Subsequently, when I came back to unhook the exhibition nearly two months later just before Christmas, I had the happy surprise of being contacted by French Ambassador Yves Saint-Geours, who informed me that his function had kept him in Rio de Janeiro at the time of the exhibition's opening night, but that himself and his wife had had the opportunity to fully visit it later. The Ambassador cheerfully told me that he had liked much what he had seen, to the point that he wished to meet me. Thus, on my return to Brasilia I was invited to a breakfast at the embassy, in order to exchange about art and my work. I went to the rendezvous that had been fixed to me, and I had the pleasure and the honour of meeting the Ambassador Yves Saint-Geours and Madame the Ambassador Jocelyne Saint-Geours at the embassy’s exceptional building, with its overwhelming and stunning architecture originally designed by Le Corbusier in the early 1960s, the construction of which started in 1972, ended two years later and was inaugurated only in 1976. A rare and sunny moment of happiness, a delicious breakfast and a delightful conversation under the wonderful gardens of the property’s flowery arbour, in the charming and benevolent company of this place’s hosts.

What else to say about Elaine Ruas, who has since become Elaine Salman Ruas ? That I remember my indescribable emotion and my happiness, when I could finally meet her for real and for the first time in October 2010, as soon as I arrived in Brasilia, down at the bar of the Brasilia Palace Hotel where I was staying - a beautiful historical building on the Lake Paranoa banks.
Then after, back to Brasilia in mid-December for my exhibition's unhooking, I remember the arrival at my hotel in faded jeans and stained T-shirt, a wreck after my plane trip's so many hours and barely having time to drop my baggage in my room, because Elaine picked me up directly for an upscale evening at the Embassy of Japan, looking so chic and glamorous in her fancy outfits... and me done up like a hobo.