In a movement to bring together the artistic traditions of Brazil and Japan, another project comes to life. From June 30 to September 7, the Teien Museum in Tokyo will host the exhibition
Indigenous Banks of Brazil , featuring pieces from the BEI Collection. The exhibition features expography by Japanese architect Toyo Ito.
The Teien Museum is an art deco building from 1933, the former official residence of the Japanese prince and prime minister. The building was designed by Gondo Yukichi, with interiors by Henri Rapin and decorative glass by René Lalique. In 2014, the museum was renovated and gained a contemporary annex whose design was carried out by photographer and architect Hiroshi Sugimoto. On our Brazilian side, the same
exhibition takes over the Japanese Pavilion, in Ibirapuera Park, with around 70 pieces until August 5th.
The expography by designer Claudia Moreira Salles and architects Eiji Hayakawa and Gabriel Bueno reveals the sophistication and cultural importance of the benches: some are zoomorphic, representing animals from the Brazilian fauna; others are more conventional seats, carefully sanded, painted with natural pigments, decorated with graphics or carvings. The benches were produced by people from various regions of the upper and lower Xingu, southern Amazon, Central-West, northern Pará, Guianas and northwestern Amazon and are presented with the aim of extolling and highlighting the traditions of the original peoples. In this movement of rapprochement between indigenous and Japanese art, the organizers intend to expose the way in which both, each in their own way, cultivate rigor and, at the same time as revering tradition, assimilate the transformations brought about by our time — the Indians , for example, today use tools and introduce innovations in their art, but remain faithful to the teachings of their ancestors. Both also share an intense sense of integration with nature, translated by the sustainable use of wood. The exhibition, therefore, , constitutes a multicultural look at the relationship between the raw material and the final work, the use of the material and its preservation, nature and artistic creation. EXHIBITION INDIGENOUS BANKS OF BRAZIL – JAPAN When? From June 30th to September 17th 
