A mythical hotel, bathed by the Lac Paranoá’s quiet waters, where I invited Juliette Vincent to stay with me, in late October 2010 when the exhibition opened.
I thus discovered Silvestre’s pictures of the architect, with my exhibition’s catalogue on his knees, leafing through the book and looking at the works that it displayed ; including this painting representing the Brasilia Airport as Niemeyer had projected it, and as the Military Dictatorship prevented him from building.
A painting that I offered the architect in Rio, in 2004.

Six years separated these photos from when I met Oscar Niemeyer in Rio, in the same studio facing Copacabana beach. Therefore, these photos by Silvestre are of an inestimable value to my eyes : they show the man who imagined the volumes of Brasilia, looking at my paintings in a catalogue. Some paintings inspired by the City where the Prince is an Architect. A child, and a sad smiling infant, because I always felt that Oscar Niemeyer’s eyes were those of a sad smiling child.

When I returned to Brasilia in December 2010 for the end of my exhibition there, I also owe Silvestre Gorgulho an exotic late afternoon when he invited me to visit the ARUC (Unidos Do Cruzeiro Cultural and Recreational Association, a Brazilian club devoted to Soccer and Carnival’s activities). Silvestre introduced me to the team, and offered me a souvenir T-shirt from this “Projeto Carnaval” which celebrated the influence of Art and the creative process at stake in this institution of Brazilian festive culture’s preparations : “Art, from warehouse to the avenue” (“Arte, do barracão a avenida”).

The years flew by, but Silvestre on the way did not forget me : when Oscar Niemeyer left this world in 2012, he forwarded my letter of condolence addressed to Ana Lúcia Niemeyer de Medeiros, the architect’s granddaughter whom I had met in 2004 during the filming made with her grandfather.