The invitation email to take part in TEDx São Paulo last Friday. This was very good news: not only I was one of about 700 people to be selected for this very exciting event, I had finally a reason to go back to Brazil.

I’ll be arriving in São Paulo Tuesday, November 11th and will be coming back Sunday 15th; I’ve already started writing to some of the people I didn’t meet in July and August, or didn’t have a chance to properly interview, to schedule appointments and interviews for my thesis. Can’t wait.

Patrícia and Renato

After meeting Patrícia Naves in New York during ICFF, I decided Belo Horizonte had to be a stop in my itinerary. After 4 days and also thanks to her, BH became my favorite Brazilian city – even if Rio would win the “where would I live were I to move to Brazil?” contest.

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Heloísa Crocco and Normélio

I got to know Heloísa Crocco and her work through Adélia Borges, whom I met the day before I left to Porto Alegre. I was going to stay in a hotel there, but Adélia called Heloísa to ask if her “wooden box” studio on the outskirts of Porto Alegre, by the Guaíba river, would be free the next 2 days. This is where she welcomes friends, artists and curators there as a sort of informal artists’ residence. Lucky for me, it was free.

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I only saw the sun for three hours during the six days I spent in Rio de Janeiro last August. My one and only stroll down Copacabana beach took place under a rain storm, while three-meter waves pounded the shore. I was lucky to even get a view of the city (above) from the top of the Corcovado. The last week of my one-month research trip in Brazil may have been anything but sun-kissed, but I didn’t need to get a tan to think Rio de Janeiro is today in a great place to become South America’s main design destination.

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