Marli Moreira
Reporter - Agência Brasil

São Paulo - The Culture Cup (Copa da Cultura), a cultural exchange program with Germany that will be taking place parallel to the World Soccer Cup, will get off to a bang of a start with an exposition of "modern period" (actually the 1920s and 1930s) Brazilian artists such as Mário de Andrade, Ismael Nery, José Pancetti, Tarsila do Amaral, Alfredo Volpi and Cândido Portinari in the city of Bamberg. Many of the pictures in the exposition are from the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (Faap).

In August, Faap will exhibit "The Olympic Gods," an exposition from the Pergamon Museum of Berlin, which includes a Greek pantheon, at its gallery showrooms in São Paulo.

As some three million visitors are expected in Germany during the World Soccer Cup, the Brazilian Ministry of Culture sees the Culture Cup exchange program as a chance to repeat the success of Brazil Year in France when some 15 million people visited 436 events featuring Brazilian culture.

Translation: Allen Bennett