IAF’S Special Sessions: there isn’t any limit to our connections

In his lecture during the Special Sessions, Mr. Luiz Arruda, a senior Mindset consultant at WGSN, touched the audience after a marathon of new information acquired throughout the day. Under the theme Fora do Eixo/Off the Axis, on the impact of non-Western countries, Mr. Arruda showed that it has become impossible to impose frontiers to people around the world. They are getting connected through the arts, music, and religion, among other forms of communal space, identity and self-expression. “We should try and understand the world by asking: where am I, who am I, what do I do – and combine all identities, expressions, and cultures.”

Redefining the origins of each one of us goes beyond nationality, and it is necessary to rethink the definition itself. Concepts and labels are increasingly obsolete, because the world is increasingly fluid and eternally changing.

In regard to space: we live in a time in which borders and limits are questioned and the old frontiers are not enough to define us anymore. It is time for multilocality. An example of that is the Japanese Miss Universe who, although being born and raised in that country, if of mixed African and Asian descent. Likewise, singer Corina Chamberlain, born in Hong Kong, identifies herself with local culture and considers Cantonese to be her mother tongue, although she looks Nordic. We have to redefine the concept of nationality and change it for multilocality.

Muslims will be the youth of tomorrow.

In 2050, half of the world’s population growth will come from the African continent. The youngsters who will influence global culture will come from Africa. And they are Muslims.

Ethnic connections are already invading the Western world. Diversity has been challenging our traditional ideas of national representativeness, thanks to globalization and to multiracial and multicultural unions. Today, there are people who already identify themselves as Blackasians (of African and Asian descent). And that just to give an example that the Axis of the Fashion World is changing from the traditional cardinal points in the US-Europe.

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