The Brazilian pavilion was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Architecture Biennale this Saturday (20). The exhibition paid tribute to the “Terra” project signed by the architects and curators Gabriela de Matos and Paulo Tavares. This is the first time the country has been honored with this award.
Immediately after the announcement, the attendance of Culture Minister Margareth Menezes was praised by those present. Some gave her the nickname “Foot Hot” for allegedly bringing good fortune to the Brazilian entourage.
In a speech at the opening of the fair, the department head explained that the country had returned to the appreciation of culture. In total, his ministry states that it has allocated R$ 1.5 million for the pavilion.
“It’s from Brazil!” Margareth Menezes exulted in a post on social media. “Congratulations to the ‘Terra’ exhibition that presents our origins with so much power and poetry, and to the architects and curators Gabriela de Matos and Paulo Tavares,” he added.
For the minister herself, the awarding of the Golden Lion was more than a historic victory, it meant a happy turn of events: when she was on her way to the Biennale on Thursday (18th), her wallet was stolen from her handbag, as was the column revealed . The Mayor of Venice even apologized for the incident.
As shown SheetThe starting point of this year’s Brazilian pavilion was the thesis that Brasília was the result of a process of territorial colonization and was built in an area originally occupied by Quilombolas and indigenous peoples.
Gabriela de Matos, the first black curator in the history of the Brazilian pavilion, and Paulo Tavares proposed a look at the socalled ancestral architectures, i.e. architectures created by AfroBrazilian and indigenous communities.
The exhibition was divided into two rooms. The first, “Decolonizing the Canon”, problematizes the official history of Brasilia with a selection of archival photos compiled by historian Ana Flávia Magalhães Pinto, a video by filmmaker Juliana Vicente and the exhibition of two maps, one for the Exhibition “Brasília Quilombola” and another from the 1940s, currently used by indigenous peoples to assert territorial rights.
The second gallery, “Places of Origin, Archaeologies of the Future,” reflects on the country’s role as a crucial player in Brazilian architecture. The curators defend that soil is the common element in the terreiros of African religions and also in indigenous structures.
Under the title “The Laboratory of the Future”, this year’s Biennale is giving Africa a central role. Of the 89 participants in the main show, more than half are from the continent or are from the African diaspora.
with BIANKA VIEIRA, KARINA MATIAS It is MANOELLA SMITH