Nhemboaty – Clash of Worlds
Richmond Arts & Ideas Festival
13 – 29 June 2025
Public Opening, Sat 14 June, 2 – 5pm. All welcome.
An exhibition by brazilian photographer Rafael Vilela & Guarani Mbyá Comission, curated by Carol Lopes
Nhemboaty – The Encounter of Worlds is an exhibition that explores the profound historical and ongoing clash between indigenous traditions and the forces of urban expansion, environmental destruction, and modernity in Brazil. The exhibition brings together the photography of Rafael Vilela in collaboration with the Guarani Yvyrupa Commission, shedding light on the Guarani Mbyá people’s struggle for survival in the midst of São Paulo’s vast megalopolis.
The ground floor of the gallery will have a documentary atmosphere, highlighting the struggle and resistance of the Guarani people in Jaraguá (Brazil), through photographs, a territorial map and a 3D model. The upper floor will be a symbolic and immersive space evoking Guarani spirituality. Eight large-format photographic portraits, a petynguá (ceremonial tobacco object) together with lighting/smoke/sound effects will evoke the ritual gap in the roof of the prayer house.
The Guarani Mbyá community, located in Brazil’s smallest Indigenous territory, continues to preserve its spiritual practices, language, and agricultural traditions amidst a rapidly urbanising world. With their land of only 1.8 hectares nestled between the towering urban sprawl of São Paulo and the last remnants of the tropical forest, they stand as a symbol of resilience and ecological resistance. Since the invasion of the Portuguese in 1500, the Guarani have faced over 500 years of displacement, enslavement, and forced assimilation. Yet their spiritual and cultural practices remain strong, offering vital ecological wisdom that has sustained their communities for generations. The Petynguá pipe, central to their spirituality, is a symbol of their unbroken connection to their ancestors and a tool to invoke ancestral knowledge, all while raising urgent questions about urban life’s impact on the environment.
Nhemboaty translates multiple encounters—both physical and metaphysical—reflecting on colonization but also on the photographer’s encounter, five years ago, with this Indigenous community surrounded by the city, and the lessons learned about a reality that is both ancient and largely invisible to most people.
The Guarani Community in Sao Paulo with ally artist Rafael Vilela, artists and communities along the River Indus in Pakistan with the Karachi Biennale, and our own Richmond Arts & Ideas Festival with artist Eelyn Lee have listened and found common ground through rivers, caring for ecology and championing marginalised voices. This project, supported by the British Council, has grown over the last twelve months, through a series of online sharings – Wisdom Conversations – hosted by each place and culture.
About Rafael Vilela
Rafael Vilela is a Brazilian photographer and journalist. His project “Forest Ruins”, which documents the resistance of the Guarani-Mbya indigenous community on the outskirts of São Paulo, the largest metropolis in the Americas, was a finalist for the Leica Oskar Barnack award in 2022. Rafael also won the World Press Photo Book Award and Picture of the Year (POY) Latam in 2021 with his Covid Latam project. In 2022, Vilela received the Catchlight Fellowship award and was named a National Geographic Society explorer. In 2023, his participation as lead photographer in the series of reports “The Amazon, Undone” for The Washington Post was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism.
https://visura.co/rafaelvilela
About Guarani Yvyrupa Comission
The Guarani YVYRUPA Commission is an indigenous organization that brings together and represents the Guarani peoples of Espírito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul states. The Guarani YVYRUPA Commission has been in existence since 2006, was legally formalised in 2013, and has since fought for the rights of the Guarani as one of the largest indigenous self-organizations in the world.
Exhibition Credits
Photography: Rafael Vilela
Additional Photography: Richard Werá Mirim
Additional artwork: Cripta, Poéticas da Natureza
Institutional Support: Guarani Yvyrupa Commission
Curator: Carol Lopes
Design: MCau Studio
Exhibition Staging: MCau Studio
Research Funding: Catchlight, National Geographic Society, Alexia Grant, British Council for Arts
Editing: Carol Lopes
Production: Tuana Freitas
Imagining the Forest:
Three communities from three different parts of the world come together to explore and share knowledge on our relationship with nature, filling Richmond galleries and streets with stories, photos, film and cross-cultural objects of these places and new-found friendships.
The Guarani Community in Sao Paulo with ally artist Rafael Vilela; artists Nadeem Alkarimi, Sadqain Riaz, and Qadir Jhatial along the River Indus in Pakistan with the Karachi Biennale,; and Richmond Arts & Ideas Festival with artist Eelyn Lee have listened and found common ground through rivers, caring for ecology and championing marginalised voices.
This project, supported by the British Council, has grown over the last twelve months, through a series of online sharings – Wisdom Conversations – hosted by each place and culture.
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
This exhibition is part of the Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival. The theme for the 2025 festival is Cultural Reforesting, and the programme is initiated by the Richmond Arts Service. A series of artist-led, multi-disciplinary projects, events and performances will take place in different venues around the borough, exploring our relationship with nature and reflecting on the ecological crisis.
Since its inception in 2021 the programme has featured artists, thinkers, scientists, indigenous leaders and more through an impressive forest of projects. Cultural Reforesting is expanding into Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival 2025. Events across the borough will explore our relationship with nature and reflect on the ecological crisis.
Read More: https://richmondartsandideas.com/events-1
