Presente: New Digital Publication Focuses on Correspondence and Dialogue

Presente, a new digital publication launched in April, emerges from the pandemic's social distancing as a platform for correspondence and dialogue. Conceived by curator Paulo Miyada and artist Anna Maria Maiolino, it focuses on letters and other texts created between two or more people. The quarterly publication originated from an exchange between Miyada and Maiolino in early 2020, later published in the blog Entretempos of Folha de S.Paulo. The title references three meanings of 'presente': the current time, the act of responding to a roll call, and the gesture of giving a gift. The format deliberately contrasts with academic, journalistic, or social media communication, emphasizing a slower, more thoughtful rhythm. The first edition includes contributions from critic Lisette Lagnado, psychoanalyst Tania Rivera, artists Dalton Paula, Paloma Durante, and Pat Bergantin, with poetry by Edimilson de Almeida Pereira and visual works by Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro, Fernanda Gomes, and Pedro Moraleida. It also features a previously unpublished translation of a 1986 essay by Ursula K. Le Guin. Miyada describes the publication as a response to contemporary violence and necropolitics, seeking a critical thought that does not reproduce contempt for life.