The week has been really pushing and Saturday has finally arrived.
The mild early autumn sunshine streaming in the fresh morning.
Anna has her favorite place to be in this kind of day.
Since she has moved to São Paulo, Ibirapuera Park has taken a special place in her heart, after all, there is always something going on over there. Everything she needed was to take a long and peaceful walk to relax.
This time she didn´t take one of the guided group walks available in the park. Instead, she decided to be alone.
Anna came through the Japanese Garden, walked to the Sculpture, she was willing for some space to breathe, and this 6.000 m² area filled with 30 open-air pieces of art around MAM – Modern Art Museum seemed to be the right place for that.
The nature scent was always able to make her brave soul take a break. Right there, she was reconnecting with herself and, even for a while, could leave behind all the math and the financial market´s stressful environment.
On the other side of the lane, Ana could see a group of young people being guided by a teacher.
She got curious and stopped to look at it. Dissembling to tie her snickers´ laces, glanced over her fancy sunglasses, and for an instant, she wanted to be one of those girls, beautiful and young again. Suddenly, she remembered how incomplete she felt back in that time. Quickly, she came back to the present moment, realizing that she rather be the Anna she has become.
Coming from the skateboard area, Helio had in his hands some brochures that he had just picked it up from the printer’s shop, on his feet the old buddy: a skateboard autographed by Sandro Dias – a renowned Brazilian skateboarding champion. He was eager to promote the new backpacking trip to everybody.
This would be the second one since he finished the tourism college degree. He had spent all his savings to launch the first one that wasn´t very successful. Despite his young age Helio has already experienced a lot. Anyway, he was confident that this time would work. It had to.
Helio stopped for a minute, looking at the same young group. They would definitely go for this experience.
Purposeful, he came a little closer and started listening to what the teacher was talking about. It was all about art. He was explaining about the new MAM´s exhibition they had just visited. The audience was listening carefully, after all, who wouldn´t pay attention when Alberto starts to give his lectures. He was always so enthusiastic and confident, making everyone fall in love with the subject.
Some weekends he taught classes in the park, sometimes it would happen in the Afro Museum -his favorite. Its collection contains more than 6.000 pieces. The last class, for instance, took place at OCA. Alberto explained Oscar Niemeyer´s architecture and explored with his students the two floors of interesting work.
Right there, on this bright sunny day, with mother nature as a witness and Brazilian art as an accomplice, Ana, Helio, and Alberto would meet for the first time. From now on, they would never get apart. They didn´t know yet, but Ibirapuera Park would seal this friendship and make them experience this meaningful meeting of the human being with its humanity.
Author: Isa Fumoy
