A River Does Not Exist Alone

The Instituto Tomie Ohtake, located in São Paulo, will celebrate its 25 years of existence in 2026. Over this trajectory, which for years has extended into other territories, the exhibition A River Does Not Exist Alone represents an important milestone in reflecting on our collective future.

Founded by a family from the Asian diaspora, the Instituto shaped its institutional identity from the outset through openness to others and to the new. It has fostered vital connections between territories and different forms of social organization, life, and culture, becoming a space for encounters and for presenting diverse landscapes and cultures, with a keen eye on the arts and their intersections with education, design, architecture, and knowledge systems—far beyond Western frameworks..

Over these more than two decades of work, the crises that affect us—climatic, political, social, and existential—have made even more explicit our need to coexist with differences and create alliances for a fairer and more sustainable world. In this sense, the role of art and poetic practices is fundamental, offering unique and indispensable spaces to perceive, feel, and translate the complexities of our world, while imagining other ways to build and inhabit it.

A River Does Not Exist Alone condenses and celebrates much of this trajectory and of our understanding of the role of a cultural institution today, both in Brazil and globally. Nothing exists alone—neither rivers, nor people, nor social organizations, nor countries—and we are all part of this circle of life. Working together is the first step to contributing, in some way, to ensuring that the many worlds endure and coexist, beginning with the privilege of engaging and learning from the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, which for over a century has conceived the Amazon as a universe.

For us, the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 30) is an opportunity to give visibility to artists, knowledges, and creations connected to ecological thinking, expanding our repertoire regarding life on Earth. However, it is important to note that the conference itself is not our primary focus: our purpose is art, life, and the sharing of the world.

The Instituto Tomie Ohtake is grateful to the Ministry of Culture, which, through the Federal Cultural Incentive Law (Lei Rouanet), has made the exhibition A River Does Not Exist Alone possible, and the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, whose support was fundamental for the realization of this project. We also extend our gratitude to our sponsors: Nubank, the institutional supporter of the Instituto Tomie Ohtake; AkzoNobel, gold sponsor; Aché Laboratórios Farmacêuticos, silver sponsor; and PepsiCo, bronze sponsor.