A personal selection of photographs with their stories.
DECEMBER 2008: Orange and blue
A large-scale handicraft exhibition has been held at Expominas in Belo Horizonte for more than twenty years. This exhibition – generally held late November, early December – is claimed to be the largest handicraft fair in Southern America. Every year, there is a certain main theme. In 2008 it was ‘Japan’, because the ‘Japan Year’ was celebrated in Brazil that year. An entire pavilion was decorated in the Japanese style, and showed a large collection of Japanese handicraft, food and drinks. However, it was not only Japanese handicraft that was shown at the fair. Handicraft artists from all Brazilian regions had gathered in Belo Horizonte: among others, indigenous handicraft from the Amazon Forest, and handicraft typical for the Northeastern, Western, and Southern Brazil. A large share was from the organizing state: Minas Gerais. The colorful cloths shown in the photograph are from the state’s countryside.
© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 2008, 2016