FREE SHIPPING
Check Shipping Conditions
WE SHIP
to all locations in Brazil
UP TO 10 INSTALLMENTS
ZERO INTEREST
10% off on payment slips
100% SAFE
SSL Certificate
The idea for the Gallery project arose in the first year of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Unable to travel and having no chance to move around, I had time to revisit memories from the past 38 years I had been traveling to several continents; through recollecting my favorite or more challenging destinations, I was aware that I had collected a considerable amount of items during my journeys and felt strongly the responsibility to share what I had seen, witnessed and learned.
It is a fact what all these journeys have granted me, but above all, enough maturity to reveal the text through words; photos and drawings through images; textiles, threads, dresses, shells and glass through touching; the various sounds through the sense of hearing among several other artistic manifestations. Moreover, such journeys have shaped my eyes to recognize goodness and beauty. And so I could disclose this collection under my guardianship to be appreciated and acquired.
"Ah, who knows, who knows,
If I did not leave long ago, before Myself
A quay; If I did not depart, a ship in
The oblique sun of morning.
From another Kind of Port?
Who knows if I did not leave, before the hour
Of the exterior world as I see it
Dawned for me,
A large quay full of few people,
Of a great half-awakened city,
Of a great city commercial, overgrown, apoplectically,
As much as that can be outside time and Space"
Fernando Pessoa in Naval Ode
THE COLLECTION
In this first gallery exhibit I invite you to a journey inwards Africa while I share one of my most genuine experiences: a contest among Dogon children, an African ethnic group, carried out by me and supported by the Malians.
On account of prior visits, on January 16, 2003 I took along A3-bordered sketchbooks, drawing boards, color pencils, crayons and handed them in to one of the leaders in Sangha village, Mali, who would distribute the material to the boys present there. I would be back to the village one week later to collect the drawings from those who had been interested in taking part of an exhibit in Brazil which would give them visibility and the opportunity to disclose the Dogon’s extraordinary culture to Brazil as their drawings represented the culture and oral tradition of their people, their cultural and ethnic identity; also show through their drawings what they consider essential in their centuries-old tradition as they assure themselves and preserve their unique culture.
It is important to note that Europe’s interest for the Dogon, especially France’s, stems mostly from Marcel Griaule’s work (1898-1956), prominent anthropologist and very important for the course of French sciences institutional change. His fieldwork in the Ethnographical and Linguistics Dakar-Djibuti Mission (1931-1933), organized by the Institute of Ethnology from the University of Paris and the National Museum of Natural History, aimed to gather objects for the French ethnological collections. Conducted by Marcel Griaule, this mission collected a vast production financed by the French government (LELOUP, 2011).
In Europe, a lot has been written and still is about the Dogon ethnic group, about their circumcision and initiation rites, funerals, their secret language, sculptures, dances and dancers, Dogon Art, Dogon Cosmology, among other topics. There is still a great deal of research in the Dogon territory; however, hardly anything has been said about the children’s drawings in the “Pays Dogon” (Dogon country). Therefore, my interest and this main exhibit at Gallery.
HERE ARE THE DOGON
THE ART AND THE ARTISTS
Photo credit:
Anthony Smith
Photo credit: Marcelo Fiorini
ARTISTS AND ART
The Artists
OUR GALLERY STORE
Marcia Sztajn Gallery keeps a partnership with Promundo (which means “for the world),
a nongovernmental organization, allocating 10% of its sales for the institution.
Promundo was founded in 1997 in Brasilia, the Federal District of Brazil, implementing several projects in the communities in Rio de Janeiro.
It is a Brazilian nongovernmental organization with no international institution bonds working in several parts of Brazil and other countries in the world to promote gender equality and to prevent violence through engaging men and women to transform masculinity norms. Several projects have been developed to prevent violence, to guarantee paternity and care, to heal from trauma and violence and to guide youth, through new education tools, to promote gender equality and health through sports and with the participation of health and educational professionals.