Itamaraty Award for Cultural Diplomacy Strengthening the Bond Between China and Brazil

Art is probably one of the best expressions of cultural diplomacy, as it can communicate so much without a single world needing to be uttered. Sarina Tangs knows this well: in the last twenty years she has come up with several art exchanges and projects between Brazil and China. Her work has now earned her the Itamaraty Award, presented to her by the Brazilian Foreign Ministry's Department of Culture.

Sarina Tangs is living proof of the world that we live in, and she represents the good side of it. Born in Shanghai, she grew up halfway around the world in Sao Paulo. She is one of only a few people of her generation to master Portuguese and Chinese as a native speaker; moreover, she also learned French while studying history of art at the Ecole du Louvre in Paris.

She presently runs the Currents – Art and Music Foundation, created in 2009. The main purpose of the organisation is to encourage interaction between Chinese artists and the international environment through organising art and music workshops, exhibitions and installations. International leaders in the field are invited to and hosted in Beijing for up to two months, in order to acquire a thorough knowledge of Chinese culture and lifestyle.  

Between 2009 and 2014, Tang held ‘Shared and Divergent’, an exchange program for Chinese and Brazilian artists. As a result of this project Chinese artist, Song Dong, was able to hold an exhibition in São Paulo in 2014, titled “Regenerated”.

Her commitment is not limited to relations with Brazil.  In 1995 and 1998, just before his death, she collaborated with one of the fathers of pop art, Roy Lichtenstein, in organizing an exhibition with his artworks in Chinese style. Furthermore, she commissioned six sculptures from the artist to be put in a square in Singapore. Permanent installations by Chinese sculptors were realized in Tokyo under her direction.