Stewart Home, author and artist, is one of the champions of the "counterculture" in the UK.  He was in São Paulo recently to talk about his work and ideas, supported by the British Council.  This is what he had to say about his trip:

When the British council flew me out to Sao Paulo, I certainly wasn't expecting Brazil to be anything like the Amazon set but Italian-made gore movies of the nineteen-seventies ranging from Make Them Die Slowly to Cannibal Holocaust. Nonetheless, the ravenous appetite I encountered for European and specifically British culture surprised me.

Thanks to translators supplied by the British Council, I soon discovered that the Portuguese edition of my book The Assault on Culture had introduced many South Americans to post-war avant-garde currents ranging from the Situationists to Auto-Destructive Art and this text was proving influential among Brazilian artists and activists years after its initial publication in the UK.

While many of those I met were critical of the institution of art, the majority appeared surprised that I had political as well as aesthetic criticisms to make of work by British artists such as Tracy Emin and Rachel Whiteread. The complexity of the London cultural scene fascinated those who came to hear me speak.  And while contemporary British art generated heated debate, the local love affair with leading UK comic book writers proved even more passionate. I was overwhelmed by the interest shown in my work, and was virtually mobbed when people realised I'm personally acquainted with British comic book legends Grant Morrison and Alan Moore.

I was amazed by the intimate knowledge many of those I met had of British rock music, and found myself introduced to many Brazilian musicians including the extraordinary Tom Ze and the hilarious Supla. My drink of choice while in Brazil was maracuja and I also had ample opportunity to indulge my obsession with the local cult film-maker Jose Mojica Marins aka Ze do Caixao.

Coffin Joe is an icon among the staff of my Brazilian publisher Conrad and when they sent me to appear on a radio show, I was delighted  to find myself being interviewed by his biographer Andre Barcinski. Likewise, I was suitably amazed to find a book of film related photographs by Ivan Cardoso entitled De Godard a Ze do Caizao, the title of which for me summed up the way many of my new friends perceived their homeland as the world's first post-modern country..

Spain has never quite lived up to the image I'd built up of it  based on my love of Jess Franco's lesbian vampire movies, but Brazil proved to be every bit as enthralling as Coffin Joe's Awakening of the Beast.

For more about Stewart Home, access the site:  http://www.stewarthomesociety.org/