LONG LIVE THE LIVING SCHOOL (SÃO PAULO)
Tomie Ohtake Institute – São Paulo
10 June to 9 August, 2026
In June 2026, a new edition of LONG LIVE THE LIVING SCHOOL opens at the Tomie Ohtake Institute in São Paulo. The exhibition brings together the arts and knowledge of the five Living Schools of the Maxakali, Huni Kuin, Guarani, Baniwa, and Tukano-Desana-Tuyuka peoples.
Presented through a partnership between Selvagem and the Tomie Ohtake Institute, and curated by Cristine Takuá, coordinator of the Living Schools, the exhibition is a direct outcome of the Indigenous artistic residency Living School House, which occupied the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro (MAM Rio) for fifteen days in October 2025. It also continues the presence of Living Schools art within Selvagem’s activities, following the first Long Live the Living School exhibition, held in Rio de Janeiro, between December 2023 and January 2024.
Living Schools is the name of a movement supporting the strengthening and transmission of traditional knowledge across five indigenous territories. We make a monthly financial contribution of 10,000 BRL to each Living School and coordinate joint initiatives. Visit the Living Schools page to support this movement and learn more about the steps that led to the new exhibition.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
“The Living Schools present themselves as a collective that seeks to transform the relationship between teaching and learning, and the relationship between what is truly useful and necessary in the constant exchange of knowledge that is ancestral but which, due to colonial and epistemological arrogance, has been distorted within a rigid, traditional school system. The art of the Living Schools is not art-as-commodity, but art-as-thought, art-as-dream and art-as-action for the empowerment of the lives of every culture.” – Cristine Takuá, coordinator of the Living Schools movement
Before arriving at the Tomie Ohtake Institute, the first Living Schools exhibition was presented at Casa França Brasil in Rio de Janeiro, from December 2023 to January 2024. The works featured in the current exhibition were produced through workshops held in the territories of the Living Schools between 2024 and 2026, as well as during the Living School House residency, held in October 2025 at the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro (MAM Rio), which brought together 10 Indigenous artists in a process of creation and knowledge exchange. More about this process can be found on the Living School House residency page, or in the article: “Long Live the Living School: paths of the new Living Schools exhibition”.
For the opening, 25 Indigenous artists will create a large-scale painting within the exhibition space, conceived as a backdrop for much of the show and integrated with other works throughout the exhibition. The exhibition also features five banners with graphic motifs from the peoples that make up the Living Schools. Together, these works amount to nearly 300 square meters of paintings created at the Tomie Ohtake Institute. In addition, each Living School presents a major collective work.
From the Baniwa people comes the installation Navel of the world, composed of tucum-fiber weaving crafted by Baniwa women. The Huni Kuï present a teacher cloth adorned with kenes, traditional graphic patterns that guide learning and the transmission of knowledge connected to their cosmology. Among the Maxakali,the collective installation is organized around poles known as mīmãnãns [ritualistic wooden poles] , which, according to their cosmology, guide and enable the presence of spirits during rituals. Pytü, The Darkness, an installation by the Guarani people, represents profound darkness, from which the first breath, the first being, and the first life may emerge. Completing the exhibition is an Amazonian pharmacy, with medicinal plants, elixirs, and balms brought by the Tukano, Desana and Tuyuka peoples.
The exhibition also includes a section dedicated to the "grandparents", understood as fundamental figures in the preservation and transmission of Indigenous knowledge. Through stories, songs, and everyday practices, they sustain a memory that spans generations and connects different planes of existence. By bringing these presences into the exhibition space, the show proposes an encounter with ways of knowing grounded in listening, lived experience, and intergenerational continuity. Featured in this section are Ailton Krenak, Ehuana Yanomami, Tõrãmu Kẽhíri (Luiz Lana) and Moisés Piyãko.
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME AND EVENTS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
As part of its public programme, the Institute offers four workshops led by Veronica Pinheiro, researcher, street artist, and coordinator of the Selvagem Learning Laboratory (LAS). The workshops invite participants into experiences of listening, memory, and creative practice inspired by the exhibition. The events on June 27 and July 11 are open to the public upon registration.
– June 26 – The navel, memories that connect us to the world, a workshop for students from a public school.
– June 27 – formação para professores Tudo na memória – INSCRIÇÕES AQUI
– July 11 – oficina Tudo na memória, aberta ao público espontâneo – INSCRIÇÕES AQUI
– August 8 – The Warrior’s Dream, a workshop with Guarani Indigenous youth from the Jaraguá Indigenous Land, celebrating the closing of the exhibition.
Participation is free of charge, with limited places available.
A NEW BOOK BY CARLOS PAPÁ
On June 9, the date of the exhibition’s preview opening, o Instituto Tomie Ohtake recebe também the launch of the book “Tekoypy rã – A origem de nós” [The origin of us], by Carlos Papá, coordinator of the Guarani Living School and a master of his people’s traditional knowledge, published by Dantes Editora.
This is a book that has been envisioned since Carlos Papá began collaborating with Selvagem in 2018. It brings together and deepens ideas that he has generously shared over the years, drawing from his understanding of the Guarani conception of the world.
The book is rooted in orality and was created with the participation of Papá’s family and other members of the Guarani Living School, which he coordinates. Papá conceived the book as a journey. Through a series of talks recorded especially for this publication, he narrates the unfolding of life itself. Cristine Takuá, Kauê, Djeguaká and Suri Jerá accompanied this journey through their drawings. Léo Werá carried out the translation from Guarani into Portuguese and from Portuguese into Guarani, working closely with Papá so that the book could become both a kind of Guarani language lesson and a profound dialogue on the interpretation of words and names.
ARTISTS AND LIVING SCHOOLS PRESENT IN THE EXHIBITION
MADZEROKAI
Baniwa Living School
The Medzeniakonai are inhabitants of the cultural and multilingual system of the Upper Rio Negro, an area of approximately 250,000 km² that covers the north-west of the Amazon basin. It is in this territory that is located Madzerokai, the House of Ancestral Knowledge, the Baniwa Living School.
The exhibition features paintings by Frank Baniwa, Larissa Baniwa and Francy Baniwa, as well as the installation "Navel of the world", created by the community of the Escola Viva Baniwa in the village of Assunção do Içana: Maria Cleocimar, Viviane Almeida, Gelma, Laura Almeida, Eliane Fontes, Virgília Almeida, Bidoca Castro, Maristela, Íris, Elisangela, Lilian Livino, Vera Teixeira, Josiane Mandu, Maria Aparecida, Fátima Castro, Isabel Castro, Francisco, Frank, Estevão, Hermes, Miguel, Robertinho, Cláudio, Jorge, Jonilton, Antônio and Genival.
SHUBU HIWEA
Huni Kuï Living School
The Shubu Hiwea Living School is a dream of the pajé DUA BUSË. He lives with his family in the Indigenous village Coração da Floresta [Heart of the Forest], on the Upper Jordan River. Dua Busë has deep knowledge of the Huni Kuï culture – of stories, medicine, music and spirituality - and over the years he has passed on his knowledge to other pajés and apprentices. In his village, he has created a large garden, which he has named Parque União da Medicina [Medicine Union Park], where the traditional medicine of his people is cultivated, studied and practiced.
The exhibition features paintings by Rua Yube (José Maia) Huni Kuin and Ayani (Maria Ducila) Huni Kuin, created during the Living School House residency, as well as several canvases produced in a workshop held in the territory of the Huni Kuin Living School, in the Aldeia Coração da Floresta, between April and May 2026, with the participation of Ayani (Maria Ducila), Shuku Bena, Inu Bake, Inu Ibã, José Domingos, Dua Txuwã, Edivaldo Sena da Silva, Aldo Sena da Silva, Luciene Domingos da Silva, Alderina Vandique Domingos, Maria Socorro Sena da Silva, Itã, Teresa Netë, Maspã, Paulino, and Ayani (Francisca Domingos).
ARANDU PORÃ
Guarani Living School
At Arandu Porã, name of the Guarani Living School, young people have begun to awaken their dormant memories. Ancestral practices are in dialogue with agroforestry techniques and bee cultivation. In this territory, where the Guarani language is dominant, children and young people find at the Living School a place to learn the stories of their people, practise their art and science.
A exposição conta com pinturas de Carlos Papá, Bruno Djeguaká, Kauê Karai e Suri Jera, feitas na residência Casa Escola Viva, além de uma escultura de Pytü, o Escuro, e pinturas realizadas em oficinas na Escola Viva Guarani, incluindo também Fabiano Kuaray, Léo Wera, Cristine Takuá, Alexandre Wera, Tupã e Cristiano Wera Poty.
APNE IXKOT HÂMHIPAK
Maxakali Living School
The Maxakali are ancestral inhabitants of the forests that used to cover the north-east of Minas Gerais and the extreme south of Bahia. They are a people of approximately 3,000 who speak the Maxakali language, one of the last native languages of the region. The Forest School Village, Maxakali Living School, was created from the retaking of a federal property, located in the rural area of Teófilo Otoni (MG).
The exhibition presents canvases by Mamei Maxakali and Isabelinha Maxakali, created during the Living School House residency, as well as mīmãnãns [ritualistic wooden poles], traditional garments, and additional paintings produced in workshops at the Maxakali Living School, with the participation of Isael, Sueli, Cassiano, Rolando, Erismar, Veronildo, Marcinho, Marcos, Evaldo, and Voninho, as well as Mamei and Isabelinha.
BAHSERIKOWI
Tukano-Desana-Tuyuka Living School
The Bahserikowi Indigenous Medicine Center is located in the city of Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonas, and articulates relationships with various institutions, such as the Pan American Health Organization, the Brazilian Secretariat of Indigenous Health (SESAI), the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), and the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM).
The kumuã specialists who consult at the Bahserikowi Indigenous Medicine Center come from the Yepamahsã (Tukano), Utãpirõ-porã (Tuyuka) and Umukori-mahsã (Desana) Indigenous communities of the Upper Tiquié River.
The exhibition also features canvases and drawings by Ivan Tukano and Thais Desana made during the Living School House residency, as well as an Amazonian pharmacy developed in collaboration with the Bahserikowi team and specialists from the Upper Rio Negro region, along with traditional wooden benches carved by Celestino and Valter Tukano.
The Grandparents are the guardians of the good and beautiful messages carried in words, told through ancient narratives, or transformed into forms of art that animate our path. To evoke the Grandparents, to listen to them, and to witness their activations is to access other codes, to feel the ancestry that lives within their ancient messages. When an elder takes up his maracá and chants, through song, prayers of healing and protection, or when elder women welcome newborns into the world with their songs, they are building bridges between worlds: between the human world and the world of spirits.
For the exhibition Long Live the Living School, we invited some of these elders to bring the force of ancestral memory: Ehuana Yanomami, Tõrãmü Kẽhíri (Luiz Lana), Moisés Piyãko, and Ailton Krenak. They are bearers of a sensitive wisdom belonging to those who seek to feel their own shadow.
Ehuana Yanomami
Ehuana Yaira Yanomami is a Yanomami leader, artist, researcher, and mother of four children. She was born, raised, had her children, and continues to live in the Amazon rainforest, in the Demini region (Amazonas). Around the age of ten, she began studying at the Indigenous school in her community, where she learned to write in her native language, Yanomae. Ehuana became the first teacher in her community in 2010, when she began participating in various research projects and in the production of books in Yanomae, becoming the author of Yipimuwi thëã oni: palavras escritas sobre menstruação [written words about menstruation] (Saberes Indígenas, 2017). Through these projects, she began illustrating books, revealing her talent as an artist. Since 2017, she has been creating drawings and paintings that depict her daily life as a woman of the forest. She also draws inspiration from dreams, given her strong capacity for dreaming, as the daughter of a shaman.
Ehuana stands out as one of the few female leaders among the Yanomami and has gained growing recognition for coordinating the annual Yanomami Women’s Meeting, held in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory. In addition, she participates in events aimed at non-Indigenous audiences, where she speaks about the strength of Yanomami women, the struggle against illegal mining and for the health of her people, and the defense of the forest where she was born, raised, and raises her children.
“If you see the way we Yanomami think, if you truly see it, you will help us. I think about this when I make my art.” – Ehuana Yanomami
Tõrãmü Këhíri (Luiz Gomes Lana)
Tõrãmü Këhíri, conhecido como Luiz Gomes Lana, escritor indígena reconhecido por colocar no papel a mitologia do povo Desana, nasceu em 1947, na comunidade São João Batista, às margens do rio Tiquié, na Terra Indígena Alto Rio Negro, interior do Amazonas. Ao longo de sua vida, tornou-se um líder indígena importante da região.
Em 1980, Luiz Lana lançou a obra Antes o mundo não existia [Before, there was no world], que escreveu em conjunto com seu pai, Firmiano Arantes Lana, ou Umúsin Panlõn Kumu. A antropóloga Berta Ribeiro foi quem datilografou e revisou o livro, escrito à mão em um caderno de Luiz. Anos depois, o livro foi publicado em nova edição pela Dantes Editora, como parte da família de livros Selvagem, incluindo uma revisão de termos e novas ilustrações feitas pelo autor.
In 1990, he founded the Union of Indigenous Nations of the Tiquié River (Unirt), which, in addition to the Desana, also included the Tukano, Bará, and Barasana peoples.
Se existe um fio da memória, Tõrãmʉ o tem em suas mãos e pode desfiá-lo até um outro mundo, antes do mundo existir.
Tõrãmü Këhírí showed us that the questions “Who am I?” and “Where do I come from?” are only unknown to white people, for he knew his own origin very well. He came from the stars; he was a Këhíríporã, a child of the dream-drawing, of the Desana people or Ümükomahsã, people of the universe, descendants of Yebá Buró, the grandmother of the world.
Moisés Piyãko
Moisés Piyãko is a respected spiritual leader of the Ashaninka people who lives in the Apiwtxa village, in the Kampa Indigenous Territory of the Amônia River, in Acre, Brazil. He is a guardian of ancestral knowledge, culture, and the forest, transmitting knowledge about his people’s history, spirituality, and relationship with nature.
“The Living School… today, many people are becoming interested in learning and understanding what it is, in order to live it as well. Even to be able to show more respect. Often, they are not to blame, because sometimes we do not understand, we do not know how to show respect, we do not know how to carry this forward. Now, the moment is coming when people are being given an opportunity to understand what this is. I see that our Living School did not begin here […] it is very old.” – Moisés Piyãko
Ailton Krenak
Ailton Krenak is a thinker, environmentalist and one of the main voices of indigenous knowledge. Ailton has created, along with Dantes Editora, Selvagem, cycle of studies about life. He lives in the Krenak village, by the margins of rio Doce, in Minas Gerais. He is the author of the books Ideas to postpone the end of the world (2019), Tomorrow is not for sale (2020), Life is not useful (2020) and Ancestral future (2022), all published by Companhia das Letras, as well as Um rio um pássaro [A River a bird] (2023), published by Dantes Editora. In 2022, he was elected a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.
“Nobody here is talking about school education. For those who see it from afar, they might understand that we are developing a pedagogical project, an education plan for our communities or for non-Indigenous people. But it’s nothing like that. This is an experience of supporting masters of ancestral expertise, all those who live the exercise of practising. Our support is to enable them to continue transmitting their expertise.” – Ailton Krenak, in the Selvagem notebook The Living Schools’ Expanded Heart