CONCERTS
EMICIDA
From the MC’s battles on the outskirts of São Paulo to the renowned festival Coachella in the United States, Emicida has accumulated a relevant path in music. Alongside with the rapper Criolo, he is now probably the main voice of Brazilian rap, mixing themes, rhythms and forming partnerships with various names of the new generation.
In 2012, Emicida was in London for the Back2Black festival. Next month, he returns to the British capital for the La Linea, a festival organized by Como No group, between 21 and 30 of April. It is an excellent opportunity to see what Brazilian rap produces, with space for other rhythms such as samba, funk, soul and maracatu.
When: 24 April
Where: Rich Mix (35-47 Bethnal Green Road)
Tickets: £15
Info: www.comono.co.uk
ELIANE ELIAS & ED MOTTA
Two sides of contemporary Brazilian music come together for a unique presentation at the Barbican. Jazz pianist and vocalist Eliane Elias will be joined by soul singer and multi-instrumentalist Ed Motta.
Elias’ latest album was a tribute to her friend and jazz legend Chet Baker called ‘I Thought About You’. Ed Motta released his latest album ‘AOR’ in both English and Portuguese. The concert will feature music from their respective careers, including material from Eliane Elias’ new album ‘Made in Brazil’ to be released on 31 March.
When: 4 May
Where: Barbican Hall
Tickets: £20–35
Info: www.barbican.org.uk
FLÁVIA COELHO
Created in the traditions of samba and bossa nova, Flavia Coelho is a versatile Brazilian singer who walks lightly by rhythms that mix from reggae to hip-hop. Outside Brazil since 2006, when she moved to Paris, Flavia charmed the critics with her first album, ‘Bossa Muffin’, which gave her great impact in the UK, with the right to participate in the London Jazz Festival and Womad Festival in 2013.
In 2015, Flavia Coelho came back to London to open the Serious Space Shoreditch festival. The presentation came a week after the release of her new album, ‘Meu Mundo’, produced by Victor-Attila Vagh. The new work reveals a vision of a comprehensive world, with the mixture of diverse rhythms such as funk, afrobeat, forró and samba.
When: 18 May
Where: Rich Mix (35-47 Bethnal Green Road)
Tickets: £15
Info: www.richmix.org.uk
CAETANO VELOSO & GILBERTO GIL
Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil need no introduction: they are established names of Brazilian Popular Music. In July, the two take to the stage in very rare appearance in London.
The city, in fact, is part of the personal and artistic trajectory of the two. At the turn of the 1960s to 1970s, after the peak of the musical movement known as Tropicália, Caetano and Gil spent a period of exile in the British capital – Brazil was on the most difficult years of the civil-military dictatorship. From that time, both hold memories that will surely be remembered in the form of stories and songs. The public should ask Caetano to sing “London, London”.
When: 1 July
Where: Eventim Apollo (45 Queen Caroline Street)
Tickets: £45.75–£67.75
Info: www.eventim.co.uk
EXHIBITIONS
IRIS DELLA ROCA
In 2009, photographer Iris Della Roca moved to Rio and started living in the favela of Rocinha. As she considers photography a collaborative art, she began a project where the children could express their unique personality and show who they really were. These are portraits of children as dictated by them, proud and full of promise.
When: 14-21 March
Where: The Little Black Gallery (13A Park Walk)
Info: www.thelittleblackgallery.com
ADVENTURES OF THE BLACK SQUARE
This show takes Kazimir Malevich’s radical painting of a black square as the emblem of a new art and a new society. The exhibition features over 100 artists who took up its legacy. Their paintings, photographs and sculptures symbolise Modernism’s utopian aspirations and breakdowns, including works of Hélio Oiticica.
When: Until 6 April
Where: Whitechapel Gallery
Info: www.whitechapelgallery.org
RAFAEL SILVEIRA
“Mind’s Eye Funfair” is an exhibition of new paintings by Brazilian artist Rafael Silveira, whose imaginative work combines figurative classical painting, comic-inspired imagery and surreal subject matter. Like portals into an alternate dimension, his paintings invite the viewer to abandon everyday paradigms and embrace the unknown.
When: 19 March – 11 April
Where: Atomica Gallery (7 Greens Court)
Info: www.atomicagallery.com
LUCAS SIMÕES
“Perpetual Instability” is the artist’s first solo exhibition in London, and sees Simões present an installation of new works in concrete responding to the current situation of Brutalist architecture. This exhibition is part of a wider artistic exchange. The second half is a solo show by London-based Simon Linington in Sao Paulo.
When: Until 11 April
Where: Space in Between (8 Andrews Road)
Info: www.spaceinbetween.co.uk
