"Viva Viva Escola Viva" Exhibition

O Ministry of Culture, Nubank and Tomie Ohtake Institute present Long live the school!, an exhibition dedicated to the Indigenous Living Schools movement. Curated by the philosopher and educator Cristina TakuaIn collaboration with the coordinators of the Living Schools, the exhibition is a co-production of the Tomie Ohtake Institute and the Selvagem Association, a non-governmental organization that involves the indigenous Living Schools movement and a collaborative network focused on learning and translations between worlds. Since 2024, the artistic direction of the Tomie Ohtake Institute has been involved in and involved in the development of the project. Viva Viva Escola Viva takes place alongside the exhibitions When the Museum is a River, held in partnership with the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, and Chosen Stars, a solo exhibition by the Rio de Janeiro artist Luiz Zerbini.

Coordinated by Cristine Takuá, curator of the exhibition, the Living Schools movement articulates five centers for the transmission of indigenous knowledge: Shubu Hiwea, of the Huni Kuĩ people, in Acre; Apne Ixkot Hãmhipak, the Forest School Village of the Maxakali people, in the Mucuri Valley, in Minas Gerais; Arandu Porã, of the Guarani Mbya people, in the Rio Silveira Indigenous Land, in São Paulo; Bahserikowi, Center for Indigenous Medicine, located in Manaus (AM), linked to the Tukano, Desana and Tuyuka peoples, all from the Upper Rio Negro, in Amazonas; and Madzerokai, House of Ancestral Knowledge, also in the Upper Rio Negro, in Amazonas, linked to the Baniwa people, and proposes a learning practice that integrates indigenous, scientific and artistic knowledge from the territories, and from the relationships between generations.

According to the curator, "Escolas Vivas (Living Schools) assert themselves as a collective that seeks to transform the teaching-learning relationship, the relationship of what is truly useful and necessary in the constant exchange of ancestral knowledge that, due to colonial and epistemological arrogance, has been distorted in a classic and rigid school."

Before arriving at the Tomie Ohtake Institute, the first exhibition of the Living Schools was presented at Casa França Brasil, in Rio de Janeiro, between December 2023 and January 2024. The works in the current exhibition were produced within the scope of workshops in the territories of the Living Schools and also during the Casa Escola Viva residency, held in October 2025 at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, bringing together ten indigenous artists in a process of creation and exchange of knowledge.

For the opening, 25 Indigenous artists are expected to create a large mural in the exhibition space, conceived as a backdrop for much of the show and integrated with other works presented throughout the exhibition. The exhibition also includes five flags with graphic designs from the Indigenous groups that make up the Living Schools. Together, these sets total approximately 300 square meters of paintings created at the Tomie Ohtake Institute. In addition, each of the Living Schools presents a collective work of reference.

From the Baniwa people comes the installation *The Navel of the World*, featuring tucum fiber braids crafted by Baniwa women. The Huni Kuĩ present a teacher's cloth with kenes, traditional graphic designs that guide learning and the transmission of knowledge related to their cosmology. Among the Maxakali, the collective installation is organized around masts—the mīmãnãns—which, according to their cosmology, guide and enable the presence of spirits in rituals. The installation *Pytü, the Dark*, by the Guarani Mbya, is a representation of intense darkness, from which the first breath, the first being, the first life can emerge. Completing the ensemble is an Amazonian pharmacy, with medicinal plants, elixirs, and balms brought by the Tukano, Desana, and Tuyuka peoples.

The exhibition also includes a section dedicated to the "grandparents," understood as fundamental references in the preservation and transmission of indigenous knowledge. They sustain, through stories, songs, and daily practices, a memory that transcends time and connects different planes of existence. By bringing these figures into the exhibition space, the show proposes an approach to ways of knowing based on listening, experience, and continuity between generations. This group includes Ailton Krenak, Ehuana Yanomami, Tõrãmu Kẽhíri (Luiz Lana), and Moisés Piyãko.

On June 9th, the date of the exhibition's pre-opening, the Tomie Ohtake Institute will also host the launch of the book Tekoypy rã – A origem de nós (Tekoypy rã – The Origin of Us), by Guarani master Carlos Papá, published by Dantes Editora. The book brings together reflections on the composition of the Guarani world, narrated orally and accompanied by drawings produced throughout this collective process of knowledge transmission.

As part of the public program, the Institute offers four workshops led by Veronica Pinheiro, researcher, street artist, and member of the Selvagem Association, proposing experiences of listening, memory, and creation based on the exhibition. On June 26, 2026, the activity "Navel, memories that connect us to the world" will be held for students from a public school. On Saturday, June 27, there will be a training session for teachers entitled "Everything in Memory." On Saturday, July 11, the workshop "Everything in Memory" will be open to the general public. Concluding the program, on August 8, the workshop "The Warrior's Dream," with young Guarani indigenous people from Jaraguá, marks the closing of the exhibition. Inspired by the learnings of the Living Schools, the activities start from listening, presence, and the marks that the experience leaves on the body, articulating sensitive visits and collective practices. Participation is free, with limited places, and registration will be done on the Tomie Ohtake Institute website.

Viva Viva Escola Viva is a project of the Ministry of Culture, through the Rouanet Law, and the Tomie Ohtake Institute, in partnership with the Selvagem Association. The exhibition has the support of the institutional sponsor Nubank and the sponsorship of Aché Laboratórios Farmacêuticos, at the Silver level.

Exhibition | Long live the school!
From June 10th to August 09st
Tuesday to Sunday, from 11 am to 19 pm, last entry at 18 pm.