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Rio Art Residency: When Pixels Learned to Samba
Recorded: Sept. 25, 2025 Duration: 1:00:48Space Recording
Short Summary
The Rio Art Residency is set to launch its latest project, 'When Pixels Learn to Samba,' showcasing innovative works from a diverse group of artists. With strong partnerships and grassroots funding, the residency aims to foster creativity and growth in the Web3 art community.
Full Transcription
Thank you. Thank you. GM, GM, can you guys hear me okay?
We're going to give it just a second.
I can hear you.
We can hear you.
Hey, Soki.
We'll give it a second and then we'll jump right in.
We won't wait too long.
I don't know how everybody's doing well today.
Scrappy, Julio, Zanzibar, Emlo, great to see you guys.
Everybody, Luciana, my favorite.
Yeah, if you don't mind, everybody, share out the space, let everybody know that we're
hanging.
We'll have this thing going very shortly.
TC. DC.
All right.
Well, let's jump right in.
Welcome, everybody.
Hope you're all having a lovely Thursday.
This is Jono hosting this Spaces Today with Super Rare and the Rio Art Residency. Selkie on behalf of Rio Art Residency and some special guests.
We have here pinned When Pixels Learn to Samba. this is the show that we are hosting at Offline Gallery tomorrow from 6 to 8.
There is a link to our SVP for those that will be in town.
You won't want to miss it.
And there is also a link in the thread to the catalog where you can see all the amazing work from all the amazing artists.
So definitely give that some time
and looking forward to seeing everybody tomorrow night
to be really fun.
So without further ado, I want to welcome Selkie, GM.
Great to see you.
How are you feeling today?
GM, GM, it's great, great to be here.
Thank you for hosting this space, Jono. It's a pleasure
to be here. And actually, we haven't met in person yet, so I'm looking forward to that.
And yeah, so thank you for having me. I'm in New York City at the moment, obviously, for the show.
And I'm very excited for it.
And, yeah, I really want to get stuck in and talk about the residency
and talk about, you know, the artist, the works, everything.
So, yeah.
I'll let you take the lead on, like, what you –
how you want to kind of structure this
um because i can speak for england so it's better if you are if you give it some structure
yeah of course no problem um well then just briefly do you want to tell everybody a little
bit about yourself selkie i was doing some research for the spaces and I was fascinated to learn about your history,
your roots in Brazil.
So do you want to just quickly tell everybody about yourself and then we can take it from there?
Yeah, absolutely.
Actually, just one thing before I get into that is I'd like to thank everyone who's
joined the spaces so far. I can see some familiar faces.
You can see Lawrence, TC, M Low, Cyber Humanoid, Luciana,
and I can see some of the artists, Mariah, James, Wizard James,
and Visceral Glitch, and, yeah, lots of lovely Julio, Juicy Julio,
Sophia, what a great audience. And yeah, lots of lovely Julio, Juicy Julio, Sophia.
So what a great audience.
Thank you so much for joining the spaces to, you know, listen to us talk about the residency.
And yeah, so, okay, well, a little bit about myself.
I'm from Brazil.
I'm from Rio.
I grew up in Brazil. I lived there until I was 24. And I'm from Rio. My family are all from Rio, but my father was in the army. So I was an army brat. I lived in lots of different cities in Brazil.
I've experienced a lot of the south of Brazil and lots of other places.
And so, but Rio has always had my heart.
So I lived in Rio as well from 12 to the ages of 12 to 24.
And so I, and then I moved to England.
Life took me to the UK.
And I, you know, I had started my career as a PR and then as a journalist in Rio.
And then I went to the UK to do very much the same.
I was a journalist for a while. Then I moved into political PR.
And yeah, and that's what I've been doing.
And I was doing that until earlier this year and as it happens I met Brian
our mayor of Web3 Brian Brinkman in by chance on Twitter in 2010 and we sort of by DMs we
exchanged some DMs again we're both interested in like the content of each other's uh twitter accounts i guess um and you know when we
were always there i was following his tweets and all of that and um and when i uh when the pandemic
happened and brian kind of moved sort of full time to nfts um i was very intrigued i kind of caught it
and i you know i kind of i didn't know what nfts were i i sort of
had an idea but a very vague idea and i saw you know i saw his his posts and everything and i
got in touch with him um i i missed out on 2020 and 2021 but i got in touch with him beginning of
2022 and and i said brian what is this what are you doing how do i get involved and he sent me a
few kind of pointers he said you know we do you should do this you should create an account and
like for specifically for digital art and kind of get involved in because of some communities etc
etc and i i originally joined um with the intention of uh showing my art and you know eventually selling my art uh I'm I wouldn't go so far as call myself
uh an artist in the sense of like having an artistic career but I am you know I'm an artist
in the sense that I like to paint and draw and experiment and you know all of those things um
so so I did that for a while and it was, and I just started
discovering more and more and more. And by the end of 2022, I was already collecting some art
and I just, I realized as well by, I don't know, towards sort of mid 2023 that I preferred to
collect and build and do and support then to actually go through the motions of developing
my craft and becoming, you know, a fully fledged artist.
So I started focusing on that.
And by the end of by end of 2023, the idea for the residency sort of popped up.
It kind of didn't pop up, but, you know, it kind of it became kind of more intense.
It kind of didn't pop up, but it became kind of more intense.
What can I do to give opportunity to artists, to remove barriers
so artists can succeed in this thing that they want to do?
I mean, artists are artists in however space and circumstance
they want to call themselves artists.
But if you want to have a career in art that's a slightly different thing and you know we have to there are certain things that you have to uh certain skills
you have to develop certain things that you have to pay attention to certain ways that you have to
do things and so uh so that's my intention was to support people artists to to kind of to do that
to do those things and and like i said remove barriers. And there are lots of barriers
for lots of different people to kind of build this career for themselves. And so, and my father
had passed away in May 2023. And he left me a little bit of money, as it happens. Unfortunately,
you know, sometimes you get landed with sad money uh when
these things happen and I thought you know I'd make good use of that by hosting the residency
and also you know I couldn't do it by myself so I asked for support from patrons in the space
and that's how um in 2024 um you know people like Blondie and Benny, Redbeard and OG, Will, Eternal Pepe, Gary Sandrock and Giancarlo and lots of other people got involved.
And, you know, Super Rare, we worked, I worked with Super Rare at the time to launch the one-of-one token at the end of the residency and Transient Labs.
And it kind of, it grew really fast and it got a lot of attention from a lot of good people, a lot of fantastic people.
And, you know, as it happens with these things, there are always growing pains.
And I think the first residency was great and it was a steep learning curve.
And I really enjoyed doing it.
It's absolutely knackering, very stressful, but in a good way,
in a way that you feel like you're actually accomplishing something.
And that obviously led to the second residency.
But I will stop now.
Like I said, I can speak for England.
So feel free to stop me if you want to kind of direct a little bit the question.
So that's a little bit about me and how I got here.
And yeah, so let me know what you want to know next.
Yeah, that's great.
I mean, you've answered quite a few of my questions already.
So this is perfect.
How did you meet FDOT?
You know, he's an important aspect of this residency as well, correct?
Yes.
And let me just also say, I just thought this was hilarious, but Brinkman being the mayor
of Web3 is a very apt title.
And I couldn't think of a better person to kind of shepherd you into this space.
So special shout out to Brian. title and I couldn't think of a better person to kind of shepherd you into this space so special
shout out to Brian and you know Selke you thanked everyone in this space but I do also want to thank
you for for putting this on for supporting the arts by you know even sort of taking this moment
in your life with your father passing and actually you know using that as a moment for good and being able to kind of share the, you know, share,
share your blessings with these artists that we have here.
So want to thank you as well.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah. So yeah, Brian, I, I mean,
I agree. I love Brian and you know, that he's a, he's a great guy.
He's a fantastic artist.
And I was so lucky that we kind of met by chance and it kind of all led to
this moment. So, so yeah, it's, it's been, it's been brilliant.
And now I can't remember what your question was, Jono, sorry.
We don't, we don't have to spend too much time but
I did want to also give a moment for you to talk about meeting FDOT and what his role is also in
the residency that's right so um so Eric um so I met um I met Eric um I uh NFT NYC 2023 I'd like
to say and obviously we I collected from him so we started developing a relationship
and um and he again like I think Eric is a really great example of someone who is I mean
extremely talented extremely focused hard working um you know he knows he knows what he needs to do to stay afloat and to be you know 100% an artist
um and I took a lot of inspiration from his you know um his ambition and his his his drive to um
you know to do what I'm doing now and when I first when I had the idea for the residency and and you know I I started like taking
all these first steps he was the first person I invited and that invitation actually became
um so essential he became so essential for the residency that he was he was you know it came a
point where I said well you're the co-founder of this residency because without you, I don't think I would have achieved half the things that I did, you know, when we first started and up until now. and work on the creative side and really a great business partner,
a great person to work with,
a great friend, a really wonderful friend.
And I think we have this really good relationship
where even when things are hard,
we can, I guess, I hope people think the same,
but we can pick each other up
and make sure that we keep going.
And I'm very grateful, you know, to have Eric as a friend and a business partner and, you know, to be building with him.
So, yeah, so absolutely instrumental for everything that's happened. And his, I have to say just, you know, his drive,
his ability to get things done,
his optimism and his energy are things
that I would never take for granted.
Beautiful.
Yeah, we love FDOT and shout out to you.
So moving right ahead, talking about the cohort of artists for this year,
is there a way that you select them or how did you come to organize this group of artists for 2025?
Selkie or FDOT?
Selkie, we'll go with you.
Is Eric a speaker? I'm not sure.
I can't see him as a speaker.
Yeah.
My thing is not updating properly.
Sorry.
So I'll say a little bit about it.
And Eric can jump in and say some as well.
But essentially, we work together.
The two resonances with Ed so far, we handpicked. We chose the artists
that we want to come because, I mean, the reason for that is that it was a big responsibility
for me to, you know, get a house in Rio, which is a faraway place for most people.
And, you know, get essentially the first residency had 19 artists.
The second one had 13.
But essentially get, you know, a dozen strangers or more in a house to live there for a week.
It's a lot of it's a big responsibility.
So, you know, I need to make sure that um we've got we've got the right people there
um I know there are lots of ways to get that done but the way that we've done so far in the last
couple of years is that we've handpicked I didn't necessarily know personally every artist who came
but I had recommendations and you know eventually I met them before the residency, et cetera, et cetera.
And the idea as well is that from the kind of principle of the residencies that we have,
we mix more established artists with up-and-coming artists.
And there are two main reasons for that.
One is to drive attention.
It's a very important thing in this space,
as we know we're in a, you know,
we're all in a bunt fight for attention here.
And it was attention,
but it was to drive attention to the other artists because they need that attention.
And so we, the idea was to have, you know,
some, also some kind of mentorship, not, I say mentorship,
but it's, I don't want to sort of sound condescending towards the up and coming artists,
because in the end, the experience that we've had in the last couple of years, was that it becomes
an exchange. Yes, you know, there are lots that the up and coming artists can learn from, you know,
the experience and the kind of, you know, from the experience and everything that the more established artists have built.
But it also works the other way around.
Everyone brings something to the table and everyone learns and gains something from this experience.
And so that's why we've done this kind of hand-picking.
And we very carefully choose the artists. We are always
thinking about new ways of doing it. We have not ruled out open calls for the future, but
they will be very strict because of this responsibility of, you know, getting people
together, you know, for a a week to live for a week
potentially two weeks in the future we don't know we need we're considering that still um you know
for a period of time and you know making sure that they all get along and all of that so so we have
to make sure that there is you know we have some some kind of safeguarding in place you know to
make sure that that's a good experience for everyone. And part of that is how we choose people to artists to come to this residency.
So that's one of the aspects. Obviously, you know, we look at, you know, potential,
what the artists have been doing up until this point. And, you know, if, you know,
if they have drive, if they have ambition, if they, you know, what they want from their careers there are lots of criteria that
we use to um to uh to select artists we tend to have a conversation with them beforehand before
we make a formal invitation etc so i'll let eric say a little bit because obviously he's a he's a
he's a big part of this process um and you know he'll have his own thoughts as well.
Hey, everybody.
How's it going?
Great to be here for another space about the Rio Art Residency.
And thank you for the beautiful intro.
Sorry, I was a little bit late.
Your thoughts are echoed right back to you, Selkie,
of how amazing it is to work on this project
for the second year now.
And to say a few words about the artists that we selected,
I think one of the things that Selkie didn't touch on
is the combination of different mediums and styles.
So we wanted to reflect not just painters
and illustration and animation,
but we have photographers this year.
We have people who work with all kinds
of different mediums to mix together to create a unique show not only in new york but also in rio
do you want to add anything to that did i forget anything about the media the different
different types of artists that we involved i think that was my favorite thing to see both years
how some artists who typically don't work with physical mediums
come to the residency and try something new or vice versa.
Yeah, absolutely.
That's always really great to see, actually.
I love seeing artists who work primarily with digital
kind of getting stuck in with canvas and paint or spray
paint I think the mural the experience of you know making the producing the mural with you Eric
is also you know speaks to a bit in big part to that you know getting people out of their comfort
zone and involved and everyone is always well up for it. And I think that's really fascinating to see.
But also there is the other way around as well,
is getting, you know, we have artists who,
we always onboard artists, especially Brazilian artists.
We tend to kind of pick some Brazilian artists
who are not, you know, sort of in our space yet
and kind of introduce them to this world and kind of push them
to kind of explore and, you know, experience, you know,
creating art in a different way.
And so, and we had that this year with Abigua,
who is a Brazilian artist from favela da rossinha and we we also had
this with salem who goes by fotografia who is a she's a photographer so i guess her medium is
already um you know close very close to what we do but but she also um we are showing a different
a second piece um by her at the tomorrow, which is a little surprise.
We haven't, haven't divulged that piece yet.
And, and it's, you know,
kind of pushed her a little bit to create in a different way and well,
kind of create physically, but present it in a different way to, you know,
to make art that is truly art on the blockchain and to be presented in in in such way
so so yeah that's that's a really good point eric um it's it was it was fascinating to see
and it was great to have photographers um and i've learned a bit of a lesson um and you know
i learned a lot i learned so much from doing this these residencies. And one of the lessons I've learned is that photographers need, they are free birds and they need time artists that they really need to be in a position to go and observe
and, you know, experience.
And so that was a good lesson for the next time.
We will definitely have more photographers and, you know,
to figure out that the program needs to look a little bit different for them.
Well, that's also a good segue.
So, you know, I did want to briefly mention Photographia made their first sale on the blockchain via this residency, which is incredible.
So, you know, as we speak about how you're curating these artists, you're really giving opportunities to folks and welcoming them into the space that can be very intimidating and giving them an opportunity to make a real change in their career and elevate.
So that's a really special aspect.
Yeah.
I wanted to add just like with that, there's so many questions that go along with starting your journey on the blockchain.
And residencies are uniquely the perfect place to do that.
Like having seven days living in the same house as other artists who have the experience.
You get to ask all the questions you want.
And there were a lot of great conversations about what you can do with NFTs, what you can do with Transient Labs, and what you can do with some of these awesome galleries like SuperRare.
And I love sharing that.
There's not too many events that you get to go deep with other artists.
It's always like a slow process.
You get to see people around the city at different events.
But the week is like a perfect way to onboard.
And even though it's slow and we can only do a few artists at a time,
I'm really proud of that.
And I think Selke, you made some amazing choices for this year and for last year.
And the Brazilian artists that I've met, I think, are some of my just favorite people.
So, yeah, I'm grateful for their work.
And I'm excited to see it tonight or tomorrow night.
Yeah. Just a reminder for everybody.
When pixels learn to Samba showing at super air offline gallery tomorrow in
New York from six to eight, the link to the RSVP is in the pinned post.
So looking forward to seeing all of you guys there tomorrow.
I want to mention,
I want to ask one more question that we can get into some of the some of the artists uh who are on stage
with us today um you mentioned the different cohorts and we've obviously talked about curating
the artists what are some of the lessons that the previous years have taught you guys moving into 2025 and beyond. I love also that you
you highlight certain explorations of Brazilian culture. There was an emphasis,
I believe, last year on Brazilian modernism. What are some of the lessons from these previous years
that helped shape this year's program? And how did you also then decide on some of the new themes to
explore? Because there's a whole kind of structure and education aspect to this residency that I really love.
Yeah, so when we did the residency last year, I think we didn't have a theme per se,
but the idea was the immersion into real culture and you know just being in a different
place a lot of the artists really took that in um and being with brazilian artists as well and kind
of understanding a like completely different sort of place i think a couple of the artists who went
from the u.s uh they didn't they had to get passports. They had never traveled abroad.
And they went to Rio for this residency,
which was really, really interesting thing,
you know, to have that kind of, you know,
Rio is a wildly different place from, you know, Philadelphia.
So it's a, so it was really,
it was a really interesting kind of thing to witness and how much they kind of took in and you know how it translated into
their art and how being with each other in that kind of space kind of influenced what they were
creating and doing and for 2025 I you know we decided to give it this sort of bigger kind of
depth in terms of education because Brazil has such a rich history, like every country,
all countries do.
I can speak for Brazil because it's my birth country, my home,
and it's got such a rich, interesting history that I don't think,
I mean, I know people know some things about Brazil,
but they're restricted to a few things that they know.
And it seems like the sort of popular culture kind of global popular culture view of Brazil
is quite restricted, understandably.
And so there were so many things that I wanted to share.
And I found that, you know know I looked into all these themes
that I think are really interesting themes and and little kind of um uh not little but like um
interesting kind of moments in Brazilian history or places or or sort of bits of history and um art
movements that I wanted the artist to explore.
And I hope they kind of felt enriched and, you know,
more kind of knowledgeable for it.
I know that Nishant, for instance,
got really into this sort of cinema movement that happened in the kind of 50s,
60s, 70s called Cinema Novo.
And he created a couple of marvelous pieces um like sort of
inspired by um by the films that he watched he watched about five or six films from that time
um and which is actually worth saying that um our producer um in rio she's called miller and uh
and she's she's absolutely wonderful.
And her granddad was one of the pioneers of cinema novel.
He was a very well-known filmmaker in Brazil,
absolute superstar.
And so that was a little bit of a kind of full circle
sort of moment there as well.
And, you know, I handpicked the subject
for each one of the artists
because, you know,
I got to know them a little bit
throughout this process
and some of them I knew
relatively well or very well.
And so, for instance,
for Alien Queen,
I really needed to,
we talked about
the Brazilian dictatorship.
She obviously comes from Cambodia.
Her family suffered greatly with the dictatorship in Cambodia.
And so we found that sort of common thread
and sort of her interest in that subject.
And I felt like that had to, you know, to be the subject,
the theme for her.
And she explored it beautifully.
And, you know, I think her piece is really hard hitting and really, really great. And for Pia, you know,
she has the alphabet. So I directed her to this archaeological site, the history of this archaeological site
in the north of Brazil,
which actually has the oldest known cave paintings
in the whole of the Americas.
And, you know, they're beautiful.
The place is beautiful.
And the history is really interesting.
really interesting. So I directed Pia to sort of research that. And, and I'm, let me let
So I directed Pia to sort of research that.
me think, what else? And Brian, I thought, you know, I was Brian is interesting, because
I love Brian's work. And then in Lisbon, he kind of surprised us all with a kind of sensory
experience, which I think has a little I
thought at first he was a little bit because he'd become a parent and he probably went to some baby
groups where they did the parachute because it's a common thing at least in England um and and and
but it wasn't it was kind of I don't know I think it was uh I don't know Brian you told me where the
idea came from but I can't remember yeahkie, maybe this is a good segue.
I did want to bring up some of the artists and hear about their experiences.
And maybe, you know, Brian, if you wanted to speak about sort of the prompts or the resources that you were provided that inspired your piece.
And then if there are any other artists that want to come up and speak as well from the residency, we'd love to hear more.
Yeah, everybody. Thanks for having me.
Yeah, so my topic was the neo-concrete movement.
And so I used that as kind of a springboard.
But then, shout out to Selkie and Mila
who allowed me to kind of prep ahead of time.
And I built a bunch of stencils that I brought there
so that once I got to Rio,
I could kind of hit the ground running
and make 50 unique physical pieces that became an animation. And yeah, it was a really wonderful experience. And yeah, in
terms of the parachute, yeah, I haven't done a parachute thing like that since I was a
kid. So it was mostly tying into this idea of nostalgia and core memories. And how do
I use these moments to bring people together, which I think Selkie did a wonderful job with this Rio R residency.
She brought us all into this house together,
and we're all that much closer because of it.
Brian, does anything stick out based on your research in this concrete movement?
How did it incorporate into your piece, or how did it influence the work in the end?
Well, a lot of it was kind of a political movement at the time.
And so I didn't really relate to that aspect since it was kind of a revolutionary way of looking at the government in Rio.
But I really appreciated how the art form of it took simple shapes and kind of put them next to each other, disjointed them slightly to create this kind of movement.
to each other disjointed them slightly to create this kind of movement and uh yeah so i just i
i was more inspired by the visuals than uh the political background of it which i appreciated
but not something i could necessarily relate to on that level
yeah how about you afdott i know you obviously serve a different sort of function in this residency, but as an artist yourself, have there been themes from this year that stuck out to you or have any of the works really resonated with you from this residency?
Or do you want to talk about what you've learned along the way as you immerse yourself in the culture of Brazil?
Yeah, thanks, Jono. I really look forward to the mural activities that we do as a group
with these residencies. As Selke said, it's such a highlight to see people experimenting,
getting outside and moving their whole body while they're creating art. It just changes the end
result, but also how you feel during the process. And so whenever I travel, I'm looking for walls
to paint. I'm so inspired by the street art that already exists in Brazil.
There's a huge culture around that.
As well as the sidewalk patterns, there's this one famous designer architect named Roberto Burl-Marx.
And everywhere you go in Rio, you see different sidewalk patterns that were designed by him.
And that struck me on my very first time visiting. But now coming back for my fourth time to Rio, I was like,
I want to create a mural that's somewhat inspired by his patterns.
So I stuck around after the residency and Milo was somehow
able to find us a wall to paint.
So I created this second mural after the residency was over,
animated that and brought that to life for this show.
But in terms of the other artists,
I wanted to highlight Maria's piece.
Maria created a beautiful painting
that is also an infographic
where she went around with Mila
and Mila translated
so that she could have conversations with locals
and get data about how local Cariocas
felt about their job, felt their life their satisfaction their salary and she put those data points into the portraits
and it's a reference back to Tarsila's painting from I believe almost 100 years ago and that's
just a piece you have to spend some time looking at because there's also a key slash like a legend that goes along with the artwork.
So you can actually read the data.
And it tells you a lot of interesting things in one piece.
Yeah, I know, Selke, you're organizing a lot of this.
And these themes really hit home for you in a different way.
But I guess what have you observed in how these artists take to these themes
and these movements culturally?
Anything that's kind of stuck out to you?
Yeah.
I mean, first of all, they all really embraced it.
And they, you know, they got out of their comfort zone for some of them.
They explored it because it had a lot of connection with what they already did
for others. But I think, I don't know, I think it was just lovely to see them kind of
sort of getting stuck in and then for me to be able to see Rio and to see those themes and to
see those, you know, all of that through their eyes so part of
part of this you know the residency and all of this is it's it's a little selfish as well because
I love seeing Rio through other people's eyes you know bringing people who have never been there or
have or have spent not a lot of time there and you know with this with purpose and with you know
with the intention to create and and it them discover Rio, it's really beautiful.
It's really fulfilling.
I love it.
And Dave, a lovely Dave Krugman,
he went around and he took so many pictures.
I think he gave us a folder with more than 600 photos.
And from everything, it's Rio.
And there's so much.
And it's from what some people would consider ugly to the beautiful.
I don't consider, I don't see anything ugly in Rio.
Even if it is, you know, traditionally what someone would see as ugly,
for me, it's just part of what makes Rio.
You know, the favelas are fascinating for me.
They are beautiful in their own way.
And, you know, and everything is just and they saw it.
They really saw Rio, for instance.
And that was such a joy to be able to see Rio through his lens
and, you know, through his experience.
Yeah, and it's just really, really beautiful.
And yes, and Maria as well, the pieces that she's created, the postcards,
she's very thoughtful.
She has a very academic approach to, you know know to her art and to how she creates and
it's got a lot of depth and it's it's you know super interesting how she does it and i was
following her process and i was um you know with the interviews and she the the piece that she
created that was um inspired by the modernist um movement and she she picked a Tarsila do Amaral,
very famous Brazilian modernist painter.
And she made something really, truly beautiful and inspiring and full of depth.
And the fact that she took the time to go around and speak to people
and see people as well.
I am happy that the artists went out and they saw people,
they saw Rio.
They weren't just, you know, just, you know,
they kind of immersed themselves in a real, truly caring way.
And that made such a difference.
And, you know, it was just so beautiful to see.
And Noah Kocher uh Kocher sorry I
pronounce his name wrong every time sorry Noah um he um he went round he had a hand scanner
and he went round and he scanned like I uh graffiti and textures and walls and he was really
capturing you know these these sort of overlooked parts of Rio.
I asked him to look into the Rio street art and graffiti and all of those things and he really
did deliver and it was really great to see. And yeah, it was all of them. Natasha, you know,
also took her time to go and photograph and see Rio and, you know, create in a way that's, you know, very clearly Natasha post work and, but it's also, you know, it also kind of captured Rio in her own, in her very own way.
And it was also really beautiful to see.
So, yeah, it was also really beautiful to see um so yeah it's it was all really incredible
quick call out if there are any other artists that i'm missing in the spaces who were part
of the residency and want to come up and speak i would love to hear from you maria welcome um
if you're willing to share a little bit about your experience about the themes that connected
with you in terms of rio culture and how that influenced your piece i would love to hear hi yes well with a great
pleasure hello everyone uh i'm so happy to be here i was so happy and super lucky to also be in Rio in residency. So I must say this was the most fascinating residency experience for me.
And also, I mean, it was kind of the, let's say the first real residency experience.
So thank you, Selke and Eric for introducing both of my works done for this occasion.
And yeah, I must say that for me going somewhere on some other site, just moving around as an artist,
around as an artist. I love to explore and I love to mostly to learn about the place through people
and to through meeting new people. So for me, touristic attractions are not very interesting.
actions are not very interesting.
And what I wanted to do is actually to use this opportunity,
being in Rio, to understand more about the place
through the social workers and to do the reproduction
of Tarsila's painting in a contemporary way.
And also, I learned a lot from Mila,
and I'm really thankful to her
because she needed to translate all of the questions for me
and to go around with me.
So I learned a lot about the place in this way,
a lot about interesting facts,
which led me to create my second work, which are postcards that are going to be exhibited tomorrow. So these six postcards are actually kind of a diary.
And each postcard is showing, it's representing one simple fact
that I learned about this place that I didn't know before.
I was interacting not only with people on streets,
but also with the local people, Brazilian artists.
I was speaking to Fotograncia every day, every single day, and Abagar as well.
And I was so interested to soak in the information and to be able to learn, to have new insights about Rio.
That's what I created.
I also represented visually these stories
and on the backside of the postcards
is like a story that I'm sending to the gallery
and I send them officially through the post office.
It took a long time to arrive.
But I also want to thank Josh
because he was patiently waiting for them
and he received all of my Oscars in the end.
I was really concerned, are they going to arrive?
But the idea behind this is that actually the whole story,
the Oscars are also taken from my hometown, Belgrade.
It's written on them.
They're produced in Belgrade, but they're drawn and created in Rio
and sent to the gallery.
And thus they are containing this story.
Actually, this path is inscribed in the postcard
as it's like an analog blockchain.
Yeah, that's the idea.
And yeah, thank you. you thank you i want to just
use this occasion to thank again selkie and eric for inviting me to the residency because as i said
this was the the most wonderful experience for one artist who loved to explore the places
explore the places. And I'm so happy I was, I was able to do these works, but also to be with
legends in the same place to create with them in the same space. That was, that was really
incredible experience, especially Alien Queen. We were in the same room creating every day,
staying very long in the night, being locked in. So we had really
interesting conversations. And yeah, it was really amazing. So thank you again.
Beautiful.
All right. Yeah, sorry, Efdad, you wanted to say something?
I just wanted to see if Maria wanted to share one of the fun facts that she learned from the postcards.
I don't think she shared one of the fun facts.
Maybe not fun facts, just a fact that she learned about the culture.
Yeah, yeah, they're not very fun. But yeah, I've actually learned about the displacement of the indigenous people.
So that government and other government is mostly taking the land from them.
taking the land from them.
They are forcing them to be part of this economic system,
which they don't have a need to be
because they have their own infrastructure.
They have their own things like food,
and they don't really need to be in the economic monetary system.
But the government is making them pay these taxes.
So they're forced to be inside of it.
And I also had amazing experience
actually meeting indigenous people,
going to their village after the residency.
after the residency, so I was really inspired by this.
So I was really inspired by this.
Before you go, and this is open to you, Brian, as well,
this opportunity to connect with each other,
I think it's a really beautiful aspect of this space,
both digitally and physically,
that we get to connect with people from all over the world, learn about each other's
cultures. You're obviously in Brazil, and there's a focus on that, but maybe you guys can speak about
meeting each other, learning about each other's practice, people's cultures, and histories,
and personalities. I think that's a really great aspect of this residency as well.
residency as well.
Yeah.
I was thinking about all the amazing people.
I mean, getting to explore Rio was great.
Getting to meet Maria earlier this year at Lisbon and then getting to go to Rio was great.
And yeah, no, I think Rio was definitely a culture shock.
I didn't know what to expect.
It's enormous and so full of life.
I loved, like after I was saying, the graffiti there is everywhere and incredible.
It was very inspiring.
But yeah, I loved that we all kind of came from all over the world.
A few of us came from New York, which made it easy on the planes to share
the trip.
But it was a really magical experience.
Any particular moments that stick out for you, Brian?
Any stories?
Even just hanging out, having dinner?
Hearing from the Brazilian artists about their life in the favelas was very
illuminating and saying you know i i've only seen images of those buildings i didn't understand
like the the inner workings of them how they're run um how they're a little dangerous uh even
though they're like they're very beautiful on the outside they're kind of dangerous on the inside
They're very beautiful on the outside,
they're kind of dangerous on the inside.
And hearing how these artists have had to kind of move around
to be able to be creative and not be living in fear,
and I thought that was very, I don't know,
it's terrifying, some of the stories they said,
but it adds so much more layers to the work they're putting out.
You see those stories and their work so much more.
What about you, Maria?
Sorry, what was the question? Was the question to tell a funny story? I got lost for a moment.
Yeah, sorry. Just as you get to meet
everyone in the residency, all the other artists
who also come from places around the world,
I thought that that experience of you guys getting to meet each other
and learn about each other is also a beautiful aspect of this residency.
So, wondering if there's any takeaways you got
from meeting Brian or any of the other artists
involved in this residency.
And if you do have a particular moment
just spending time with everybody together
that sticks out to you.
Exactly, yeah.
It was not my first time to see Brian.
We know each other from before.
But it was a great opportunity both
to meet new people and to, let's say that I go to a lot of in real life events, but it's not
very common. So in these events, you usually just meet people for a short time you go to some dinners
you go to some places but it's a rush and you never sit and spend a lot of time with people
don't have a chance to uh chat a lot um so for me it was it was amazing moments when I realized that I have a lot of time to actually have conversations about, to deepen the conversations and relationships with people that I already know.
And of course, to meet new ones.
I met Noah at this residency for the first time.
And it was really, we had really amazing conversations
we worked together which is really a magical moment and let's say it feels like like it's
a family so for me this is a place where i want to be, where I want to create. So with a group of people that share the same thoughts
and it's really something, you know, for an artist, for me,
that's what I see as a real, you know, productive thing
to be with other people, have these conversations
and work with them.
Beautiful.
Thank you for sharing.
You're welcome.
We're getting ready to close the space to turn this back to you, Selkie, and FDOT.
You mentioned all of these different movements
through the eras in Brazil.
I'm curious if you have any thoughts about where our movement
lands in the lineage of creative
eras in the Brazilian culture. Do you have a perspective on
where digital art fits and sort of online artistic representation?
Selke, maybe we can turn that to you.
That's a really interesting uh question because
that was one that was the thing that I was really pondering um before the residency uh kind of took
shape this year's residency took shape because um and it's it's it's also why it's called when
Pixos learn to samba because so um one interesting thing about Brazil is that we're generally known,
and since the sort of dot-com kind of boom and all of that,
we've been generally known as being early adopters of technology.
And so there is even in the sort of most remote areas of Brazil,
there is a lot of access to the internet, more so I think than in any other country in the most remote areas of Brazil, there is a lot of access to the internet, more so, I think, than in any other country in the world.
And so people are very connected in Brazil and very curious and very willing to try new things.
There's a very Brazilian kind of characteristics.
I think a lot of people possibly are in other parts of the
world are similar but that's that's been my experience of brazil and and one thing that i
i've been thinking about is that you know it's also rio in particular uh which is a place on our best
it's very creative place has always been you know it's always everything it's you know it's about
cultural and creative expression you know you know Wherever it comes from, the poverty, the sadness, the politics,
the tough moments, the happy moments,
it all kind of explodes into art, into music,
into some sort of expression that comes in some way.
And the one thing that I've been feeling and that i wanted to explore is the fact
that you know somehow those things haven't necessarily reached the blockchain in our
digital art space but the force that i was expecting them to or that not expecting that
that i that i would expect them them to and and so i kind of feel like it's a good moment.
It's a moment.
The moment is now to get, you know,
art on the blockchain to be a thing in Brazil,
to be embraced, to be, there is space.
There is space because we, it's a funny thing.
We don't really like tradition in Brazil.
We're not very traditional people.
We have a lot of culture.
We have a lot of customs.
We have a lot of things that define our identity.
But we're always open to new things.
We're always open to, we know, we know exactly who we are.
So, so, so we're always open to new things, to try new things, because it doesn't, it
doesn't really threaten our identity or who we are
and anything like that.
And so I would actually, I would urge people here who have the means
and the interest and the drive to create things, to look at Brazil
and to look at the possibilities in Brazil,
because the institutions are open-minded, the people are
open-minded. And so there is, I think there is a lot of potential. And I'd like to think that with
the residency and with building this bridge, with, you know, our space and Rio and Brazil, I'm making,
you know, a little bit of, I'm making a small contribution towards kind of opening this up
and you know sort of connecting brazil and growing the scene in in brazil um so yeah
beautiful very well said and finally do you want to leave a little hint or share any ideas as to what's next for the Rio Art Residency?
Yes, so I wanted to say, so first of all, actually, I wanted to say, I want to say a huge
thank you to our patrons who made the residency possible in 2025, to our partners to you you know the super rare and the transient labs
and to our patrons Benny Redbeard Max Pretends OG and our Rio token patrons as well who made a huge
difference to the residency all of you who contributed.
The residency would not have been possible without your support.
And so we're extremely grateful for it.
And we're grateful for you guys to be living in our vision,
in the work that we're putting in and, you know,
in supporting the artists and their development in the space.
artists and their development in the space. And we're still sort of thinking about what's next.
It's possible that things will be a little different in the future. I'm always aiming
for bigger and better. So I will certainly do my best for that to be the case next time.
Will there be a residency in 2026?
Don't know.
Maybe it will be in 2027.
That's a possibility instead of 2026.
But that all fits into the plan of making it bigger and better.
So if it so happens that there isn't one in 2026, don't despair.
The residency will continue to happen.
It's just that we want to make sure that things are watertight, well done, that they
really add value and they really contribute to making things happen in a good, productive way.
So, yeah, we'll probably have some decisions to make and we will be communicating in the
next month or so.
Give at Rio Art Residency a follow, give Selkie a follow for updates.
In the pinned post, you can see all of the artists involved in the residency. I encourage you all to
give them a follow if you're not familiar with them already. Spend time with the work, live with
the work, understand the work. If any of it resonates with you, you know, the support goes a long way.
The art is beautiful and you can collect it.
So we encourage you to do so.
Some of them have already been collected, as we mentioned, Photographia, with their first ever minted piece, sold piece.
That's huge.
And a final reminder, When Pixels Learn to Samba, showing tomorrow at SuperRare Offline Gallery from 6pm to 8pm.
You can find the RSVP in the link in the pinned post.
And yeah, I just wanted to thank you, Selkie and FDOT and everybody involved for making this happen.
And we're so excited to see you guys tomorrow.
So yeah, thank you guys.
Really appreciate you coming to the space and we'll see you very soon.
Thank you so much.
