jardimdejogo 1
jardimdejogo 2
drawing as medicine
Active imagination
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Gazelle horns
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jardimdejogo
By Rubens Takamine
1. Creating a residency program is like drawing ways of inhabiting time. Through erasures, scribbles, overlays, collages, outlines, and diagrams, the artists gathered here have chosen drawing as their primary tool for collectively filling the gaps in time, recognizing the importance of being together in an era so marked by inattention. The act of drawing, which has been with us since childhood, has the power to restore to our adult bodies the ability to remember, desire, dream, enjoy, celebrate, rest, immerse ourselves, find peace, and continually discover ourselves.
2. “jardimdejogo” is the title of the living residency conceived by artists Ayesha Ghaoul and Marina Dubia, which took place at the independent spaces BALIZA and VIRTUA3000 during the months of October and November 2026. Back in Rio de Janeiro for the second time, the artists reunite to experiment with new modes of creation based on mutual care. At the intersection of drawing, performance, body-based pedagogies, spiritual choreography, and interactive games, Ayesha and Marina invited a group of artists to join their investigation: Danilo Nobrega, Duda Borowicz, Melgga, Rubens Takamine, and Tom Grito. Over the course of three weeks, they put into practice exercises in the transposition of memory, orality, dance, diagram composition, and poetic writing, as well as a pajama party featuring dream storytelling at dawn. These fragments can be observed and experienced on the “play floor” at VIRTUA3000, which is dedicated to the imaginative forces, dynamics, tensions, and lessons that only shared experiences allow us to access.
3. Drawing is not just a technique. For us, it is a way of thinking, acting, and transforming reality. On a micro-political level, we give free rein to our most intimate feelings, which spring from memory and spill over onto the paper. Text, image, voice, gesture: all these elements become inseparable in the game. Certainties must make room for doubt. Control (the ego) must yield so that the collective (the game) can pulse with a life of its own. We are not alone. Drawing will reveal this.
4. “jardimdejogo” is opposed to extractive monoculture. It is not a game with winners or losers. Roles rotate, and everyone wins, just as in agroforestry, where polyculture improves soil health and diversifies food sources, incorporating biodiversity as a fundamental element for the system’s survival. Collective experience teaches us that cultivating multiple perspectives on a given subject (which emerges in the drawings) is the greatest wealth we can preserve for the future.