Since 2009, Brazilian artist Diego Baffi has developed his artistic practice and academic research around the notion of foreignness as a creative approach to producing art in public spaces. In this talk, the artist shares his accumulated experiences throughout a career marked by the creation and teaching of art in 15 countries across the Americas, Europe, and Africa. In addition to narrating stories connected to his personal work, Baffi presents a selection of key artists and theorists essential for understanding this theme, drawing from various fields of knowledge. Notable contributions include those from Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Performance Art, and Architecture, as well as reflections on foreignness through the lenses of Psychology, Philosophy, and Sociology. The talk will conclude with a discussion aimed at delving deeper into the topics covered, promoting critical reflection and the exchange of experiences. The goal is to foster creative thinking and production—artistic or otherwise—around the experience of being/feeling foreign in today’s contemporary context.
As part of the growing collaboration between The Ohio State University and the State University of Paraná (Paraná, Brazil), this proposal seeks to produce and record two video interviews featuring professors from The Ohio State University—Alison Crocetta (Department of Art) and Paloma Martinez-Cruz (Department of Spanish and Portuguese)—for an international online academic event (Brazil/United States/Cuba) scheduled for the beginning of the second semester of 2025.
The Columbus segment of this project will be recorded by Vitor Vilaverde, a filmmaker and lecturer in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at OSU. Vilaverde’s expertise ensures high-quality video production that will showcase the creative and academic contributions of the interviewed professors.
The proposal is organized by Quandonde Intervenções Urbanas em Arte, an academic research platform on urban art led by Professor Dr. Diego Baffi. Established in 2012 and connected to the Performing Arts program at the State University of Paraná, the platform has distinguished itself over the past five years by hosting regular academic events that bring together professors, researchers, students, and artists involved in urban arts from Brazil and across the globe. Notable events include “Cycle of Readings for Re-readings of the Self: Confluences between Urban Art and Psychology” (2023), the academic seminar “I Want to Put My Body on the Street: Public Art between Spaces, Poetry, and Resistance” (2022), and the lecture series “Art Marked on the Map: Cartographies of Urban Art Occupying Contested Spaces” (2021).
Initially regional, these events expanded nationally and eventually achieved international reach among Portuguese-speaking countries. The current initiative aims to take a further step in this internationalization process by extending its audience to Spanish- and English-speaking communities. To this end, subtitled interviews will be produced and widely distributed through partner institutions at no cost.
Professors Crocetta and Martinez-Cruz were chosen for their outstanding contributions to urban performance studies. In two separate recordings, they will discuss their educational backgrounds and artistic practices in public spaces. These interviews will complement an existing collection of five videos featuring artists from Havana, Cuba, alongside up to two additional interviews with artists based in Colorado. Partner institutions, including the Universidad de las Artes in Havana, Cuba, are actively participating in this project, and connections are being established with the University of Denver at Colorado Springs.
The proposal ultimately seeks to showcase the artistic and academic contributions of The Ohio State University professors to a broader university audience while further strengthening the partnership agreement under development between our institutions.
