Exhibitions "The Theater of Terror" and "Installation", by Ismael Monticelli

From September 28th, the National Museum of the Republic receives the exhibition “The Theater of Terror", by Ismael Monticelli, which explores the events of January 8, 2023, in dialogue with Futurism, an artistic avant-garde of the early 2023th century with connections to fascism. In the Museum's Mezzanine, Monticelli creates a combat scene that emphasizes the theatricality and media character of the attempted coup against the Democratic State of Law. In this installation, violence and destruction intertwine with the party and celebration, proposing a reflection on the complexity of these events. The project was selected in the Retomada – Artes Visuais XNUMX call for proposals from Funarte.

A installation by Monticelli occupies the 30-meter-long Mezzanine of the National Museum of Brasília and presents a scene of conflict with life-size human figures painted in acrylic paint on open and cut-out cardboard boxes. To create these figures, the artist appropriated the imagery of the works of the Italian Fortunato Depero, produced in the 1920s. During this period, Depero was aligned with the aesthetic and ideological program of futurism, creating images that explored the theme of war and combat. In one work in particular, entitled Guerra = Festa (1925), Depero depicted a scene from the First World War on tapestry. However, contrary to expectations of brutality and bloodshed, the image hides the violence under a cheerful and playful veil, suggested by the profusion of colors and shapes in the composition.

War = Party is situated on the border between violence and play, where Depero portrayed conflict as a grand spectacle, a celebration, in a riot of shapes and colors, completely aligning himself with the futurist program of 'glorifying war' as a force capable of 'healing, purifying' society. Depero's works from this period seem to resonate with the events of January 8, which transformed violence and destruction into a festive game, a 'tourism of violence'. In the WhatsApp groups organized to plan the action, the organizers used a coded message to signal the occupation of the Esplanada dos Ministérios, referring to the event as a “day of celebration.” The chosen password was “Festa da Selma” (in allusion to the military cry “Selva”).

Ismael Monticelli

Monticelli chose cardboard as the main material for his installation, not only because of its physical properties, but also because of its symbolic history. During the World Wars, cardboard played a crucial role in a variety of military applications, including helmets, storage containers, and even ships. Due to the need to redirect metals for the war effort, many everyday items that had previously been made of tin, lead, and cast iron were now made of cardboard. Another crucial factor in choosing the material was its precariousness.

“The installation, which is clearly frontal, uses the mezzanine of the National Museum as a theatrical stage without its scenic box, exposing the fragility that sustains the conflict portrayed in the frontal part. When observing the work from behind, a landscape of cardboard silhouettes is revealed, with the edges blurred by paint and supported by concrete blocks. This scenography is laid bare, revealing its own entrails and highlighting the vulnerability inherent in the materiality and the narrative it composes”, highlights the artist.

One of Ismael Monticelli’s main artistic procedures is to rethink established images, stories and narratives, reorganizing them by confronting them with current issues. In The Theater of Terror, the artist revisits the events of January 8th in the light of one of the avant-garde movements of the early 8th century – futurism. “One of the first questions I asked myself was: how can we approach this event with an aesthetic and ideological program that aligns with it? Futurism seemed to me a way of thinking about the invasions in Brasília, especially because both this avant-garde and January XNUMXth seem to share a desire to destroy everything,” says the artist.

Futurism and Fascism

Inaugurated over 100 years ago, the Futurist Manifesto (1909), written by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and published in the French newspaper Le Figaro, laid the foundations for a program that would be developed and refined by Italian artists over the years. The manifesto extolled speed, violence, and destruction as sources of energy and renewal. The Futurists celebrated war, masculinity, militarism, and patriotism as purifying forces capable of paving the way for a new order. Futurism’s complex relationship with war is highlighted by its paradoxical stance during conflict. While many avant-garde movements, such as Dadaism, condemned war and the institutions responsible for it, the Futurists enthusiastically supported it. They advocated the destruction of museums, libraries, universities, and any vestige of sentimentality, which they considered signs of weakness. For the futurists, starting from scratch was essential, including the rejection of feminism and social equality, seen as outdated and cowardly values.

“The values ​​extolled by the futurists seem to echo in the motivations of those involved in the events of January 8. Militarism is part of the Brazilian reactionary imagination. A clear example is the '300 do Brasil' camp (2020) on the Esplanada dos Ministérios, near the Ministry of Justice, in Brasília, which had armed and uniformed members, forming a paramilitary battalion supposedly prepared for war, with the STF as its main target. One of the inspirations for this action came from the North American film 300 (2006 and 2014) – criticized for its fascist aesthetic –, which became a global reference for far-right movements”.

Repair Shop

As part of the project, throughout the exhibition period, the artist will offer a free workshop with a conversation about the work. Information on how to register will be published on Instagram @museunacionaldarepublica.

The exhibition also features a text about the artist's work produced by Raphael Fonseca, curator of modern and contemporary Latin American art at the Denver Art Museum/USA and listed by ArtReview magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the visual arts globally.

Service
Exhibitions | The Theater of Terror e Instalação
From September 28th to November 24th
Tuesday to Sunday, from 9am to 18:30pm