Lucilene Lisboa Rehberg

Photographer

It was by chance that I met this girl in Dusseldorf, last year. We met again in Liechtenstein and then, one more time in Porto, in a exhibition where she showed us an amazing work. Those generous hands, those colors, that fruit, the light, lines and curves could tell how much her talent excels. I think about her smile and her look, somehow they always stand out in the photos. Urucum was our first meeting. This year we had an opportunity to do an interview. But I thought to myself and decided to challenge us a little bit: We won’t do any interview. I suggest her to send me a picture which should outline what cultural baggage she carries along with her. A picture that shows all symbolic and important moments in her life. I got really curious about what I was suppossed to receive. She took a time to send me it, which increased my curiosity. I received the photo. I had had the feeling that I would like it, but it was still better than I thought. I will try to describe here what I saw and what I would like to share with you. In the pink sky, how much strenght, how delicate, it’s impossible to not stare at it. Suddenly, I saw with my eyes, in front of me, what she had told me. From the sertão, where she came to the world and then, soon, flew to São Paulo, a Brazilian megalometropole that houses so many superlatives and by coincidence – shall we believe it’s just coincidence or destiny? In São Paulo there are the largest Japanese community outside Japan and also the largest number of German companies. We could say it was made by fate, irony or to consolidate her own history. It was in Japan that their children were born, more precisely in Tokyo. And... is her husband Japanese? No, he is a German! Two people arrived in Japan, four left from there: a family. They lived for a total of 10 years in Asia, Tokyo, but also in Hong Kong. Then back to west, within the spirit of curiosity to live with cultural diversity, openness to others, they chose the Heidelberg city to stay.

And talking about the photo, where was it taken? It was taken in the city where she lives, it could have been done in São Paulo, Tokyo, or even in the Oden / Heidelberg forest. It depicts a door, a „gate“. Because this is Lucilene Lisboa Rehberg’s history. She was always Brazil inward, like a talisman. She creates and transforms forms by building a new imaginary. This reinterpretation that is impressive and that makes us feel the images. In the pink sky, the clouds, the Japanese portico that appears weightless, almost like a line, everything is light. I was thinking again about the conversation I had with her in Porto, when she talked about the sertao, where her father‘s family comes from. Whence that land that, at the same time, seems battered and arid is a land of fruit, of legends, of unique colors. She also talked about the time she lived in Japan, about her children, about such a different culture, about reviving herself in that east. There, in that photo, looking warm, cool, stirring. As if the sky could change its color in a little while and still there in the photo, for us to see. Magic! Maybe that‘s the strength I find most in her photos. Movement, magic, light, but at the same time with strong themes. I decided in my own way to mix the symbols, I tried to join the ideas I saw in it. And I thought about birds. About the many birds that migrate . She also migrated and made it her strength. The immigrant spirit, which allowed her to adapt and create. In the sertão, the Carcara: strong, when it flies, it is light, beautiful, owner of the sky. In Japan, the divine Tsurus: means happiness, longevity and a desire for peace. I almost forgot to ask her the name of the work, she smiled and replied that its name was Toori. „Toori under the Nippo-German-Brazilian triad: the plasticity of globalization“ And she complemented the explanation of that choice: Toori, means “gate” in simple translation. But for her, who studied Japanese, it also means an address for the birds. A transition between the world as we live and the other, sacred, magical. I imagine that in the next work that she will present us, we will have this movement oscillating between the inside and the outside world. I‘m already curious to know what theme she will use next. And we will also be able to find out about the doctoral thesis that she will present. Talented girl with ability in the letters, in the lenses and in the stories she tells us. She lives in an eternal search for new paths, doors and ways to show us her unique universe.