Cultural Bridges – Latin America
Amazon – Raised Up Sky
A ground-breaking fusion of art and science that takes viewers to the heart of the Amazon rainforest
This spectacular collaboration between academics, scientists, and creatives from New Zealand and Brazil brings the Amazon to Aotearoa New Zealand in an incredible augmented reality experience.
Created by reknowned Kiwi artist Joseph Michael, the artwork utilises multispectral and hyperspectral mapping techniques to scan individual trees and draws on conversations with scientists and indigenous leaders in Brazil and New Zealand to develop the content of the experience.
Amazon – Raised Up Sky toured around New Zealand between November 2020 and February 2021 and also includes a documentary.
De la Milpa a la Mesa
Celebrating the richness of Mexican cuisine, from farms and markets to restaurants and home kitchens.
The De la Milpa a la Mesa exhibition is the result of years of collaborative efforts between Dr Lee Davidson from Te Herenga Waka –Victoria University of Wellington’s Museum and Heritage Studies programme and Dr Leticia Pérez Castellanos from the Posgrado en Estudios y Prácticas Museales programme of the Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museografía of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia in Mexico City.
Led by seven post-graduate students in New Zealand and two in Mexico City who were undertaking a supervised internship as part of the LatAm CAPE’s Cultural Sector Partnership programme and guided by three industry mentors, the exhibition launched at Te Auaha, Wellington in 2021 with an exciting events programme that gave visitors the opportunity to dive deeper into Mexican food and culture through dance, cooking, language, film, art, literature and history. De la Milpa also provides education resources for teachers that provides an overview of the exhibition, learning outcomes and suggested activities.
Further exhibitions are planned for 2022 in Christchurch and Foxton.
Musicality: Irisado
In late 2020 we launched our Musicality Programme with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra which is a perfect expression of our ambition to strengthen cultural ties with Latin America, as such ties can spark new opportunities for emotional, intellectual, and commercial encounters. Our programme unites young Kiwi composers with their Latin American peers, with the goal of producing a new piece of cross-cultural music to be performed publicly by New Zealand music students.
That musical piece, Irisado, (meaning iridescent in Spanish) composed by our four young Kiwi composers Jacob Barrett, Jose Jugo, Thomas Bedggood, and Michaela Cornelius, will be available for download and streaming in mid-2022.