The Latin America Memorial, in the capital of São Paulo, opens from today (30) the exhibition In the Dark, It’s Allowed to Smile, by artist Maureen Basilliat. The exhibition features footage from the films. wanderingsand Jequitinhonha: the Last Journeywhich record the trips that Maureen and her companion Jacques Bisilliat made through Latin American countries. 
In addition to Brazil, the couple visited Mexico, Guatemala, Peru and Ecuador, countries of ancient Mayan, Inca and Mexic civilizations, to discover and purchase regional handicrafts. The trip was made by car, truck, train, on donkey, on foot and by plane.
In the Jequitinhonha Valley region, in Minas Gerais, the artist had contact with local handicrafts, especially clay dolls. “The production of the Valley, instead of having succumbed to the automaticity suffered by places more exposed to the tourist flow, surprises by the constantly renewed vitality of its creations”, highlights the artist.
Born in England, Maureen Bisilliat developed, since the 1950s, when she moved to Brazil, one of the most solid works of photographic research on Brazilians, especially sertanejos and Indians. Since December 2003, her complete work has been incorporated into the Instituto Moreira Salles collection.
In 1987, with her husband, Jacques Bisilliat, and partner, Antônio Marcos Silva, they created the Latin American Popular Art Collection, at the invitation of Darcy Ribeiro, from which the Creativity Pavilion of the Latin America Memorial, SP, was born.
The exhibition is free and open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10 am to 5 pm, at the Memorial da América Latina, Espaço Gabo – Praça da Sombra, accessed through gates 8, 9 and 13, next to the Barra Funda Metro, in the west of the capital. .
