The Instituto Camões is honoured to take part in the greatest ever Portuguese cultural event, at the turn of the millennium, in which Portugal seeks to discover a new face, highlighting its multicultural vocation.
As a privileged speaker in this intercultural dialogue, by definition and choice, Instituto Camões at Expo'98 presents this space as a sample of the cultures that meet within the territory of the Portuguese language.
It is a voyage across the seas that we are here proposing, as felt today or in the past by African, Brazilian and Portuguese authors.
These texts take us on a voyage through sensibilities and lifestyles, metaphors, symbols and images. A voyage of mixtures expressed in the richness and multiplicity of the Portuguese language, a true Ocean of Cultures.
The Instituto Camões thus intends to pay tribute to those authors who, in Portuguese, have contributed through their work to broaden our vision, creating a shared place in the project of Lusophone intercultural ties.
It is a bridge which is being built, a bridge which unites the distant shores of the cultural identities of each one of the Portuguese-speaking countries. It is a bridge which we intend to inscribe on our collective imagination, in a unique meeting of cultures, broadening our vision of others and ourselves, indelibly strengthening the ties which unite us and our presence in the world.


Jorge Couto
President of Instituto Camões