Salgado exhibition launch
Posted on 13/07/2012
King’s Brazil Institute last night celebrated the official launch of its first photography exhibition in the Inigo Rooms, Somerset House East Wing. The exhibition, featuring iconic works by the celebrated Brazilian photojournalist Sebastião Salgado, is being co-hosted by the Arden Collection.
The private view last night was attended by His Excellency Roberto Jaguaribe, Ambassador of Brazil; Toni Arden, who manages the Arden Collection of photographs; Professor Keith Hoggart, Vice Principal of External Relations at King’s; and Professor Anthony Pereira, Director of the King’s Brazil Institute.
The event comes just two weeks before the start of the Olympic Games and the opening of Casa Brasil at King’s College London and Somerset House. During the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Casa Brasil media centre will be based at King’s in the Great Hall. The London 2012 Festival press office is also being hosted at the College, and has a substantial Brazilian flavour with ‘Rio Occupation London’, featuring artists from Rio de Janeiro.
The Arden Collection display at Somerset House East Wing is the first public exhibition organized by the King’s Brazil Institute, which is working to encourage global understanding of contemporary Brazil. The Institute is one of a network of Global Institutes at the College focusing on engagement with 21st century political, economic and cultural powers.
Professor Anthony Pereira, Director of the Brazil Institute, spoke about how Salgado’s photographs reflect the outlook of Brazilian society, placing great value on personal relationships and affection, with an appreciation of individual personality and eccentricity.
‘In Salgado’s photographs one sees the positive side of this cultural attribute – a kind of solidaristic affection, compassion, and tenderness towards other human beings and their suffering and defiance,’ he said. He also touched upon the photographer’s background as an economist, saying that both crafts are part of the same effort to see and analyze the world. ‘We in the Brazil Institute see things this way – one has to transcend modern academic specialization if one is to ask and attempt to answer the really big questions about Brazil’s economic, political, and social trajectory, and about Brazil’s evolving role in the world’.
Sebastião Salgado is a Brazilian photographer who has travelled to over 100 countries documenting the lives of ordinary people all over the world – often featuring imagery of manual labourers, refugees and metropolises bearing witness to global economic challenges and social injustice. As well as winning several major photographic prizes during his career, Salgado is now a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and an honorary member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in the United States. He has contributed significantly to raising awareness of environmental issues in Brazil by working since the 1990s on the restoration and preservation of part of the Atlantic Forest. The images on display from the Arden Collection are from Salgado's work during the 1980s, featuring images of workers and migrants from around the world.
Notes to editors
For more information about King’s Brazil Institute visit the Institute website
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Brazil Institute photography exhibition: works from the Arden Collection featuring Sebastião Salgado
12 July – 18 August, Monday to Saturday from 13.00 – 19.00
The Inigo Rooms, Somerset House East Wing, Strand Campus, King’s College London
For more information please contact: inigo@kcl.ac.uk or 020 7848 7306.
For media information about King’s Brazil Institute; please contact Katherine Barnes, +44 207 848 3076 or email katherine.barnes@kcl.ac.uk
For media information about Casa Brasil, please contact:
Isabel Magalhaes, Rio 2016: isabel.magalhaes@rio2016.com
Somerset House: press@somersethouse.org.uk
London 2012 Festival: Festival website
Rio Occupation London
About the Arden Collection
The Arden Collection is a substantial body of photography collected by Paul and Toni Arden over thirty years. It ranges from the nineteen thirties to the present day and contains many iconic images. As well as the permanent collection, the gallery has held regular exhibitions of both the new and the old, the young and the great. Started as a partnership by Paul with Harriet Anstruther in 2004, the gallery is now run by Toni Arden.
For more information please visit the Arden and Anstruther Gallery website
For further information about King’s, visit our ‘King’s in Brief’ page.