The Rio Art Museum (MAR) opens this Saturday (15) its first free artistic occupation. Carolina Maria de Jesus: a Brazil for Brazilians – SEA occupation presents reflections on structural racism, poverty, hunger and overcoming, based on the life story of the writer Carolina Maria de Jesus, a black woman, from the favela and protagonist of Brazilian literature.
After visiting the Instituto Moreira Salles in São Paulo, the show arrives at Parque Madureira, a leisure space in the north of Rio de Janeiro. In all, there will be around 100 works by 10 artists, including photographs, videos, collages and newspaper reports at the Carioca Fernando Torres Arena, at gate 4 of Madureira Mestre Monarco Park.
The occupation will also feature an unpublished piece by the artist Silvana Mendes, who is also participating in the main MAR exhibition, Um Defeito de Cor – an interpretation of the book of the same name by the Minas Gerais writer Ana Maria Gonçalves. The work is a collage where Silvana represents Carolina Maria de Jesus surrounded by white men and cancels them out with flowers and colored elements, creating a great tribute to the writer.
For MAR’s chief curator, Marcelo Campos, the artistic occupation of Parque Madureira is an opportunity to present the story of one of the most important authors in the country to the public in new spaces in the state capital.
“This first occupation brings us the joy of being in the Madureira neighborhood telling an important and beautiful story of Brazilian literature, as well as fundamental for us to know the greatness of Carolina Maria de Jesus’ writing. A black woman from the favelas who manages to overcome her social conditions and gain fame as one of the most important writers in Brazil”.
According to the historian Raquel Barreto, who shares the curatorship of the artistic occupation with the anthropologist Hélio Menezes, Carolina Maria de Jesus went through several genres during her career, and her literary production goes beyond Eviction Roomthe author’s most successful work.
“The success of Eviction Room is important, but because of the enormous repercussion of the work, Carolina ended up being defined only as a diary writer, when, in fact, she navigated through several literary genres, such as plays, novels, chronicles, short stories and poetry. In this presentation by Madureira, our idea is to emphasize the writer Carolina, bringing little-known images of her and presenting her as a multi-artist to an audience that doesn’t know her”.
The exhibition is part of the Madureira de Portas Abertas circuit, one of the three public notices of the Madureira Culture Zone, a program of the Municipal Culture Department that, this year, injects R$ 1.5 million for cultural actions in a section of the neighborhood.
The artistic occupation “Carolina Maria de Jesus: A Brazil for Brazilians” – Occupation MAR in Parque Madureira is a cooperation between the Museu de Arte do Rio and the Municipal Secretary of Culture of Rio and the Instituto Moreira Salles. The exhibition is on view until December 15th.
Carolina Maria de Jesus
Born in Sacramento (MG) in 1914, Carolina Maria de Jesus was a black artist best known for writing diaries. His most successful work was Eviction Roombook released in 1960 with translation into more than 13 languages.
For many years, Carolina lived in Favela do Canindé, on the banks of the Tietê River, in São Paulo. During this period, the writer worked as a paper picker to support her three children. Carolina is one of the most important authors in Brazilian literary and cultural history, and her work is considered essential for understanding Brazil.
