Facade of the space that houses the Casa Brasil exhibition in Rio de Janeiro. Photo: Filipe Aguiar/Press Release

The first shopping center in Brazil It has a new name: it's now called Casa Brasil. Well, it didn't exactly open as a shopping mall in 1820, when it was inaugurated, but as Praça do Comércio (Commerce Square), a project by the French architect Grandjean de Montigny, commissioned by King João VI for the center of Rio de Janeiro. 

For those who don't remember, Brazil at that time was not even independent from Portugal, and among the goods for sale, to the shame of humanity in one of its most violent and despicable moments, were enslaved people brought from Africa. 

In 1824, the building became the headquarters of the Customs Office and, between 1956 and 1978, it housed the 2nd Court of... JuryThe cultural function of the neoclassical manor began when the anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro (1922 – 1997) was Secretary of Culture for the State of Rio and revitalized the space based on a agreement between the French and Brazilian Ministries of Culture.

However, the name Casa França-Brasil only emerged in 1990, following a project by the French museologist Pierre Castel, especially housing exhibitions by acclaimed names such as the French artist Niki de Saint Phalle or the Spanish artist [name missing]. Joan Miró, among many others, in addition to a video room.

The Casa França-Brasil lasted 35 years, until last year, when a group of cultural agents, with support from the Secretariat of Culture and Creative Economy of the State Government of Rio de Janeiro, sought "the repositioning of the house to affirm its identity, thinking about the local ancestral culture," according to Tania Queiroz, director of Casa Brasil and the School of Visual Arts at Parque Lage. The team also includes the artist and professor Cadu, the curator of the Rio Art Museum Marcelo Campos, and the producer Jocelino Pessoa.

The change was made possible thanks to the approval of the requalification in a Petrobras call for proposals, under the "Icons of Brazilian Culture" category, and the project received R$ 4 million, renewable for another year. According to the project, there will be two group exhibitions and two solo exhibitions during the first year, in addition to a substantial public program and a podcast, coordinated by journalist Daniela Name.

With a focus on contemporary Brazilian art production, the first exhibition at Casa Brasil, which opened last November, brings together 57 artists from all regions of the country, selected from an open call that received no fewer than 980 applications.

“We wanted a first exhibition that would be a portrait of Brazil,” said Tania, in the outdoor area of ​​the institution where a café operates, on a sunny December afternoon. The call for entries stipulated that 20 works would be selected, with a fee of R$ 1.500 for each artist and a budget of up to R$ 8 for each project. “Since we received projects with values ​​well below the limit, we were able to expand the selection and, therefore, we arrived at 57.”"The exhibition runs until March 15th. It is curated by the same group that redesigned the space. e curator Aliã Wamiri Guajajara.

In addition to those selected through the call for entries, in partnership with Ateliê Gaia, a collective production space next to the Bispo do Rosário Museum, artists who are or were users of mental health services are also on display. 

Like all exhibitions organized through an open call, the one inaugurating Casa Brasil is a mix of lesser-known names and others already established in the art circuit, such as PH Costa, Novíssimo Edgar, Mãe Celina de Xangô, Yoko Nishio, and Renan Soares, who presents the sculpture "Monument to Great Figures," which was exhibited in the show. From Brazil – Black Art and Thought, at Sesc Belenzinho, in 2023, and then continued throughout the country in various venues.

Those who followed Casa França-Brasil noticed the radical change of course that this collective exhibition inaugurates. Diversity, experimentation, and inclusion are key words in the contemporary scene, but the neoclassical building had not yet reached that level of radicalism. Now it has, especially by presenting a production that is still outside the mainstream market.

Simple works like "Tired Mother," by Hevelin Costa, consisting of a shirt with the phrase from the work's title and a photo of the artist lying down in front of the Rio landscape, served as a trigger for an action in the exhibition that provided massage sessions to mothers who brought their children. 

Andrey Guaianá Zignnatto, another name already recognized in the scene and the market, presents the installation "July 9, 1562," which, in 463 canvases, addresses the erasure of the Siege of Piratininga, when the Guaianá people rebelled against colonialism led by the Jesuits in São Paulo.

 Both works, in addition to their excellent formal organization, are in tune with current debates surrounding feminist and decolonial themes, which are shaking up the culture war crowd.

In addition to the group exhibition, Casa Brasil will host the installation "Tarde do Fauno" by artist Arthur Chaves, curated by Cadu, which consists of textile materials, in which he produces surfaces and volumes that relate to the surrounding territory, personal memories, and the History of Art. 

Journalist Fabio Cypriano traveled at the invitation of Casa Brasil.


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