a graphic novel about the period between 1591 and 1593, when the Holy Inquisition took root in Bahia. I worked on the text. Cristina Lasaitis did research and editing. Hugo Canuto and Kirnna Schaun illustrated the stories Cristina and I had identified. We completed all that we had planned: the script is ready, and the illustrators (including those who worked remotely) produced forty of the ninety-eight pages we designed. That’s 41% of the graphic novel, the balance of which will be completed in the course of 2022. Given the conditions at Sacatar, the project increased in scope, from sixty pages initially planned to 98. We finished the script in record time, because here we did not have to cook, wash clothes or clean the house. After I finished the script, I began work on a screenplay. In short, I finished one project and began another.
Alexey Dodsworth
Cristina Lasaitis
Literature
Literature & Research
Brazil
Brazil
Hugo Canuto
Kirnna Schaun
Visual Arts
Visual Arts
Brazil
Brazil
Alexey Dodsworth
The Holiness of Jaguaripe, a syncretic religious movement that happened in Bahia during the colonial period, mixed elements of the religious practices of the Tupinambá native people and the Catholic Church, much to the Church’s displeasure. Finished drawing on the facing page by Hugo Canuto (Visual Arts / Brazil 2021) 36
37
Photo by Marcelo Thomaz
Sacatar Open Call Group Projects 2021
“Two Less” Our project had a local connection via a macro sense of history: a component conditioned by racism and exclusion that echoes in the local history. Sacatar’s trouble-free environment allowed us to increase our focus and to notice and fix problems in the script we would not have seen in our normal working conditions. Our animation project worked much better with our team together. (Editor: Taroa lives in Chile; Carlos and César in Venezuela.) Working before online was very different. Together on site, we were able to solve problems and move forward quickly. We completed 90% of the first act of our animation film.
38
Photo by Mitch Loch
Photo by Mitch Loch
Photo by Mitch Loch
Taroa Zúñiga Silva
Taroa Zúñiga Silva
Carlos Zerpa
César Díaz
Animation
Animation
Animation
Chile
Venezuela
Venezuela
Illustration stills from the short animated film “Two Less” STORYLINE Two young migrant women die in obscure
SYNOPSIS
Although their motivations and contexts were
circumstances that involve repressive bodies of the
“Two less” explores the last year of life of Joanne
dissimilar, the points of coincidence – in their
state. We will follow the situations that led Joanne
Florvil and Beatriz Díaz Agüero, two women who
personal lives and in the outcome of their stories –
and Beatriz to make the decision to migrate, and
migrated to Chile at different times and from
prompts us to reflect on how little migration
how the country they reached became a boxing ring
different countries: Beatriz in 1973, from
struggles, state policies and the actions of
that cornered and threatened until killing them.
Argentina, and Joanne in 2016, from Haiti.
repressive bodies have changed in Chile in 40 years. 39
Photo by Marcelo Thomaz
Sacatar Open Call Group Projects 2021
“The Sugar Lake” Our group is engaged in developing a multimedia performative piece, combining poetry, music and physical installation at a former sugar factory site owned by Tate & Lyle Sugars on the banks of the River Thames in East London. Our project site is currently being transformed from sugar stores and industrial processes into creative workspace set amongst thousands of new homes built to replace lost industrial works. Of particular interest to our group is a 40m long depression in the dockside that is now filled with water. This ‘lake’ is the residual impression of a sugar mound so vast it has displaced the concrete slabs and earth that bore it. Our project, The Sugar Lake, is to be a performative expression of the Sugar Age, orienting around themes of scale and displacement in material and commodity, humanity and fuel. Our project involved research into the history of the sugar industry and its impact to the physical landscape along with cultural and societal circumstances arising from its history in the Bahia region of Brazil. As we were not sure what to expect through our travels in the region, we were delighted to find the area to be rich in experiences, although perhaps this meant that we did not finish as much of the project work as hoped in the timescale... having a chance to experience the rich culture, warm people along with physical historic infrastructure of the region was hugely informative to our work. Ed Holloway 40
Visit to the ruins of the sugar mill Engenho Cajaíba in São Francisco do Conde, Bahia
Ed Holloway
Karen McCarthy Woolf
Zakari Mokrani
Multimedia & Research
Literature & Research
Music & Research
UK
UK
UK
Photo by Augusto Albuquerque
At the Fonte da Bica artesian spring during the first week tour of Itaparica
Luana Rocha
Umniya Najaer
Literature
Literature & Multimedia
Brazil
Sudan > Germany > USA
FUNCEB Literature Open Call 2021
Sacatar Open Call
I worked on a story for a screenplay during my residency, now complete. I will further develop it as a screenplay, exactly as I had planned. My studio was marvelous and contributed to my concentration and working methods, just as the facilities at Sacatar and the terrific experience of living in Itaparica were fundamental to the productivity of my stay.
During my time at Sacatar I worked, slowly, on two projects, and at times experimented with new mediums. I wouldn’t say I accomplished everything I planned to – but that has more to do with the nature of my plans. Looking back, I accomplished a lot in terms of research and writing. But more importantly I fell into a sort of equilibrium, waking up early, running, eating a nutritious breakfast, and then sitting down to work. In the week before coming, I lost my ten-year-old cousin, and on the day I arrived, my grandmother. My first month at Sacatar was profoundly colored by these losses. The integrity of Sacatar’s natural beauty and quiet were deeply healing for me.
This experience far surpasses what comes to mind when I think of an ‘artist residency’ and has taught me a lot about the kind of quality of life I want moving forward. The boundless nature, consistent meals, and private workplace are necessities for my wellbeing and my artistic and intellectual production. These two months are by far the highest quality of life I ever had. Moving forward, my goal is to recreate this sense in my own life.
Umniya Najaer (Literature & Multimedia / Sudan > Germany > USA 2021) 41
Every other day, the Fellows could see in the morning paper the political cartoon that Cau Gomez had prepared at Sacatar the day before.
42
Photo by Mitch Loch
Photo by Mitch Loch
Lauri Lyons
Cau Gomez Visual Arts Brazil Invited Artist 2021
I reviewed and edited my production over the last thirty years to create a book, a personal retrospective. I did this while concurrently maintaining my obligations as a political cartoonist, producing cartoons, caricatures, and illustrations during my residency. I explored the traditions of the Afro-Brazilian religions of Bahia; and in conjunction with the gorgeous studio -with its views of nature and the ocean of Itaparica – I was inspired to resume painting.
Rukmini Callimachi
Visual Arts
Literature
USA
Romania > USA
Returning Fellow
Invited Artist 2021
I researched African-based burial traditions, cemeteries, ancestral worship, and the related spiritual folklore in Itaparica and Bahia. The Sacatar residency program provided direct access to candomblé terreiros (ed: the sites where Afro-Brazilian religions are practiced), mães- e pais-de-santo (ed: the female and male priests of candomblé), cemeteries, and the related cultural landmarks. These experiences provided a new depth of knowledge that could only be acquired through experience with local practitioners, historians, and residents.
I am working on a memoir which braids two threads: The evolution of my reporting on ISIS and al-Qaeda and how I learned to penetrate the terrorists’ groups; and my quest to get to the bottom of a mystery at the heart of my family. When I came to Sacatar, I set myself the goal of writing 30,000 words. I wrote 33,000, which is wonderful. But I had thought that in the 30,000 words, I would be able to cover all of my past reporting in Mali on al-Qaeda and much of my reporting on ISIS. In that word count, I only finished about 3/4 of the Mali chapter. So I still have a long way to go.
43
44 Photos and Artwork by Walmor Corrêa (Visual Arts / Brazil 2007)
Help Sacatar continue to nurture the voices that enrich our lives.
In my lifetime, I have witnessed
despite the circumstances of their birth.
extraordinary positive change in a
Creativity and mobility are essential to
turbulent political atmosphere that
usher civilization towards a post-national
obscures accomplishments. People the
awareness. Please consider a donation
world over hold in the palms of their
to Sacatar and to the many creative
hands devices that give them access
individuals through whose manifold
to information kings of former years
actions we will see the way forward.
could only dream of. We cannot look to the bickering political classes to create
--- Taylor Van Horne, Founder, Sacatar
the vision of the future. Artists do that. They always have. Artists emerge from all socio-economic backgrounds. At Sacatar, we are committed to assist all creative individuals to reach their potential, 45
STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES During the first three months of 2021, we completed the renovation of the Casa Pequena,
We wish to thank our 2021 partner organizations:
a one-hundred-year-old farmhouse, retrofitted to include four additional artist apartments
• Fundação Cultural do Estado da Bahia
with attached baths. Sacatar has now reached
• Pro-Helvetia (Switzerland)
its goal of nine artist apartments—five in the
• Djerassi Resident Artists Program (USA)
individuals and small groups. Through investments and donations, the Sacatar endowment increased by almost USD$75,000 from USD$494,000 to USD$567,000. The 5% annual withdrawal now supports two months of Sacatar’s operations.
These partners adapted methods as needed to provide residencies in a safe and responsible manner.
Donations Endowment TOTAL
Direct Instituto Sacatar Funding Program in USA Administrative Overhead / Travel
Also, we thank the generous donations of
USD$161.000
74%
USD$56.000
26%
USD$217.000
100%
TOTAL
USD$192.000
85%
USD$3.700
2%
USD$29.900
13%
USD$225.600 100%
Anonymous, Barbara Krulik, Dipika Mukherjee, Fran Siegel, Gerald Cyrus, Jan Williamson, Karen Ostrom, Liz Keim, Mitch Loch, Philip Boehm, Sally
INSTITUTO SACATAR INCOME
Kellman, Stephanie Griffin, and Taylor Van Horne.
Funding from Sacatar Foundation Funding from Partners
At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in
TOTAL
January 2020, the exchange rate for the Brazilian real was four to the dollar. As of December
USD$192.000
91%
USD$20.000
9%
USD$212.000
100%
2021, the real had devalued to BR$5.35 to the
INSTITUTO SACATAR EXPENSES
dollar. While inflation in Brazil was high – 10%
Salaries
USD$91.300
43%
in 2021 – the favorable exchange rate worked
Taxes + Fees
USD$28.250
13%
Utilites
USD$9.000
4%
ARTISTS SERVED 20
Groceries
USD$9.870
5%
ARTIST DAYS 924
Overhead + Admin
USD$25.600
12%
of twenty years ago when we began hosting
Construction + Renovation
USD$48.300
23%
artists without a proper bathroom for the staff!
TOTAL
USD$212.320
100%
in Sacatar’s favor. We renovated and built during the covid-imposed downtimes without increasing monthly outlays, bringing the physical infrastructure up to the standards we dreamed
46
SACATAR FOUNDATION INCOME
SACATAR FOUNDATION EXPENSES
Casa Central and four in the Casa Pequena— providing us greater flexibility in hosting
FINANCIAL SUMMARY 2021
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS – CURRENT AND FORMER IN BRASIL
IN NORTH AMERICA
Acervo da Laje Ativa Atelier ArtRio Feira de Arte do Rio de Janeiro Bienal da Bahia / Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia Bienal do Recôncavo / Fundação Dannemann Bienal Mercosul Centro Cultural São Paulo Centro Universitário Belas Artes / SP-Arte Church of São Lourenço / Itaparica EAV-Parque Lage Fundação Cultural do Estado da Bahia Ministério da Cultura do Brasil Mirante do Solar - Casa de Cultura e Ética Municipal School Benedito de Oliveira Barros Prêmio PIPA - Brazil Rumos Itaú Cultural Secretaria da Cultura da Bahia VideoBrasil - Brasil Universidade Federal da Bahia Universidade Federal do Recôncavo Baiano IPAC - Instituto do Patrimônio Artístico e Cultural da Bahia Museu Carlos Costa Pinto
Dance-UP / Pennsylvania Los Angeles Cultural Affairs / California Djerassi Resident Artists Program / California La Chambre Blanche / Quebec
BOARD OF DIRECTORS FOUNDERS Taylor Van Horne and Mitch Loch BOARD OF DIRECTORS INSTITUTO SACATAR
IN EUROPE
Taylor Van Horne, Sabrina Gledhill, Sergio
People’s Palace Project / UK British Council Pro-Helvetia / Switzerland Culture France UNESCO / Aschberg Ateliers des Artistes en Exil
Guedes, Giovana Dantas, Tom Correia,
IN ASIA Korean Traditional Performing Arts National Art Studios Korea Taipei Artist Village / Taiwan
Maristela Ribeiro, Alex Simões and Calmon Teixeira BOARD OF DIRECTORS SACATAR FOUNDATION Mitch Loch, Helen Miller and Taylor Van Horne
AND IN THE REST OF THE WORLD Africa Centre / South Africa Winzavod Contemporary Art Center / Russia South Project / Australia
STAFF INSTITUTO SACATAR Augusto Albuquerque (Administrative Manager), Rodrigo Benítez, Dete Vieira, Lavínia Santos, Raimundo da Silva, Anderson Gomes, Antônio Barbosa, Reginaldo Roque and Francisco Galvão. 47
AXÉ, AXÉ, AXÉ! Such a fabulous and unique place on Planet Earth. May it continue to be a space of inspiration for many years to come! Diana Blok (Uruguay > Netherlands, Fellow in 2003 + 2018)
Costumes by Pat Oleszko / photo by Tamara Burlando
Here’s to the next twenty years
48
Sacatar Foundation USA PO Box 2612 Pasadena CA 91102-2612 USA Instituto Sacatar BRAZIL Rua da Alegria,10 Itaparica BA 44460-000 BRAZIL Tel: ++55 71 3631-1834 | info@sacatar.org | sacatar.org