9th Venezuelan Week - To Be Together

To combine painting, photography, food, fashion, film, and conferences in a single programme is always a challenging endeavour. Each activity inspires interest in different audiences, with its individual characteristics of the Venezuelan culture which are all important to us.

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In this Ninth Venezuelan Week in Malaysia, we have put together a programme with new highlights as compared to previous editions. It opens with an art exhibition by young Venezuelan artists, who graduated from Limkokwing University through a cooperative agreement between the abovementioned institution and the Embassy. Apart from an exhibition of paintings and drawings, there are other displays, such as an audio-visual presentation with new technology components, as well as the dedication of a musician who fuses traditional Venezuelan rhythms with electronic music. This exhibition will be held in White Box Gallery, located at Publika Shopping Centre in Sri Hartamas.

It has become a tradition to have the gastronomic festival as one of the main highlights of the Venezuelan Week. This year, in partnership with the Hotel Intercontinental Kuala Lumpur, we are bringing renowned chef Adrián Yánez, who after developing his culinary career in Venezuela and perfection his technique in Europe, has settled in Thailand where Venezuelan cuisines are increasingly in demand. This festival will feature live music, Venezuelan fashion show and a display of photographs and handicrafts.

To continue with the Simón Bolívar Lecture Series which was launched last year, the Embassy in collaboration with the Institute of Latin American Studies of the National University of Malaysia (UKM) will present Prof. Luis Britto García who will be in charge of a conference on Bolívar and the union of Latin America. Britto García, one of the most reliable and prolific intellectuals of the continent, with dozens of published books in diverse genres such as novels, essays, poetry, drama, short stories, history and humour, will also be leading a forum to discuss the film Zamora, a key figure in the fight for equality and justice in Venezuela, of which he is the scriptwriter.

As we have mentioned many times before, cultural exchange is perhaps one of the best way to bring people together. The Ninth Venezuelan Week in Malaysia has this mission to take the tweenty thousand miles that separate us and make us meet face to face. It is an opportunity to recognise young Venezuelan artists, to see different faces and landscapes, to taste typical dishes and appreciate the attires worn by the women of our land, to know a little more about our history, and to dance together, to be together. That is the purpose of the events we present in this programme: ‘To be together’.

Manuel Antonio Guzmán Hernández

Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to Malaysia