Detail of the panel by artist Marilia Scarabello, in the exhibition "O Grito!". Photo: Reproduction
Detail of the panel by artist Marilia Scarabello, in the exhibition "O Grito!". Photo: Reproduction

Aopened on 17/10, at Brasília Cultural Box, the exposure The Scream! was canceled last Monday (23). The exhibition featuredcriticism of former president Jair Bolsonaro and, andIn one of the works, Damares Alves (senator and former minister), Paulo Guedes (former Minister of Economy) and the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira, were portrayed inside a trash can, with the colors of the national flag.

For Sylvia Werneck, curator of the exhibition, it is about censorship. “I can’t understand it any other way. The conservative wing of society puts pressure on it, and the exhibition is vetoed,” said Werneck, in an interview with arte!brasileiros.

The Scream! was scheduled to remain on display until 17/12. Its objective, according to Werneck, was “to problematize Brazil’s 200 years of Independence”, and brought together creations by seven artists. The collage series Flag Collection, by Marilia Scarabello, was the work rejected by the opposition. In addition to Damares, Guedes and Lira in the trash can, the work also depicts Bolsonaro defecating on the Brazilian flag. The curator emphasizes that both images are mere fragments of a total of 600 that make up Scarabello's panel and states that the artist has been receiving threats because of the criticism.

The choice of the project by Caixa Econômica Federal generated complaints from opposition parliamentarians because it was sponsored by the bank and the federal government. The criticisms started after influencer Evandro Araújo, who visited the exhibition, published a video on his social networks stating that the exhibition was “public money thrown in the trash” and that Caixa was “sponsoring political revenge”. It didn't take long for federal deputy Bia Kicis to file a request to summon the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, for him to provide clarifications.

The cancellation of The Scream! recalls another episode: in 2017, the exhibition Queermuseu – cartographies of differences in Brazilian art was canceled by Santander Cultural, in Porto Alegre, after criticism from religious movements and the Movimento Brasil Livre (MBL).


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