She describes herself as a person of spirit with a large capacity to see beyond things and go in the direction it sends her. She is a theatre director, actress/professor, cultural and cinema/video producer, journalist, and advertiser, among other things. She is Clarice de Almeida e Silva, aka Clara Clarice, aka Kali. She belongs to Brazil.
Hello Clara, welcome to Blogcritics. How would you explain your association and role with various international agencies functioning in Brazil?
I represent of Swar International in Brazil, a Franco/Indian Foundation based in Paris, dedicated to promotion of Indian Arts worldwide. Pandit Shivkumar is the president of Swar International.
I am also actively engaged in the development of music, dance, and theatre events. I also represent a worldwide NGO, Artists in Action –Culture Unites Cultures for Humanity, based in Denmark and headed by Kurt Lindved; I'm responsible for establishing meeting points of culture in different parts of the world.
When did you feel that you and art had an internal connection in your life?
I wanted be a dancer and singer since my childhood. But due to family constraints I could not do much about it. Art came into my life very unexpectedly. I was an experienced journalist in the '90s and used to make reports about public transportation for many Brazilian magazines like Revista Ferroviária, Via Urbana, Carga e Transporte, and Carga in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and other cities. Later I became in charge of the São Paulo branch of the Empresa Jornalística dos Transportes.
While working on an assignment I had to travel from Brazil to Holland and stay in Amsterdam for some time. There I used to write for a bilingual newspaper (Portuguese/Netherlands) calledPapagaio, about the Brazilian community in Holland. I was taking care of a Brazilian place where we used to have parties, musical presentations, and related stuff. It was with people who acted there that I started to develop my artistic side, the musical one that time. When I came back to Brazil it was the time of rebirth of the Brazilian cinema after a long period. I worked with Brazilian cinema in the city of Recife, with very nice people who today have international recognition. I also started giving classic dance lessons.
How would you describe spirituality in your own words?
I think spirituality is development of consciousness, a collective consciousness.
What is the connection between art and spirituality?
I see no difference between them. Artists use their different states of consciousness to make art, and that is no different from spirituality. That is what I work on in my group, the development of the performer as one channel to art/spirit manifestation.
How would you describe some of your performances in various countries?
I have performed in Holland, Italy, and South Africa, but in Amsterdam I have acted most. I did performances (mostly street performances) at different times in Geneva, Sicily, France, and Cape Town.
You have worked with some filmmakers. Please elaborate on some of the prominent works you have done with them.
I would say my first work was as an assistant producer of Cachaça, a movie by Adelina Pontual and Claudio Assis from Recife, the latter being a very renowned, internationally recognized figure in contemporary Brazilian cinema. I also worked as assistant to the art director on the documentary Casa Grande e Senzala by our great master Nelson Pereira dos Santos. I worked as producer for the Cuban Antonio Molina, an important name of the Cuban documentary scene, and held cinema events like one a parallel show of movies from the Festival de Cinema de Recife in the cities of Porto Alegre, Recife, and Santa Maria.
You have some plans for building a multicultural art centre. When and where do you plan to establish it?
It is a project to be established next year in the historic city of Olinda, in the state of Pernambuco, cultural patrimony of Humanity by UNESCO, a wonderful place full of culture and history. My plan is to build that place to be able to hold our multicultural experiences with artists from various countries.
What is the big thing you are focused upon for the time being?
My main attention is on our next play, Gita no Sertão, which is to be released in August of next year in Recife (in northeast Brazil).
What are your hobbies?
I like to read oracles: gipsy cards, I-Ching, the Mayan Calendar.
What message would you like to convey to your readers?
It is clear that today culture can be a lucrative business, but to make art, to live art, or help it to stay alive, is more than that, it is something that the human soul needs like air, because our societies are more and more brutalized and empty of purpose. A true artist makes us touch forgotten points of our consciousness, awakening our humanity and our ability to win it all. Art is a very deep thing; we should look it with more attention and more respect.
To know more about me and my work, you can go through mygroup blogs, art blogs, and swarinternational.org my videos.
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