With the 2025 cycle of M.A.L.A. concluded, our final stop was in São Paulo, at the Mário de Andrade Library, a historic institution that celebrated its centenary in 2025. Ending the season there broadened the meaning of the journey, bringing our trajectory closer to the city's own cultural history.

The exhibition “crossing” also marked the end of our journey between Brazil and France, bringing together not only the books presented in Paris, but also works by French artists who traveled with us and broadened the dialogue between the two cultures. It was an encounter of gestures, geographies, and temporalities.

Our initial conversations began at the start of the year, when a special synergy emerged between M.A.L.A. and the Library's rare books team. This collaborative environment further reinforced our desire to establish lasting connections.

In the exchanges that followed, we were reminded of how French artist's books played a decisive role in shaping the institutional collection, especially during Sérgio Milliet's tenure. His work, deeply connected to the post-war French art scene and fundamental to the creation of what would become the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art (MAM), helped build the bridge that we now recognize between São Paulo and European graphic experimentation. It was with emotion that we realized that our exhibition was part of this historical flow.

The coincidence of dates further reinforced this connection: while "crossing" occupied the third floor of the Library, the exhibition "From Book to Museum," dedicated precisely to revisiting the formation of the MAM's art collection and its international roots, was taking place simultaneously. Two parallel events that seemed to converse and mirror each other.

After a ten-month residency, two exhibitions in Paris, technical visits to French libraries, and encounters that broadened our knowledge, concluding this journey at the largest and most important public library in São Paulo offered a feeling of return and belonging. A cycle that closed, opening new paths.

For the exhibition design, we had the collaboration of the artist and designer Claudio Rocha, who brought a welcoming atmosphere to the exhibition space and created a dialogue with the collection of works.

And so ended our crossing: woven together by stories, affections, displacements, and the certainty that cultivating bridges between people, countries, and perspectives is always a gesture of care and respect.

Concluding this phase at the Mário de Andrade Library, in the midst of the France-Brazil Season, was an honor for us and a perfect symbol of the spirit that guided the entire project: opening paths, crossing borders, and continuing to cultivate encounters.