the room of the Nazca Birdmen

Museu de Etnologia da Bahia

Nazca Birdman and Birdwoman

Museu de Etnologia da Bahia

Rita shows the exhibition to a class

Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia da Salvador da Bahia

Bracelet in feathers from Museu de Etnologia de Salvador da Bahia

Opening of Birdmen exhibition

6 April at 6 p.m.!

The Opening!

Exhibition Homens-passaros/Birdmen/Hommes-oiseaux
in Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia de Salvador da Bahia

http://www.mae.ufba.br

In French first/and in English after

Or donc hier le vernissage réunissait donc le gratin de Salvador!

Felipe

Et d'abord un rêve d´Homme-oiseau, Felipe Lions. Cela pourrait être un des nombreux pseudos de River Dillon, mais c'est son vrai nom! Et oui, certains de mes modèles s'appellent tous les jours Benjamin Bodi, Ryan Kennedy, John Crown, Martin Grodecoeur, ou comme hier, Felipe Lions, "superbe et généreux".
D'autant plus généreux qu'il a accepté de poser pour devenir mon premier Homme-oiseau brésilien. Que j'espère superposer avec les merveilleux diadèmes indiens de la collection du Musée d'Ethnologie de Salvador. Felipe est un étudiant en musique, joueur de guitare, qui a quelque chose de Gael Garcia Bernal, en beaucoup plus jeune puisqu'il a 20 ans, et en fait 18! un doux rêveur au visage plus fin, irréel,un songe tropical, une mélodie Bahiannaise...

Fabiano

Un autre modèle est apparu, Fabiano, chanteur, qui interprète et compose des chansons qui mêlent tous les styles de musique brésilienne, avec une préférence pour les rythmes lents de Rio et Salvador. Venu du Minas Gerais, il écrit des chansons marquées par son exil et tous les tourments que les beaux Bahianais, ces aventuriers de l'amour, lui font subir.

La bande de Luana

Une troisième chanteuse, Luana, brésilienne et suisse-italienne, est venue avec sa bande, Fabiano, qui tient un bar dans le quartier noctambule de Rio Vermelho, Artur, patron dún restau d'Itaipu, un port de pêche devenu le Saint-Trop de Salvador, Cluensa, Isabel, Gunni et une viennoise émigrée à Salvador.

Bien sûr des Bahianais, des Français de Salvador, l'équipe du Musée et de l'Université.

Nous sommes ensuite allés dîner dans un bistrot du quartier populaire du 2 de Julhio, Lider, où Luana et moi étions déchaînés.

Enfin, Fabiano m'a emmené dans une grande ballade nocturne le long de la mer, dans le quartier élégant de Barra.
Des gratte-ciel de luxe aux noms amusants Delmar, Carmen Miranda, Andy Warhol, et des cafés au bord de l'eau.

Fabiano m'a demandé de lui chanter:
le soleil a rendez-vous avec la lune,
mais la lune n'est pas là
et le soleil l'attend.
La lune est là,
la lune est là,
la lune est là mais le soleil ne la voit pas...

Bon, dans ce compte-rendu idyllique, j'ai exagéré sur un point!
il n'y avait pas de skyscraper du nom de Carmen Miranda,
mais je trouve d'abord qu'il devrait y en avoir un
(appel aux promoteurs)
et que Miranda Guacamolle méritait bien un hommage.

En parlant de pseudos,
je me suis trouvé un nouveau nom,
qui ne peut naturellement supplanter River Dillon,
ce nom qui brille au firmament du glamour
(des années 80 malheureusement!)
mais plus Brésilien puisque je dois bien m'adapter
et River Dillon, à Bahia, c'est vraiment "gringo"
en même, temps, River Dillon étant une caricature du rêve américain et des teen idols made in USA, c est logiq qu'ici ce nom fasse "gringo"...
Bref j ai trouvé
Rio-John Heroe
d'autant plus que je rejoins Vincent D
à Rio de Janeiro
le 27 avril.
Et j ai une devise.

You need a heroe:
Rio-John Heroe!

Notez que la traduction brésilienne de River est Rio.

J en avais bien un autre
Rio Braise-des-Iles

mais moins clash.

Bien sûr, ni mon nom berlinois, Marlon Dietrich, ni ce nom brésilien ne supplanteront l'éternel et pourtant bien fragile River Dillon...

aventures tropicales

monday 23 march

big news
finally my exhibition will begin on 6 april. opening at 6pm. there are small works at the end of one room of the exhibition, so they will close the space where they do the renovation, and i will exhibit in the other rooms. all the photos are framed suberbly. and arrived this morning in the museum. we have hanged hlf of the birdmen on the walls and it s fabulous. i meet more and more nice persons in bahia. and sunday i have found three new models , fatima a black beauty, felipe a young man spanish dark skin thin elegant type, anf juao, metis black with relatively clear skin, bronze clear, a bomb! i will take new pictures of the indian feather works of the museum in bahia, and transform these new models, im new birdmen. i will also take them in opera costumes. for a new foto sery: brazil opera, because brazil love to disguise, and in opera costumes they are extraordinary. in the hotel barocco, the produced 12 operas, and there is a beautiful opera costumes collection that i will use, the boss authorized me. yesterday night we had a second dinner with the choir singers barocco, in the big patio of the hotel, under the enormous mango tree, with ricardo, gillesfernando, vicente, and hans. delicious fish baiana way, spiced and coco: dessert: a fresh mango that fell from the tree in the morning and that the ducks did not see! and i must say i have a new friend and future model, edgar, a real brasileiro, businessman, bahiana style, lots of energy and generosity. viva bahia. also the music is tropical, it s extraordinary to hear tender music all the day and live in swimimg suits even in the street. a tropical life under 33 degrees today. big kiss to all of you from bahia

Saturday 14 march
.
Morning with the framing. It will cost me an arm!
30 photos will be framed on monday 23 and directly delivered to the museum.
Normally the exhibition should have started on 24 March
so it is cool finally that the opening of the show is delayed on 31st March!

.
saturday afternoon, i glue the last pictures.
.
My room is in fact also an Atelier , a studio for an artist
it s 50 square meters
like my parisian appartment
.
the name of this room studio atelier is Hildegarde!, because it was the home of a woman from germany costume designer for theater and opera.
.
First saturday night in Brazil:
A drink in Beco dos Artistas, 6 bars in a no car street
i was a little shy for this first night in town!
but i meet through the barman
a new speaking French dream creature friend who will be my Brazilian guide into the night.
Then everyone goes to the party Fever Disco in club Boate Tropical, "Tropical rumors"!
Then I meet two metis, Claudio and Silvio.
it s stupid to say metis
nearly everyone is metis in brazil!
everyone dances like a fire
so i try to do so!
to see the party style
some funny pictures with go go boys dressed as roman antique soldiers
but they are dark skin and wear white feathers
Roman dreams in the Tropics!
looks like Caesars Palace from Vegas transported in Costa Rica!
http://www.boatetropical.com.br
I hope that one of them will accept to pose for me as models one day
.
Then a dream creature appears
an Indianer Indigenas looking like a mix between Bororo and Hawaian
I want to ask him to pose for me
and I m too shy...
also because I am with Silvio and Claudio and i don t want to look crazy to go to ask a guy i don t know to pose for me!
Next saturday, they bring me to the club on the Barra beach called OFF
.
Sunday 15 March
.
Concert baroque of organ in pousada barroco at 11am
lunch at Berlin cafe with Luana
I find my first model in Brazil: Luana, a brunette beauty who said she was a bird in a past life!
.
this afternoon I prepare the appointment for the framing at 8am on monday
and the appointment at the museum at 9am
.

Salvador, view from my room

Hotel Barroco is like a heaven, with an enormous mango tree in the garden, and bougainvillées coming over my window. It's tropical Eden, with yellow tiny birds I don't know. I try to speak with them as I do in Paris but they're shy here, or it's because I'm not used to portuguese, coming soon!
.
Meeting with the team of the Museu of Etnologia, in a sublime old building from eighteen century, a former Jesuite college, and Medicine Faculty, transformed in 2 museums: Museu Africa-Brasilero et Museu de Arqueiologia et Etnologia. The team of the Museum is so charming: the beauty Luciana, with nails of every color, and a chinese mauve umbrella to protect from the sun shows me the Museum and the rooms for the exhibition, she is specialized in ancient Perou, ancient Mexico, Nazca and Inca civilizations, and she realized the museu de Etnologia website, and after lunch on the main plaza Terreiro de Jesus, 20 meters from Museum, with Deborah, Karol and another woman from Museu. It's like paradise, I stay forever!
.
To have more time to prepare the show, the Director of the Museu decides to postpone it of one week , so new dates of exhibition are
31 st March till 23rd May