From Valongo to the Favela: Imagination and Periphery
05/27/2014 — 02/15/2015
MAR – Museu de Arte do Rio, RJ
Do Valongo à Favela: Imaginário e Periferia (From Valongo to the Favela: Imagination and Periphery), an exhibition currently on at MAR under the curatorship of Rafael Cardoso and Clarissa Diniz, covers two historical landmarks. The first is Valongo harbor, where slaves disembarked in Brazil, making it the world’s largest slave trade outpost in the nineteenth century. Valongo therefore represents the tragedy of slavery and the African diaspora. The second has to do with the emergence of favelas as the most flagrant sign of the new exclusion of freed men and women, still subject to slavocratic values and post-colonial power. Both are fundamental for considering, rediscovering, and reinventing the land on which MAR stands, which is what the museum proposes with its Rio-oriented curatorial program.
Indeed, this exhibition takes a step forward in bringing the museum closer to its immediate vicinity by addressing the way this area has been seen and represented over the years. Organized into eight units named after oral statements, song lyrics, and excerpts from books, the exhibition takes us on a journey from when this area was first inhabited, through its importance to the colonial and republican history of Brazil, to the present day, introducing a variety of historical and contemporary works, episodes, and characters that have consistently reinvented this corner of the city.
Credits
Video
Automatica has been developing cultural projects since 2005, working in the creation, production, curation, management, coordination and consultancy of exhibitions, educational programs, publications and other activities related to artistic production. It works with artists, curators, art critics, art historians, cultural institutions, public and private sponsors. It participates in public notices and awards, and prepares projects for incentive laws in the three spheres of public administration.
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