Yemanja is an exhibition featuring the photographs of three photographers:

• Marcella Haddad & Elcio Carrico from Brazil
• Photini Papahatzi from Greece

Marcella Haddad and Elcio Carrico have been documenting the festival of Yemanja in Brazil for the last 3 years.

Photini Papahatzi joined them this last year.

On September 11 a storm broke ... separating the seven seas, splitting life into fragments. The tide turned, flowing out fast, rivers ran dry. Crustaceans crept back into their shells. We are left in a state of low tide; mud, oozing, stinking, exposing.

Is it within the power of humanity to open the floodgates, release the rivers, and turn the tide in?

In response to the current political climate, Yemanja draws its inspiration from the Orixa faith and its gods and rituals to create a multi-art-disciplines project that is about giving, receiving, and giving back using water as a metaphor.

This is a child-project of the Yemanja National Touring Project 2002, which is a carnival project inspired from Yemanja, the goddess of the sea in the Yoruba tradition and organised by Kinetika. The work combines elements from different carnival traditions (UK, Trinidad, Salvador, Brazil) to create a performance that includes large visuals and characters (puppets:costumes:float), live music, choreography, text, and ritual.

In London, the carnival forms part of the Mayor's Thames Festival. The carnival will also take place during Ryde Carnival on the Isle of Wight and during the Canterbury Festival.