Rafael Hanuman

Pedro Dantas was the sculptor of the works in front of the Carlos Gomes Theatre, in Blumenau, Santa Catarina State, Brazil. In fact, we called him Mr. Pedro. I was about 28 years old, and he was already around 60. I miss the guidance of this artist, sculptor, and dancer.

A former dancer, when he could no longer dance, he began creating the most beautiful ballerina sculptures I have ever seen. There are few people I miss. Mr. Pedro Dantas is one of them. He was a true artist. An artist who moved between different forms of art.

This kind of argument cannot be proven or explained. It is necessary for an artist to see the sculptures, and then they will know he was a true artist. There is a mark of art in his sculptures. I will not try to explain. The important thing is that he understood what I was saying.

It’s been 15 years since I left Blumenau. I lived in Chile for a decade and came back. And Brazil has changed a lot. The level of people has decreased greatly. Many qualified people went abroad with the arrival of Bolsonarism. Things always change. Not always for the better, so I won’t suffer.

But there was a group of artists who brought Brazilian fashion into the global spotlight, and this also involved the Brazilian international models who wore the clothes, and the people who inspired us; Pedro Dantas inspired us. Pedro Dantas showed us what a beautiful and elegant woman was.

He was the master. I tried some works with metallurgy, because I had worked as a mechanical designer in a foundry in Blumenau a few years before. And I took advantage of the situation, the technique, and the tools. But he was a master, among the few I had. A master in everything, even in the moment when he asked for my opinion.

He lived in a three-story house, where the foundry was on the first floor. He was in a situation where he was both in the city and, at the same time, far from everything. On one of the last times I went there, there was already this retrogressive movement that led to Bolsonarism. He asked me: where are we going? What are we going to do?

I said we could leave the country for a while, or go to the middle of nowhere, to some farm. He went to a farm. But it took a long time for everything to get better. It’s still taking time for the storm to pass. Mr. Pedro passed away in the middle of the storm. But we were lucky to do what few are able to do. We made works of art.

And we entered the select group of people who can be called artists. Many want to, but few have talent. We had that talent.