Thiago Jesus - People's Palace Projects

In conversation with Martin Zierold

Thiago Jesus is Senior Project Manager at People’s Palace Projects (PPP), an arts research centre based at Queen Mary University of London. PPP leads a research programme of cultural exchange with the Kuikuro Indigenous people from Xingu Territory, exploring ways in which arts and technology can support the preservation of fragile communities from the Amazon region. Among the many projects PPP has developed and supported is the theatre production „The Encounter“ of Simon McBurney and his performance group Complicité. Thiago holds a MA in Visual Culture from the University of Westminster, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He has a vast range of experience as a creative producer, researcher, and curator with a focus on cross-cultural initiatives fostering knowledge exchange, innovation, cultural heritage, social and environmental justice.

Links Fundraising campaign: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/Kuikuroagainstcovid People's Palace Projects website: https://peoplespalaceprojects.org.uk/en/ PPP’s page for our Indigenous work: https://peoplespalaceprojects.org.uk/en/projects/xingu-encounter/

Further material: Ologiko, documentary produced by Indigenous filmmaker Takumã Kuikuro about the artistic residence for cultural preservation in the village that I have produced between 2017-18. It gives a good panorama of our work before the pandemic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVYmSO2n7lE&t=171s Video that Takumã has produced for the online screening of The Encounter, which I think gives a great perspective about their community (English captions): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5i0tHR6EFU&t=28s The oped Takumã has written for America’s Quarterly: https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/indigenous-brazilians-are-having-to-look-abroad-for-support/ And the videos they have produced for their fundraising campaign (English captions) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPyYEnbjWN0&t=2s / https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=HP_Jm_cSSQk&feature=emb_logo / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wucRsfa2JPc&feature=emb_logo