Exhibition “FUNK: A cry of boldness and freedom”

O Museum of Art of Rio (MAR) launches its new exhibition “FUNK: A cry of boldness and freedom” on September 29th. MAR's main show of the year traverses the contexts of Rio funk throughout history. Presented by the Instituto Cultural Vale, curated by the MAR Team together with Taísa Machado and Dom Filó, the exhibition also had the collaboration of consultants, such as Deize Tigrona, Celly IDD, Tamiris Coutinho, Glau Tavares, Sir Dema, GG Albuquerque, Marcelo B Groove, Leo Moraes, Zulu TR.

The theme of the exhibition will present and articulate the history of funk, in addition to its sound, also highlighting the urban and peripheral cultural matrix, its choreographic dimension, its communities, its aesthetic, political and economic developments to the imaginary that surrounds it. it was constituted. “Funk is a collective theme. During many moments at MAR, we were encouraged to do an exhibition on Rio funk. The exhibition has two rooms. The first room is about soul, this movement of imported music from the 70s and 80s, which gained repercussion in Brazil and, of course, also influenced the consumption of clothes, shoes, hair... the aesthetic that becomes consumption. There was also the presence of people who had access to equipment, bought imported records and started to create large sound teams to play at parties. It was these parties, held in neighborhood clubs, that preceded today's funk. The second room is entirely dedicated to the favela dance, which today constitutes, perhaps, one of the greatest forces of artistic production in Rio and nationally. We delve into this, into the history of dances made up of tarpaulins, installed in various places, but always within communities”, says Marcelo Campos, Chief Curator of MAR.

The approach will also extend to the presence of funk in the most varied dimensions and cultural practices, with special attention to the field of contemporary visual arts, for which funk was a reference of visuality, political resistance, alterity and form. . Objects typical of the history of the musical style will be combined with an audiovisual profusion of sounds, voices and gestures, as well as crossed by iconography related to funk, in order to invite the city's public to experience its history as one of the most powerful ways of imagining and singularize Rio de Janeiro.

For MAR, this is an exhibition full of meanings that dialogue with the history of the city of Rio de Janeiro. “Bringing funk into the Rio Art Museum is recognizing that it has already conquered the world by having become international as a musical style that dialogues with many voices and represents our diverse, restless, bold and free culture. This is our objective: to provide the public with an encounter with the dimension of this significant movement in Rio and Brazilian culture”, says Leonardo Barchini, Director and Head of Representation of the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI) in Brazil, the institution that manages MAR.

The exhibition is divided into 11 sections and will feature more than 900 items. Among the more than 100 Brazilian and foreign artists participating in the exhibition are Hebert, Vincent Rosenblatt, Blecaute, Gê Vianna, Manuela Navas, Maxwell Alexandre, Fotogracria, Emerson Rocha, Panmela Castro, Bruno Lyfe, among others. The public will be able to interact with some installations, listen to music, dance and read texts that tell the story of musical rhythm in the two rooms of the exhibition pavilion. The expography is designed by Estúdio Gru.a.

And on the opening night of the exhibition, MAR's program will feature a funk dance at the Museum's Pilotis. Dance performances by Afrofunk Rio, and musical attractions Jonathan da Provi, MC Cacau canta MC Marcinho and Trilogia do Santo Amaro are planned. The event is free, tickets can be collected via Sympla and subject to capacity