For the first edition, we proposed a theme intrinsically linked to the project's conception: displacement in space and time. Our special 'baggage' of books had as its inspiring motus the rich territory of associations, allusions and resignifications provided by the vast work of Guimarães Rosa.

Quoting an excerpt from Great Backlands: Paths: “I didn’t really like sparkles, what I saw, I saw in the world myself. I had a bag, which wasn’t really a travel bag, nor a briefcase bag, but rather a shoulder bag, my bag in a lazy way.” In this passage, Riobaldo skillfully describes his suitcase as something flexible, transitory, an artifact of his back, simultaneously half full and half empty. With this ambiguity, throughout the narrative, he takes us through territories that are not limited to mere physical geographical movements through the backlands, but also explore spaces full of uncertainties and strangeness, representing an exploration of the limits and internal contradictions of his personality.

This brief excerpt, which brought us the “vagrant suitcase”, inspired us and raised several questions, such as: what did we genuinely want to take and share with others? What reflections did we intend to instigate to promote a more critical look at society with our work?

With the aim of stimulating new perspectives and dialogues, we hoped that the theme would function as a narrative trigger, allowing each of us to create unique stories and aesthetic possibilities, giving them singular poetic expressiveness.

Today, when we look back, we see how this invitation to explore new territories — geographical or symbolic — reverberated in the works created. MALA, accompanied by the books, transformed strangeness into dialogue and uncertainties into discovery, paving the way for new perspectives and narratives in our artistic journey in 2024.